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The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c11.s6: Social and Economic Conditions

The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c11.s6

Language
English

Contents

Social and Economic Conditions

Social Ideals

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SOCIAL life was carried on along traditional lines modified by the pressure of new factors and situations. Caste was universal and hereditary, but the connexion between caste and occupation was by no means unalterable. As usual, our sources have preserved more details about the higher strata of society, while information about the life of the common people finds comparatively little place in them. Among the *āśramas*, that is, the stages of life, that of the *grihastha* (householder) early acquired the highest recognition as the mainstay of social life, and it continued to retain this place up to our own times. One verse from an inscription at Nāgai in praise of general Kālidāsa as a householder is typical, and may be cited. ‘His life as a householder was the purest in the world, and his dutiful soul was ever engaged in satisfying Brāhmans, performing sacrifices, worshipping gods, propitiating the line of his ancestors (*manes*), honouring the guests who came, and observing all the rites famous in the world and in scripture as daily duties or as those prescribed for particular occasions.’¹ This account is indeed conventionally worded, and comes from a *praśasti*; but even so, so definite a statement about a particular person could not have been made unless the actual mode of his life had provided some justification for it.

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The sort of acts which in general were held in the highest esteem as causing social good and procuring religious merit for the doer becomes clear from the whole body of inscriptions, whilst some of these record details of actual occurrences which further illustrate the subject; one record of A.D. 987 mentions the feeding of a thousand Brāhmans at Prayāga and at Kurukṣetra, and the gift at Benares of a cow about to calve (*ubHayamukha*—lit. with face at both ends) as the most meritorious acts imaginable;² another inscription (A.D. 1046) presents a still more extravagant ideal and mentions the performance of a thousand *aśvamedhas* at Benares, and the gift to Brāhmans and ascetics of a thousand cows adorned on the horns and hoofs with the five varieties of precious stones.³ The corresponding Jaina formula found in a Jaina inscription of A.D. 1059 from Dambal mentions the raising of a *mahādhvaja* (great banner) at a *tīrthasthāna*⁴—which sounds much more like a simple record of what took place. These are probably instances of extreme and exaggerated versions of the imagined ideal, since they are taken from formal passages of benediction set forth in order to secure the proper maintenance of particular charities endowed by donors and recorded in the inscriptions concerned.

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The bestowal of *dāna*, a charitable gift, was accepted as the primary duty of the well-to-do, and an inscription of 1067 from Hoṭṭūr¹ says that Kēsirāja, who was allowed the insignia of royalty by prince Vikramāditya, had pleased all great and good men by his numerous *dānas* of *udaka* (water), *suvarṇa* (gold), *anna* (food), *gō* (cows), *bhūmi* (land), *uksha* (oxen), *vividha vidyā* (knowledge of various kinds), and *kanyā* (maidens given away in marriage); he had also constructed a stone temple of Śiva with many shining lofty portals (*rājitōttuṅgatōraṇavam*), and this temple was called Kēśavēśvara after its founder. To maintain a charity intact according to the intentions of the original donors was recognized as a difficult task, whilst failure in this respect was counted among the great sins entailing serious spiritual loss. An often-quoted verse affirms that temple property (*dēva-sva*) is the most deadly poison to be feared; for whereas ordinary poison kills only the person that takes it, *dēvasva* destroys the generations that come after the despoiler.² The same principle applied to fiscal arrangements which were often attached to gifts either directly or in the form of remissions (*parihāras*).

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The popular attitude on the question may be taken to find expression in a verse which says that he who levied a fresh tax where none was due before incurred the sin of killing a thousand kine, whereas he who lifted a tax had the merit of giving away a crore of kine.³ Spiritual merit was held to be transferable, and in one instance the sun, the moon, and the elements are solemnly invoked to witness the transfer of such merit,⁴ while in another we have a regular schedule of persons among whom and the ratios in which the merit (*puṇya*) accruing from particular endowments was to be shared.⁵

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¹ *HAS*, viii, pp. 11-12, v. 31. ² *SII*, ix (i), 75, ll. 12-15. ³ Ibid., 102, ll. 27-9. ⁴ Ibid., xi (i), 94, l. 13.

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¹ *EI*, xvi, pp. 84-5 and pp. 87-8, vv. 8-9.

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² *EI*, xvi, 5, v. 34; *SII*, ix (i), 130, ll. 24-5; xi, 65, 67, &c.

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³ *SII*, ix (i), 187, l. 31.

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⁴ *Ibid.*, xi (i), 92, ll. 43-5 (A.D. 1054).

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⁵ *Ibid.*, ix (i), 258, ll. 30-5.

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Memorial Monuments

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Instances occur of memorials being erected to departed relatives, *gurus* or great men, and such memorials are described by the splendid expression—*parōkṣavinaya*—'humility out of sight'. In A.D. 1028⁶ the Śaiva priest Bhāvaśivadēva of Mulgund charged his chosen pupil Nāgasvāmin with the performance of certain acts as *parōkṣavinaya* after his *mukti* (death), viz. bathing in the Ganges, the offering of oblations (*piṇḍa*) at Gaṅgā, and the construction of a temple in Vārāṇasi; he is said to have known of his approaching end more than a week in advance, and to have made arrangements for the succession to his spiritual office as well as for the propitiatory acts mentioned. Nāgasvāmi, the pupil, was already well-known for his munificent benefactions such as *Kanyādāna*, the construction of a temple of Traipurusha, and a *matha*, and other generous deeds, and he was the acknowledged chief of the Brāhman community of Mulgund—Brahmapurimukhyam. Nāgasvāmi immediately entered on the *tīrthayātrā* (pilgrimage) in fulfilment of his guru's behest after giving away to the temple, to the *matha*, and to education all the property that remained to him—sixty *gadyāṇas* in gold, twelve *mattar* of agricultural land, and one house. Many other examples of such pious actions are recorded in the inscriptions.¹

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⁶ *SII*, xi (i), 64.

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¹ Ibid., 65; ix (i) 105, 150, &c.

