History Optional (Ancient India- Gupta Period) by Shivlal Gupta

Model Answer

Question #1. The Gupta phase was the period of proto-feudal polity and land donations was one of the responsible factors for this. Examine.  10 marks (150 words)

Ans

The main sources for understanding the polity of the Guptas are literary and archaeological.Among the literary sources, mention must be made of Kamandaka'sNeetisara and Manusmriti, or Mam Dharmasastra, the codified Vedic and Puranic literature along with the contemporary literary pieces and foreign accounts.

Among archaeological sources, mention must be made of royal Prasastis like the Allahabad or PrayagaPrasasti of Samudra Gupta and many other epigraphs, and the coins and clay seals issued by the Gupta rulers, in particular the Aswamedha type of coins with titles of the kings on them.

The above-mentioned sources give an idea of the nature and dynamics of the Gupta polity. Generally, the rule of the Guptas in northern India is characterized as imperial government. However, this is not very correct, as centralized control of the Gupta polity does not appear to be a fact.

N.N. Bhattacharya observes, "The Allahabad Pillar inscription refers to Samudragupta quite in accordance with Manu's concept of Kingship as a God dwelling on earth and that the Gupta kings, like their predecessors, the Kushanas and the Mauryas, tried to put this idea into practice, but it was possible only on a limited scale, in areas which lay within a manageable distance from the capital. The rest of the empire and the occupied territories were put in charge of the local rulers, mostly by erstwhile masters of the land, acting almost independently as feudatories or vassals who paid only a token submission to the imperial authority".

The king was the central figure in the administration. They assumed titles like Maharajadhiraja, Samrat, Ekadhiraja, Chakravarthi, Paramabhattaraka, Paramadaivata and Parameswara. The Allahabad Prasasti of Samudragupta eulogizes the king as "equal to the Gods; Dhanada (Kubera), Varuna (Rain God), Indra and Antaka (Yama), who had no antagonist of equal power in the world". These kinds of titles taken by the Gupta kings itself shows the decntralisation of power which could be justified by different categories of feuds within Gupta empire

At least three categories of feudatories may be identified:

(i)      Feudatory lines existing before the rise of the suzerain power but reduced to vassalage;

(ii)     Feudatory lines established by junior branches of the imperial dynasty; and

(iii)    Feudatories through imperial creation. During the Gupta period, the first categories of feudatories were very common.

The fact that Gupta control on feudatories was not strong can be substantiated by the following instances. The Vallabhi princes issued coins mentioning the names of the Gupta kings but with their own symbol of trident instead of the peacock symbol of the Guptas, likewise the Parivrajaka Maharaja land grants refer to the Gupta era without recording the names of the Gupta rulers. There are instances that reveal that the Gupta polity was not centralized, but layered. The Gupta polity became layered because of the strategy adopted by the rulers.

The process of land donation was initiated by the Satvahana rulers but these were religious in nature. Over the time the nature of land donations kept on changing as some other rights such as judiciary administrative were also transferred apart from the right over land revenue. During the Gupta empire because of agrarian expansion towards east and financial crunches compelled the Gupta kings for more decentralization of power which became one of the most important reasons for feudatory polity in India.

Question #2. Brahmadeyas, which became a common feature of India Society during the Gupta period, which had diverse impacts on Indian Society. Examine.15 marks (250 words)

Ans

Approach:

• Briefly introduce the Brahmdeyas
• Discuss how the Brahmdeyas had diverse impacts on Indian society.
• Conclusion.

Hints:

Brahmadeya (Sanskrit for “given to Brahmana”) was tax free land gift either in form of single plot or whole villages donated to Brahmanas in the Gupta period and the early  medieval  India.  It  was initially practiced by the ruling dynasties and was soon followed up by the chiefs, merchants, feudatories, etc. Brahmadeya was devised by the Brahmanical texts as the surest mean to achieve merit and destroy sin.

Brahmdeyas had diverse impacts on Indian society:

• Brahmadeyas helped to bring virgin land under cultivation and to integrate the existing rural settlement into a new economic order, dominated by the Brahmanas proprietor.
• They were exempted from various land taxes and dues either entirely or partially such as in the initial states of The taxes from the donated villages were assigned to Brahmana donees.
• Brahamdeyas also helped the ruling families as they did gain the ideological support for their political It is said to be a chief characteristic of the Indian feudalism.
• The donation of land sometimes represented more than just the transfer of land rights. At many instances, human resources such as peasants, artisans and others along with revenues and economic resources were also transferred to the donees.
• There are several inscriptional evidence of conflicts between peasants, Brahmanas, and doners arising out of alienation of rights.
• Among other conflicting issues, right over drawing water was the most sensitive issue.Peasants were sometimes forced to agree conversion of their land into brahamdeya by denying water to In the brahmadeya villages, villagers were landless labours who were paid a portion of crop they helped to cultivate.
• The insertion of Brahmana donees into the village community introduced a new element into agrarian relations, eroding the older As mentioned earlier, in the context of Brahmana settlements in South India, Rajan Gurukkal has argued that such settlements involved the employment of non-family labour and hence eroded the kinship basis of production relations.
• In areas where brahmadeya villages were situated close to tribal communities, the latter were introduced to plough agriculture. Some tribal groups were absorbed into the fold of caste society; others were given the status of outcastes or untouchables.
• The increase in the number and scale of land grants had an important impact on the Brahmanas Reference was made earlier to the emergence of regional classifications and hierarchies of status among Brahmanas. As they were drawn into new networks of activities and social relations, Brahmanas came to be divided into a number of sub-castes.

Land grants strengthened the position of a section of the Brahmanas in rural areas. They backed the Brahmana’s traditionally high social status by political support and economic power, and gave him wide-ranging control over land, resources, and people. Brahmanas emerged as a dominant caste in brahmadeya villages.