POINTS TO REMEMBER

It is said that the sage Agastya crossed the Vindhyas
in the later Vedic age to aryanise the south.
. The Cholas, Pandyas and Cheras or Keralaputras men­
''ti:oned in the Asokan inscriptions probably represented
the late megalithic culture.
.' Iraiyanar Agoporul makes the earliest reference to the
Sangams.
. The Sangam literature was compiled in circa AD 300-600,
but it discusses the conditions of South India in Be 200­
AD 300.
. Tolkappiyam, the early Tamil grammar, was written in
second Sangam.
. Tirukkural is sometimes called the "Bible of the Tamil
Land".
. Silappadikaram was authored by Ilangovadigal, while
Manimegalai is attributed to the poet Sattan of Madurai. . The Pandyas were mentioned by Megasthenes. . The Chola kingdom in the Sangam Age was situated
between the Pennar and Velar rivers.
. Uraiyur in the Chola kingdom was famous for cotton
trade.
. Karikala, the famous Chola ruler in the Sangam Age,
founded the city of Puhar (Kaveripattanam) and made
it his capital.
. Senguttuvan, the Red or Good Chera, was the greatest
Chera king.
. The Romans, with whom the Cheras had a flourishing
trade, set up two regiments at Muziris (identical with
Cranganore) and built a temple of Augustus there. . In the Sangam Age, land tax was called karai and war
booty was called irai.
. Spices (especially pepper), ivory, pearls, precious stones
and cloth were major items of export of South India
during Sangam Age.
. The ur was a town, pattanam a coastal town, and puhar
a harbour area.
. In the Sangam age, vellalars were rich peasants and
kadaisiyar represented the lowest class.
. Murugan was the chief local god worshipped by the
people of the hilly region. Murugan later came to be
called Subramaniya.
. During Nedumudikilli's rule, the Chola capital, Puhar,
was plundered by sea pirates.
. Nedunjelian, who ruled around AD 240, was the most
prominent of the early Pandyas.
. There were three Sangams: first at Thenmadurai (South
Madurai), the second at Kabadapuram, and the third at
Madurai.
. Caste distinctions were lacking in the Sangam age and
untouchability was not prevalent.
. Puhar or Kaveripattanam (of the Cholas) and Arikamedu and Koshai (of the Pandyas) were major post-towns on the east coast, while Muziris and Tyndis (of the Cheras), Bakare and Neleyndu were important trade centres on the west coast.
. There were three different kinds of chiefdoms in the Sangam Age: (i) kizar (little chiefs, i.e., the headmen of small villages); (ii) velir (bigger chiefs, mostly hill chief­tains), and (iii) vedar (the biggest chiefs).
. Narasimhavarman I was the brightest of the Pallava kings in the seventh century AD. He founded the city of Mahabalipuram. His greatest achievement was the three successive triumphs over the Chalukyan king, Pulakesin II.
. Narasimhavarman II is credited with the building of the
famous Kailasanatha Temple at Kanchi.
. Chinese pilgrim, Hsuan-Tsang, visited Kanchi, the Pallava
capital, during the reign of Narasimhavarman I.
. The Pallava kingdom was annexed by the Chola ruler,
Aditya I in the late ninth century. The Cholas were
feudatories of the Pallavas.

LITERATURE and RELIGION

LITERATURE Literary works in Sanskrit continued to be written. Some of these works had their counterparts ih Tamil, where the models of literary composition were now taken largely from Sanskrit literature. But Tamil literature of this period shows great liveliness and vigour as in Kamban's version of the Ramayana or the works of Kuttan,
Pugalendi, Jayangondur and Kalladanar. The branching off of regional languages from Sanskrit took place throughout the peninsula.

RELIGION The parting of the ways of Sanskrit and the regional languages is reflected in religion. Sanskrit re­mained the language of Hindu theology and of the brahmans. It was also more widely used now by the Buddhists and Jainas, whose numbers were on the decrease. Buddhism practically disappeared by the end of this period, the Buddha being commonly accepted as an incarnation of Vishnu, buLJainism survived with a following in Mysore.

SOCIETY

SOCIETY According to Romila Thapar, the centre of social and economic life at the time, particularly in the rural areas, was the temple. Devadasis were commonly found in most temples in Chola times.

Caste-consciousness had become prominent in social relationships. The brahmans maintained a distinctness, but unlike the north Indian brahman landowners, the southern brahmans were more adventurous. Their surplus income went into commerce. Slavery was common, but the use of slave labour for large-scale production was not known. The society was mainly divided into brahmans and non­brahmans. Among the non-brahmans there is, as compared to North India, little mention of. kshatriyas and vaishyas but the shudras are prominent. The brahmans were in control of the powerful positions and the non-brahmans were more or less working for them. Amongst the inter­mediary castes the distinctions were perhaps not so rigid.