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Self-Immolation

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The Emperor Somēśvara terminated his own life by *mahāyōga*, drowning himself ceremonially in the river Tungabhadrā at Kuruvatti² in order to escape the long agonies of an incurable malady. There was besides the well-known Jaina rite of *Sallekhana*, starving oneself to death, which was sometimes adopted by the followers of that creed in circumstances in which it was allowed. Much more interesting are other instances of people giving up their lives for sundry reasons which appear puerile and superstitious to us. In one case a title to property was established by this absurd method of proof; an inscription from Donekallu (Anantapur District) of A.D. 1059–60³ states that the *umbali* land of three *gāvuṇḍas* was forcibly occupied and enjoyed by two Brāhmans, and that to prove their title the *gāvuṇḍas* resolved that one of them should die and that his sacrifice should be compensated by the grant of an additional share to his descendants when the land had been recovered by this plan; accordingly one of the *gāvuṇḍas* stabbed himself to death in the presence of the two Brāhmans, who then gave up the land in question, which was thereupon redistributed in accordance with the terms of the agreement—an instance of successful *satyāgraha*, to use the phrase by which it is most easily recognized today. Two other instances of self-immolation, both from the Shimoga District, may also be noted here; one of these a *śūlabrahma*, death by casting oneself on spear-points from a height (A.D. 1060),⁴ and the other the fulfilment of a *vēle-vākya* by Boppaṇa, a vow (A.D. 1130)⁵ by the terms of which he had undertaken to go to heaven along with Tailapadeva, a Kadamba prince—*Boppaṇa Vēle-vākiyam nilisi Tailapa-Devana kūḍe svargasthan āgalu*. Another instance is that of Boka, a *vēlaikkāra* of Lachchhala Devi, the queen of Vira Somēśvara IV, who had taken a vow to die with her and did so in the fifth year of the king's reign (A.D. 1185).⁶ The immolation of women as *satis* on the funeral pyres of their husbands, though not common, was not unknown. When Bēchirāja the minister of Sinda Rāchamalla I died about A.D. 1180, two of his wives, Bailiyakka and Malpaniyakka, immolated themselves with his corpse,¹ and the *sati* performed by Dekabbe more than a century before this date is recorded in a very moving Kannada inscription from Beḷatūru, which deserves a place in any study of the Kannada literature of the period.

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² EC, vii, Sk. 136.

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³ SII, ix (i), 123. My interpretation of this record differs from that of the Editors of SII.

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⁴ EC, vii, Sk. 152.

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⁵ Ibid., Hl. 47.

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⁶ Ibid., vii, Sk. 249.

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¹ EI, xiv, 273, ll. 48-50.

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Role of Women

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The role of women in Indian society has naturally varied in its importance at different times, in various places, and under changing circumstances. Under the Cāḷukyas of Kalyāṇi, as under their predecessors of the Bādāmi period, conditions seem to have been favourable for women to take part in public affairs when they were inclined to do so—at least in the higher strata of society. Some instances of prominent women and their achievements have found mention already, and the outstanding instance of the heroine Akkā-dēvi, who even ventured to command troops and to take part in wars and sieges, is perhaps the most celebrated of them all. An inscription of A.D. 1084 from Sūḍi describes Lakshmādēvi, the queen of Vikramāditya VI, as ruling the kingdom from Kalyāṇi exactly as the emperor himself had done;² but the long string of epithets preceding this statement imply that she was just the type of woman who possessed all the qualities required for success in a crowded harem, namely, those which enabled her to gain the first place in the affections of the monarch and to retain it as long as possible; beauty of person and the vitality of youth she had, and these were obviously essential for her role; she had also skill in all the fine arts, the inclination and capacity to endear herself to other people by a display of her devotion to religion and charity on appropriate occasions, and tenacious vigilance in keeping her rivals in their places;

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whether such women, who spent their lives in cultivating the essentially ‘feminine’ arts, had any influence on the conduct of public affairs, and if they had, what the nature and extent of such influence may have been, we shall never know. In any case the education of a typical Indian monarch seems to have included not a few lessons on the wiles of women! Another queen of Vikramāditya, Kētaladēvi, was noted for her learning and her musical attainments.³ In the subordinate court of the Hoysalas, Padmaladēvi, Chāvalidēvi, and Boppadēvi, the three wives of Ballāḷa I, were highly accomplished in singing and dancing, while Śāntaladēvi, one of the wives of Ballāḷa’s son Vishnuvardhana, was known to be perfectly trained in song, in music, and in the dance.⁴ Sāvaladēvi, the queen of Kalachūrya Sōvidēva, was not only skilled in these arts, but used to display her accomplishments in public—an instance of feminine independence most unusual in those times!⁵ She is said to have performed to an audience of connoisseurs gathered from her own country and from abroad, and to have greatly pleased both her audience and her royal husband (A.D. 1174). Music was evidently an inherited gift in her family, since her brother Bhairava, it appears, was an expert on the beat and rhythm of the *brahmavīṇā*.

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To give one more example of a high-class lady and her accomplishments: Lakṣmādēvī, the queen of Tribhuvanamalla-Mallidēva-Cōḷamahārāja, who is said to have ruled in partnership with her husband as his *paṭṭa-mahādēvi* (chief queen),¹ was proficient in Kāvya literature as well as in the arts and sciences of vocal and instrumental music and the dance, and a constant devotee at the feet of Pārvatī; the ground about her was ever moist with the water poured by her hand in making *dānas*; she gave pleasure (by her presents) to poets, disputants, and minstrels; the pleasant tinkling of the jewels on her feet called up groups of *rājahamsas* as she moved about; she wore ornaments of well-set gems on her hands, arms, feet, and ankles; the stars were put to shame by the lustre of the pearls on the garlands adorning her rounded bosom; her forehead bore a *tilak* of scented scarlet; the smile on her face added sweetness to her soft speech, and the perfume of musk surrounded her exquisite person; such was this Sītā of the Kali age, the Lakṣmī of Mallidēva's abode. Bilhaṇa's long-drawn-out descriptions of the manner in which his hero Vikramāditya whiled away his leisure in sporting with women by lotus ponds, in gardens, on swings and so on, cannot be taken as having any tangible relation to the facts of court life; even the hyperbolic statements of the inscriptions on the qualities and accomplishments of queens and other aristocratic ladies must not be accepted at their face value;

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but the evidence is enough to show that there was in existence a well-understood course of education and training in the fine arts for the gentler sex, and that this was regularly followed by some in each generation. Beside the ladies of high society, there was the by no means inconsiderable world of the courtesans, the *sūleyar*, who enlivened life in the larger cities, had duties assigned to them in temples during the daily worship and on the occasions of festivals, and were *par excellence* the custodians of the arts of music and the dance. They certainly enjoyed much wider latitude in society than other women, and their presence brought sunshine and delight wherever they went in a society that was not otherwise particularly noted for taking life easy.

