A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c14.81

c14.81

Speaking generally, the medieval polity has the appearance of being designed specially for the benefit and comfort of the upper classes of society and would seem to have neglected the common man. But the excesses to which the system was liable corrected themselves more or less automatically by the social uses to which wealth was put. The rich generally sought distinction by competing in the service of the gods and of the poor. To build a temple, endow a maṭha and to attach a school or a hospital to either, to reclaim land and to promote irrigation, such were the most common roads to social eminence and public recognition. The king, the nobles and the temples drew largely in various ways upon the products of the industry of the common people. But much of this wealth was returned to them in ways that advanced their common good. It was a wonderful social harmony based not on equality of classes or individuals but on a readiness to give and take, a mutual goodwill that had its roots deep down at the foundations of communal life.