A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c6.13

c6.13

Sanskrit learning and literature found patronage everywhere, while the study and cultivation of the languages of the people received encouragement each in its own place—Kannada under the Chālukyas and Hoysalas; Telugu under the eastern Chālukyas, Kākatīyas and Telugu-Chodas; and Tamil under the Cholas and Pandyas. The Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata were rendered into all these languages by celebrated poets, and a large volume of devotional and polemical literature in religion began to grow. The practice of entertaining a poet-laureate at each important court came into vogue and gave birth to many secular literary works of a quasi-historical nature. Political and juristic thinking made considerable progress and expressed itself in the form of commentaries on old law books like that of Yājñavalkya or in independent treatises on polity. In religious philosophy Rāmānuja systematized the doctrines of Viśiṣṭa-Advaita and sought to reconcile the Upanishadic doctrine of the Absolute with the theistic predilections of the great Vaishnava Āḷvārs and Āchāryas who had preceded him. Close to Rāmānuja's system, but still differing from it in some important respects, was that of Nimbārka in whose theology Krishna and Rādhā take the place of Nārāyaṇa and Lakshmi, and claim the exclusive devotion of their followers. The construction of large stone temples was undertaken everywhere in the land by all the dynasties, and architecture, sculpture and allied arts found extensive patronage and achieved new forms of beauty and splendour. In many ways the age of the Cholas and Chālukyas (900-1200) was the grandest epoch in the history of South India.