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² Ibid., xv, 102, ll. 12-22.

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³ 672 of 1922.

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⁴ DKD, p. 485, n. 1; EC, ii, 132 (56).

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⁵ JBBRAS, xviii, 275.

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¹ SII, ix (i), 273, ll. 36-56.

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Fine arts

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Some of the other references to music and the allied arts may be briefly noticed at this point. A *nāṭakaśālā* (theatre) was constructed in the precincts of a Jain temple in Mugad about A.D. 1045.² A large endowment to a number of temples recorded in an inscription from Shirur (Bijapur District) in A.D. 1049 contains provision for *gitanṛtyōpahāra*, the offering to the deity of music and dance, involving regular performances daily before the deity.³ A flutist, two songsters, two *nautch* girls, four other courtesans, and a florist—all attached to a temple—get substantial endowments of land in an undated inscription from the Bijapur District.¹ One of the Nāgai inscriptions (A.D. 1086) mentions endowments of 80 *mattar* of land to two songstresses and four drummers who had to perform together in the temple three times a day; 60 *mattar* for two groups of choristers; 40 *mattar* for two danseuses, and 36 *mattar* for four dancing girls who are described as *kambhada-sūleyar* and probably carried silver staves before the deity in processions.² Songsters and songstresses, *nautch* girls and drummers, receive shares in endowments made to a temple at Chinnatumbalam in the Bellary District in A.D. 1086.³

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² SII, xi (i), 78, l. 86.

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³ Ibid., 85, l. 17.

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¹ *SII*, xi (i), 103, third face.

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² *SII*, ix (i), 155, ll. 5-6.

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³ *HAS*, viii, 34, ll. 324-7.

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The Temple

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Next to the court, the temple was the great promoter of the fine arts. Not only in the encouragement of music and dancing, but in many other departments of social life, the temple served as the nucleus round which was gathered everything that was best in all the arts of civil life. But in offering these good things to the deity, they offered them also to themselves; this offering was done, however, in a somewhat roundabout way, a way that made everyone in society interested in the temple, and contributed to make it the powerful bond of social life which it remained for many centuries. The role of the temple in counteracting the social exclusiveness that was inherent in caste has not been adequately appreciated. The temple of Sangameśvara of Kūḍal (Bellary) obtained an endowment in A.D. 1073 for *pañcāmṛtasnāna* and *gandhānulēpa* on auspicious days (*puṇya-tithi*);⁴ now the *pañcāmṛta* (lit. nectar of five ingredients) is a kind of very delicious fruit salad which, when properly prepared, keeps for some days, and up to the present day some famous shrines specialize in this variety of the deity’s *prasāda*; the idol is bathed in the preparation for a short while, and then it is all removed and distributed among the worshippers without regard to distinctions of birth, wealth, or occupation. So too the sandal (*gandha*), made into a fragrant paste, provides a very pleasant unguent for the skin, especially during the hot weather. Were these agreeable offerings really meant for the images of metal and stone to which they were presented in the first instance, or were they actually intended for the hundreds of worshippers who crowded to the temples eagerly claiming each his own share of them?

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⁴ Ibid., 138, ll. 16-17.

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The importance of the temple in the social economy of medieval India can hardly be exaggerated, and though a good deal has already been said of it *en passant*, some attention may be given specifically at this point to this many-sided topic. The Sogal inscription of Taila’s reign (A.D. 980)⁵ contains a special provision that the food in the *satra* attached to the temple shall be cooked by a Brāhman woman—an interesting detail testifying that ideas on such matters did not differ much then from what they are today. Large endowments to temples often embraced a variety of purposes for which the proceeds of the endowments were earmarked in stated proportions at the time of the gift; in 1018, the Kalidēvasvāmi temple at Bāgali (Bellary) received an endowment from which were to be met the expenses on the daily offerings (*nivedya*) to the deity, the perpetual lamp in the temple (*nandādīvige*), the feeding of ascetics in a refectory (*satra*), the maintenance of twelve courtesans, a *sūḷevāḷa*, a flutist, a drummer, and a danseuse (*pātra*), as also the feeding of pupils who came from outer districts (*dēsigachātra*).¹ Queen Suggaḷadēvi’s gift to a Śiva temple in Dēvūr in 1029 provided, among other things, for the food, clothing, and medical treatment of ascetics and students belonging to the place.² Mention of medical treatment recalls to the mind the mention of a physician Vijaya Paṇḍita, called Kaliyuga-Dhanvantari, in an inscription of 1054 from Davāṇagere.³ Udayāditya’s gift to the Bhōgēśvara temple of Talavāge (Bellary) in A.D. 1034 included, besides provision for the requisites of worship including sandal-wood, separate allotments for a *maṭha*, a drummer, a songster, one worshipping priest, and a stone-mason by name Mārasinghoja.⁴ The gift of Bijjaladeva to Noḷambēśvara temple in Guḍihalli was divided into three equal shares—one for the temple expenses, one for feeding ascetics, and one for education (*vidyādāna*).⁵ There are many other instances to be found in the inscriptions, but it is not possible or necessary to review them all here.⁶ Bāchaladevi’s gift to the Kalidēva temple at Bāgali in 1079 contained a special allotment for the public reader of the *Purāṇa* in the temple,⁷ and it is well known that such recitals and expositions of well-known sacred texts in temples were among the most successful methods of popular education in former times.

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⁵ *EI*, xvi, 1.

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¹ *SII*, ix (i), 80, ll. 14-16.

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² *Bk*, 25 of 1936-7.

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³ *EC*, xi, Dg. 74.

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⁴ *SII*, ix (i), 87.

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⁵ Ibid., 128.

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⁶ See particularly *SII*, ix (i), 133, 192; *EI*, xv, 82, 84 ff., 89; ibid., xiii, 171-2; ibid., xvi, 331; *HAS*, 7.

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⁷ *SII*, ix (i), 192, ll. 26-9.

