Brahmanisation, Land Grants and Peasant Protest in the Peninsula

At a Glance

• Period AD 300 to 750
• Grants Tax-free to brahmanas
• Immunities Up to eighteen types
• Villages Ur, sabha, nagaram
• Protest Kalabhra revolt
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Ancient History: Gupta Age and Post-Gupta Kingdoms

Where Does It Fit?

This is the last topic of the category on the Gupta age and post-Gupta kingdoms. The previous topic covered the Chalukyas, Pallavas and the Kalabhras, and this one explains the social and agrarian change in the peninsula. The next category begins with philosophy. Previous topic: Chalukyas, Pallavas and the Kalabhra Revolt. The medieval consequences are in Indian Feudalism – Origin and Features in Early Medieval India.

What Was the New Phase in the Peninsula?

In short: trade and towns declined but tax-free grants expanded agriculture and brahmanical influence.

The period AD 300 to 750 marks the second historical phase south of the Vindhyas. In the first phase, from 200 BC to AD 300, northern Tamil Nadu, southern Karnataka, southern Maharashtra and the Godavari-Mahanadi region owed allegiance to distant centres. Now about two dozen states arose, known from land charters. The first phase had numerous crafts, trade, coins and towns, whereas in the second trade, towns and coinage seem to have declined but numerous tax-free land grants were made to temples and brahmanas, bringing many new areas under cultivation. Culturally the Dravidian element dominated the first phase, while Aryanisation and brahmanisation came to the fore in the second, because of grants by rulers who were brahmanas or firm supporters of them. As managers of temple lands, brahmanas guided cultural and religious activity and spread Sanskrit, which became the official language from about AD 400. Jainism was confined to Karnataka and kings performed Vedic sacrifices; stone temples for Shiva and Vishnu began in Tamil Nadu under the Pallavas and in Karnataka under the Chalukyas. By the beginning of this phase south India ceased to be the land of megaliths, and began to be a land of temples. The first phase is in Sangam Age – The Three Early Kingdoms of the Deep South.

How Did Land Grants Work?

Pallava, Kadamba and Chalukya kings were great champions of Vedic sacrifices, performing ashvamedha and vajapeya to legitimise their power and to boost priestly income. There are sixteen land charters of the early Pallavas, a few older ones in Prakrit on stone and most on copperplates in Sanskrit. Villages granted to brahmanas were exempt from all taxes and forced labour, which meant brahmanas collected the dues for their own profit. As many as eighteen types of immunities were granted in a fourth-century Pallava grant, including freedom from land tax, forced labour, supplying provisions to royal officers and interference from royal agents. The Western Gangas gave grants mostly to Jainas, and the Kadambas also to Jainas though they favoured brahmanas. Brahmanas thus grew as a class at the expense of the peasantry, from whom they collected dues directly, and they received a substantial share of the king’s taxes as gifts. The practice of immunity grants in the north is in Trade, Agrarian Economy and Land Grants in the Gupta Age.

The peasantry bore heavy demands. Besides land tax in kind, the king could demand donations of grain and gold, palmyra trees for salt and plant products, flowers, milk, wood and grass, free carrying of loads and forced labour called vishti. When officials visited or the army marched, villagers supplied bullocks for carts, beds, charcoal, ovens, cooking pots and attendants. Most of these are covered by the eighteen immunities, and later more demands were made. Such demands presuppose agricultural growth. Brahmanas given land in tribal areas taught peasants to value cattle, better methods of cultivation and a new calendar, and some sharecroppers and weavers were made over to them in an early Pallava grant to relieve labour shortage. The grants thus spread new methods and enlarged rural communities.

What Were the Village Types, Social Order and Forms of Protest?

Three types of villages existed in south India: the ur, the usual village of peasant castes, probably holding land in common, with the headman paying taxes for them, mainly in southern Tamil Nadu; the sabha, consisting of brahmadeya and agrahara villages whose brahmana owners held individual rights but acted collectively; and the nagaram, settled and dominated by traders and merchants, possibly as trade declined and merchants moved to villages. In Chalukya areas rural affairs were managed by village elders called mahajana. Society was dominated by princes and priests. Princes claimed to be brahmanas or kshatriyas, though many were local clan chiefs promoted to the second varna through benefactions to priests, who invented respectable family trees tracing them to solar and lunar dynasties. Many south Indian rulers claimed to be brahmanas, so kshatriyas and vaishyas were less important than in the north. Below came the peasantry in numerous castes, probably called shudras. If the peasants and artisans failed to produce and render services it was seen as the age of Kali, and the king had to restore order; the title dharma-maharaja was adopted by Vakataka, Pallava, Kadamba and Western Ganga kings. The worship of Vishnu and Shiva grew, and from the seventh century the Alvars and Nayanars popularised bhakti. The Pallava Mahabalipuram rathas and Pattadakal temples belong to this age, as in Chalukyas, Pallavas and the Kalabhra Revolt.

The Kalabhra revolt, which ended brahmadeya rights, was the main sign of protest against landed brahmanas, and it was put down by a confederacy of kings. As an analytical point, land grants built the institutions of the early medieval south, the temple, brahmana landlord and dependent peasantry, which links to From Ancient to Medieval – Agrarian Changes and Rise of Landlords.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Core feudalism theme South Indian version
• Terms Village types, immunities
• Protest Kalabhra

What Came Next?

The next category begins with the six systems of Indian philosophy. Next topic: Six Systems of Indian Philosophy.

Key People and Terms

• Brahmadeya Village granted to brahmanas
• Ur Peasant village
• Sabha Brahmana village assembly
• Nagaram Merchant village
• Mahajana Village elders in Chalukya areas
• Dharma-maharaja Title of protectors of dharma

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask about agrarian change and brahmanisation in the south. These points add depth.

• Grants Expansion and exploitation
• Society Princes and priests
• Protest Kalabhras