SOCIETY

INDIAN
MEDIEVAL

EARLY

economy, languape
society,
in polity,
changes appear and intellectual life, Iti TWO
Momentous
and in religion
architecture,
l o c a t e and explain
their
and view and
script, art their total
take
attempt in this
direction
difficult to
to make an
very
But it is
necessary
need to be analvsed The Kali Age: A Period of Social
Crisis
ofmedievalism
convergence.
and origins political and
a survey of
content
The concept,
can be
done not through
This study of all the
and clarified. an integrated
but through
developments the country.
dynastic different parts
of
Indian life in
strands in
Some modern champions of Indian culture
and unchanging norms and values.
lay stress on its everlasting8
They are supported by some
sociologists who stress the stability of the caste institution in the
face of industrialisation.' But ancient Indian
thinkers held a changing
view of their society and its values, as is shown
by their speculations
on the creation of the world and
the state in the form of
which had to be set up in order to
kingship
protect the family and property.
Although in post-Vedic times dharma, based on the varna division, was
the ideal to be achieved, it kept
changing in the brahmanical view.
According to a verse occurring in the Sänti Parva, adharma becomes
dharma in response to the needs of time and place and vice-versa.
However, the general brahmanical view of change is cyclic and not
evolutionary.
The Puranas and Smrtis point out that the perfect dharma consists
of four feet and is found only in the Krta age.' The Krta age was an

I first dealt with this problem in Skdras in Ancient lIndia, Delhi, Motilal
Banarsidass, 1958, pp. 176, 213-14.1briefly discussed it again in my Ancient
India, New Delhi, National Council of Educational Research and Training.
1977, p. 169. Later, I published it under the present title in S.N. Mukherjee,
ed. Indian History and Thought (Essays in Honourof A.L. Basham), Calcutta,
Suvarnarekha, 1982; but this essay has now been considerably rewritten.
1. Such views are expressed by Louis Dumont in Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste
Systemand its Implications, New Delhi, Vikas, 1970, pp. 218, 228, and have
been criticised by Suvira Jaiswal in her Presidential Address, Ancient India
Section, 38th Session, PlIHC, Bhubaneshwar, December 1977, pp. 25-40.
2. R.S. Sharma, Political ldeas and Institutions, ch. V.
Sänti Parva (SP) in The Mahabharata Text as Constituted in its Critical Edition,
vol. 3, Poona, BORI, 1974, 79. 31.

45

44
 INDIAN SOCIETY
EARLY
MEDIEVAL The Kali Age: A Period of Social Crisis

comparable to
the state of n a t u rre
o

bliss and happiness,

so. Dates have been assigned to the description of the Kali age
age of perfect adharma was ot
nat
era in which apparently on the basis of the contents of the chapters in which they
Rousscau. lt w a s an
depicted by it degeneratcd
into the second ape
occur. But Hazra hesitates to use these descriptions for historical
varna. Then
entertained by any
one foot.
None the less, this ape

Tretä,' when dharma lost purposes. At one place he calls the period from the age of the Nandas
called the Valmiki and later
Rama depicted by and Mauryas to the end of the Andhra rule' the Kali age and under-
witnessed the ideal rcign of
was regardcd as a phase of all round lines the presence o f the ' s u d r a ' kings in it. 2 The long span given to
Tulsidas; the reign
described by brahmanical institutions worked the Kali by Hazra is more or less on the lines of Pargiter's Dynasties
when the
happiness and prosperity followed by the Dvpara age. of the Kali Age," which covers the period from the Bhärata war
The Tret was
most satisfactorily.
Bh rata Though dharma lost one more
war. (middle of the tenth century BC) to the beginning of Gupta rule.
which witnessed the great
was looked upon as its embodiment. The The general concept of the Kali is fairly clear. Wheneverthere is
foot in this age Yudhisthira
in the progressive degeneration dharma marked-by
of is a deviation from the norms of the established social order, it is
last phase when dharmaretains only one footEven- represented as the onset of the Kali age or its traits. Kali means the
theadvent of theKali age, the Kta is re-established after the
tually pure dharma symbolised by ancient texts describe the first neglect of rituals, andthe predominance and iniluence of hegetical
end of the Kali. Interestingly enough sects and also offoreign and non-brahmanical ulets. More impor
and the last age in detail,
and treat the two intervening ages per- tantly it connotes the non-performance of the functions assigned to
different social strata or varnas by the Dharma[ stras. The brahmaical
functorily. Detailed descriptions ofthe Kali age arefound
in almost
view of these functions is not fixed or rigid: it differs according to
all the early Puranas. time and place, as for example in the case of the functions of the
Although it is difficult to assign dates to them, according
to
sudras. Hence, the meaning of the established order differs, but each
RC.Hazra, the eariest of such descriptions belong tothe
third and
thefirst quarter of the fourth centuries AD," the second set of des- period calledKaliby.Hazrais characterisedby foreigninva_ions,instabi-
criptions to the eighth century," and the third
to the tenth century or lity, social tensions, conflicts and heterodox sects and teachings.
Although in Hazra's view each of the four phases covering the
first millennium AD and even later centuries answers the Kali des-
4 SP, 70.7-13 criptions, we would like to concentrate on the description assigned
SSP, 70 14-15.
6 Jbid., 16-17.
The descriptions of the Kali age in the Puranas ascribed to carly medieval times 10. Matsya Puripa (Matsya P.), Bombay, Saka Samvat, 1845, ch. 165 on yuga-
have been discusscd in B.N.S. Yadava, "The Accounts of the Kali Age. dharma is considered not later than AD 950 (RC. Hazra, ibid., p. 177)
8.RC Hazra, Studies in the Puranic Records on Hindu Rites and Customs, 2nd
similarly Padma P., chs. 101, 10S and 110 are attributcd to a period most
edn, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1975, pp. 216-17. The descriptions ofyuga- Brahma
dharma in the Váyu and Brahmánde Puranas are attributed to c. AD 200-275
probably later than AD 900 but carlier than AD 1400 (ibid., p. 132),
pp 174-75) and in the Visnu Purána (Visnu P.), 1o the last quarter of the third
Purapa(Brahma P) Poona, Anandasrama Sanskrit Senes, 1895, chs. 223-31,
and results of actions are
or the first quartcr of the fourth cenury AD (p. 175), Gorakhpur, Gita Pres8
on marriage, holy places, worship, yuga-dharma,
assigned to c AD 900-1200, which is the date of compilation of the present
9.
cdn, Vikram Samvat (VS) 2009, ur. H.H. Wilson, S vols., London, 1867-70.
The nature of Kali described in
the Kürma Purána, 1.29 is assigned to probabiy
Brahma P. (idid, 187)
. R.C. Hazra, Studies in the Puranic Records, p. 206.
AD 700-800, (R.C. Hazra, ibid., p. 178); similarly ch. 36, pp. 28-51
dharma in the Padma Purána (Padma
on yuga 12. lbid.

4 vols., 1893, is
P.), Poona, Anandasrama Sanskrit Serics 13. FE. Pargiter, The Purána Text ofthe Dynasties ofthe Kali Age, Oxford, 1913;
placed 'most probably in the former half of the 8th century Indian reprint, Benaras, Choukhamba Sanskrit Series, 1962.
ubid., p. 183)
47
46
 INDIAN SOCIETY
MEDIEVAL
EARLY
The Kali Age: A Period ofSocial Crisis
AD. "Here we uld g
fourth centuries
and early
byhim to the third nd of the age) given in the
(end. decline was associated with the end of the KusâFa and Sätavähana
Kali or yugânta
by the
description ofthe and also consider its accoun kingdoms. Political, economic and ecological causes may have led
Brahm nda
and Visnu Pur pas, to the dwindling of towns, but the social upheaval portrayed in the
Väyu, Parvas of the Mahabharata, for these
the Sänti
Äranyaka and passages pertaining to the Kali cannot be ignored. R.C. Hazra, who
in the with the early Puranas and belong to
have much in common