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Architecture and Sculpture

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Architecture, sculpture in stone and metal, and painting were practised mainly in the temples and for them; while no palaces or dwelling houses have survived from those times, many stone temples are still extant, and these give a fairly correct idea of the state of these arts under the Chāḷukyas of Kalyāṇi. This subject is dealt with in detail in another chapter in this volume, but it will not be out of place to mention here some interesting facts gathered from the contemporary inscriptions. These sometimes give detailed, though naturally overdrawn, descriptions of the general appearance of particular temples soon after their construction, and one or two of them may be summarized. An inscription from Nāgai of A.D. 1062 describes the temple of Madhusūdana erected by the general of that name;¹ its lustrous golden finial was at such a height as to seem almost to touch the clouds; its numerous and spacious halls were adorned, at many points, with well-executed sculptures; it contained a theatre (*nāṭya-śālā*); there was a golden *garuḍa-stambha*; the tower at the entrance which rose up in three stories resembled the splendid *vimāna* of Indra; there was a chapel (*anuṣṭhāna-bhavana*) where ascetics belonging to various schools and scholars engaged in research practised their devotional exercises; there was also a *maṭha* where was pursued the study of all the *Vedas* in their numerous recensions (*śākhā*) together with the auxiliary sciences (*Vedāngas*); there were finally numerous *toraṇas* (gateways) and *prāsādas* (terraced structures) and *prākāras* (enclosed walls). The temple of Bālēśvara built by Chāvuṇḍarasa at Halagondi about A.D. 1090 is said to have resembled the *vimāna* of Dēvēndra,² which perhaps means that the whole structure was designed as a flying car complete with wheels and horses. In 1119 Mārttāṇḍayya-Nāyaka built at Kuḍitaṇi a Śiva temple called Mārttāṇḍēśvara after himself, together with subsidiary shrines dedicated to Sarasvatī and Vināyaka, and a very spacious *sabhāmaṇḍapa* capable of accommodating a large concourse of people, and so beautifully wrought as to look like a *latā-maṇḍapa* and to be counted among the best of its kind in the whole world.³ In 1147 the incomparable Mecharasa is said to have presented a *kalaśa* (finial) of solid gold to be set on the temple of Dakṣiṇa-Sōmēśvara in Lakshmēśvara.⁴ A Belagāmve record of A.D. 1159 states that in the construction of a Kēśava temple the general Kēsirāja had the timber, stone, and other building materials carved and painted in all manner of ingenious ways, striving, as it were, to add to the variety of beautiful forms present in creation; and in front of that superb structure he built a town filled with commodious houses, having cots in each chamber containing the softest beds, and all manner of vessels, which he gave away to a band of learned Brāhmans.⁵ This account is clearly too general and hyperbolic to be accepted at its face value as a picture of reality; but its stress on the fact that the ornamentation of buildings was carried out to a cloying excess of complicated patterns is true to what we know of the sculpture of the period, and its indication that dwelling houses, even those built for being given away in *dāna*, were marked by a certain modicum of comfort must be accepted in the main correct.

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¹ *HAS*, viii, pp. 30-1, ll. 231-9.

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² Ibid., 197, ll. 35-8.

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³ *EC*, vii, Sk. 123.

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⁴ *SII*, ix (i), 163, ll. 19-20.

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⁵ *EI*, xvi, 48, l. 48.

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Now to some matters of technical interest. A *sirivāgilu* gate of fortune—main gate—was constructed at Sirūr in A.D. 1042 by a Kuñchavaḍuga Dāsayya.⁶ The fine temple of Nāgēśvara at Sūṇḍi was built by the celebrated Śankarārya, whose learning and good qualities are praised in two full verses in the inscription recording the construction (A.D. 1060); Śankara is called a mine of learning, and *vakrokti vācaspati*, i.e. a past-master in the use of allusive words and phrases; in particular he is said to have completed the temple and to have set up the finial in a manner so magnificent as no one could have imagined who had not seen it.¹ An inscription from Nāgai (A.D. 1085) mentions time-keepers of the watch—*kāpina ghaṭiyāraru*—which is interesting as an indication that some time-measuring instrument was in use in temples and elsewhere;² the same inscription reveals the name of a great sculptor (*kalkuṭiga*), Nāgōja, who is called *Kaṇḍarana-Vidyādhirājam*, the master of the art of engraving, who must be taken to have engraved the long inscription and possibly also took part in the construction of the temple of Madhusūdana.³ We hear in an inscription from Chitaldoorg *tāluk* of a sculptor (*rūvāri*) Mahākāla who could make the shapes of elephant, lion, parrot, and many other natural forms stand out from the midst of letters engraved by him.⁴ Another skilful engraver, Ikkuḍōja, is mentioned in a record of 1113 from Davāṇagere.⁵ Many other inscriptions give the names of their respective engravers at the end, and all over the country there was doubtless no dearth of men, usually stone-masons and sculptors, who could perform the work of engraving inscriptions with competence and efficiency, though perhaps few could have laid claim to the exceptional skill of a Mahākāla.⁶

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⁶ *SII*, xi (i), 75, ll. 15-16.

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¹ EI, xv, 90, vv. 15-16.

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² HAS, viii, 34, ll. 325-4.

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³ Ibid., l. 341.

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⁴ EC, xi, Cd. 47.

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⁵ Ibid., Dg. 149.

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⁶ SII, ix (i), 101, l. 68; 112, ll. 26-8; 187, l. 32; 207, l. 58; 231, ll. 15-17; xi (i), 81, l. 21; 116, l. 53 and so on.

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Jeweller's Craft

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The jeweller's art was one of the luxury trades which must have depended on the temple and the palace for encouragement. The Shirūr inscription of Mārasingha Prabhu gives a list of the jewels that he presented in 1049 to the temple of Viṣṇu in that place. *Kaṅkaṇa* (bracelet), *kaṭisūtra* (waist-band), *bāhupūrṇa* (?), *nūpura* (anklet), *makuṭa* (crown), *kuṇḍala* (ear-ring), *kēyūra* (armlet), and *hārādi padakam trikam*—three sets of necklaces with suitable pendants, are particularly mentioned.⁷ The insignia of Viṣṇu such as the conch, the discus, the club, and the lotus, were all artistically set with various kinds of precious stones. Such detailed references to the type of ornaments worn are as rare in Chālukya inscriptions as they are frequent in the contemporary Chōḷa records, particularly in those of Tanjore. We have had occasion to notice the *kaṇṭhika* (necklace), the symbol of the office of *Yuvarāja*; in the few instances where individual women are described in detail they are generally said to have been adorned with ornaments of all kinds. A merchant Sōvi Seṭṭi who supplied precious stones to the emperor and to general Barmmadēva finds mention in an inscription of A.D. 1147.⁸

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⁷ SII, xi (i), 85, ll. 30-1.

