Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c12.s1.t2: 7.1.2 Administrative, economic, and social history
Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c12.s1.t2
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7.1.2 Administrative, economic, and social history
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In recent decades, several scholars have begun to undertake more detailed and sophisticated analyses of various aspects of political science, economics, and social history on the basis of inscriptional evidence. Such studies are primarily based on the copious documentation provided by later southern Indian inscriptions, especially those of the Coḷa and Vijayanagara kingdoms, which are sufficiently numerous and detailed to permit significant statistical analysis, as is generally not the case with the sparser data available from the north. The inscriptions in question include very large numbers (in the thousands) of stone temple inscriptions in Sanskrit and/or Tamil (or other Dravidian languages) recording various transactions, typically endowments or donations to the temples, which provide a wealth of information on virtually all aspects of social and economic life. These inscriptions have given rise to a sizable body of scholarly literature on medieval southern India which combines the study of inscriptions with modern methods of historical and social scientific research. In view of the ever-increasing volume and diversity of the literature in question, it can be introduced here only in outline; the studies cited are meant only to provide representative or outstanding examples of the genre, especially of more recent studies and of those which concentrate particularly on information derived from epigraphic sources.
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Among the several topics which have recently been addressed via the study of inscriptions, one of the most important and controversial is the nature of the state and of kingship among the traditional Indian kingdoms, with the Coḷa empire serving as the focus for most studies. The central figure in these studies is Burton Stein, whose works, most notably *Peasant State and Society in Medieval South India*, have stimulated extensive discussion and further research. Although Stein's characterization of the Coḷa empire (and by extension of other traditional Indian kingdoms) as a "pyramidal segmentary state" with a king whose principal function is more ritual than executive has not been universally accepted,¹³ it has come to constitute the central focus of subsequent discussion of the subject.
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¹³ See, e.g., the reservations expressed by Noboru Karashima in *South Indian History and Society: Studies from Inscriptions A.D. 850–1800*, xxv–xxviii.
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Numerous studies of administrative and bureaucratic systems in southern India and elsewhere have also been undertaken on the basis of epigraphic data. Noteworthy recent efforts along these lines include the studies of Noboru Karashima and his collaborators, which are conveniently compiled in his *South Indian History and Society: Studies from Inscriptions A.D. 850–1800* (esp. 55–68). Studies of these subjects are typically based on official terms and titles culled from the inscriptions. Such titles, however, are often unknown from other sources and are not always etymologically transparent, so that their significance must be inferred, with varying degrees of success, from the contexts in which they appear in the inscriptions.
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Systems of land tenure and modes of agricultural production have also been the subject of numerous studies based on or making extensive use of epigraphic data. Much of the argument has focused on the persistent controversy as to whether or not the term "feudalism" can be properly applied to the medieval states; see, for example, D. C. Sircar, ed., *Land System and Feudalism in Ancient India*. Some recent studies, such as those of Stein and Karashima (see esp. *South Indian History and Society*, 3–35), have succeeded in raising the discussion of land tenure to a higher level by avoiding ideological preconceptions and concentrating on analysis of the actual data provided by the inscriptions.
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Revenue systems are another important aspect of historical and economic studies for which inscriptions constitute a principal source of information, especially, once again, for South India. Among recent works, those of Karashima (compiled in *South Indian History and Society*, 69–158) are again noteworthy for their scrupulous attention to epigraphic details; although here too (as in the case of the official titles) many of the technical terms for types of taxes remain to be satisfactorily elucidated.
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Patterns of trade, both external and internal, can also sometimes be traced with some precision from the epigraphic records. Here, too, the Coḷa empire has been the focus of attention, as, for example, in Kenneth R. Hall's *Trade and Statecraft in the Age of Cōḷas*.
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Studies of traditional Indian society also look primarily to inscriptions for clues about the actual social situation at various times and places, as a check to the highly normative and theoretical formulations of social ideals provided in the Dharmaśāstras and other literary works. For the earlier periods, and in general for northern India, the information is, as usual, sparse, consisting for the most part of odd scraps of data from which it is difficult to draw anything like a comprehensive overall scheme.¹⁴ Once again, it is in the medieval south, and particularly in the Coḷa period, that epigraphic data attain a critical mass that allows for detailed studies of social structures and caste relationships and their historical developments. Here too the studies of such scholars as Stein (e.g., *Peasant State and Society*, 173–215) and Karashima (*South Indian History and Society*, 36–68) are representative of the application of sophisticated modern methods to the study of Indian society on the basis of epigraphic data. Also worthy of note is K. Sundaram's *Studies in Economic and Social Conditions of Medieval Andhra* (A.D. *1000–1600*).
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¹⁴ Though this is not to deny that a good deal of interesting information is available; see, e.g., D. C. Sircar's *Studies in the Society and Administration of Ancient and Medieval India*. See also the general comments by Aloka Parasher in "Epigraphy as a Tool for Writing Social History," JESI 18, 1992, 62–73.