The Penguin History of Early India

by Romila Thapar

  The Rashtrakutas waited for their opportunity and in 916 they struck for the last time, effectively attacking Kanauj. The rivalry between the Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas was self-destructive. The Arab traveller, Masudi, visited Kanauj in the early tenth century and wrote that the King of Kanauj was the natural enemy of the King of the Deccan, that he kept a large army and was surrounded by smaller kings always ready to go to war. A hundred years later the Pratiharas were no longer a power in northern India. A Turkish army attacked Kanauj in 1018, which virtually ended Pratihara rule. In the western Deccan, the Rashtrakutas had been supplanted by the Later Chalukyas.

  The decline of the Pratiharas gave the Palas an opportunity to participate more fully in north Indian affairs. In the early eleventh century Turkish raids into north-western India kept the local kings occupied. Soon the Palas reached Varanasi, but this expansion was checked by the advance of the Chola King, Rajendra, whose successful northern campaign threatened the independence of Bengal. The western campaign of the Palas was therefore abandoned and the King, Mahipala, hastily returned to defend Bengal against invasion by the Chola armies. Rajendra’s impressive campaign was motivated both by a desire to obtain military glory and to assert a political presence. This was combined with an attempt to monopolize trade with south-east Asia, as well as the maritime trade with China, in which the Palas had been active. But the Pala dynasty declined soon after the death of Mahipala and gave way to the Sena dynasty.

  The almost simultaneous decline of the three rival powers, the Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas, is not surprising. Their strengths were similar and they were dependent on well-organized armies. The rhetoric of conquest became a royal qualifier, with many inscriptions listing almost identical lesser kingdoms that are said to have been conquered. Such lists have a touch of the formulaic when they are repeated frequently. These claims can be taken seriously only when corroboratory evidence is available, to prove that they were more than a literary conceit. If the rhetoric has credence, then the constant campaigns would have required maintaining substantial armies with a subsequent pressure of taxes, particularly on the peasants. Because the sources of revenue to maintain these armies were similar, excessive pressure would produce the same damaging results in each kingdom. The continued conflict over the possession of Kanauj diverted attention from the samantas, and some of these local rajas succeeded in making themselves independent. Their insubordination destroyed the possibility of a single kingdom encompassing northern India with its centre at Kanauj, while invasions from the north-west and the south also contributed to prevent the creation of such a powerful state.

  Kingdoms Beyond the Ganges Heartland

  On the periphery of what had been the three major kingdoms there now arose smaller, independent kingdoms, some of which eventually established their power in regions more distant from the heartland. Among them were those of western India ruled by the Chaulukyas and the Vaghelas, and lesser ones by Arabs and others; the kingdoms in the mountains such as Kashmir, Nepal, and others that were smaller; Kamarupa in Assam in the north-east; the kingdoms centring on Utkala and Kalinga in the eastern part of the peninsula in Orissa; and the kingdoms ruled by Rajputs which emerged in Rajasthan, the western Ganges Plain and central India.

  In the west of the subcontinent, the Arabs established small states after their advance beyond the lower Indus Plain was checked. Sind and the lower Punjab were held in the name of the Caliph through governors appointed by him. In the ninth century the Arab rulers of Multan and Mansura (in Sind) declared their independence and founded dynasties. Some aspects of the Arab conquest of Sind were described in the Chachnama and, apart from the political events, the most interesting comments relate to religious activities. The people of Sind at this time were said to be followers of either Brahmanism or Shramanism, and it would seem that the Buddhists and Jainas had a noticeable presence in the lower Indus Plain. Since the Arabs were anxious to encourage trade, they were open to accommodating non-Islamic religions and the latter seemed to have found them, by and large, acceptable. The practice of Buddhism continued, with stupas and cave monasteries attracting a lay-following in the area. Mansura and Multan also became influential centres of Shia’h and Isma’ili activity, not averse to involvements in commerce, but of course targeted by orthodox Sunni Muslims who were hostile to breakaway sects from conservative Islam. This arid area with patches of desert, now so different from the savanna forests of Harappan times, had a network of routes for camel caravans transporting merchandise. The temple to the sun in Multan is said to have been destroyed in the tenth century and converted into a mosque. But, not unexpectedly, there were confusing references to its continuing to function as a temple. Was the claim to destruction is some cases more rhetorical than real?