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⁸ BK, 100 of 1929-30, INKK, 9 (a).

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Education

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It goes without saying that training in these technical arts was mostly hereditary and domestic; the finer types of work often involved processes which were treasured carefully as esoteric knowledge in which certain individuals and families wished to retain their monopoly, only occasionally letting particularly competent and trusted apprentices into the secret. The actual performance of the work by the pupil combined with observation of the master's methods were obviously the most common ways of learning these crafts, and there was little if any teaching of a purely theoretical character with the aid of books such as we now find.

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General education, elementary as well as higher, was carried on in regular schools; provision was made for elementary instruction in the three R's in almost every village, and we may assume that the custom of *akkariga-vritti*, or supplying free land for the schoolmaster, was a very widespread if not universal element of rural economy in these times. We hear in the inscriptions rather more of endowments for the reading of the *purāṇa*, a generic term for the *Rāmāyaṇa*, *Mahābhārata* and the *purāṇas* proper, generally in temples for the edification of the people; some of these instances have been noticed above and to them may now be added the provision at Nāgai in 1085 of 40 *mattar* of land for the *purāṇa-bhaṭṭa* who was to expound the traditional writings before the deity in the temple and in the *maṭha*;¹ the modest provision of 1 *paṇa* per month for *purāṇa* at the Kallēśvara temple at Bāgali in 1103,² which was increased four years later by a gift of 60 *kammas* of garden land to the *purāṇa* reader Īśvarabhaṭṭōpādhyāya,³ to which a house was added in 1126;⁴ another money endowment, undated, at Bāgali providing 6 *honnus* for the reader of the *purāṇa* and four *honnus* for the reciter of the *Aindra* hymns in the Chennakēśvara temple;⁵ a gift of land and house-sites in A.D. 1112 as *bhaṭṭavṛtti* for reciting the *purāṇa* in *mahāgrahāra* Sindige;⁶ and an endowment for a *purāṇa-khaṇḍika* at Inglēśvar in A.D.

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1129 when Hemmāḍi Kalachurya was ruling Tarddavāḍi.⁷ About the maintenance of institutions for higher studies which were mostly in Sanskrit and related to the *Veda*, philosophy and grammar, and about the tangible results of the working of these colleges, we have fairly detailed accounts preserved in many inscriptions found all over the country, and only a selection from these can be offered to the reader. All general statements about endowments for *vidyādāna*, gifts for education, without more details, have necessarily to be left on one side,⁸ and some of the instances which would naturally find a place here, like the educational arrangements at Ummachige, have been mentioned already in other contexts. The *ghaṭikā* (college), also called a *sāle* (hall)—*ghaṭikāsthānam enipa sālege*—founded by Madhuva in the temple of Madhusūdana at Nāgai in A.D. 1058,¹ made provision for 200 students of the *Veda*, fifty students of the *śastras*, three teachers of *śastras* (here particularly applied to schools of *Mīmāṃsā*), being one each for the *Bhaṭṭa*, *Nyāsa* and *Prābhākara* schools, and three teachers of the *Vedas*, besides one librarian, in all 257 persons;² they were all to be fed and clothed out of the proceeds of the endowment.

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The salaries of the teachers, librarian, and time-keeper were provided by separate allotments of land to the extent of 35 *mattar* for the teacher of *Bhaṭṭadarśana*, 30 for the *Nyāsa* teacher, 45 for the teacher of *Prābhākara*, 30 each for the librarian and time-keeper. Nothing is said of remuneration for the teachers of the *Vedas*, probably because these came from the rents of a whole village of 400 Brāhmans, a new *Brahmaloka* as it were, brought into existence and endowed on the same occasion by Madhuva. At Chinna-Tumbalam in the Bellary District, in A.D. 1107, Queen Malayamati-dēvī sanctioned the following grants out of the revenues (*siddhāyada pon*) of the village³ which was under her direct rule (*āḷke*)—8 *gadyāṇas* to the expounder of the commentaries (*vyākhyānadupādhyāya*), 8 *gadyāṇas* to the reader of the *purāṇa*, 12 *gadyāṇas* to 2 teachers of *khaṇḍikas* in the *Ṛigveda* and the *Yajurveda*, and 2 *gadyāṇas* for the *Brāhmaṇa* tending the sacred fire (*agniṣṭageya brāhmaṇa*)—30 *gadyāṇas* in all. The part of Sōmēśvara Bhaṭṭōpādhyāya in the promotion of educational institutions has already been noticed in some detail,⁴ but deserves to be recalled here. Lastly, an inscription of 1111 from Ron (Dharwar District) makes particular mention of a *vakkhāṇa-śāle*, lecture hall, where *tarka* (logic) was expounded,⁵ and the teaching of *Kumāra Vyākaraṇa* received a special endowment at Puḷigere in 1124.⁶

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¹ *HAS*, viii, 34, ll. 512-13.

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² *SII*, ix (i), 168, l. 39.

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³ Ibid., 192.

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⁴ Ibid., 211.

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⁵ Ibid., 260.

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⁶ *BK*, 93 of 1936-7.

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⁷ *BK*, 8 of 1930-1.

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⁸ e.g. *SII*, xi (i), 47, 48, 62. Also *IA*, xviii, 270-5—provision for 500 pupils at Belūr (near Bādāmi) by Akkādēvi.

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¹ *HAS*, viii, 15-16.

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² In l. 196 I read *sarasvatibhaṇḍārigar-orvvarggam*, not *agarārwwarggam* as in the published reading.

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³ *SII*, ix (i), 175, ll. 21-5.

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⁴ Ante, p. 397.

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⁵ *BK*, 172 of 1926-7.

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⁶ *BK*, 27 of 1935-6.

