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LECTURE # 5. SOUTHERN KINGDOMS AND OCEANIC TRADE. SOURCES. MEGALITHS BURIAL GROUNDS ASOKAN INSCRIPTIONS SANGAM LITERATURE GREEK ACCOUNTS. MEGALITH BURIALS.
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LECTURE # 5 SOUTHERN KINGDOMS AND OCEANIC TRADE
SOURCES • MEGALITHS BURIAL GROUNDS • ASOKAN INSCRIPTIONS • SANGAM LITERATURE • GREEK ACCOUNTS
MEGALITH BURIALS • A variety of megalithic monuments, erected as burials or memorials, are found in the northern Vindhyas in southern Uttar Pradesh, Vidarbha region of Maharashtra and over most parts of south India. These monuments include cairns, stone circles, dolmens, dolmenoid cists, port-holecists, menhirs, and rock cut caves, the last confined to Kerala. There are large megalithic fields containing several hundred burial monuments.
MEGALITH BURIALS • In comparison to the burial sites, the habitation sites are few and far between, suggesting that a part of the megalithic population may have led a semi-nomadic life. The erection of these burials could be achieved only with the helpof iron tools meant for quarrying and dressing large rock slabs and boulders. Some of the burial types like port-hole cists (a type of megalithic monument) are very elaborate,involving several large dressed slabs and provision of a hole in one of the slabs for insertion of new dead bodies at a later date.
ASOKAN INSCRIPTIONS • Ashoka in his inscriptions refers to the kingdoms of south India (the region comprising modern Andhra Pradesh, Madras, Mysore, and Kerala) as those of the Cholas, Pandyas, Satiyaputras, and Keralaputras. The first two of these came to dominate the east coast and were associated with the emergence of Tamil culture, called after Tamil, the predominant language of the Dravidian group.
SANGAM LITERATURE • The historical records of the time are contained in the Sangam literature - anthologies of poetry similar to the Vedic sources. Tradition has it that many centuries ago three successive assemblies (Sangams) were held at the town of Madurai. All the poets and bards of the south gathered at these assemblies and their combined compositions constitute the Sangam literature.
SANGAM LITERATURE • According to the mythological the first assembly, was attended by the gods, but the poetry composed at this session has not survived the winds of time. At the second assemby, the Tolkappiyam, the earliest Tamil grammar, was supposed to have been written. At the third assembly the Eight Anthologies were compiled, consisting of over 2,000 poems composed mainly by bards and these have survived.
MEGASTHENES ACCOUNT • Megasthenes mentions that the Pandya kingdom was founded by the daughter of Herakles. Perhaps this reflects the matrilineal society of early south India, which survived on the west coast in Kerala until half a century ago. The queen of the Pandyas is credited by Megasthenes with an army Of 500 elephants, 4,000 cavalry, and 13,000 infantry.
TAMIL-NAD • Roman coin hoards mark this trans-peninsular route and the poetry of ancient Tamil describes the bustling emporia on the Coromandel Coast. • The sea route to and from the Malabar coast is very old and the Harappan sites in Gujarat raise the possibility that this coast was part of a trade system connecting the west and south Asia 4,000 years ago.
TAMIL-NAD • The southern peninsula opened to exchange with Aryans around 300 BCE and Aryan ideas were mostly assimilated in the upper strata of the Dravidian society. Among the rest there was assertion of indigenous culture.
THE THREE DYNASTIES • The early history of South India is the history of three kingdoms: Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas. • They are mentioned in the Asokan inscriptions as well as in the Greek sources as lands of great wealth and trade.
THE CHOLAS • The Chola dynasty rose to prominence when in 850 their ruler Vijayalaya defeated the Pallavas and snatched Tanjore from them. Then Tanjore became the capital of the Chola kingdom. In the ninth century Aditya Chola and Parantaka I were the successors of Vijayalaya.
REIGN OF RAJARAJA I (985-1018) • The most important ruler of Chola was Rajaraja I. He was one of the greatest kings of the South India and was known as "Rajaraja the Great". Rajaraja I and his able son Rajendra, conquered nearly the whole of the present Madras Presidency. Rajaraja defeated the eastern Chalukyas of Vegi, the Pandyas of Madurai and the Gangas of Mysore.
RAJARAJA 1 • His kingdom extended from Cape in the north to Comorin in the south. He conquered Sri Lanka, the Maldive Islands and Sumatra and other places in Malay Peninsula. • He was not only an able administrator but also a great builder. He built a magnificent temple at Tanjore and which is named as Rajarajeshwar after his name.
RAJENDRA CHOLA (1018-1048) • Rajendra Chola was also a able ruler like his father. He even went upto Bengal. He was victorious upto the banks of Ganges. He assumed the title of "Gangaikonda" (the victor of Ganges). On his way he built up a new capital called Gangaikondacholapuram. His greatest achievements was the conquest of Andaman and Nicobar islands. During his reign the kingdom was called the "Golden Age of Cholas." After his death the Chola kingdom began to decline. His successors were weak and so the kingdom started disintegrating.
RAJENDRA CHOLA • Rajendra Chola was also a able ruler like his father. He even went upto Bengal. He was victorious upto the banks of Ganges. He assumed the title of "Gangaikonda" (the victor of Ganges). On his way he built up a new capital called Gangaikondacholapuram. His greatest achievements was the conquest of Andaman and Nicobar islands. During his reign the kingdom was called the "Golden Age of Cholas." After his death the Chola kingdom began to decline. His successors were weak and so the kingdom started disintegrating.
