The Penguin History of Early India

by Romila Thapar

  The increasing prosperity of merchants in the latter pan of this period led to the acceptance of a larger presence of a commercial economy in the society of the time. Some merchants were given grants in the hope that they would revive deserted towns. Others were appointed to the panchakulas or committees that supervised the administration not only of urban centres, but also sometimes of the more important rural areas. Merchants recorded their donations in votive inscriptions and these included eulogies of the merchant’s family as well as of the king. These brief genealogies are useful sources of information on social history. This was partly an attempt to establish status, but was also a way to keep track of dispersed merchant groups when commerce was no longer limited to a local area. Information on family histories and caste status were prime requirements in arranging marriages and establishing inheritance. Each keeper of a set of genealogies, whether brahman or bard, kept the record for specific families. The tradition continued even into the subsequent period of the Sultanate, evident in inscriptions found in the vicinity of Delhi. This becomes another way of articulating the importance of commerce in the polity.

  There were close links between the merchants of Rajasthan and towns in western India, with the Oswals and Shrimals being mentioned in inscriptions at Mt Abu. An interesting overlap between the commercial professions and administration can be seen in persons from Jaina families employed at senior bureaucratic levels in western India. Literacy was at a premium in the Jaina tradition and their experienced handling of financial enterprises qualified them for service in the higher echelons of government. The Chaulukyas often had Jaina ministers, some of whom made greater contributions to the history of Gujarat than many of the rulers. Hemachandra was not only a scholar of extraordinary learning, but was also reputed to be an administrator of considerable ability.

  At the close of this period Eurasian commercial connections, both overland and maritime, were emerging as a factor in bringing together the distant areas of the continents from the eastern Mediterranean and Byzantium to east Asia, via central Asia and the Indian Ocean. There were interconnected economic interests, commodities for exchange and competition for markets. The Arabs were moving towards controlling the maritime routes, while many others were involved in the overland trading circuits. The Indian merchant continued to play at least one traditional role – that of the middleman.

  New Social Trends

  A number of new groups entered the established hierarchy of castes. Perhaps the most visible were the new kshatriya castes. They were open to those who had acquired political authority and could claim the status through a genealogy or an appropriate marriage alliance. Other than those claiming connection with existing kshatriya castes, they were grantees in the category of samantas or chiefs that had been inducted into caste society. The new kshatriyas constituted an aristocracy but brought with them elements of their earlier practices that had to be adjusted, at least ostensibly, to the norms of caste society. Practices of the upper castes were imitated and the appropriate status claimed. Such claims enabled the new ruling class to enforce a hierarchy of dominance and subordination, drawing its strength from the changed land relations and the new foci of power. By the end of this period, designations such as rauta, ranaka, thakkura and suchlike were available to those who had received grants of land and become grantees.

  Somewhat parallel to this was the even larger expansion of shudra jatis, through the incorporation of pastoralists and forest-peoples into caste society, often as peasant castes. Some associations of specialized craftsmen, gradually increasing with the demands of both rural markets and of urban commercial centres, also became the basis for jati identities. There was less reference to distinctions between vaishyas and shudras, and in some regions the vaishya category was virtually absent. Unlike the south, where rich peasants such as those among the velalas remained shudras, and where in the relative absence of the kshatriya and vaishya categories there was little need to seek a higher-caste status, in north India attempts were made by rich landholders to upgrade their caste to kshatriya. Lists of shudra jatis expanded so much that fresh categories had to be introduced. Apart from mixed castes, a distinction was made between the sat, true or pure shudras, and the asat or unclean shudras. The significance of this expansion of categories points not only to larger numbers being inducted, but also to some shudra categories moving to higher-status work, who therefore had to be differentiated from those still employed at lower levels.

  Merchants consolidated their professional strength through various associations. The most familiar from earlier periods was the shreni, translated as ‘guild’. According to one source it was a group of persons who performed the same professional work, either belonging to the same caste or to various castes. In the latter case they were doubtless related castes. The tendency would have been to prefer membership for those with jati connections. These associations enabled the merchants to organize their trade or crafts with some degree of autonomy. Rulers may well have accepted this, provided it did not interfere with their income from taxes on commerce, and it may even have increased the income. Influential merchants, sometimes included in the category of mahajanas, were appointed to various management committees, including those of temples. They were welcomed irrespective of their caste affiliation, perhaps because they made handsome donations.

  Brahman castes covered a range of gradations. The most respected were the learned brahmans, the shrotriyas, who could have been from wealthy brahman settlements or agraharas. They were often named after their area of original domicile, such as Kanauj, Utkala, Gauda and Maithil. As recipients of substantial grants, they developed centres of Vedic learning and Sanskrit scholarship. Many migrated from their agraharas to seek employment in distant courts. Bilhana, for example, whose family migrated from Kanauj to Kashmir, travelled extensively in northern and western India before eventually settling at the Chaulukya court in the Deccan. Such employment carried grants and helped in the diffusion and establishing of Sanskritic culture. There were narrations of rivalries at these courts with Buddhist or Jaina scholars. The conversion to Jainism of Kumarapala, the Chaulukya king, asserted by Jaina authors, was contested by Shaivas. Lesser brahmans, such as those trading in horses, some categories of temple priests in small temples or village priests performing routine rites, had a lower status. Some may have dropped out from rigorous Sanskrit scholarship, while others were priests of local cults that had been incorporated into Puranic Hinduism.