  As a counterpart to these events, and the propagation of Islam in these areas, brahmanical sources raised the question of those with varna status having to live among the mlechchhas and participate in their practices. They particularly objected to practices that were normally prohibited, such as the ones pertaining to food, sexuality and rules of pollution, leading to the loss of varna status. This would of course apply more to the dvija or twice-born, upper castes. The Devalasmriti repeats what was said in earlier Dharmashastras, that if a person is forced to act contrary to the norms of varna he could eventually reclaim his original varna status after performing certain expiatory rites. Concessions were obviously made in special circumstances.

  The emergence of many of these kingdoms coincided with a general tendency at the time for erstwhile samantas to declare their independence and set themselves up as fully fledged monarchs. This tendency was also reflected in cultural life, with an increased attention to local culture in the regional and dynastic histories, and in the patronage to local cults. There was, however, also a consciousness of mainstream Sanskritic culture that was believed to provide the hallmark of quality. Courts vied with each other in attracting the best writers and poets, and invited talented craftsmen to build monumental temples. Some dynasties attained considerable prominence under particular rulers, for example, the much written about Chaulukya King, Kumarapala, ruling in Gujarat in the twelfth century. His minister was the renowned scholar, Hemachandra, said to have converted the King to Jainism by successfully performing the miracle of invoking the god Shiva to appear in person before the King. Kumarapala became something of a legend in Jaina scholarly circles, as did Hemachandra. Samantas that succeeded in establishing a successor dynasty sometimes sought lineage links with their erstwhile suzerains, as did the Vaghelas who succeeded the Chaulukyas.

  The Himalayan foothills, with fertile valleys at lower elevations, lent themselves admirably to small kingdoms which were frequently founded by adventurers from the plains. These sites were well suited to agriculture and also had access to pastures in the uplands, with possibilities for trade in goods from Tibet, and central Asia. Items for exchange were frequently carried by pastoral groups travelling with their animals as part of a circuit of transhumance. This involved a regular calendar of crossing through the passes and moving from a lower to a higher elevation in summer and back in winter. Such movement became part of what has elsewhere been called a vertical economy – trade between different elevations in mountainous areas. A number of hill states were founded in and about the ninth century. Some of these maintained their identity if not their independence until recent centuries, despite wars with each other and frequent raids by the men of the plains. States such as Champaka (Chamba), Durgara (Jammu), Kuluta (Kulu), Kumaon and Garhwal managed to remain largely outside the main areas of conflict in the northern plains. In the more distant and inhospitable mountainous terrain, the emergence of a state was narrated in the chronicles of the kingdom of Ladakh, again following the format of the vamshavali chronicle tradition. Ladakh was culturally close to both Tibet and Kashmir.

  The creation of a state with the trappings of a kingdom was interestingly reflected in the local chronicles, for example that of Chamba. The
earliest history was tied to mythology in which both local and Puranic myths feature, often interconnected. At the point when the kingdom was founded, a link was made with the ancient heroes of the Puranic genealogies and subsequent history became a narrative of the local dynasty. The transition to statehood can be recognized in a number of innovations. References were made to the opening up of adjoining valleys to agriculture through settlements and land grants to provide more resources; new castes were mentioned; a more complex administration was introduced; a centrally located capital city was established with royalty financing temples built of stone in the Nagara style, new to the hills but familiar from the plains; and there was significant patronage by the court to Puranic Hindu deities. This would have provided employment to migrant professionals such as learned brahmans and priests, artisans and masons, as well as to persons with administrative experience. These characteristics are also part of the process of states emerging in the plains, but the transition was perhaps more marked in hill areas.