assigned the earliest Kali passages to the end of the third and the
sources
Harivam[a, added.as
in the
The description given beginning of the fourth centuries, had no inkling of the archaeological
the same period. abharata, belongs to the fifth century,
(khila) to the evidence. Since the early Kali descriptions in the Puranas tie up with
an appendix
the description of arjaka (kingless
it together with the desertion of early historical sites, the links between the two need
but we will use and the importance of
of the Ramayana
state)in the Ayodhya KFda to be explored.
Sänti Parva. All these texts can be
Manu and in the Like Hazra, P.V. Kane places the epic and Puranic passages on
danda (force) in
third-fifth centuries AD. the Kali in the fourth century," but he considers the four yugas to be
roughly placed in the
descriptions of the Kali in the Vyu and theoretical.0 He also speaks of the yuga theory in the Manu Smrti,
Hazra's attribution of the
Brahmanda PuräFas to c. AD200-275 and
the Vi_Fu Puräna
that in
Visnu Dharmasütra, inscriptions of the fifth century and in astro-
third the first quarter of the fourth centurys nomical works of the fifth to sixth centaries." Thus, both literary
to the last quarter of the
or

between the declineandfall of the Ku_na texts and inscriptions were familiar with the Kali at a time or close
coincides with the period
on the one hand
and the firm establishment to a time when it appeared in the epic and Puranas. It is remarkable
and Sätavähanastates
on the other. It was certainlya period of political
that in sharp contrast to the other three ages the Kali age occupies
of Gupta power
In the description of the yugas in the Snti Parva, which the largest space in the Puranas and Mahabharata. Kane summarises
instability. the Kali account given in the Vana Parva and reproduces sixty-four
this period, social order is inextricably linked
may be ascribed to verses to document his summary.Therefore, the other three ages
order. This is true of the first three ages and sosf
more
with political reflects reality.
the Kali age."It is stated that the king is the cause ofthe age in which may be theoretical, but the Kali description
that the ordered
he reigns." Since it was the responsibility of the king to uphold the Summing up the traits of the Kali age, Kane states
several will be turned topsy-turvy
varnasrama system, it is evident that any weakness in polity was bound duties and privileges of the castes

and there will be great moral and physical dechne in this age In
to affect society. not entirely baseless. If myths and
my opinion this statement is
More importantly, the advent of the full-fledged Kali coincides
traditions are used to reconstruct social history, there is no
reason to
witha striking change in the pattern of settlements. This is evident
reject the Kali description.
from the widespread decay of old, urban settlementsiin the country.
or
Excavations show that most urban centres were either
reduced to insignificance after the,third century AD The urban
deserted
2nd edn, Poona, BORI, 1973,
19. P.V. Kane, History of Dharma[ástra (HDS), ,
P. 895.
14. Batuknath Bhattacharya, The Kalivarjyas, Calcutta, University of Calcutta, 20. lbid., pp. 890-91
21. Tbid., Pp. 890-96.
1943, deals with early medieval and later centuries. is called Aranyaka
15. R.C. 22. lbid., pp. 892-95 with fn 1751 onp.
1012. The Vana Parva
Hazra, Studies in the Purnic Records, pp. 174-75. Parva (Aranyaka P.) in The
Mahäbhärata (Critical Edition), vol. 1, Poona,
10.
rija krtayugasra_tá tretáyã dváparasya ca, yugasya ca caturthasya räjabhavlu
käranam.
SP, 70.25, cf. Udyoga Parva (Udyoga P.), 130.16. BORI, 1971
23. HDS, u, p. 895, fn 1754.
17. räjá kälasya
káraFam. SP,70.6; cf. Udyoga P., 130.14.
18. R.S.
Sharma, Urban Decay in India, chs. 2-5. 49

48
 MEDIEVAL
INDIAN SOCIETY
EARLY The Kali Age: A Period of Social Crisis
structure based on
that the
brahmanical sOClal hya become middle rankers (madhyh), and vice-versa.2" It might mean
It function smoothly, especially in lese
seems
labour did not that the untouchables assumed the functions of the
tribute and sudra
century Deccan, Gautamiputra
kshatriyas and
brahmanised areas.
In the second vaishyas. In the description of the aräjaka in the Ayodhy Kända of
state
have ended the
that
of the varFasamkara, the Ramayana we are told that in the absence of the
$atakarni claims to operation royal
of
varnas. In the
third to fourth centuries, social disorder punishment (rjadaFdani p+ditah) the atheists (nästika) cross the
the mixing of
reached its climax.
That is why the texts give so much attention to limits (maryd) of the varnas and ashramas." This typeof varpa-
Kali cameas asevereshock, and it became samkara, described in several other texts, is usually taken as people
the Kali at this time. The
brahmanical consCiOusness. References to the breaking the varna barriers in respect of food and marriage and
lee ingrained in and inscriptions after the fourth
century may producing illegitimate issues, not sanctioned by the law books. But
Kali in the Puranas
varnasamkara involves something more. In the brahmanical system,
indicate either real imaginary disorders.
or Early medieval rulers
varna was identical in many
the Kali crisis*" were probably made to ways with class. In post-Vedic times the
claims to have coped with
But the reality of the Kali crisis in Dharmasktras prescribed religious and intellectual functions for the
boost and legitimise their power.
cannot be ignored. brahmanas, and ruling and fighting functions for the kshatriyas. The
the third and fourth centuries

Themain elements of the Kali highighted in the texts assigned to
of the fourth cen-
the third century AD and probably to the beginning
enumerated as the mixingof varnas or varna_amkara,
tury AD can be
hostility betweensudras and brahmanas,refusal ofvaishyas to pay taxes
andoffer sacrifice, oppression of the people with taxes, widespread
theft and robbery,insecurity of family and property, destruction of
livelihood. growingimportance of wealth over ritualstatus, and
dominance of mleccha princes. In short, widespread social disorder
adversely affected thesafety and security of the privileged orders.
Some of theese elements can be considered symptoms of a social
crisis; others may be treated as its causes and perhaps its con-
Sequences. Alien rule, heavy taxation and brahmana-sudra hostility
may be considered the main causes of the disorder, whereas the wide-
spread mixing of the varnas may be seen as an important symptom
or
consequence. It is stated that at the end of the yuga brahmanas,
kshatriyas and vaishyas, would all be reduced to one varna.25 The
lirst three mixing together would be relegated to the
Sudras. It is further said that the
untouchables (antyäh)
24. B.P. Sahu, "Conception of the Kali in Ancient India: A Regional Perspecive
vaishyas were assigned
producing functions comprising agricul-
ture, cattle rearing and trade. The sudras were asked to serve and
they contributed to production as slaves, artisans and agricultural
labourers. Those who were engaged in production and payment of
taxes and in supply of surplus labour were called
vaishyas and sudras,
and those who were engaged in organising production and distribu-
tion and lived on taxes, tributes and gifts, were called kshatriyas
and brahmanas. Therefore, varnasamkara would certainly imply the
refusal of the paying and producing classes, namely, the peasants
and traders, called vaishyas, to perform the functions given to them;
suchasituation would put in jeopardy the very fabric of society and
polity. It is stated for example that the vaishyas would give up
agriculture and trade and live on the professions of artisans, thus
adopting the livelihood or occupations of thesudras. Some verses
from the Harivam[a clearly suggest that the priests and warriors/
administrators could not carry on their religious, ideological and
managerial functions without having a tîrm resource base in the vaishya
position of the
wou 27. lbid., 188.19; cf. antyá madhye nivatsyanti madhyäkcántavasäyinah.
yathanimnam-praj h sarvà gamisyanti yugaksaye. Harivam[a, in the
Mahabharata (Critical Edition). 116. 17.
28. RamayaFa, l. 67.32.