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The results of the systematic promotion of Sanskrit learning were seen in the numerous settlements of Brāhmans in the various *Brahmapuris* scattered all over the country. We have already come across several instances of general praise of the learning, character, and skill in arms of some of these communities, and to these may now be added some further examples of a typical nature. A record of 1024 from Marol⁷ describes the learning of the Jaina teacher Anantavīrya-muni as having comprised all *vyākaraṇa* (grammar), *nighaṇṭu* (lexicon), *gaṇita* (mathematics), *vātsyāyana* (erotics), *jyotiṣa* (astrology), *śakuna* (augury), *chhandas* (prosody), *manu* (law), *gāndharva* (music), *alaṃkāra* (rhetoric), *mahākāvyanāṭaka* (poetry and drama), *adhyātmika* (philosophy), *arthaśāstra* (politics), and *siddhānta* and *pramāṇas*—a formidable list giving an indication of the wide variety of subjects and writings in which an industrious polyhistor of the times could spread himself. The learned men of Pombulcha pursued the study of the *Vedas*, the *Vedāngas* (auxiliary sciences), *Vedānta* (philosophy), *Purāṇa*, *Nyāya*, *Mīmāṃsā*, and many other *āgamas*.¹ The fifty *Mahājanas* of Bālguli, an *agrahāra* of whose affairs a fairly detailed summary has been given already, are said to have been ever ready to hold disputations with rival scholars of other places in subjects like *bharata*, *vyākaraṇa*, *āgama*, *smṛti*, *purāṇa*, and the *ṣaṭtarka* (six types of logical disputation).² An inscription of A.D. 1060 from Suḍi celebrates the world-renowned Śaiva teacher and scholar Someśvara-paṇḍita-dēva in two long Kannaḍa verses;³ Someśvara was great in every respect—in his *tapas*, in his *charita* (conduct), and in his learning, which included a mastery of *vaiśeṣika*, *nyāya*, *sāṃkhya*, *śabda-jñāna* (grammar), and *mīmāṃsā*; many princes came to pay homage at his feet. In view of the recurring emphasis on grammar in these inscriptions, it is worthy of note that several systems of the science of words, in which the Sanskrit language attained a perfection unknown to any other tongue in former times, appear to have been assiduously cultivated side by side in those days; about the middle of the eleventh century an inscription from Mulgund⁴ mentions two Jaina grammarians Narendrasena and his pupil Nayasena, both proficient in many systems; the names particularly mentioned are the Chandra, Kātantra, Jainendra, Śabdānuśāsana of Śākaṭāyana, Pāṇinīya, Aindra, and Kaumāra. Narendrasena must be held to have gained equal distinction in logic if he may be identified with the author of the *Pramāṇa-prameya-kalikā*.⁵ From Sindigeri in the Bellary District comes a record⁶ of A.D. 1141 praising the learning and attainments of a Kālāmukha teacher at some length. This teacher is said to have had command of *vyākaraṇa*, *tarka*, *siddhānta*, *kāvya*, *nāṭaka*, *nāṭikā*, *vedābhidhāna* (?), *alaṃkāra*, *pratiśruti* (?), *purāṇa*, *itihāsa*, *mīmāṃsā*, *nītiśāstra*, and many other sciences; he was ever ready to meet rival logicians in debate, and did a great deal to restore the Kālāmukha faith to its proper place; and, what is noteworthy as a rare instance of the specific and express mention of this quality, his lectures in Sanskrit flowed easily in surging waves of rhetorical brilliance.

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⁷ *SII*, xi (i), 61, ll. 21-6.

v1.c11.s6.t1.84

¹ SII, xi (i), 84, ll. 9-10 (A.D. 1049).

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² Ibid., ix (i), 267, ll. 32-3 (A.D. 1160).

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³ EI, xv, 88-9, vv. 10-11.

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⁴ Ibid., xvi, 55, ll. 24-8.

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⁵ Ibid., 54.

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⁶ SII, ix (i), 235, ll. 22-8.

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This brief survey of education and educational institutions, and of the spread of learning, has demonstrated one fact which deserves special mention. Though the pursuit of higher education was then as now necessarily concentrated in particular centres which commanded the resources in men and material required for it, the results of such study were evenly spread all over the country; men possessed of the highest learning to which they had access at the time, the most cultured and refined intellectuals, went to live in villages all over the countryside where they took an active and constant part in guiding the daily lives of their less enlightened countrymen. Education in all its stages was vitally connected with all social life and institutions, and was productive of more abiding and tangible benefit to the people than appears in our own days.

Agriculture

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To turn now for awhile to a consideration of general economic conditions, and of the industry and trade of the country. Agriculture was then as now the chief industry and the backbone of the entire economy. Cultivation depended on a good supply of water; and water had to be impounded and stored in tanks at convenient points in a country where the rainfall was unevenly distributed through the year, since perennial rivers were few, and major irrigation works and canal systems were rare, if not altogether unknown. No wonder then that a great amount of attention was devoted to the creation and proper maintenance of irrigation tanks—a subject which ranks in its importance second only to the temples in the inscriptions of the time. The *Kemgere* (red tank) in the neighbourhood of Hoṭṭūr was to get for its maintenance from A.D. 1037 onwards all the taxes due on six loads of betel leaves to the central and local authorities, and the *tambuligas* (betel-traders) numbering a thousand, were to contribute in addition one *visa* (of a *paṇa*?) on each load without fail.¹ At Maṇṭūr in the Bijapur District certain specified incomes from taxes and fines were set apart in A.D. 1041 for digging a tank called Raṭṭasamudra after the Raṭṭa governor of the locality.² In 1052 the Kadamba prince Harikesarin presented to the *mahājanas* of Nirili (Niralgi in Dharwar) the entire house-tax of the place for the maintenance of the Piriyakere, the big tank in it,³ and the 300 *mahājanas* were summoned by a special messenger to attend and receive this gift. Land was endowed in the same year for the maintenance of a tank Guṇḍiyakere at Talakallu in the Bellary District,⁴ extensive repairs to which had been effected just before. A tank at Kelavāḍi (Bādāmi *tāluk*) got for its maintenance twenty *mattar* of wet land and a house in 1053.⁵ A successful scheme for bringing fresh land under cultivation by the digging of a new tank Seṭṭikere, and an endowment for the maintenance of this tank, are mentioned in an inscription of A.D. 1071 from the Sorab *tāluk* in the Shimoga District.⁶ The assignment of tolls in 1106 for the maintenance of a *hiriyakere* at Ammele⁷ (Bellary), endowments in favour of two tanks at Bālguli (also in the Bellary District), one in 1107⁸ and the other in 1188,⁹ the construction of a new tank at Chilamakūru (Cuddapah) in 1132,¹⁰ and the assignment in 1157 of a definite cash income by the Karaṇas of Hāvēri (Dharwar) for the tank *hiriyakere* said to have been constructed originally by Nala-Chakravarti,¹ these are other notable instances of the promotion of what modern engineers would call minor irrigation and tank restoration works. By no means exhaustive, this list is enough to demonstrate the general realization of the importance of irrigation in land economy.