  Intermediate castes sometimes claimed high status. Among these were the kayasthas, the scribes of the administration who were responsible for writing documents and maintaining records. There was some confusion about where they should be ranked as a caste since some described them as kshatriyas who had fallen in status, others as descendants of a mixed-caste union of brahman and shudra, which would give them a low status. But contact with rulers improved their social standing and those who received grants of land and made donations became part of the elite. Kayastha ministers were mentioned in association with the Chandellas, Kalachuris and Gangas.

  Some castes claimed origin from socially elevated ancestors but maintained that their status had been reduced through economic necessity or through a fault in the performing of a ritual. The khatris, an established caste of traders in northern India, claimed kshatriya origin in recent times, maintaining that their lowered status was purely a result of having had to work in commerce. Gurjaras, Jats and Ahirs also claimed kshatriya origin and conceded that they had lost this status. The emergence of new jatis had been a feature of caste society since its inception, but in the early agrarian communities it was probably slower since there had not been a pressure to convert non-caste groups to caste status. The restructuring of the agrarian economy in this period, the intensified mercantile activity and the dispersal of certain higher castes accelerated the process of conversion. Flexibility associated with upper-caste society did not exist for those at the lowest levels or those branded as beyond the pale of caste soci
ety. Despite some contestation of orthodox views on caste, these generally remained established among the upper castes.

  Women of high status were expected to conform to patriarchal norms. Women of the lower jatis were often governed by the custom of the jati, which in some cases helped in distancing them from patriarchal pressures. Kinship patterns and gender relations would have differed between the major groups of castes and between regional practices. It is likely that in the initial stages of conversion to jati status, some customary practices from the previous status were retained. Gradually, however, these were either incorporated into the practices of the specific jati, or the proximity to caste society would have required greater conformity to existing caste rules. Thus, encouraging kshatriya women to become satis when their husbands died in battle or in a raid would have weakened support for practices such as niyoga, levirate, and widow remarriage. These practices, and other forms of marriage regarded as low in the normative texts, were not negated among the shudras. Cross-cousin marriage was known among some groups in western India, but was infrequently mentioned compared to its frequency in the south. Societies settled in the Himalayan borders continued their practice of fraternal polyandry, although such societies were more often Buddhist.

  However, the imprint of the upper-caste model was clear. In the process of claiming higher status, patriarchal requirements would have been insisted upon, particularly in relation to upper-caste laws of marriage and inheritance. Groups in the process of being incorporated into caste status would all have experienced some tensions in this process of change. These groups would have included the forest-chiefs of central India, or those who assisted in the making of dynasties, such as the Bhillas who had associations with the Guhilas in Rajasthan, or the Gonds who were linked to the Chandellas. They were familiar with a relatively more egalitarian system that was also extended to women, so the need to conform to new social codes may have been a problematic transition.

  Untouchables had little possibility of improving their status. They were regarded as outside the pale of caste society. Not only was their touch polluting, but even their shadow falling across the path of a brahman called for ritual ablution. They were sometimes assigned to the category of mlechchha, namely, those who could not be included in caste society and who differed in language and custom. Apart from the descendants of the existing untouchables, this category included tribes and peoples – sometimes of foreign origin – who were not eligible for a caste identity. How eligibility was determined remains somewhat unclear and was doubtless influenced, among other things, by the need for labour or profitable occupations. In terms of labour requirements, a permanent category of labour, bonded through both poor economic and low ritual status, was a substantial economic asset to the many dependent on this labour. The continued insistence that birth determined status ensured its permanency.

  The status of untouchables was therefore immutable. In rural areas they were often the landless labour, put to any task. In urban settlements they were the scavengers who also maintained the cremation grounds, where proximity to death associated them with a high degree of ritual pollution. Therefore they had to live well away from the limits of normal habitation. Even the Buddhists and Jainas tacitly conceded associating pollution with untouchables in practice, although they otherwise argued against social distinctions determining the quality of a human being. However, other sects, such as some Tantrics and Aghoris, made a fetish of the performance of rites in cremation grounds and the breaking of caste rules, but these were not sects working towards changing the rules of social organization. Their concern was with breaking ritual taboos and orthodox rites.

  Given the flux in society at some levels, existing social codes needed modification but doing so in a radical manner was avoided. The modification could take the form of commentaries on earlier Dharmashastras. The more widely quoted were those of Medatithi, written in the tenth century on the highly authoritative text of Manu, and the thirteenth-century commentary of Kulluka. Such commentaries had to adjust the older norms to a changed situation of different practices. These would have been associated with the customary practice of the new jatis or with the rise in status of wealthy merchants and landholders. Since major changes were unacceptable within the framework of the normative texts, deviations and exceptions made earlier texts more relevant to contemporary situations.