The temple continued to be the centre of formal education in Sanskrit, with colleges attached to the larger temples. Some of these colleges were those at Ennayiram, Tribhuvani, TIruvaduturai, and Tiruvorriyur. The medium of instruction was Sanskrit almost to the exclusion of Tamil, and so formal education, and the life of most students attending the colleges, became cut off from everyday life. Professional education continued to be maintained through training given to apprentices in guilds and among groups of artisans. However, oral instruction, much simpler than the Sanskrit learning of the colleges, was imparted through the medium of the Saivite and Vaishnavite hymns com­posed by the Tamil saints.

ECONOMY

ECONOMY

During the early part of this period the village was economically self-suffici~nt and the tendency to hoard wealth was not a characteristic. The village provided its own food and clothing and had enough craftsmen to
attend to its needs. No large-scale surplus was produced and therefore no exchange of any appreciable amount took place with other areas. This changed with the rapid devel­opment of towns from the eleventh century onwards, consequent to the rapid expansion of trade during the Chola period. The existence of towns demanded a surplus pro­duction of food and introduced a morletary system to the rural economy. There is a marked increase in the number of Chola coins at this time as compared to the earlier times.

Overseas trade was the strength of the Chola mer­chants. Mahabalipuram, Kaveripattanam, Shaliyur, and Korkai on the east coast and Quilon on the Malabar coast had elaborate establishments controlling the South Indian trade both westwards and eastwards. Persia and Arabia were the destinations of those trading with the West. Trade with China reached an unprecedented volume during these centuries. Trade was controlled by merchant guilds. The king and the higher officials of state invested in the guilds.

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

The autonomous villa~ councilor local self-government was the most importaJ characteristic of Chola administration. Two Uttaramen inscriptions of Parantaka I dated AD 919 and 929 provid invaluable information regarding these councils. Accordin to these- inscriptions, the following three types of assembliE played a regular part in local administration.

(i) Ur The ur was the commoner type of assembly (! common villages. The land in ur was held by all classe of people. Hence all members of the village could becom the member of ur.
(ii) Sabha It was an exclusively brahman assembly of the brahmadeya villages. All the land in sabha belonged to the brahmans.
(iii) Nagaram It was an assembly of merchants and belonged to localities where traders and merchants were dominant.

A person had to fulfil the following criteria to secure the membership of sabha: (a) ownership of more than one­fourth veli-about an acre and a half-of land; (b) residence in a house built on one's own land; (c) age between 35 and 70; and (d) knowledge of Vedic literature (or one-eighth veli of land and knowledge of one Veda and a Bhashya).

Members were nominated for three years on the basis of secret ballot. One-third of the members would retire after every two years. Their major responsibilities included land distribution, tax collection, irrigation facilities, etc.

Important functions of local administration were en­trusted to committees of 6 to 12 members according to importance of their functions. This was called the variyam system. Important variyams/committees included (i) tottavariyam (garden committee); (ii) eri-variyam (tank com­mittee); (iii) panchavara variyam (a standing committee); (iv) pan variyam (gold committee); and (v) samvatsara variyam (annual committee).
The members of the committee were called variyapperumakkal. They usually met in the village temple. We have no information about voting and quorum. The assembly discussed general questions and passed resolu­tions.

CHOLA ADMINISTRATION

CHOLA ADMINISTRATION

The dominant form of government under the Cholas was hereditary monarchy. The coronation was an important and impressive ceremony and an occasion of great liberality. Succession disputes were not unknown, but generally the rule of succession in the eldest male line was respected, and the choice of the yuvaraja during the lifetime of the reigning monarch din ished the chances of dispute.

Rajaraja I initiated the system of prefacing the sb inscriptions of the reign with an account in set terIru its chief events kept up-to-date by additions from timE time. The relations between an emperor and his feudatol varied with time and circumstances. The administratior the Chola empire was stricter and more centralised tI that of the Chalukyas. Princes of the royal family were of employed as viceroys over important sections of the emp The royal household comprised numerous servanu
varied descriptions including bodyguards of sorts coronation hall and kitchen establishments comprised mo! women. The palace servants of the Cholas were orgcuili into velams and settled in separate quarters in the capito The monarch disposed off business by oral orders 1 an elaborate procedure was observed both before securi them and in putting them into execution. The Ch monarch had an udankuttam, immediate attendants, a gro of ministers representing all the chief departments administration to advise him on the disposal of businE besides a chancery (olai). (There were corresponding 0 cials in the Chalukya court.)

The Chola administrative machinery was an elabori and complicated bureaucracy comprising officials of v~ ous grades. The officials tended to form a separate cl;
in society, organised in two ranks, an upper perundanam a a lower sirudanam. Offices tended to become hereditary a there was no clear distinction between civil and milit~ employment. The officials were often remunerated by . signments of land (jivitas) suited to their station. Titles honour and shares in booty taken in war formed oft rewards of public service.

For purposes of administration the empire was divid into convenient areas with lower subdivisions, the divisio in descending order being valanadu or mandalam, nadu aJ ku"am. Large townships formed a separate ku"am j themselves, being known as taniyur or tanku"am.

All land was carefully surveyed and classified into ta bearing and non-taxable lands. The village as a whole w responsible for the payment of the entire revenue due fro it to the king's officers. The revenue was collected in ca:
or kind according to convenience. Besides land revenu there were tolls on goods in transit, taxes on professiol and houses, dues levied on ceremonial occasions 1iI marriages, and judicial fines.

