The Penguin History of Early India

by Romila Thapar

  The uterine brother of his father.

  His uterine brother.

  His father-in-law.

  The uterine brother of his wife.

  The husband of his uterine sister.

  The sons of his uterine sister.

  His son-in-law.

  His father.

  His son.

  One against whom incest or the first four of the five great sins are recorded. [The five great sins being killing a brahman, drinking alcohol, theft, adultery, and associating with criminals.] All his relations specified above shall not be eligible to be chosen by lot. One who has been outcaste for association with low people shall not have his name chosen until he performs the expiatory ceremonies.

  One who is foolhardy…

  One who has stolen the property of others…

  One who has taken forbidden dishes…

  One who has committed sins and has had to perform expiatory ceremonies of purification…

  Excluding all these, names shall be written on tickets for thirty wards and each of the wards in these twelve streets shall prepare a separate covering ticket for thirty wards bundled separately. These packets shall be put into a pot. When the tickets have to be drawn a full meeting of the great assembly including the young and old members shall be convened. All the temple priests who happen to be in the village on that day, shall, without any exception whatever, be caused to be seated in the inner hall where the great assembly meets. In the midst of the temple priests, one of them who happens to be the eldest shall stand up and lift that pot, looking upwards so as to be seen by all people. One ward shall be taken out by any young boy standing close who does not know what is inside and shall be transferred to another empty pot and shaken loose. From this pot one ticket shall be drawn and made the arbitrator. While taking charge of the ticket thus given to him, the arbitrator shall receive it on the palm of his hand with the five fingers open. He shall read out the ticket thus received. The ticket shall be read by all the priests present in the inner hall. The name thus read shall be put down and accepted. Similarly one man shall be chosen for each of the thirty wards.

  Of the thirty men thus chosen those who had previously been on the Garden Committee, and on the Tank Committee, those who are advanced in learning and those who are advanced in age shall be chosen for the Annual Committee. Of the rest, twelve shall be taken for the Garden Committee and the remaining six shall form the Tank Committee. The great men of these three committees shall hold office for full 360 days and then retire. Anyone on a Committee found guilty of an offence shall be removed at once. For appointing the committees after these have retired, the members of the Committee for Supervision of Justice in the twelve streets shall convene an assembly with the help of the arbitrator. The Committees shall be appointed by drawing pot-tickets…

  For the Five-fold Committee and the Gold Committee, names shall be written for pot-tickets in the thirty wards (and the same procedure followed). One who has ridden an ass (i.e., been punished) or who has committed a forgery shall not be included.

  Any arbitrator who possesses honest earnings shall write the accounts of the village. No accountant shall be appointed to that office again before he submits his accounts to the great men of the chief committee and is declared to have been honest. The accounts which he has been writing he shall submit himself, and no other accountant shall be chosen to close his accounts. Thus, from this year onwards as long as the moon and the sun endure, committees shall always be appointed by lot…

  We, the assembly of Uttaramerur chatur-vedi-mangalam made this settlement for the prosperity of our village in order that wicked men may perish and the rest may prosper. At the order of the great men sitting in the assembly, I, the arbitrator Kadadipottan Shivakkuri Raja-malla-mangala-priyan, thus wrote the settlement.

  Archaeological Survey of India Report (1904-5), pp. 138 ff.

  Other inscriptions refer to similar general procedures, though there are variations in qualifications and requirements and in the sanction of expenditure. The making of rules through amendments from time to time, and the attempts to ensure that factions were kept at a minimum, are striking features of this inscription. The assembly was summoned by the beat of a drum and generally met in the precincts of the temple. Interchange and co-operation among village assemblies was not unknown.

  The village assembly was responsible for collecting the assessment for the government and, where stipulated, the taxes on land and produce. In some cases it was collected as a joint assessment on the entire village. In addition, the assembly could make a levy for a particular purpose: for example, the construction of a water tank. Such local funds were kept separate from the taxes collected for the state. The activities of the assembly included the keeping of records, particularly those pertaining to charities and taxes, and the settling of agrarian disputes such as conflicts over tenure arrangements or irrigation rights. The larger assemblies kept a small staff of paid officers, but in the smaller assemblies most of the work was done on a voluntary basis. Professionals were appointed for special purposes at the nadu level as well. The higher officials were often drawn from among the better-off velalas, thus creating a link between state and local administration that enlarged the possibilities of upward mobility, incidentally providing a base for those with political ambitions. The latter part of the Chola period saw greater activity among revenue officials, with an increase in the number of taxes. The degree of autonomy at village level prevented shifting relations in the upper levels of the administrative and political structure from interfering to any large extent with the routine life of the village.