25.
Trends of Social Science Research, vol. 4, no. I, June 1997, PP. 4 29. vaisyah krsivápijyadi santyajya nijakarmma yat, südra vrtyá pravatsyanti
Aranyaka Parva, 188. 41. kärukarmopaj+vinab, Visau P, Gita Press edn, VS 2009, VI, 1.36.
26. Ibid., 18, cf.186.31.
51

50
 INDIAN SOCIETY
MEDIEVAL The Kali Age: A Period of Social
EARLY Crisis
the Kali age, warriors/
instance that in texts state that the sudras would adopt the conduct of the
stated for
community. It is sources of liveli- brahmanas,
administrators would be
compelled to adopt the and vice-versa." It is predicted that in matters of
sleeping, sitting
by producing paddy
support themselves and eating, relations would be established between the sudras and
hood of the vaishyas and of means
This would probably
subsistence.
untouchables (antyayoni) on the one hand and the brahmanas on the
and taking to other learn that the
further
the brahmanas or priests." We other.38 We learn that the sudras would be greeted
also apply to
sacrifice would appropriate the material respectfully and
addressed as arya while the brahmanas would be addressed
performer of the agnihotra What is m o r e distressing.
meant for it even before its performance. disparagingly as bho." Although it is sometimes said that the sudras
which priests and renouncers would become acquirers of wealth and conduct themselves
people would neither make gifts (on enjoy all their resources,31
as

lived) nor pay taxes, but would

themselves
recommended to compel
kshatriyas,0 it is repeatedly stated that the sudras would behave as
When the application
of coercion is brahmanas. The dichotomy between the two is brought out in
varnas to perform
their functions, dnadanda religious
of different idiom. It is said that the brahmanas would give up
members
for payment was considered to be
japa and the sudras
is prescribed for the vaishyas," would become devoted to this practice.4 That they would
expound
their important duty.t is added that without an element of fear a dharma to the brahmanas is also predicted." Furthermore, the sudras
gifts."Therefore, the
person neither performs sacrifices nor makes
was to make him pay taxes to
would take to asceticism (tapa).43 Probably such sudras would live
on gifts from others and the brahmanas on the
objectofapplying danda tothe vaishya At one level, the fiction
service of others." In
the king and offer sacrificial fees to the priests. a passage from the
Parva, the sudras are represented as
of varnasamkara was invented to admit new tribes, foreign and oppressors of the brahmanas. It is said that stricken with fear and
to brahmanical society'* and to promote mobility to tide oppressed by the vr_alas, the dvijas (twice born) would raise a hue
indigenous,
over difficult situations," but its description in the passages of the and cry, and unable to find saviours, would wander over the earth
third and early fourth centuries AD clearly implies a state of class and take shelter in rivers, mountains and difficult tracts.43 The
tension and confusion caused by a clash of interests between the reference adds that harassed by the dasyus and oppressed with taxes
organising and managerial functions of the upper two strata and the imposed by bad kings, the best among the brahmanas would lose
producing functions of the lower two strata. patience, and in despair would do unworthy things as being servants
Intense hostility between the brahmanas and the sudras is a striking of the sudras.6 The whole passage describes the
capture of political
feature of the description of the varna confusion in the Kali.36 Several

37. Vayu PuräFa (Vyu P.), ed. R.L. Mitra, 2 vols., Calcutta, Bibliotheca Indica,
30. vai[yäcárä[ ca rjany dhanadhänyopaj+vinah, yugäpakramaFe pûrvam 1880, 1, 57.41.
bhavisyanti dvijätayah. Harivam[a, 116.27.
31. 38. Ibid., 39.
akrtägni bhoksyanti nar[caivágnihotrinah, bhiksm balim adattv ca bhok_yanti 39. Aranyaka Parva, 186.33.
puru_äh svayam. Ibid., 38. The verse is numbered 39, but it should be 38.
32. SP, 15.9. 40. brähmanh südrakarmanastath [üdr dhanärjakäh k_ätradharmepa vapy atra
33. vartayanti gate yuge. Ibid., 26.
näbhito yajate räjan näbhito dätumicchati. Ibid. 15.13.
34. V.N. 41. Ibid., 28.
Jha, "VarFasamkara in the Dharmasütras:
Theory and Practice', JESHO, 42. Ibid., 188.63.
vol.13, pt. li, November 1970, pp. 273-88.
35. Bharati 43. Vayu P., 1, 57.46.
Dikshit, 'Mobility in Ancient India' (in Hindi), Ph.D.thesis, University 44. S0dräh bhaikseFa j+vanti brähmapäh paricaryay. SP, 70.200
of Allahabad, 1978.
36. 45. Aranyaka Parva, 188.58-60.
akrameFa manusyänm bhavisyati tad 46. Ibid., 61-2.
brähmanaih saha. kriyá, virodhamatha ysyanti vrgaa
Parva, 188.69.
53
52
 INDIAN SOCIETY
MEDIEVAL
EARLY
The Kali Age: A Period of Social Crisis
to turn the
tabl e brahmanas.
who try
by sudra kings the Aranyaka verses, the
power
be the
interpretation.
of a general commotion amounting to a revolt and agitation on the part
Whatever may intense hostility
between the brahmanas. of the subjects. This is conveyed by the use of the term samudvega,
of
general
tenor
li descripti of about the third
Kali which distinguishes the onset of the Kali age marked by the destruc-
context
ofthe and
the
s u d r a s in Sometimes it is expres tion of dharma.50 In order to indicate the
centuries AD is
unmistakable.

in phenomenon of people's
fourth
in social and political idioms. But revolt, the Artha[stra of Kautilya uses the term kopa or anger (as
and at other
times
brahmanas he
religious,
outburst of sudra
antagonism against the be
gave the sudras the
can
part ofjanapada-kopa prakrti-kopa).
or In any case, the tradition is
kept alive in the Harivam[a, though the situation might be different.
that the b r a n m a n a s
bear in mind
explained if we order to make them workas slaves hired The Kali age is characterised by insecurity and
position in widespread law-
lowestritualistic sharecroppers for the hich lessness. It appears as a period of anarchy caused by the destruction
labourers domestic
servants and
gher
landowners are mentioned in Pali texts, of yogaksema, which is usually translated as welfare. But yoga means
orders; rich
brahmana hus,
in the description
of the varna conflict in the Kali age we notice acquisition and ksema security, and hence yogaksema should be
rwo types of contradictions:
the first, between the brahmanas and
understood as security
of property."
Evidently the Kali age provides
no security of property. This would matter especially to people of
side and the vaishyas other; and the on the
kshatriyas on the one
the privileged classes. The absence of security is underlined by the
between the brahmanas and the sudras.
second, prevalence of thefts and robberies. We are told that thieves and
dealing with the sudra-brahmana relationship state
Many passages robbers would become rulers and rulers would behave like thieves
the avocations of the brahmanas in the
that the sudras would usurp and robbers.53 The Harivam[a states that a large number of
be considered a condemnation of the religious
people
Kali. This might would become beggars and destroy one another. Oppressed by kings
activities of the Jains and Buddhists." But
one passage seems to
and thieves, people would be driven to
that the brahmanas depended on livelihood provided by the
destruction Insecurity of
property is attributed to both the kingless state (ar jaka) and the
suggest
sudras." This would imply a radical change not only in the status of Kali. It is said that in a state of anarchy, a person can neither hope to
the sudras but also in the attitude of the brahmanas. The latter acquire property nor to set upfamily: two would combine to seize
performed ceremonies only for the three higher varnas from whom the property of one and many would combine to seize the property
they accepted gifts though they certainly used the labour powerof of two. Further, a free person is reduced to slavery, and women are
the sudras. In the new situation the brahmana's dependence for sub
sistence on the sudras would indicate that some sudras who possessed 50. prajäsamudvegakaram yugntam samupasthitam, prana_tadharmam dharmajña
sufficient means to engage priests were elevated ritualistically. This nimittairvaktumarhasi. This is Janamejaya's statement. Harivam[a, 1 16.3.
development may be attributed to the growing peasantisation of the 51. SP, 70.20; närjake janapade yogak_emah pravartate, Srimadvälmikiya
Ramâyana, with Hindi tr. Janakinath Sharma, Gorakhpur, Gita Press, VS
sudras, especially of those people who were introduced to new
methods of
2033, 2. 67.24.
cultivation in the tribal areas. Whatever may be the precisc 52. The term is used in this sense in relation to traders in SP, 38.1l and
tature of the reaction of the sudras and vaishyas to the dominance o Manu Smti, commentary of Kulluka Bhatta, ed. Pandit Kesava Prasad Sharma
the two
higher orders, there is no doubt that the reaction sugeo ts Dvivedi, Bombay, Venkatesvara Press, Saka Samvat, 1826. 7.127.
53. rajavrttau sthitäs caurds cauravyttau ca pårthiväh, Vyu P., 2. 57.42.54.
.rájäna[coraa+linah. Harivam[a, 116.9, corapräyá[ca räjno yugänte
47. hüdrábca bráhmanácárá bhavisyanti yugak_aye. Harivamaa, I 16.6.
pratyupasthite. Ibid., 32.
54. Harivam[a, 116. 24.
449 bbdrá
dharmary cari_yanti
akyulriyábta rájáno vipráh sákyabuddhopajívinah.6.Ibid.,
1D. 55. Aranyaka Parva, 186.40.
[üdropaj+vinah. Ibid.,
S5
54
 INDIAN SOCIETY
MEDIEVAL
EARLY

