Spread of Civilisation in Eastern India

At a Glance

• Period Fourth to seventh centuries AD
• Regions Odisha, Bengal, Assam, eastern MP
• Odisha states Matharas, Vasishthas, Nalas, Manas
• Bengal Pundravardhana, Samatata, Gauda
• Assam Kamarupa, Bhaskaravarman
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Ancient History: Gupta Age and Post-Gupta Kingdoms

Where Does It Fit?

This is the tenth topic of the category on the Gupta age and post-Gupta kingdoms. The previous topic covered science and technology, and this one covers the spread of civilisation in the east. The next topic covers Harsha. Previous topic: Science and Technology in the Gupta Age. The later dynasties of the region are in Pala Dynasty of Bengal (8th–11th Century) and Sena Dynasty of Bengal (11th–12th Century).

What Does Civilisation Mean Here and Why Was It Late in the East?

In short: writing, taxes, classes and specialists reached much of eastern India only from the mid-fourth century.

A region is considered civilised if its people know writing, have a system of collecting taxes and maintaining order, form social classes and produce specialists for priestly, administrative and productive functions, and if it produces enough to sustain consumers who are not producers. In much of eastern India these elements appeared very late. Virtually no written records have been found in most of eastern Madhya Pradesh and adjoining Odisha, West Bengal, Bangladesh and Assam relating to a time before the mid-fourth century AD. The fourth to the seventh century is remarkable for the spread of an advanced rural economy, state formation and social classes there, shown by many Sanskrit inscriptions, often dated in the Gupta era and recording land grants by feudatory princes to brahmanas, Vaishnava temples and Buddhist monasteries. The beneficiaries helped spread an advanced culture. Cultural contact with the Gupta empire stimulated the process; north Bengal and north-west Odisha came under Gupta rule, and elsewhere Gupta influence shows in the use of Gupta era dates. The Gupta state is in Gupta Administration.

How Did Odisha and Bengal Develop?

Kalinga rose to importance under Ashoka, and a strong state was founded in the first century BC by Kharavela, who advanced as far as Magadha; ports of Odisha traded in pearls, ivory and muslin, and Shishupalgarh, Kharavela’s capital, yielded Roman objects. In the fourth century Kosala and Mahakantara were among the regions conquered by Samudragupta. From the second half of the fourth to the sixth century several states formed in Odisha, with at least five identifiable. The Matharas dominated the area between the Mahanadi and the Krishna, with the Vasishthas, Nalas and Manas as neighbours. Each state developed taxation, administration and military organisation, the Nalas and probably the Manas issued coins, and kings invited brahmanas, gave land grants and performed Vedic sacrifices. Nala gold coins in tribal Bastar show gold used in large transactions, and Mana copper coins show money used by artisans and peasants. The Matharas formed new fiscal units, made agraharas, and in the mid-fifth century began dividing the year into twelve lunar months, useful for farming. From about AD 350 Sanskrit was used in Odisha inscriptions, and Prakrit gave way.

In Bengal, north Bengal had writing even under Ashoka, and a king with the title maharaja ruled at Pokharna on the Damodar about the mid-fourth century, knew Sanskrit and worshipped Vishnu. For about a century from AD 432-3 a series of land sale documents on copperplates in Pundravardhanabhukti shows land bought with gold dinaras; land bought for religious ends was fallow and untaxed, and its grants brought plots under cultivation. The documents show scribes, merchants and artisans in local administration. Samatata acknowledged Samudragupta’s authority, but became organised only from about AD 525, with rulers who issued gold coins. By AD 600 Bangladesh was known as Gauda, an independent state under Shashanka, Harsha’s adversary. Kalidasa mentions paddy transplantation in Vanga, and north Bengal produced high-quality sugarcane. Fiscal units like Dandabhukti and Vardhamanabhukti were formed to pacify tribal areas. An officer called the agraharika was needed to look after the large number of endowments.

What Happened in Assam and What Was the Overall Pattern?

Kamarupa, the Brahmaputra basin, came to prominence in the seventh century, though settlements at Ambari near Guwahati go back to the fourth century. Samudragupta received tribute from Davaka and Kamarupa. By the sixth century Sanskrit and writing were evident, and the Kamarupa kings took the title varman. In the seventh century Bhaskaravarman headed a state controlling much of the Brahmaputra basin, and the Chinese traveller Hsuan Tsang visited it. Buddhism had a foothold there. Overall, in the fifth and sixth centuries large-scale writing, Sanskrit, a varna society and the growth of Buddhism and of Brahmanism as Shaivism and Vaishnavism became visible, with evidence of private property in land and gold coins to buy it. This implies an advanced food-producing economy based on iron ploughshare farming, wet paddy and craft knowledge. The decline of the Gupta empire thus coincided with progress in outlying regions, as thinly settled tribal areas in red soil West Bengal, north Odisha and Bangladesh came into the limelight. As an analytical point, land grants to brahmanas and monasteries acted as agents of acculturation, a process also seen in the south in Brahmanisation, Land Grants and Peasant Protest in the Peninsula. The later regional states are in Pulakeshin II Sources Harshacharita, Hsuan Tsang Nature of rule Feudal,…">Harsha and his Times.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Regional history State formation outside the Gangetic core
• Land grants Agents of acculturation
• Chronology Fourth to seventh centuries

What Came Next?

The next topic describes Harsha and his times. Next topic: Harsha and his Times.

Key People and Terms

• Agrahara Tax-free grant to brahmanas
• Bhukti Province or fiscal unit
• Samatata Delta region of south-east Bengal
• Gauda Bengal kingdom of Shashanka
• Kamarupa Brahmaputra basin state
• Agraharika Officer for endowments

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask about regional state formation. These points add depth.

• Agents Brahmana beneficiaries
• Evidence Plates and coins
• Pattern Periphery rising