  Property rights varied as did the method of paying taxes, depending on whether ownership was individual or whether a collective tax from the village was preferred. Sometimes dues were remitted, partially or totally, in return for some service, but this was generally on a very small scale, such as a remittance of tax to the temple in lieu of fetching the water for bathing the deity. In later centuries this tax included military service. Unlike temple service, involving proximity to the deity, military service could be performed by low-caste groups. The recipients of brahmadeya grants, as well as temples receiving grants, were treated as regular landowners where questions of rights were involved. There was a sharp distinction between those with land who paid tax, and those who did not, with the agricultural labourers working for a wage. The distinction was largely that the labourer was not included in the village assembly and could not hold a position of responsibility in local administration. Many were employed on temple estates, yet being of low caste they were not permitted entry into the temple. Reclamation of wasteland and the clearing of forests were regular work carried out by peasants and labourers, which was encouraged by the ruler since it increased the land under cultivation. Cattle-raising had by now become a subsidiary occupation except in the uplands.

  Tax on land and its produce, whether in cash or kind, was a substantial source of income for the Chola state, although other taxes were also collected, such as those on mines, forests, salt, professional taxes, customs dues and tolls, judicial fines and the equivalent in forced labour (vetti). The assessment of land-tax was based on the quality of the land and the facilities to irrigate it. Two or even three crops of paddy per year were regarded as normal, though the yield varied. The tax could rise to one-third, which is high by any standards, though in exceptional circumstances remission or commutation was permitted by the king.

  Permanent assessment of land for tax purposes was known, but was apparently not usual. Assessment required land surveys at frequent intervals. Land-tax, together with the local dues levied by the assembly or the temple, must have been a strain on the cultivator for whom there were few alternatives to paying the tax. He could in theory either appeal to the king for remission or reduction of the tax if conditions were difficult at a particular time, or else move away to a different area. The latter was an extreme step, since mobility among cultivators was restricted even if land was available. In t
he case of a village assessed as a unit, the return from the non-taxable land was deducted from the total revenue of the village. Non-taxable land consisted of the residential area, temples, tanks, irrigation channels, areas where the artisans and outcaste population lived, and the cremation ground.

  In the Hoysala kingdom in Karnataka, the key figures in the rural areas were the landholders, the gavunda/gauda, and the heggade, mentioned in inscriptions referring to land transactions in villages, the maintenance of irrigation, the collection of taxes and the work of the village council.References to them go back to Ganga inscriptions where they seem to have been the heads of the families of the original settlers. Their standing and status is indicated by their prefix. For example, the praja-gavunda, literally, the gavunda of the people, was economically and socially of a lesser status than the wealthy prabhu-gavunda, literally, of the lord. Their numbers varied and were sometimes determined by their dual role of being both representatives of the village and appointees of the state. Some judicial functions were also included, such as the raising of a militia when required. Initially the grants were made to brahmans and Jainas, whose activities included the clearing of forest land and the reclaiming of wasteland to extend cultivation. This also required the building and maintenance of tanks for irrigation. The increasing numbers of peasants were drawn both from the forest-peoples converted to cultivation and from migrations of peasants from the Tamil area after the campaigns of the tenth century.

  The evolving of the status of landholders followed a fairly common pattern. Intermediary landholders and samantas changed the ecology of the neighbourhood through expanding agriculture, secured through the construction of irrigation tanks. Sometimes the grant of land was to the family of a hero who had died defending village property. The identity of the landholder was further emphasized by his establishing his family deity in the locality. This was also part of the two-way process of introducing new deities into Puranic Hinduism and superimposing existing Hindu deities on local ones. The installing of the new deity was not solely a religious act and should not be mistaken for ritual sovereignty. It accompanied the grant of land and was equally significant as an intervention of administrative rights and identity. With the coming of brahman settlements and the creation of agraharas, the picture changed further. Occasionally there were some confrontations between brahman settlers and existing cultivators and the terms of revenue collection had to be sorted out. Peasant protests in the peninsula are heard of from the thirteenth century, occasionally with religious undertones. The balance between state administration and the powers of local landowners, together with the requirements of cultivation as a support to royal power, became characteristic of kingdoms at this time.

  In an area such as Warangal (Andhra Pradesh), with its less fertile tracts, major investments in clearing wasteland and building tanks and canals were required to establish agriculture. Deserted villages were reclaimed by order of the Kakatiya rulers and new villages were established, involving colonization or encroachments into forests. This was actively encouraged by the Kakatiyas and their tributary rulers through grants of land, especially to brahmans.

  As a contrast to this, settlement in Kerala followed the fertile ‘wet lands’. The earlier brahman settlements of the mid-first millennium AD, said to be thirty-two in number, expanded in this period. The alliance between rulers and brahmans was also related to a large number of temples being established, each of which controlled substantial land. Brahman control over temple management meant that they controlled land both as individual holders and as managers of temples. In some cases the two categories may have been distinct if the brahmans associated with the Vedas held land from earlier grants, whereas those who were only priests in the temples derived an income from their functions in the temple. The management of temples could have included wealthy nonbrahmans, such as merchants and administrators. A hierarchy of tenants cultivated the lands of the temple and parallel to this were the artisans, also employed by the temple. Agricultural activities at various levels were controlled by a nexus between the brahmans and those claiming aristocratic status, pre-eminently the caste of Nairs. The wealth of the temple was such that many temples employed experts in the martial arts, who acted as a militia in times of trouble. Control over both the village assembly and the council managing the temple was tight, particularly when supervising tenants and craftsmen.