56
In the Kali
description, several referen The Kali Age: A Period of Social Crisis
abducted.
forcibly thieves (parimosaka)" and stealers bf ideal characteristic of a
householders as janapada. In the list of the qualities attri-
represent
also appear as
thieves
of crops" seizing all that is buted to a janapada by
Kautilya, the market is not mentioned." The
clothing. They all goods. It is said that thinps will Harivam[a adds that the roads and land located in the interval of towns
for eating and also grab
meant
the thieves will
kill one another, and anl. would become infertile and, in the
to such a pass that Kali, all persons would become
come

of such mutual destruction, will order be es- re traders.3 The statement that all would become traders
through the process may be
account of oppreSsive taxes, householders exaggerated, but the importance of trade in the initial stage of the
tored. We learn that on to a state of penury, and they have Kali is clearly underlined in other references.
reduced We are further told
or farmers (grhastha)
are

they also masquerade as munis that people will practise various crafts and take to
but to take to stealing though untruth, intoxi-
no option cation, nonvegetarianism and womanising.5 In any case,
and take to trade.2 repeated
the impression that trade was a very impor-
references to the predominance of traders and artisans
Some passages create suggest their
hand in the social disorder.
livelihood in the Kali. Repeated references to trade in
tant source of What led to social disorder and
late third and early fourth centuries AD accord
varna conflicts? Natural calami-
the passages of the ties such as famine, drought and heavy rains cannot be ignored,
well with economic developments in the third century AD and later. but
oppressive taxes also appear to have been an important factor. It is
with Greek and Latin texts and Buddhist Avadnas, archaeological
Along stated that, hit hard by famine and
discoveries suggest that the Ku_ Fa-S tavähana phase was marked oppressive taxes, the suffering
people would migrate to prosperous countries in search of wheat
by commodity production, which may have kept up its momentum and barley." Further, in the worthless,
for some time on the same scale after the middle of the third century helpless and agitated world
where all distinctions had disappeared,
tax-oppressed people would
AD. This promoted both internal and external trade. References to seek shelter in the forest. A text of about the sixth
trade, therefore, might indicate that traders, in their anxiety to acquire century AD speaks
not only of drought and
oppressive taxes, but also of cold, tornadoes,
a higher social status, assumed a leading role in fostering disaffection, heat waves and heavy rains in this context.6 It
speaks of the robber-
because of which their profession was held in contempt. It is stated like behaviour of the king,70 and states that faced with the attack of
in the Harivam[a that markets would be widespread in the country- such greedy and contemptible kings on their women and
property,
sides and would be like thorns; such a picture is obviously not an the subjects would take shelter in forests and mountains, and live on

64. AS, 6.1.

S6. SP, 67.12 65. ú_arbahulä bhümih panthäno nagarntar, sarve vánijak[caiva
bhavisyanti
57. Jbid., 14.1 5.
kalau yuge. Harivam[a, 116.19.
S8. sasyacorábhavisyanti tathá cailpahárinah. Brahmända Puräpa (BrahmäFda 66. silpavanto' nrtapar nar madyämi_apriyáh., bhäryámitr bhavisyanti yugnte
P, ed.Acharya Jagdish Lal Shastri, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1973,
1.2.31.60. 67.
janmejaya. Ibid., 8.
durbhik_akarapidabhir atfvopdrutá janáh. godhumannaya vánnädhyände[än
59. Ibid. cf.
Váyu P., 2. 67.61. yásyanti duhkhitäh, Vi_nu P., 6. 1.33.
60.
bhaksyabhojyaharä[caiva bháFdäánäm caiva häriFah. Harívam[a, 117-l 68. nihsäre k_ubhite loke ni_kriye vyantare sthite, naräh [rayiyanti vanam
61.
coräkcorasya hartäro hantã hartur bhavisyati, cor[corak_aye Capi karabhäraprapiditá), Harivam[a, 117.23.
k_emam bha visyati. Ibid., 22. 69.
2.
anãvotyd vinamksyanti durbhiksakarapiditah, sita váttapaprvrdhima-
ranyo'nyatad prajab, Srimadbhágavata Mahápuräna, with the Hindi commen-
karabhárabhayät pumso grhastháh parimo_akäh, municchadmakrticchanna
vánijyam upaj+vate. Äranyaka Parva, 186.40. tary of Govindadas "Vinita' Mathura, Gorakhpur, Gita Press, 1939, 12.2.10.
63. 70. Ibid., 2.15.
alja[alá janapadäh [iva[ülá catuspathh. Harivam[a, 116.12.
$7
S6
 INDIAN SOCIETY
MEDIEVAL
EARLY
The Kali Age: A Period of Social Crisis
fruits and seeds." But nces
referen
meat, honey,
vegetables, roots, also bring into sharp focus the lieu of protection afforded to the people was certainly violated in this
fourth centuries
third and
from the the principle that taxes should be levied without
oppressive activities
of the rulers. They
tell us that in the Kali, the
age. Similarly,
burdening the people was clearly being transgressed. A passage from
would cease to become protectors and appropriate the pra
kings imposts such a s
taxes and
the Aranyaka Parva of the Mahabharata suggests that foreign rulers
through various
perty of their subjects observation may refer to or mlecchas tookto large-scale exploitation. It is stated that for a
interest (vyäja)."This
customs (sulka)and long time, the earth would be filled with the mlecchas, and fearing
seems to speak of the
traders. Another passage
the oppression of the burden of taxes, the brahmanas would run helter skelter in all the
We learn that at the end of the yuga, the
oppression of peasants. ten
directions." We further learn that the earth would have many
taxes (bali and bhäga); they would cease to
kings would only enjoy mleccha kings, all addicted to falsehood, sin and lying." But the
and would only protect themselves.7 It is said
protect the people would turn out to be
names of the dynasties in the next passage do not show all of them to
that officials called protectors (goptrs)
royal
oppressors and give up administrative
functions.74 be foreigners. They are mentioned
Yavanas, `kdras and
Andhras, Sakas, Pulindas,
as
The Kambojas and Aurnikas also find
We can speculate on the reasons
for the levy of oppressive taxes
the kings in the third and early fourth centuries AD. The needs of place." However,
Bahlikas,
in manuscript, the former is replaced by the
one
and in another, the latter is replaced by the Kunikas.0
by
the rulers may have multiplied on account of
their demand for foreign
Neither the Aurnikas nor the KuFikas can be clearly identified.
luxuries. Flourishing foreign trade introduced a life On the whole, some dynasties were foreign while others were
goods, especialy
which proved to be very expensive. The king would ask the improvised indigenous tribal lineages. The Puranas give enough
style
traders to procure any commodity he needed even if he had to pay a indication of political upheaval caused by indigenous dynasties in the
very high price for it.75 It seems that the rulers' demands could no longer third century. A Magadha (considered to be a mixed caste) king called
be met by the peasants, traders, artisans and labourers, who comprised Vi[vaphani is said to have overthrown all the existing kings and
the vaishyas and sudras. The fertility of the land in certain parts of replaced them by the Kaivartas, Madrakas, Pulindas and unbrahmanical
the country may have been exhausted. Additional taxes (pranasya) and people in various countries." It is explicitly stated that the eunuch-
forced labour (vi_ti) may have been normally levied on the peasants, like Vi[vaphani would overthrow the existing kshatriya order and
for when this was not done it was especially recorded by Rudradäman. create a new one. This clearly implies the substitution of the
existing
Whatever may have been the reasons for the tyrannical taxation
typical of the Kali age, it ran counter to the principles of taxation 76. mahimlecchajanäkirn bhavisyati tato'cirät, karabhärabhayäd vipr
enunciated in the law books. The basic tenet that taxes were paid in bhayisyanti di[o da[a, The Mahábhárata (Critical Edn), 188.70.
77. ranyaka Parva, 186.29.
78. Ibid., 30.
71. Ibid., 2.8-9 79. MS. G.3.
72. 80. MS. Tm GI.
araksitro harttäro [ulka vyjena pårthívh, härino
janavittänm samprápi 81. F.B. Pargiter, The Puräna Text. p. 52. Pargiter prefers reading padcakárms in
tu
kalau yuge. VisFu P., 6. 1.34. cf. arak_itro hartro balibhgasya pårthivat, place of madrakáps, which occurs in a Brahmända manuscript, libid., fn 34;
73.
yugánte prabhavisyantisvarak_anaparäyanh, Harivam[a, 116.5. in any case both tribes appear to be local. Similarly he reads pulindn
na
raksitro bhoktro
balibhagasya pärthivh, yugnte ca bha vi_yan brähmapäms tathä (ibid.). But the tenorofthe verses, which speak ofthe uproot
74.
svarak_aFaparyFáh. Brahmnda P., 1.2.31.48; Vyu P., 2.S7.48. ing of the pärthivas and all the other vamas, goes better with pulindabrähmann,
75.
goptära[cápy agoptrah prabhavisyanty a[sanh. Vyu, P., 2. 57.57. which occurs in ms.b.Vs. (ibid., 36). Incidentally ms. b.Vs is one ofthe earliest
G.B. Upreti, 'Avadnas
on the Political Role
of the Traders', Buddhist
New Delhi,
University of Delhi, March 1974, p. 91. Stual MSs of the Visnu P., and is fairly well written and correct (ibid., 33).