Justice was administered by regularly constituted roy courts in addition to village courts and caste panchayal Usage, documents and witnesses were admitted as ev dence. Trial by ordeal was also resorted to.

THE IMPERIAL CHOLAS

THE IMPERIAL CHOLAS

The emergence of Chola power from obscurity, its rise to an imperial position and its conflicts, first with the Rashtrakutas from beyond the Tungabhadra and later with their successors, the Chalukyas of Kalyani, form the domi­nant features of the history of South India in the period 850-1200 AD. The whole region south of the Tungabhadra was united and held as one state for a period of two
centuries or more.

The founder of the Chola empire was Vijayalaya, who was at first a feudatory of the Pallavas. He captured Tanjore in 850. By the end of the ninth century, Vijayalaya's successor, Aditya I Chola, wiped out the Pallavas of Kanchi and weakened the Pandyas, thus bringing the southern Tamil country under his control. In the beginning, the Cholas were hard put to defend their position against the Rashtrakutas, but towards the end of the tenth century Chola power rapidly rose. Parantaka I (907-955) captured Madurai but was defeated by the Rashtrakuta ruler, Krishna III, at the battle of Takkolam, and he lost Tondaimandalam. But his grandson, Sundara-Chola, overcame the Rashtrakuta ruler and wrested Tondaimandalam from him.

The greatest Chola rulers were Rajaraja (985-1014) and his son, Rajendra 1(1014-1044). Rajaraja destroyed the Chera navy at Thiruvanandapuram, and attacked Quilon. He then captured the Pandy~ capital Madurai, and also annexed the-northern part of Sri- Lanka. One of his naval exploits was the conquest of the Maldive islands. In the north, he annexed the north-western parts of the Ganga region in north-west Kamataka and overran Vengi. His son and successor, Rajendra I, continued with the annexationist policy by completely overrunning the Pandya and Chera kingdoms and including them in his empire. He also annexed the rest of Sri Lanka which remained under Chola rule for another 50 years. Rajendra I also sent an expedition against Bengal through Kalinga; his armies crossed the Ganga and defeated the Pala king, Mihipala, of Bengal and Bihar.

In commemoration of his victories in the Gangetic delta, he assumed the title Gangaikonda, and founded a capital-Gangaikonda Cholapuram. An even more remark­able exploit in his reign was the naval expedition against the revived Sri Vijaya (Sumatra) empire; the expedition led to the conquest of Kadaram or Kedah and a number of other places in the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. The Chola navy was the strongest in the area for some time.

The Chola rulers fought constantly with the later Chalukyas (of Kalyani), who had succeeded the Rashtrakutas in the Deccan, for the overlordship of Vengi (Rayalaseema), the Tungabhadra doab and the Ganga country in north-west Karnataka. Neither side was able to gain a decisive victory in this context and it ultimately exhausted both the empires. However, up to 1115, the' extent of the Chola empire remained undiminished under Kulottunga I, except for the loss of Ceylon, and included the entire region south of the Krishna and the Tungabhadra extending at least up to the Godavari on the east coast. But after this the empire began to shrink. By 1118, the Chola empire was confined to the Tamil region and a relatively small area of the adjoining Telugu districts. Kulottunga III (1178-1210) was the last
great Chola monarch, who remained involved in the Pandyan wars of succession and sacked the Pandya capital in 1205.

The Chalukyan empire disappeared at the end of the 12th century and the Chola empire tottered at the beginning of the 13th century. The place of the Cholas was taken by the Pandyas and the Hoysalas in the south, and that of the later Chalukyas by the Yadavas and the Kakatiyas. For a -century thereafter, the history of South India is the history of these four kingdoms and their mutual antagonisms. Minor powers like the Telugu-Cholas of Nellore played their part as auxiliaries to the chief powers. The period was marked by no striking developments in polity or society, although industry, trade and the arts continued to flourish with their normal vigour. The Muslim invasions of the Deccan which began towards the end of the thirteenth century upset all the four kingdoms and caused a period o( confusion terminated by the rise and expansion of the Bahmani and Vijaynagar kingdoms in the second quarter of the 14th century.

There is not much information about the history of the Chera country during 850-1200. There are inscriptions of the several kings of the ninth century of whom Sthanuravi, a contemporary of Aditya I Chola, was the most important, and the Syrian Christian Kottayam copper plates are asso­ciated with him. He was perhaps succeeded by Vijayaragadeva.. Among the kings who followed, Bhaskara Ravivarman (1047-1106) deserves mention. Srivallabhan Kodai and Govardhana Martandavarman of Venad were his contemporaries. Under Rajaraja I Chola and his successors, Chola rule extended over the bulk of Chera country. The region revolted during the troubles preceding the accession of Kulottunga I who reconquered the Chera country and established military colonies in south Chera country. In the twelfth century there are inscriptions of the rulers of Venad, identified with Cheranadu; one of these rulers was con­quered by Parantaka Pandya, a feudatory of Vikrama Chola
(1118-35).