  References to local militias were now more noticeable, but so too were increasing numbers of hero-stones. Some had a frame that suggested an imitation of a small shrine, and the sculptured panels became more professional. Their adornment underlined the status of the hero. There were also occasions when the memorialized hero either came from a family of landholders or else his kinsmen aspired to that status. In the former case, his kinsmen’s aspirations to political power could be supported by both their landholding status and their relationship to a dead hero. The cult of the hero was further elaborated. It was believed that a hero’s death would automatically lead him to heaven, and if his wife became a sati she was deified. The emphasis on what the individual gained by these acts also underlined the need for a village to be self-reliant in some situations. Memorials in coastal areas recorded defence against attacks from the sea or at sea. The depiction of ships on such hero-stones points incidentally to an improvement in shipping technology compared to their depiction in earlier sculpture. Hero-stones of this period could therefore be seen as comments on the structure of power at local levels, particularly where the state did not have a readily available presence or thought it unnecessary to mark such a presence.

  The tendency to hoard wealth was not characteristic of village life. Apart from those in markedly rich villages, most village members had little wealth to hoard. The average holding yielded enough to feed and clothe a family with little surplus. Food was simple, rice and vegetables in the main. But diet could change with caste. Brahmans, who had once eaten meat, were now generally vegetarian. A non-vegetarian diet became customary among some higher castes, and meat of all kinds was eaten by others, provided it was affordable. Housing was relatively cheap, since the climate did not call for elaborate structures. Nevertheless, the wealthy lived in well-appointed houses. The richer members of rural society kept their wealth employed through economic advantages in schemes to reclaim land, improve irrigation or invest in trade. Equally, there was much religious merit to be acquired by donations towards the building of a temple or the endowing of a matha. Wealth was used in forms that would enhance the prestige of its owners.

  Towns and Markets

  The nuclei of urban centres were generally formed by exchange centres in rural areas where local produce was brought, administrative centres, places of pilgrimage where large numbers gathered and goods were regularly exchanged, or the locations of recurring festivals and fairs. Rural markets were recognized by chiefs and administrators as potentially important to generating revenue. The military camp, often set up as part of a regular tour of inspection, continued to be a precursor to a town, particularly if the location was repeated year after year. Towns that had existed prior to the tenth century often grew as a result of expanding trade during this period. In Karnataka and Tamil-nadu, towns referred to as pattanam began as commercial centres, often maritime. Sometimes the main occupation was specified in the name, for instance, Banajupattana, a town of traders. But prior to this they could have been focal points of local administration or places of pilgrimage. Shravana Belgola, for example, began as a pilgrimage centre in the seventh century and by the twelfth century was an important settlement of merchants that maintained a number of Jaina establishments. Trading associations and professional merchants often had their beginnings in rural centres of exchange or of administration.

  Parallel processes occurred in the domain of the Later Chalukyas. Merchants and wealthy landowners wielded authority in the administration of cities. Elsewhere, weekly village markets sometimes developed into towns. On occasion the gavundas and heggades were also associate
d with positions of urban authority. A designation of wider use familiar in many parts of the subcontinent was mahajana, literally, the big men, used sometimes for wealthy brahmans in their secular roles as landholders, and eventually for those involved in commerce that sometimes coincided with urban administration. Those who worked at the senior levels of urban administration were recompensed by permission to keep a percentage of the levies collected from householders. Towns went through periods of vicissitudes but from about the tenth century there was predictable growth.

  The market centre, known as the nagaram, where traders gathered, was the focus for exchange of the produce of the region and also had links with the temple. Administered by the nagarattar, it was also taxed, particularly on its profits from overseas trade. Merchants and guilds paid tolls and customs duties. Inscriptions carry details of these taxes, and of the levels of tax collection which ranged from the local to the central. Inscriptions from Karnataka record customs taxes on the import of horses, on commodities made of gold, on textiles and perfume, and on produce such as black pepper, paddy, spices, betel-leaves, palm leaves, coconuts and sugar. This was produce that came from various parts of the peninsula and was more than just a regional trade. Corporate trading enterprise was particularly noticeable from the eleventh century onwards. Inevitably, the presence of a hierarchy in the bureaucracy was also recorded. In the transition from rural to urban, tax concessions were sometimes introduced by the local administration but were replaced with tolls, taxes and dues when commerce was profitable.

  Overseas trade was among the strengths of the Chola merchants. Nagapattinam, Mahabalipuram, Kaveripattinam, Shaliyur and Korkai, on the east coast, had elaborate establishments controlling the south Indian trade eastwards. The port at Vishakhapattinam was named Kulottunga-chola-pattinam, after the King. Trade to the east received encouragement from a Cambodian mission to the Chola court in the early eleventh century. Maritime trade with China reached an unprecedented volume during these centuries. It became a state monopoly in China, the Chinese government not wishing to lose the income from it. Sung period sources from China refer to the presence of Indian merchants in the ports of southern China. Apart from trade, the earlier lively interest among Chinese savants in Indian astrology and alchemy continued, with some startlingly exaggerated stories in Chinese texts on the transmutation of stone and metal from worthless matter to valuable items by visiting Indians!