59
S8
 INDIAN SOCIETY
EARLY MEDIEVAL

a new set of improviend The Kali Age: A Period of Social Crisis

nobles and warriors by d
chiefs, princes, disruption which was
symptomatic of widespread commodities by adopting fraudulent weights and measures.5 The
adventurers. It is
would be wron
elements. Therefore, it to Divyavadäna of about the second and third centuries AD indicates
caused by indigenous
attribute internal
lawlessness solely to foreign elements. Both forei the oppression and harassment of traders through the imposition of
were eventually brahamanised. It is said customs, ferry and police station dues which they tried to escape by
and indigenous peoples
the gods and ancestors, perform various means.6 The Smrtis of about the same time recommend
ofVi[vaphani that he would worship and would attain the more advanced methods of assessing tolls than those found in the
of the Ganga realm of
sacrificeson the bank
and antecedents are not given. Althouoh Artha[stra of Kautilya.7 In addition to caustoms duties, merchants
Sakra, though his ancestry had to pay a regular tax called kara,3" which in the Artha[stra is
peoples of the third and fourth centu.
and
many upstart dynasties seen in the technical sense of benevolence." The Sänti
ries AD are named in the texts,
Vi[vaphani is mentioned simply as a Parva lays
down rules for assessing a general tax called
Magadha individual. [ilpapratikra to be levied
took time to acquire from artisans,0 not known to earlier texts which ask artisans to serve
foreign and indigenous dynasties
Both the king one day a month." All this may have caused resentment
legitimacy and brahmanical ways
of life. In a period of instability.
horses, elephants, chariots among artisans and merchants against the existing political system.
might became right. Whoever possessed Many of them harboured an understandable grudge against a social
to become king.*"Such kings proved to be
and wealth managed system which did not accord them a high status, despite their
result that a strong reaction
tyrannical and exploitative, with the prosperity. Many of them tried to improve their status and win social
who dominated the scene continued for some
against the upper orders prestige by making gifts in the cause of Buddhism. The description
time. Thus, the varna system was disturbed and class tension and
of the Kali in the Visnu PuráFa states that gifts became the sole
confusion ensued. means to acquire dharma.7 We further learn that the possession of
It would be wrong to think that only the deprived and oppressed wealth became the only source of acquiring high family
sections tried to upset the varna system. The early centuries of the status.
Moreover, the accumulation of gems and metals alone conferred
Christian era saw a great spurt in artisanal and commercial activities, praiseworthiness.* Artisans and traders probably joined hands
as shown by epigraphs, archaeological finds, Buddhist texts and with peasants and agricultural labourers to express their resentment
foreign accounts. The abundance of coins, especially coppers, the and improve their ritualistic status. There is a subtle indication of a
presence of towns and flourishing foreign trade, all bear witness to linkage between peasants and traders. At several places it is stated
this. It is stated that in the sinful age, that is, in the Kali, all would
turn into traders, " and they are
evidently looked upon with contempt 85. Aranyaka Parva, 136.46.
because of their anti-varna atitudes and activities. The traders are 86. Divyavadna, ed. E.B. Cowell and R.A. Neil, Cambridge, 1886, 4. 92-93,
represented as indulging in many tricks and selling enormous 501. Cf. G.B. Upreti, 'Avadänas'. p. 91
87. U.N. Ghoshal, Contributions to the History of the Hindu Revenue System,
2nd edn, Calcutta, Saraswat Library, 1972, pp. 107-08.
88. SP, 12.88.11; Manu Smrti, 8. 127.
82. F.E. Pargiter, The Purána Text, p. 53. 89. U.N. Ghoshal, Hindu Revenue System, p. 111.
83. yo
a[vara thangá dhya sa rja bhavigyati. Vi_Fu P., 6. 1.35; ityevam 90. SP, 88.12.
anekadoottare tu bhümandale sarvavarFe_veva yo yo balavän sa 8« 91. U.N. Ghoshal, Hindu Revenue System, pp.133-34.

84.
bhüpatirbha visyati. Vi_pu P, 4.24.93. 92. dänameva dharmahetub. Visnu P., 4.24.89.
sarve
ápijakócápi bhavi_yanty adhame yuge. Brahmãpda P., 1.2. 31.52 93. tata[cartheväbhijanahotuh. Visnu P., 4. 24.70.
Väyu P, 2.57.51. 94. Ibid., 4. 24.81.

61
60
 INDIAN SOCIETY
EARLY MEDIEVAL
The Kali Age: A Period of Social Crisis
with taxes, the
farmers would adopt the vocatior
that, burdened dissident sects, advanced sections of sudras and vaishyas such as
of traders.
which still retained something of its dis. artisans and traders may have mobilised the exploited sections and
Apart from Buddhism,
heterodox sects such as Vaishnavism favoured created a situation in which the norms and values established under
some
senting voice,
Vaishnavite teachings did not question the varna the varna system were upset for quite some time. This state of affairs
the lower orders. The
The declaration in the is depicted as Kali in the Mahabharata and Puranas and as ar jaka in
be interpreted as such.
system, but could sudras and women could the Ramayana.
that even the sinful (ppayonayalh}
vaishyas,
in Krishna," could act as a sopto Its descriptions speak of the removal of food and marriage barriers,
attain heaven,ifthey took refuge
and more significantly of the abandonment of the functions pres-
of society and also encourage them to rally
the oppressed sections cribed for social orders. This could imply that peasants and traders
order. The predominance of the pâsaFdas or
against the existing namely vaishyas refused to pay taxes to the rulers called kshatriyas.
and dissenting sects appears as
teachers and followers of heterodox Moreover, slaves, artisans, agricultural labourers, sharecroppers and
element in the Kali The adoption of some
a prominent context." untouchables all of whom were sudras refused to perform their
for entering an ashrama;
symbols is çonsidered to be the only ground functions. All this would stop the supply of labour to members of the
obviously each heretical sect had its own identity mark.8 We hearof situation that in the depiction of
sinful sudra ascetics taking to begging and even good people adopting higher varnas. It is because of such a
the Kali conditions, the brahmanas are placed in a pitiable plight,
the mode of life of the heterodox sects." The Vyu PuräFa speaks of tortured by taxes and fleeing in all directions for relief. The condition
sudra yatis and tapasvins and adds that sudras in a calm pose, clad
of the kshatriyas is also depicted as lamentable. It was, therefore, a
in brown-red garments, with shaven heads and white teeth, practise trial for the classical
period of intense social crisis, and of severe
dharma.101 The sudra ascetic was considered a great anathema in varna system.
the pre-Kali ages. We may recall the tradition according to which in order to cope with this crisis,strong coercive
Apparently,
Rama killed the sudra Zambkka for practising asceticism. Thus, the measures are recommended in the Manu Smrti and the Sänti Parva.
references to the presence of sudra ascetics in the Kali era show The exercise of danda or force assumes an importance which is
the impact of heterodox ideology on the sudras. How this actually wanting in any of the earlier law books or texts. The emphasis shifts
moulded their minds can be conjectured. Under the influence of from the people-friendly activities of the king to his fiercer role as
dharma, artha
suppressor. It is stated that coercive power protects
and kama,and guards foodgrains and property.103
95. Aranyaka Parva, 186.40.
96. Srimadbhaga vadglt, 9.32, Gorakhpur, Gita Press, VS 2045. Fearing punishment from the king, nobody commits sin in this
97. K.H Dhruva, 'Historical Contents of the Yugapur na', Jourmal of theBihar world; this is similar to the other world where nobody commits sin
and Orissa Rescarch Society, (JBORS) 16, 23, 1930, pp. 18-66, verse 100.
fearing the coercive power of Yama. Punishment is prescribed to
Itbutis the
argued that the Kali description of the Yuga Puräna belongs to c. 50 BC maintain the varna system. is laid down that, by way of punishment,
It
Purana
seems to have
been work of the third century AD. should be made
the brahmana should be admonished, the kshatriya
a
98. lingadhraFam ev[ramahetuh. Vi_nu P., 4.24.82.
99. to surrender, and the vaishya should be made
to make gifts or pay
bhaiksa vrataparh südräh pravrajylingino 'dharmäh,
p_aFdasam[rayany
100.
vrttimsrayisynti satkrtäh. Ibid., 6.1.37.
Väyu P., 2.57.51.
101. 102. SP, 15.3.
[ukladant jitäk_äscamundâh kâ_yavsasah Ibid., 4.
[üdr dharmam carigyai 103. dandena raksyate dhanyam dhaFam dandena raksyate.
yugnte
of the
paryupasthite, Ibid., 2.57.60; cf. K.H. Dhruva, 'Historical Contc 104. Tbid., 5; the yamadanda is conceived
as a counterpart of the rjadanda.