  Agriculture in the hills took the form of terraced fields irrigated typically by small channels that ran along the sides of the hills. But maintaining the terraces and keeping the channels clear were heavy on labour. Some amount of forced labour may have been necessary on land not owned by the cultivator, since the voluntary labour would not be forthcoming. The culture of the mountains and of the plains was initially juxtaposed but gradually, through filtration and overlap, new cultural ways were established in the mountains. However, marriage practices, rights of inheritance, rituals and myths tended to outlast other influences, often ignoring the norms of the Dharmashastras. The practice of polyandry, for example, survived in some areas along the Himalayan border, due to the nature of landholdings and inheritance here.

  Kashmir had come into prominence with Lalitaditya of the Karkota dynasty in the eighth century, and through gradual expansion and conquest it had come to control part of north-western India and the Punjab. Attempts to establish a foothold in the Ganges Plain were not successful, the base being too far away. The Punjab was not yet the bread basket it was to become later, but its attraction lay in its network of staging-points along routes linking the watershed and the Ganges Plain to the north-west and beyond. It continued to have close relations with Gandhara. The Shahya dynasty ruled in the north-west, acting as a bridge to central Asia and to the Turks (or the Turushkas, as they are called in Indian texts). Familiarity with the Turushka goes back to earlier times when Turkish mercenaries found employment in the armies of Kashmir. Lalitaditya, ruling Kashmir in the eighth century, took his armies briefly into the Ganges Plain, and also stopped Arab forces from overrunning the Punjab. In subsequent centuries the kings of Kashmir consolidated their position in the mountainous areas and the upper Jhelum Valley, leaving the Punjab to fend for itself. A sophisticated literary culture surfaced in Kashmir with work on Tantric Shaivism and on theories of aesthetics. Schools of philosophy continued the earlier tradition that had been founded in Buddhist centres.

  Kalhana’s impressive history of Kashmir, the Rajatarangini, was written in the twelfth century. It contains a striking description of the engineering works, supervised by the minister Suyya, that were carried out in the reign of Avantivarman of the successor dynasty to the Karkota. Landslides and soil degradation led to a great amount of rubble and stone being deposited in the Jhelum River, which impeded the flow of water. This was cleared, but to this day such impediments are a regular problem with rivers coming down from the mountains. Embankments were constructed to prevent landslides and, where possible, dams were built and the lakes that caused floods were drained. It is said that Suyya even managed to marginally divert the course of the Jhelum and Indus rivers, a shift that allowed the reclamation of land for cultivation. These were difficult engineering tasks since the rivers of Kashmir are the fast-flowing, unruly upper reaches of the rivers that come down to the plains. That Kalhana’s was not an exaggerated description is evident from the subsequent economic prosperity of Kashmir. The large areas of the valley brought under cultivation were a stabilizing factor in Kashmir politics, as in other hill states, since the need to move to the fertile regions of the plains became less pressing. But it introduced problems of another nature.

  The tenth century saw the regency of two famous queens who, in spite of much opposition, were determined to direct the affairs of state. In this they had to contend with a new phenomenon that was to dominate Kashmiri politics for a hundred years – the existence of bodies of troops with unshakeable political loyalties and ambitions. There were two rival groups, the Tantrins and the Ekangas, who between them made and unmade rulers in turn. Queen Sugandha used the Ekangas against the Tantrins effectively, but was unable to subordinate them and was deposed in 914. Her defeat meant almost unlimited power for the Tantrins, and none of the succeeding rulers could assert a position to counter this. Finally, the damaras, who were landowners of substance, were called in to destroy the power of the Tantrins. This they did with such success that the rulers of Kashmir were faced with the new problem of curbing the power of the landowners, evident from political events during the rule of Queen Didda. It was not unheard of for queens to participate as regents, as did Prabhavati Gupta in the Vakataka period, or to carry out administrative functions, as in the case of some Chalukya queens of the western Deccan. What differentiated Sugandha and Didda from the others was that their power came from their involvement in court intrigue and the politics of court factions.