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¹ EI, xvi, 79, ll. 41-2.

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² EI, xvi, 67, ll. 13-14.

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³ EI, iv, 259.

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⁴ SII, ix (i), 109.

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⁵ SII, xi (i), 174.

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⁶ EC, viii, Sb. 317.

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⁷ SII, ix (i), 170.

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⁸ Ibid., 173.

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⁹ Ibid., 281.

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¹⁰ Ibid., 227.

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¹ BK, 103 of 1932-3.

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Commercial Crops

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Beside the cultivation of food grains and pulses, on both wet and dry land, intensive cultivation of garden produce and the raising of commercial crops like cotton were also extensively practised. Black land, red land, wet land, garden land, waste land are all particularly specified in the inscriptions. Betel and areca-nuts and fresh fruits and flowers are the items of garden produce most frequently mentioned. But when all is said and done, our information about the produce of land cannot be considered adequate by any means. And the Sitabaldi (Nagpur) inscription belonging to the reign of Vikramāditya VI which records that Daṇḍanāyaka Vāsudēva bought and gave away twelve *nivartanas* of land for the grazing of cows (*gopracāra*) and five more for a shepherd (*vāhaka*) who tended the cattle,² serves merely to remind one of the many problems relating to cattle-farming and dairy produce of which again there is little information forthcoming from any other source.

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² EI, xix, 30 ff.

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Industries

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Of the other industries we can form only indirect estimates from references to them in inscriptions relating to trading corporations; two of the most comprehensive records from this point of view belong to the Silāhāras of Karhad, come from Kolhāpūr and Miraj, and are dated in the years A.D. 1135 and 1142.³ The first record affords a list of the revenues assigned by the merchants to a Jaina shrine, and from the details there given we learn that areca-nuts and betel leaves were measured by the load, half-load and *hasara*; *ghee* and oil by the *koḍa*, *siddige* and (its double) *saṅgaḍi*; cotton was weighed by *malave*; *laṅkas* (carpenters?) made stools, tripods, and *maravi* (bowls) and bedsteads (*mañcha*), among other things; green ginger, turmeric, dry ginger, garlic, *bāje*, and *bhadramuste* were sold by weight and the terms load, half-load, and *hasara* applied to them as also to cummin and black pepper; salt and the eighteen kinds of grain were measured in cart-loads and head-loads; so also were dry and fresh fruits; flowers were reckoned by the basketful; cloth-merchants, goldsmiths, and potters were required to make their contributions by the individual shop as the fiscal unit. The second inscription is an endowment of a similar character in favour of a Śiva-temple and gives the following further details: shoulder-bag, ass-load, and bullock-load figure as other measures of areca-nuts; the *bhaṇḍi-goḍa* (lit. cart-pot) as an additional liquid measure for oil and *ghee*; goldsmiths charged assaying fees for testing gold coins, and cobblers made *pāda-rakshes* (sandals). The daily economy was thus on the whole simple; we shall see, however, that the formal *praśastis* of the merchant guilds make pointed mention of many luxury articles of value, and we must naturally assume that there was a corresponding development in the industries which catered for the exclusive requirements of the well-to-do, though we hear little directly about these.

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³ EI, iii, 303-6.

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Trade

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That there must have been some trade with foreign countries across the seas we may safely assume, and it is not a little disappointing that direct references to such trade, as also to a mercantile marine, or a navy protecting it, are even scantier in this period than they are under the Cāḷukyas of Bādāmi. Almost the only notable reference to overseas trade in the inscriptions occurs in the Kharēpāṭan plates of Raṭṭarāja¹ (A.D. 1008) which include among the gifts to the Avvēśvara temple a contribution of one *gadyāṇa* of gold by every ship coming from *dvīpāntara*, a term usually interpreted as foreign lands across the ocean, but probably meaning Malaya according to the results of recent research.² The same inscription makes the further provision that the temple should get a *gharaṇa* of gold on each cart³ from the territory of Kandamūliya, those from Chemulya and Chandrapura being exempted from this levy. Roads, both trunk and auxiliary, are frequently referred to in the inscriptions,⁴ and internal trade must have been carried on by transporting merchandise in carts or on the backs of pack-animals. Merchants moved about in caravans to avoid the risk from robbers, and they timed their visits to particular places in accordance with the festivals which took place at the temples of the various localities. Traders, like manufacturers, were organized in a number of autonomous guilds, with traditions and insignia and *praśastis* of their own.

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¹ EI, iii, 297

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² This is how I understand the word *pravahaṇa* which Kielhorn took to mean ships.

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³ *Rājapatha* of Bagadaga, SII, xi (i), 85, l. 22.

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⁴ JGIS, ix, 1-4.