Yugapuräna", verses 104-05.

63
62
 INDIAN SOCIETY
MEDIEVAL
EARLY

is called nirdanda 105 The Kali Age: A Period of Social Crisis

In this
context the sudra
perhaps
money. comparison with the vaishya. thrown into a state of chaos.' In this context, Manu
indicating his inability
to pay in ysical prescribes
for suppresSing the caFd las. and slavery for the sudra either through purchase or without purchase,
prescribed
punishment is least b r a h m a n i s e d . In all likelihoo for in his opinion the sudra was created for this
106
who were the the creator
purpose by
mlecchas.
was meant
for sudras in general. himself2 We further learn that in order
put an end to disorder
to
physical punishment considered essential to maintain the ashram. (viplava) at the end of Kali, Vishnu would appear in the Kalki incar-
The useof coercion is stated that only the fear punishment nation in a brahmana family, destroy all the mlecchas,
or life-stage system.
It is of eeps dasyus and
Particularly the functions or people of mischievous conduct, and would re-establish all people in
ashramas in place.
members of all the
their respective dharmas. The Puranas
for the maintenance of the social order assign a similar role to a
the householder are imnportant king called Pramati,4 who is identified by some scholars as
also the leader and discipliner; more
The king is called danda, and Candra Gupta II. They speak of a period in which the varnas did not
importantly he is called
the imperishable righteous dharma, lord f
perform the functions ascribed to them and created a state of chaos.
the
It is stated that power of coercion
the varnas and ashramas. Although the time of the Kali phenomenon described above has
danda disciplines the subjects, protects everybody, and activates
or been fixed by the Puranic specialists, the area in which it occurred
to be identical with daFda. 109
the slothful; wise men consider dharma remains be specified. The
to
was considered very effective coincidence between the beginning of
Apparently the mechanism of coercion theland grants on a largescale and the time of the Kali Yuga conflict
in restoring social harmony and in compelling members of various
provides a clue. Around the third and the beginning of the fourth
classes to carry out the duties assigned to them. But the performance century, land grant inscriptions do not appear on any scale in the
offunctions was especially important for the producing masses. Here Ganga plains, which were the oldest areas settled in historical times;
we may refer to an apt simile from the Sänti Parva. It states that if this point has been underlined by D.N. Jha.!15
coercion is not applied, camels, oxen, asses and donkeys, yoked to Early epigraphic evidence for land grants is not altogether absent
the cart, 1" donot move. This advice is apparently intended for those in the mid-India plains. In the second century AD, a village was
who have to make people work. assigned by the king to a minister who donated it to a priest according
Manu lays down that the vaishyas and sudras should not be allowed to the Allahabad Yüpa (sacrificial
post) inscription.'6 In the third
to deviate from their functions as the world would otherwise century, several land grants were made to the sacred shrines of five
be
deities in the Gwalior area." The Gwalior evidence falls in the third
century and may be linked to the Kali crisis.
105. vãci dando brähmaFánám k_atriyäFm bhujrpaFam, dnadaFda smto
vaikyo nirdandah [üdra ucyate. Ibid., 15.9. 111. vaisya[üdro prayatpena sväni karmni kirayet, tauhi cyutau svakarmabhyah
106. candäla mlecchajátinm dandena ca
nivraFam. This occurs after Ibid., ksobhayetänidam jagat, Manu Smrti, 8.418.
112. Manu Smti, 8.413.
12.94.S in
107.
D7S MS in Appendix 1, no. 10, line 21 in the Critical Edition. 113. Visnu P., 4.24.98.
brahmacári grhastha[ca vänaprasthotha bhik_ukah, dandasyaiva bhayád ete 114. S.N. Roy, Historical and Cultural Studies in the
manusyã vartmani sthith.
SP, 15.12. Puräpas, Allahabad, Puranic
108. sa ráj puru_o dandah Publications, 1978, Pp. 132-4S; A.B. Awasthi considers Pramati to be
net [sit
sa ca sah,
dharmaprabhurathávyayah. D7S inserts this aftervarFnm [ramäFam c identical with the Candella King Dhanga. History from the Puränas, Lucknow,
lines 1-2, p. 620. SP, 14.14, Appendix l Kailash Prakashan, 1975, pp. 118-33.
109. 15. DN. Jha, Foudal Social Formations in
dandah aästi prajáh sarv danda
Early India, New Delhi, Chanakya
dandag dharmam eväbhirak_ati, dandah supte_u Jaguru Publications, 1987, see Introduction.
110. Ibid., 15.41. vidurbudhäh. SP, 15.2. 116. Epigraphica Indica, (E), xXTv, no. 33, pp. 245-S1.
117. Ibid., xxvu, no. 43, lines 8-9,
also see cf. El, XaV, no. 34, p. 252.
64 65
 SOCIETY
MEDIEVAL INDIAN
BARLY

