Changes in the Varna System and Rise of Regional Identities

At a Glance

• Varna shift Vaishyas reduced to level of shudras
• New factor Land possession
• Language Apabhramsha, AD 600 to 1000
• Script Regional scripts from the seventh century
• Religion Bhakti and tantrism
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Ancient History: Philosophy, Cultural Interaction and Transition

Where Does It Fit?

This is the fifth topic of the category on philosophy, cultural interaction and transition. The previous topic covered land grants and landlords, and this one covers their social and cultural results. The next topic covers the sequence of social changes. Previous topic: From Ancient to Medieval – Agrarian Changes and Rise of Landlords. See also Society and Culture in Early Medieval India and Rise of the Rajputs and Major Rajput Clans.

How Did the Varna System Change?

In short: land grants altered the old varna ranks and multiplied castes.

From the sixth century changes occurred in social organisation. In the Gangetic plains, vaishyas had been regarded as free peasants, but land grants created landlords between the peasants and the king, so vaishyas were reduced to the level of shudras. The brahmanical order spread from north India into Bengal and south India through grants to brahmanas brought from the north from the fifth-sixth centuries, and in outlying areas there were mainly two orders, brahmanas and shudras. Frequent seizures of power and land grants produced many categories of landed people. A person who gained land and power might belong to a lower varna yet be economically well off, and this posed difficulties since the Dharmashastras regulated social position by varna. The texts had to adjust: the sixth-century astrologer Varahamihira prescribed house sizes by varna, as of old, but also by grades of ruling chiefs, so things were graded by possession of land and not only by varna. Concessions such as niyoga or widow remarriage were limited to women of lower orders, and women were denied property rights. From the seventh century numerous castes arose. A Purana of the eighth century says thousands of mixed castes were produced by vaishya women with lower-caste men, and shudras and untouchables were divided into countless sub-castes, as were brahmanas and Rajputs. Castes multiplied because people could not move from place to place, so those following the same occupation in different areas formed sub-castes by territory, and tribal people admitted through grants were enrolled as shudras and mixed castes, each tribe becoming a caste. The earlier proliferation of castes is in Social Developments in the Gupta Age.

How Did Regional Identities and Languages Emerge?

Around the sixth-seventh centuries cultural units later known as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu began to form. Hsuan Tsang mentions several nationalities, Jaina texts of the late eighth century note eighteen major peoples and describe the features of sixteen, and the author Vishakhadatta, about the ninth century, speaks of regions with different customs, clothing and language. From the seventh century a major linguistic development occurred: Apabhramsha, the last stage of the middle Indo-Aryan, roughly halfway between Prakrit and modern Indo-Aryan languages, covering AD 600 to 1000, with extensive Jaina literature. Buddhist writings of eastern India show faint traces of Bengali, Assamese, Maithili, Oriya and Hindi, and Jaina works those of Gujarati and Rajasthani. In the south Tamil was the oldest, Kannada began to grow, and Telugu and Malayalam developed later. Each region developed its own language because of isolation: the break-up of the Gupta empire created independent principalities and the decline of trade reduced communication. From Maurya to Gupta times more or less one script served most of India, but from the seventh century each region had its own script, so post-Gupta inscriptions cannot be read across regions without learning the regional script. Regional temple and sculpture styles also evolved from the seventh-eighth centuries, with stone and bronze the main media, and south India became the land of stone temples. The southern case is in Brahmanisation, Land Grants and Peasant Protest in the Peninsula.

What Changed in Literature and Religion?

Sanskrit, used by the ruling class from the second century AD, became ornate in line with the feudal lords’ vanity: prose and poetry were full of metaphors, imagery and adjectives, as in Bana’s prose, and many metres were invented. Between the fifth and eighteenth centuries a large corpus of commentaries on ancient texts was written in Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit, which strengthened an authoritarian trend and helped to perpetuate social inequality, with law-books of AD 600 to 900 adapting law to new inequalities. Deities too were placed in a hierarchy: Vishnu, Shiva and Durga as supreme gods with others as retainers, and Indra, Varuna and Yama reduced to lokapalas, guards. The panchadeva, worship of Brahma, Ganapati, Vishnu, Shakti and Shiva, was arranged in panchayatana temples with a chief deity at the centre and four subsidiary shrines. Monastic orders were ranked into about five grades. From the seventh century the bhakti cult spread, especially in the south: devotees made offerings and got the god’s favour (prasada), comparable to the tenants’ dependence on landowners. Tantrism spread from about the sixth century; it admitted women and shudras, stressed magical rituals, and arose with the large-scale admission of aboriginal peoples into brahmanical society, as brahmanas took many tribal rituals, charms and symbols. It permeated Jainism, Buddhism, Shaivism and Vaishnavism. As an analytical point, these developments link land, caste, language and religion into one picture of the early medieval order. The bhakti movement of the Alvars and Nayanars is in Brahmanisation, Land Grants and Peasant Protest in the Peninsula.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Social change Medieval features
• Languages Origin of regional languages
• Religion Bhakti and tantra

What Came Next?

The next topic describes the sequence of social changes in ancient India. Next topic: Sequence of Social Changes in Ancient India.

Key People and Terms

• Apabhramsha Last stage of middle Indo-Aryan
• Panchayatana Temple with five shrines
• Lokapala Guardian deity
• Prasada Divine favour
• Tantrism Ritual and magic-based religion
• Sub-caste Division within a caste

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask about social and cultural change after the Guptas. These points add depth.

• Varna Land-based ranking
• Regional Languages and scripts
• Religion Bhakti and tantra