The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c13.s3.t1: People
The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c13.s3.t1
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People
v2.c13.s3.t1.1
Hiuen Tsang, who travelled in the Andhra country soon after the establishment of the Eastern Cāḷukya kingdom, has surprisingly little to say of the people of those provinces.² He noted that the country had a rich fertile soil and a moist hot climate; the people were of a violent character; their mode of speech differed from that of the Madhyadēśa, but they followed the same system of writing—all of which is fairly correct for the epoch. He adds elsewhere that the people were of a dark complexion and were fond of the arts. Some parts of the country were sparsely populated and others, the Telugu-Chōḍa country for instance, were wild jungle where bands of highwaymen went about openly. Everywhere he found Buddhism in a decadent condition, and Hinduism, Deva-worship as he calls it, in the ascendant.
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² K. A. N. Sastri, *Foreign Notices*, pp. 98-101.
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Besides the normal castes of the social order, tribes like Bōyas and Savaras are heard of in the inscriptions, and they doubtless took a lower place in the social scale. The Brāhmans took premier place and were generally respected for their learning and character; they were the recipients of gifts on ceremonial occasions. Frequently, however, they entered the service of the state as civil or military officers, and some of these attained great distinction in such callings. The warrior class of fighting men and their general activities have been noticed above. The *Kōmaṭis*, as the trading class of the Telugu country were called, were a flourishing community whose benefactions to temples and other religious and charitable foundations often figure in the inscriptions. It may be that their organization into a powerful guild (*nakara*) which had its headquarters in Penugoṇḍa (West Godavari) and branches in seventeen other centres had its beginnings in this period; a full description of the guild and its organization is to be found in the *Vaiśyapurāṇa* (canto 7), a work written probably in the sixteenth century. The *Telikas* (oil-mongers) are another guild nominally numbering 1,000 who secured certain social privileges from Rājarāja Choḍa-Ganga, the Choḷa viceroy of Vengi, in A.D. 1084.¹ For the bulk of the population the army furnished a career, and the successful adventurer or condottiere had, as noted already, every chance of setting himself up as a chieftain over some small territory either as a vassal of a more powerful leader, or on his own account.
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¹ EI, vi, 33.
v2.c13.s3.t1.5
In the sphere of religion Buddhism had lost ground more and more since the days of Hiuen Tsang, and the Buddha of Amarārāma (Amarāvatī) had in fact come to be worshipped as an incarnation of Viṣṇu; the other four *ārāmas* of Bhīmapura, Ḍākarēmi, Palakolanu, and Drākshārāma are believed to have been once famous centres of Buddhism, but subsequently became Hindu shrines which attained great celebrity and attracted vast crowds of pilgrims. The shrines of Mahāsēna at Chebrolu, Huṁkāra-Śaṅkarī at Bidapura, and Mallēśvara at Bezwada were other great centres of pilgrimage. The temple of Mahāsēna at Chebrolu was specially noted for its annual *jātra*, one of the features of which was a grand procession of the image all the way from Chebrolu to Bezwada and back—a distance of about twenty-five miles. Śaivism was more popular than Vaiṣṇavism, and we hear rather more of the construction of Śaiva temples than of those of Viṣṇu. The 108 Narendrēśvaras of Vijayāditya II Narendra Mṛgarāja have been already mentioned; Yuddhamalla I erected a temple to Kārttikēya at Bezwada; Chāḷukya Bhīma I constructed the famous temples at Drākshārāma and Chāḷukya-Bhīmavaram; and Rājarājanarēndra erected three memorial shrines at Kalidiṇḍi to commemorate the three Choḷa generals who fell in battle at that place.
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Jainism, unlike Buddhism, continued to command some support from the people, and inscriptions record the construction of *basadis* and grants of land for their support from the monarchs and the people. Amma II Rājamahēndra showed favour to the Jainas but no king of the Eastern Chāḷukya line, with the possible exception of Vimalāditya, ever became a declared follower of the doctrine of Mahāvīra. Amma II built two Jain temples (*Jinālayas*) called Sarvalokāśraya and Kaṭakābharaṇa, and established a feeding house (*satra*) attached to each where *śramaṇas* of all the four castes were to be fed at the expense of the foundation.²
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² EI, ix, 49; vii, 191.
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Monasteries, in fact, played an important part in the promotion of education and morality in the country, and, as might be expected, Śaiva institutions of this character were more numerous than the rest. There were two of them in Bezwada attached to the temples of Śiva and Mahāsēna which had been built by Vijayāditya II and Yuddhamalla I respectively. The monks fed the poor, tended the sick, consoled the afflicted, and set up schools for educating children and young people.