in the castern part of The Kali Age: A Period of Social Crisis

appear
Nevertheless, many land grants
Pradesh, in Vidarbha in Maharashtra, in Andhra Prade given thirty. Gautam+putra Sätakarni is said to have ended the mix-
as
Madhya
Nadu. On this basis one could suggest that the ture of thefour varnas, which shows that the varna
andin northern Tamil between the upper and the lower in Maharashtra was not
system prevalent
social crisis involving a struggle working smoothly when a land grant was
which were made. It is significant that the
Dorders took place outside the Ganga zonein the arcas Ik_vkus, Pallavas, Vi_nukundins,
made it difficult for the agents of the Vakakas and others, who appeared on the ruins of the Sâtavâhana
less varnised'. The conflict to pay salaries state, popularised the practice of
local states to collect taxes from the peasants and, thus, making land grants and claimed
to have established dharma, which, in the existing context,
and make monetary gifts to monks and priests, who
to state officials means
and social order. The the varna system.
the masses to be loyal to the state power
taught The title dharma-mahrája
Sâtavähanas started the practice of land grants for religious services, is applied to several Vkaka kings in
but, in the new situation, its scope was
widened and land was granted an inscription of the fourth century. This title also in the occurs
records of the Pallavas, Kadambas and Western
for other types of services. Gangas.2 In the
Kali context, the epithet dharma-mahärja would indicate the obli-
It is significant that the dynastic genealogies given in the Puranas
these texts are familiar with gation of the king to establish and uphold the varna system which
stop in the early third century AD, and had been upset by the lower orders. A record of 529 shows the com-
the peripheral areas. The Puranas mention south Kosala in eastern
mitment of a Parivrjaka ruler to the establishment of the
Madhya Pradesh, in which early land grants appeared. The Maghas, varFá[rama
dharma.2 An Orissa land grant of the same century presents the
who ruled in the second and third centuries AD, between Bandhogarh
royal donor as free from the Kali evils."3 More importantly, the
in Madhya Pradesh and Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh with Kau[ mbi as
their centre of power, are mentioned in the Puranas; they are also
Väkaaka and other rulers of central and peninsular India appear
committed to the removal of all those ills which had afflicted the
associated with south Kosala' where land grants are found from
social system on account of the advent of the Kali age. The epithet
the fourth to the fifth centuries onwards.
Similarly, the region of Vidarbha, which abounds in Väkäaka kaliyuga-dosãvasanna-dharmodharana-nitya-samnaddhal" applied
to the Pallava king Simhavarman of the sixth century shows his
grants of the fourth and fifth centuries AD, is very well-known to the
cagerness to salvage dharma from the evils of the Kali age.
Malavikagnimitra of Klidsa. It is held that the Stavhana rule lasted A copper plate grant issued by the Pallava king Visnugopa in the
in this until AD 285,1 which corresponds to the
area
period to which twelfth year of his reiga records the gift of the village Nedungaraja in
the description of the Kali era is
assigned. Almost all the Sätavähana Mandaratra as Säranikagråmato several brahmanas. $arnikagräma
settlements excavated in Vidarbha and elsewhere,
the middle of the third
disappeared in means 'refugee-villagewhich was created, probably in the fifth
century AD or a little later. For this decline, century, to provide sheltertotroubled brahmanas, apparently from
there could have been external
causes, especially the shrinkage in
long-distance trade; nevertheless, the possibility of social conflicts
cannot be ruled out. The Puranas 120. Sel. Inscrr., 1. Bk u, no. 86, line 6.
were very well acquainted with the 121. Ibid., Bk , no. S9 with fn 8 on p. 431.
Andhra-bhrtya or jatiya/Sätavhana rulers whose number is usualy 122. Ibid., no. 50, line 10. The term used is varnásramadharma-sthâpaná-nirata.
123, Snigdha Tripathi, Inscriptions of Orissa, vol. I, no. 36, line:
118. For dynasties ruling 124. Sel. nscr., 1, Bk u, no. 67, line 13 with fns 9 and 10 on p. 470.
in the hird to fourth
centuries in the Deccan and
adjoining areas, seeA.M. Shastri, 125. B. Ch. Chhabra, N. Lakshminarayan Rao and M. Ashraf Hussain, Ten Years
Early Historyof the Deccan:
ProbIe
and
119. Ibid. Perspectives,
New Delhi,
Sundeep Prakashan, 1987, chs. I and ofIndian Epigraphy (193746)', Ancient indha, Bulletin
ofthe Archaeological
Survey ofIndia, no. 5, January 1949, p.
48.

.67
66
 INDIAN SOCIETY
MEDIEVAL
EARLY

The Kali Age: A Period

Nellore
of
district to which the grant belonan
In of Social Crisis
a neighbouring area was a clear conseau
brahmanisation ofthe village India. In the third century, the
this case, the
the fifth
nce vaishya dynasty of the Guptas may
of social disorder.
Similarly, a
Kadamba king
of ury is have appeared as a reaction against
oppressive rulers. Some leading
in the Kali age.0 However, thou vaishya families may have mobilised fellow vaishyas and set up their
said to have saved brahmanahood ugh
been used in the
third and fourth centuries D independent rule against payment of taxes to the
coercion may have
to existing princes
restore order, it is neither possible to pinpoint
the region nor the
ime Eventually this dynasty came to be validated and legitimatised by the
But the general descriptions of the
Kali in- the brahmanas as a ruling house which observed the varna and other
marked by disorder.
social crisis, possibly in the areas leso rules laid down in the Dharma[stras. It would be
texts do point to a state of deep interesting to look
for the origin of the Gupta
indoctrinated with the
brahmanical values and teachings. dynasty from this perspective. However,
since we repeatedly hear of sudra
Thus, it will appear that social conflicts, evident from the descrin. kings in the Kali age, the rise of the
in the peripheral area brahmana dynasties of the Nagas, Väktakas, Pallavas,
tion of the Kali age in the Puranas, appeared Gangas and
where the varna system was not so well established and the vestige Kadambas in the fourth to fifth centuries may indicate the culmination
of a movement against sudra domination.
of the tribal egalitarianism strong. Indoctrination for a much ger
Under Samudra Gupta began the practice of
time may have imbued the peasants and others with varna ideology [sana-yäcana in the
in the old, settled areas of the Ganga plains and thus, could prevent
early fourth century. Ssana, as shown in a later chapter, generally
came to mean royal order
them from rising in revolt against the state and the social order. But regarding land grant. Since secular char-
ters were renewable and did not assign land on a
protests also appeared in some rice-producing areas, for it is stated perpetual basis as
religious grants did, they were recorded on perishable material such
that oppressed with taxes and famine, people settled in wheat- and as the bark of the birch tree, pieces of cloth, wooden tablets and
barley-producing areas. 127 palm
leaves. As aresult, these have not survived in the moist Indian climate.
The reasons for the origin of land grants in the Ganga basin seem Besides the feudatories mentioned in the Allahabad
inscription,
to be different from those
operatinginthe peripheral areas. Epigraphic
evidence for land grants is first
many lesser chiefs and officials may have received charters (Ssana),
available in western Maharashtra. which have not survived. The right to rule in one's bhukti or
vi_aya
The object
here seems to have been to bring virgin land under culti- would naturally imply the right to collect taxes and to maintain an
vation. In a way it continues the janapada-nive[a or rural settlement army. This may very well be compared to the charters given to the
policy of Kautilya with a vital difference. Kauilya recommends that brahmanas to collect taxes and to maintain law and order in the
settlers should be drafted from the lower orders of villages granted to them. Thus, epigraphic evidence for contractual
the overpopulated
areas, but epigraphic land grants show that the obligations governing the relations between the lord and the vassal in
brahmanas and some
other members of the Madhyade[a is certainly as old as the first half of the fourth century,
higher varnas are imposed as landlords on the
existing population. As a result of social disorder, these became
and the practice may have started much earlier.
Except for the
frequent in the fourth and fifth centuries in central grants Nalanda land grant of Samudra Gupta,12" in the core part of the
Gupta
Deccan. and the India
empire, fourth century charters, secular or religious, have not been
The social crisis discovered so far. Nonetheless, the epigraphic reference to [sana-
seems to have started in the period between
1all of the the
KusFa power and the rise yãcana, or request for charters from Samudra Gupta, leaves no doubt
of the Gupta empire in nortn about the prevalence of the land grant system.
126. Sel. Inscr.,
I, 1, Bk u,
127. Vi_nu P., v.1. no. 69, verse 4. 128. CI, u, 1981, pp. 224-26.
38.

69
68
 INDIAN SOCIETY
EARLY MEDIEVAL
The Kali Age: A Period
of Social Crisis
to have continued
the Kali turmoil
seem :.