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Guilds

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The most celebrated among the merchant guilds of the time were the Five Hundred Svāmis of Ayyavōḷepura, who seem to be mentioned in quite a number of inscriptions under various names, all generally keeping the figure 500 but differing slightly from one another; these differences are, however, easily understood in the light of the full form of their *praśasti* which occurs in an inscription of A.D. 1054 from Shikarpur *tāluk* in the Shimoga District.⁵ Here is recounted the whole body of myth and legend together with facts of undoubted historical importance. From this *praśasti* we learn, among other things, that this body of men were the protectors of the *Vira-Baṇañju-dharma*, i.e. of ‘the law of the noble merchants’, *Baṇañju* being a *tadbhava* form of the Sanskrit word *Vaṇik* or *Vaṇija* meaning merchant. This *dharma* was embodied in 500 *vīra-śāsanas*—edicts of heroes. They had the picture of a hill on their flag and were noted for their daring in enterprise throughout the world; they claimed descent from the lines of Vāsudeva, Khandali, and Mūlabhadra, and were followers of the creeds of Viṣṇu and Mahēśvara; among the countries they visited were Chēra, Chōḷa, Pāṇḍya, Maleya, Magadha, Kausala, Saurāṣṭra, Dhānuṣṭra, Kurumba, Kāmbhōja, Gaulla, Lāḷa, Barvvara, Parasa (Persia), Nēpāḷa, Ēkapāda, Lamba-karṇa, Strī-rājya, and Ghoḷāmukha—the last four names being apparently legendary and hence unfortunately casting some doubt on accuracy of all the preceding names. They travelled by both land routes and water routes, penetrating all the countries of the six continents; they traded in magnificent elephants, horses of the finest breeds, large sapphires, moonstones, pearls, rubies, diamonds, lapis-lazuli, onyx, topaz, carbuncles, emeralds, and other precious articles; and in cardomums, cloves, bdellium, sandal, camphor, musk, saffron, *malegaja*, and other spices and perfumes. They sold these wholesale or hawked them about on their shoulders; they paid the *śunka* regularly, filled the royal treasury with gold and jewels, and replenished the armoury; they bestowed gifts on pandits and sages fully versed in the 4 *samayas* and 6 *darśanas*. There were among them the 16 (*seṭṭis*) of the eight-*nāḍs*, who used as carriers asses and buffaloes, and many other classes of merchants and soldiers, viz. *gavares*, *gātṛigas*, *seṭṭis*, *seṭṭiguttas*, *ankakāras*, *biras*, *biravaṇijas*, *gaṇḍigas*, *gāvuṇḍas*, and *gāvuṇḍasvāmis*. The best among them all were the Five Hundred Svāmis of Ayyavōḷe, who, among their many other accomplishments, boasted a perfect mastery of the mysterious *Guḍḍaśāstra*, and who were equal to any emergency encountered in the exercise of their profession.

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⁵ EC, vii, Sk. 118.

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The mercantile community thus appears to have formed a vast confederation of groups spread over all lands and cherishing their own particular legends and myths. They are often mentioned in the inscriptions of the Tamil country as *Nānādēśis* and the Five Hundred of the Thousand Quarters—*tiśai-yāyirattu aiññūrruvar*; this last expression is found in a fragmentary Tamil inscription bearing the date A.D. 1088 and discovered in Loboe Toewa on the island of Sumatra.¹ The effects of trade in promoting the mingling of peoples and the rise of a liberal and cosmopolitan outlook even in those remote times deserve to be stressed rather more than has been done so far. We have several instances, particularly from the Bellary District, of important merchants from Malabar who had business connexions with Karṇāṭaka, if indeed they were not actually settled there. A Maleyala Vaḍḍabevahāri, Komara Mūrka by name, endowed 5 *gadyaṇas* for a perpetual lamp in Bāgali in A.D. 1108,² and another, Ponmūrkhaseṭṭi, gave 14 *gadyaṇas* in 1113 for a similar purpose;³ in 1126 a third merchant of the same class Nambigaṇṇi seṭṭi made an endowment at Duggati of which he held the seignory (mēlāḷke).¹ From Ākūr, a brahmadeya to the south of the Kāvēri river in the Chōḷa country, came Periyāḷuvaseṭṭi who set up the Dēśīśvara in Heñjēru (Anantapur District) after obtaining the permission of the Samastadēśiyas, doubtless the nānādēśi mercantile corporation; this was in A.D. 1162.² We may also cite the mention of a Tamil priest Uyyakkoṇḍa-bhaṭṭar in a record of 1146 from the Bellary District,³ and of Virarājēndra Caturvēdimangalam, and Kāraikāl Ammai, the Śaiva woman devotee, in an inscription of 1124 from Devāṇagere,⁴ as further evidence of the presence of Tamil elements in the Karṇāṭaka of the Chāḷukyas. A second stream of influence from Kashmir, affecting both the army and men of letters, has been noticed elsewhere; and there may well have been others of which we have no knowledge at present. As befitted its historical position, the culture of the Kalyāṇi period was broad-based in its character and was ready to welcome wholesome influences from any other part of India.

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¹ TBG, 1932, *A Tamil Merchant Guild in Sumatra*, by K. A. N. Sastri.

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² SII, ix (i), 177.

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³ Ibid., 189.

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¹ SII, ix (i), 215.

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² Ibid., 268.

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³ Ibid., 245.

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⁴ EC, xi, Dg. 155.

v1.c11.s6.t2.36

To return to the merchant-guilds. Mention of these occurs, as already stated, in various forms in different inscriptions; thus a document of A.D. 1057 from Hire-Haḍagalli calls them the 500 Vira Baḷañjiyas and gives portions of the long praśasti in identical terms with numerous irrelevant additions;⁵ we find also the sixteen of eight nāḍs and the 500 svāmis of Ayyavōḷe in a record of A.D. 1074 from Hoḷal;⁶ the 500 Banajigas in another dated A.D. 1079 from Niḷaguṇḍa;⁷ the Baḷañjiyas and Nānādēśis in A.D. 1106 at Peddatumbalam;⁸ the Nānādēśis with a brief praśasti in A.D. 1127 at Rāgimasalavāḍa;⁹ all these records come from the modern Bellary District. The Mummuridaṇḍas were another corporation of merchants who claimed to come from the line of the Five Hundred Chiefs of Āryyapura, i.e. Ayyavōḷe, but had their headquarters at first in Dvāravatīpura (Halebid) and subsequently at Kurugōḍu in the Bellary District which was like a second Dvāravatīpura to them. Their praśastis occur in two inscriptions from Kurugōḍu with dates in A.D. 1176 and 1177¹⁰ and resemble that of the Vira Baḷañjigas. Probably the Seṭṭis of the Jaina and Bauddha persuasions also formed sections of the guild and not separate organizations; at any rate they use the same praśasti as the main body, as may be seen from inscriptions at Koḷhāpur, Miraj,¹¹ and Dambal. The modern Dambal in the Dhārwār District bears a name which is derived from the original designation of the place, Dharma-Voḷal, which occurs in an inscription found there dated in A.D. 1059;¹² this inscription speaks of the nagara jinālaya and the mahānagara samudāya comprising sixteen seṭṭis; the jinālaya referred to may have been a Jain or a Bauddha temple, but considering that there is no mention of *syādvāda*, and also the clearly Buddhist character of another inscription of A.D. 1095-6, it was more probably the latter. This latter document¹ gives a fairly long *praśasti* of *ubhaya-nānādeśis*, and records endowments to a Bauddhavihāra and a temple of Tārādēvī, both recent constructions; the gifts were made in the presence of the sixteen *seṭṭis* of Dharma-Vojal and the *mahānagara*, exactly as in the previous instance.

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