THE PANDYAS • The Pandyas ruled over the territories of Madura. Tinnevelly and parts of Travancore. It is reputed to be most ancient of the Tamil states. The Pandyas rose to power in the seventh century AD. The rule of the Pandyas is said to be initiated by Kandungori. His son Maruvarman Avani Sulamani came into conflict with the Pallavas.
THE PANDYAS • A Pandya king named Arikesri is also said to have defeated the Pallavas in the eight century .They aligned with the Cholas and defeated the Pallavas. They carried on frequent wars with ceylon.
THE PANDYAS • In the eleventh century they were compelled to submit to the supremacy of the Cholas but in the thirteenth century they asserted their independence and under Jalavarman Sundara Pandya who ruled from 1251-1272 AD . They became the leading power in the South. A civil war that broke out among the claimant of the throne is said to have sealed the fate of this kingdom.
THE CHERAS • The kingdom of the Cheras consisted of the state of Travancore, Cochin and parts of the Malabar. They are said to have belonged to the Dravidian race. Their proximity to the sea favoured trade with Romans. Association with the Jews were also established with the permission for a colony by the Chera king Bhaskara Ravi Varma.
PATTERNS OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY • Absence of highly centralized government, and more emphasis on local autonomy than in the north. Tamilnad has the greatest degree of local autonomy.
DIVINE KINGSHIP • Kingship cites its origins in divinity for the production of authority: In the regions around the Kaveri river, kinds built temples and rpovided for Brahmins to conduct worship of Shiva and Vishnu. Colonies of learned Brahmins, supported by income from prosperous villages were founded by kings. At the same time, we find a hierarchy of officials who worked with local autonomous institutions.
VILLAGE ASSEMBLIES • We find assemblies of many varieties: merchant guilds, artisans, students, ascetics and brahmans • At the village level: the basic assembly is the sabha that deals with matters including the management of religious endowments, irrigations, cultivated land, the punishment of crime. The urar is an informal gathering of the whole village. At the higher level, we find the nadu or district administration; the link between the village assembly and the nadu is the village headman.
LAND TAX • There are two categories of taxes levied on the village: a) the land revenue paid by the cultivator to the king--it was collected by the village and paid to the state collector and varied from one sixth to one tenth of the produce of the land. b) the second category were local taxes that were also collected in the village but utilized for services in the village itself.
LAND TENANCY • There are two broad categories of land tenancy: Land could be held in communal ownership, where the entire village paid a given amount of revenue, or it could be held privately by peasant proprietors.
SPREAD OF VEDIC CULTURE • The most important impact on south India was, of course, the spread of Later Vedic culture from the North. Brahmin families continued to transmit sacred texts orally from one generation to another. Brahmans entered south India peacefully and brought with them the main ideals of Hindu kingship (adopted in the south later).
SPREAD OF VEDIC CULTURE • The Brahmans were closely followed by Jaina, Buddhist, and other sects. These religions brought other languages like Pali and Prakrit to the south and were involved in the development of Sangam literature and Tamil language as a whole. • South Indians had long and close cultural links with the Romans and the Greeks as well.
CULTURAL MOVEMENTS • The penetration of northern culture into south resulted in some of the patterns, ideas, and institutions of north being assimilated whereas others were rejected or modified. The Tamil devotional cult was one such result of this interaction of north and south.
CULTURAL MOVEMENTS • Brahmans came as keepers of Vedic tradition and Brahmans claim to be in communication with the gods and their supposed ability to manipulate the unseen powers was more convincing to the Tamil kings the indigenous priests. The Vedic tradition was reinforced by other developments.
CULTURAL MOVEMENTS • A movement began to cleanse Vedic philosophy of its obscurities and its inconsistencies, and thereby make it both comprehensible and more acceptable to people at large. It arose from the attempts of highly perceptive Kerelalite Brahman Shankararcharya to face the interesting challenge to organized Brahmanism from the heterdox sects and the populazation of devotional cult.
CULTURAL MOVEMENTS • He was a propagator of Advaita (monism) philosophy. He traced his teaching to the Vedas and opposed unnecessary rituals and wished to clear Hindu worship from meaningless rites and to that end that he established his own maths (organizations) in four corners of India • Badrinath (Himalayas: north), Puri (Orissa: east),Dwarka: western Deccan and Shringeri (South).
CULTURAL MOVEMENTS • Vedic culture was not the only type of culture which traveled south. Other anti-Vedic or non-Vedic groups, popular Shramanik sects, were also present. In addition to Jainism and Buddhism, the Bhaghavata and Pasupata cults also spread southward. These were cults of devotion to Vishnu and Shiva respectively.
CULTURAL MOVEMENTS • There we find an emphasis on personal worship rather than sacrificial ritual--these cults were to be adopted by the populace. After the 9th century CE, Jainism and Buddhism give way in the south to the development of devotional worship of Tamil saints and the eventual rights of bhakti.
OCEANIC TRADE • An important aspect of the south Indian kingdoms was their flourishing trade with the west and south-east Asia. • Trade fostered economic development in South Indian and also created links between India and distant lands. Indian merchants and manufacturers transformed the Indian ocean into a vast zone of communication and exchange.
INTERNAL TRADE • Staple crops: • rice, wheat, barley and millet • Minerals: • Iron from the Ganges basin • Copper from Deccan • Pepper from South India • Salt from coastal regions
CONTINENTAL TRADE • PEPPER, SAFFRON AND SUGAR, TEXTILES, LEATHER GOODS AND PRECIOUS STONES.
THE MONSOON SYSTEMS • Around 2nd century BCE the Hellenistic mariners had discovered the monsoon system • During the summer winds blow regularly from southwest. • During winter months the wind blow from northeast. • This knowledge helped them to reliably sail to all parts of the Indian ocean.