  The damaras were in origin agriculturists who, using the improvements in the valley, developed its agricultural potential and began accumulating a surplus each year that enabled them to change their status to landowners. This may explain Kalhana’s advice that a king should never leave more than a year’s produce in storage with the cultivators, and that whatever is produced over and above that should be taken by the state, otherwise the cultivators would use it as a base to become powerful. Kalhana was as scathing about the damaras as he was about the kayastha officers of the kingdom. He described the damaras as ill-mannered and uncultured. Once they had acquired some power they employed mercenaries and Rajputs from the plains to add to their strength. They also began to imitate the style of life of the kshatriyas, and Kalhana disapproved of some of these activities, such as their endorsing sati. The period from the eighth to the eleventh century in Kashmir saw the generation of considerable wealth, partly due to agricultural improvements but equally to trade connections with the north Indian Plains and with central Asia. Some of the wealth went into the building and maintaining of temples, such as the one dedicated to Martand – the sun. The accumulation of wealth, particularly in the temples, attracted the greed of Hindu kings in Kashmir during this period, some of whom looted the temples and removed the images made of precious metals. Kalhana adds that they oppressed the populace with additional taxes and the officials who carried out these orders were said to ‘cause pain to the people’.

  The Kabul Valley and Gandhara were ruled by a Turkish family, the Shahiyas, in the early ninth century. A brahman minister of the king usurped the throne and founded what has been called the Hindu Shahiya dynasty. He was pushed eastwards by pressure from other Afghan principalities and finally established his power in the region of Attock, near the confluence of the Indus and Kabul Rivers. The area supported a minimum of agriculture, its income coming from pastoralists traversing the area in their circuits, and from trading caravans. It was also an area that hosted a variety of religious beliefs – Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Puranic Hinduism and, more recently, Islam, not to mention the various central Asian Shaman cults known to pervade religious activities of the region. The state became a buffer between northern India and Afghanistan. A later Hindu Shahiya ruler, Jayapala, consolidated the kingdom and made himself master of the Punjab Plain. However, this meant he had to face the armies of the ruler of Ghazni when the latter entered northern India in the eleventh century.

  A kingdom in the Himalaya mountains that became an independent state was Nep
al, which overthrew the hegemony of Tibet in the ninth century, commemorating it with the Nevar era equivalent to AD 878. This not only meant political freedom, but also resulted in substantial economic progress. Since Nepal was on the highway from India to Tibet, both Chinese and Tibetan trade with India passed through this area. New towns, such as Kathmandu and Patan, grew from the resulting commercial income. Lalita-pura became a centre of Tantric Buddhist learning that attracted many scholars. Chronicles of the dynasties were maintained in the vamshavali tradition and written in Sanskrit, although the regional language was distinct. But the authority of the kings of Nepal was to be threatened by powerful landowners, more familiar from their later title of Ranas. The precarious balance between the position of the king and that of the landed magnates was a constant feature of politics in Nepal, as of many other states.

  Further east, Kamarupa in Assam was a kingdom situated in the plains but in the proximity of mountains. The link it provided between eastern India and eastern Tibet and China encouraged commerce across the plains, as well as transhumance across the mountains. Rice cultivation was facilitated in the silt-laden plains of Assam that were watered by the Brahmaputra, although these were frequently subjected to extensive floods. The Varmans brought a part of the valley under their control. Harjaravarman attained eminence in the ninth century and took imperial titles, suggesting that he had become independent of the Palas. The building of embankments was a form of assistance from the state to encourage agricultural settlements, which also happened during the reign of the later Shalastambha kings. An inscription of 1205 records the killing of Turushkas, which may have been connected with Turkish attempts to annex the area. But at the same time in the thirteenth century much of Kamarupa was conquered by the Ahoms, a Shan people who came from the mountains to the south-east of Assam. It was they who finally gave the place its name, Assam being derived from Ahom. Their other contribution was the maintenance of lengthy genealogical records, the Burunjis, that help in the reconstruction of their history.