  Two systems of family law, Dayabhaga and Mitakshara, became basic to the upper castes and remained so until recent years. Both systems referred, among other things, to property held jointly by the male members of a family. According to the Dayabhaga system, which came to prevail in eastern India, only on the death of the father could the sons claim rights to property and partition the property. In what became the more widely prevalent Mitakshara system, the sons could claim this right even during the lifetime of the father. Doubtless, here too there would have been regional and caste differences. Where the system of cross-cousin marriage or matrilineal custom prevailed, the inheritance of the daughter had to be mentioned, as was sometimes done in inscriptions. In some areas, the wealth given and gifted specifically to a woman, her stridhana, could now include immovable property. In parts of Rajasthan and the Ganges Plain, the wives of rulers and subordinate lords received and held lands in their own right, and often the holdings were large enough to enable them to grant land to a religious beneficiary.

  Learning and Literature

  Among the more telling changes that emerged at this time were some new literary forms with an orientation towards historical perceptions in an attempt at capturing the past. The Mahabharata and the Ramayana constructed genealogies of the lineages presumed to be involved in the struggles narrated in the epics. These have parallels in the genealogical section of the early Puranas, where an attempt was made to provide the equivalent of a genealogical map of the lineages, actual and fictional, and a listing of the rulers in the dynasties up to the Guptas. But the earliest states in the Ganges Plain in the mid-first millennium BC, being the first of their kind, could not be valorized through precedents from the past.

  Buddhist chronicles had had a different perspective on the past. The Sangha as an institution was brought into juxtaposition with the state or other institutions, and their interdependence became part of the narrative. This is illustrated in the Pali chronicles from Sri Lanka, starting with the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa of the previous period, but continuing with others such as the Chulavamsa that focused on the relationship between the state and the Sangha. The chronicles of Ladakh and neighbouring areas, using the Tibetan Annals as their model, also described the establishment of Buddhism in the region often being accompanied by the emergence of a kingdom. There were some similarities between these and the chronicles in the Sanskritic tradition, but the latter had different concerns.

  The formation of states in the post-Gupta period was an innovatory experience in some areas. For those forging this experience, a past was already recorded in various forms and used for validating the changes in the present. This became a signpost to authority. Drawing on the past as an indirect way of asserting authority was quickly comprehended. The section on historical succession in the Vishnu Purana, for instance, provided references to construct a variety of links encapsulating power that were based on the claims of contemporary rulers to connections with heroes from these genealogies. The Puranas referred to the creation of the new kshatriyas subsequent to Gupta rule. These were the kings who made a point of insisting on their upper-caste ancestry and on their duty to protect caste society. Genealogy took a linear, narrative form and dynastic change was measured in genealogical time.

  The lists of dynasties in the Puranas petered out after the Guptas, and some post-Gupta dynasties began to write their own history. This was made available in the inscriptions issued by kings – in effect the annals of Indian history – or in the biographies of a few kings, or in the chronicles of regional kingdoms. The format of the inscriptions generally began with an evocation of the deity worshipped b
y the king and then proceeded to the origin myth, attempting to establish the high status of the dynasty. The earlier kings were often linked to the ancient heroes of the Puranic genealogies or the epics, which established the lineage as either solar or lunar, or occasionally an equivalent. Then followed the vignettes of the ancestors and a much fuller treatment of the reigning king.

  The inscriptions incorporating land grants covered much the same ground to start with, including a list, sometimes rhetorical, of the king’s many conquests and his upholding of caste society. This near formulaic section was followed by the practical and legal details of the grant: the origins of the grantee, his qualifications and achievements, that which was granted, the rights and obligations involved, tax exemptions if any and the dues and rents and other taxes he was permitted to collect. The text concluded with the list of witnesses who were often officials of the government, the names of those who composed and engraved the grant and finally a curse on anyone attempting to revoke the grant – if it was a grant not to be revoked. The charters were legal documents that had to be precise, whether engraved on stone and located in a temple or other monument, or engraved on copper plates.

  Parallel to the inscriptions were some of the biographies or charitas that were eulogies of the kings. These need some decoding to understand their intention. The focus was often on a particular matter, crucial to the acquiring of power, which was expanded into a text. Bana’s Harshacharita had described Harsha’s accession, which may have involved a usurpation of the throne and, if so, then a contravening of primogeniture. Bilhana’s Vikramankadeva-charita explained why the king was advised by no less than Shiva himself to replace his reigning elder brother. Sandhyakaranandin’s Ramacharita centred his biography of the Pala King Ramapala on the revolt by the Kaivartas and his successful reassertion of power. In some biographies and inscriptions the king was described as an incarnation of Shiva or Vishnu, or at least as receiving instructions directly from the deity. This was yet another form of validating kingship. As a unit of time, the fragment of the lifetime could be extracted from cyclic cosmology, and to that extent it incorporated the more secular linear form.