The reverberations of sea coast: kulam ca lavanmbhasah), and the

even later. The brahmanae
the fifth century and whole of the
e mid-Ganga plains till terai 135 These
statements Himalayan
and cultivators had to
leave this region. We have already referred clearly suggest that people migrated from
shelter in forests or viro:
thecentral area to peripheral areas almost in all
to people oppressed by
taxes seeking
will find no souree the Vindhyas and Himalayas and also towards directions, towards
areas.129 We are further told that when people
to the western coast.
the east and probably
country and lose all
means of support Whether the migration was led by the brahmanas
of livelihood in their own
or some others is not clear. But land
their kinsmen, bide time to desert theirland 30 grants made to the brahmanas in
they will, along with will the peripheral areas, in Gupta and post-Gupta times, indicate their
and hunger, these people carry thee
Later, tormented by fear migration along with artisans and cultivators who
ones on their shoulders
and take refuge on the banks of the accompanied such
younger colonisers.
Bihar or on the borders of north
Kausiki river, apparently in north
of settlements in certain areas in Evidently the process opened a new phase in rural expansion and
Bengal, where we find evidence state formation in the areas which were either virgin
Gupta times. Moreover, these
distressed people will migrate to Anga or sparsely
and Bhagalpur and also the neighbouring
nhabited. Improvised chiefs and princes placed in the brahmanical
(the districts of Monghyr social order seem to have sprung up in
part of West Bengal), Vanga (eastern Bengal), Kalinga coastal (the these areas. This may have
land between the Mahanadi and the Indravati or the Godavari), beentie cOnsequence of interaction between the internal dynamics
of the tribe on the
hand and external stimuli on the other. Such
one
Mekala (the Amarakantaka hill zone from where the Narmada rises)
and KashmirThey will also move to R_ika," the land lying
an interpretation be put on the statement that rakshasas in
can

the form of brahmanas would appear as kings and

between the Godavari and the Krishna. It is significant that this
region, which formed the core of Andhra Pradesh, nearly came into
the limelight between the second and fourth centuries AD when land
grants were made to Buddhists and brahmanas. The other place
mentioned in this context is Antagiridron+, 3* which implies that
people would migrate to the valleys situated on the boundaries of
the country. This might refer to the eastern and western ghats.
Furthermore, in the company of the mlecchas, people will settle
in the forests, the coastal area of the Luni river in Rajasthan (or the
129. Harivam[a, 117.23.
enjoy the field of
the country.136 This statement may apply to tribal chiefs who were
brahmanised and validated as rulers. Two oblique references may
be noted in this context. The earth is described as
becoming neither
deserted nor uninhabited, for both protectors and non-protectors
emerge as rulers.5" Non-protector or agoptrah may mean tribal
chiefs or similar people who set up new kingdoms in
comparatively
uninhabited zones. We further hear that the people who protect
themselves commit thefts and robberies for their own sake; their
behaviour is conditioned by the age in which they live, and they
emerge separately as rulers in different territories by establishing the
fiscal and administrative units called mandala. 38 These references

130.
svade[ebhyah paribhra_t nihasr saha bandhubhih, narstad bhavi_yanti
sarve kälapratiksinah. Ibid., 27.
131. tadã skandhe samdya 135. krtsnamca himavatpr[vam külam ca lavanmbhasah, aranyänica vatsyanti
kumrän pradrut bhayt kau[ik+m sam[rayvisyanu nar mlecchaganaih saha. Ibid., 30.
naräh k_udbhayap+ditäh. Ibid., 28.
132. 136. viprarüpFi raksmsi rjánah karnavedinah, prthivim upabhoksyantiyugnte
angnvangFkalingm[ ca k[mirán atha mekalän, rsikntagiridropl0 pratyupasthite. Ibid., 15.
sam[rayisyantimänavh, Ibid., 117.29. 137. naiva sünya cásüny bhavi_yati vasumdhará, goptära[cpy agoptärah
133. R_ika along with some other territories occurs in
of AD 149. Sel.
a Satavähana inscrpa prabhavisyanti säsinah. Ibid., 31.
Inscrr., I, Bk I, no,86, line 2. 138. svayampåläh svayam cor yugasambhârasam bhrth, mapdalaih
134. Harivam[a, 117.29. The term
situated on the borders of
rsikntagiridroih might also suggest valy prabhavisyanti de[e de[e prthakprthak. 1bid., 26.
R_ika.
71
70.
 MEDIEVAL INDIAN
SOCIETY
EARLY

imitative states in the The Kali Age: A Period of Social Crisis

formation of secondary, reasi
indicate the ha
of state organisation may or may not ve
which only the rudiments therefore, depicted as living on river banks and described as holding
the princes (rjnah)
could not
or mandalas could not appear
ans
up the flow of streams in order to obtain water. Al that has been
existed. Evidently base. Ihough the term mandala
of an agrarian said about the places of migration and the sources for the sustenance
without the support
we cannot be sure of its real of the refugees suggests two inferences.
Artha[ stra of Kau ilya, First, new areas _on the
occurs in the
for it o c c u r s only in late Gunta

presence
in the Maurya period, and periphery of the main Ganga heartland were brought under settlement
eastern and central India.
post-Gupta inscriptions
in
because ofinsecurity and oppressivetaxes inthelong setled core
expansion as a result of migration in the Kali areas. Second,though therefugeesor colonists hadto gather food
The problem ofrural
some attention, especialy in theightof thedescription fortheirsustenance initially, they gradually introduced cultivation.
age deserves With the knowledge they
of the sources of livelihood given in the Harivam[a. When this text possessed, they could easily _improve
of the people to Añga, Vanga, Kalinga, Rsika
methods of agriculture. Whether the mechanism of land grants to the
speaks ofthe migration brahmanas or purely local efforts contributed to this improvement
and Kashmir and mentions the retuwces
Mekala, mountain valleys is not indicated in the descriptions of the Kali. But land grants made
it also mentions sources
staying with the mlecchas inthe forests, will subsist on by the local chiefs were certainly an effective method of attracting
of their subsistence. It
states that people deer, fish
They would live honev.
on thebrahmanas to thOSE areas.
birds, dogs and all kinds of insects.
fruits and tubers." The munis or sages would fashion Large-scale migration wasanimportant phenomenon in the Kali
vegetables, age.
This is said of people in general and brahmanas in particular.
tree bark and goat
theirown dresses of leaves from the cira tree, Though the Jatakas also refer to people fleeing on account of royal
this description applies to a food gathering folk, those
hide. 4 Though with crafts and
oppression around the second to first centuries BC, migration became
who were compelledto gather food were acquainted common in the third and early fourth centuries AD to which the Kali
the iron ploughshare-based agriculture. They had been engaged in references belong. In later years, however, we also hear of massive
animal husbandry for long, and were great cattle raisers. In the new migrations of the peasants causing the dissolution of villages in the
situation, however, they domesticated goats, sheep, asses and camels seventeenth century in north India.
with great care; what is more important, they looked for seed- In dealing with the Kali crisis, coercion was coupled with con-
cession. It seems that defiance on the part of peasants, traders, artisans
resembling objects in low lands with the help of wooden digging
and labourers made it difficult to collect taxes. The normal practice
sticks. Perhaps in the absence of iron ploughshares they first
resumed cultivation with digging sticks, used by many aborigines till to bring the taxes, collected from peasants and others, to a central
times, pool and then disburse them as salaries to officials and gifts to
recent
But they were gradually able to produce cereals, tor priests failed to work. Hence it was necessary to evolve an alternative
they are represented as bartering ripe foodgrains (pakv nna)t
system. Manu, therefore, recommends that fiscal and administra-
seems that in these colonies they did not get water easily. They are,
tive officers should be paid by grants of land as salaries.46 The law
books of Gupta times prescribe land grants as rewards for valour. 47
139. Ibid., 117.28-30.
140. Ibid., 32.
141. Ibid. 145. nadisrotmsi rotsyanti toydrtham külama[ritäh, pakvännavya vahrena
142. Ibid., 37. vipapantah parasparam. Ibid.
143.
146. Manu Smyti, 7.118-9.
bijnámkrtim nimnevihante kástha[amkubhih, ajaidakam kharogiran Ca
147. Brhaspati quoted in Vyavaháramayakha, tr. P.v. Kane ands.G. Patwardhan,
pälayisyanti yatnatah. Ibid., 34. Bombay, 1933, pp. 25-27.
144. Ibid., 35.
73
72
 INDIAN SOCIETY
MEDIEVAL
EARLY

from the The Kali Age: A Period

have not been
recovered, cond cen- of Social Crisis
Though such grants the third andfourth centuries AD onwards, in the of the gravest sin, but this did not
and especiallyfrom
case
tury, services orfor acquiring s iritual apply to a kshatriya or
land grants
for religious. anyone else.3
The ideal of purity and poverty recommended for
numerous

these grants w e r e to last for ever

merit were
inscribed. Since they a brahmana in earlier times
was relaxed in the Kali
age.2
The
stone or
Such grants become
copper.
consideraki. Kalivarjyas imposed more rigidity on the brahmanas in matters of
recorded on
were the brahmanas are descrihed food and marriage.3
at a time
when oppressed with taxes, Sea voyage was not favoured for a brahmana
all directions in search
of security and livelihood Tt even in the
Baudhäyna Dharmasütra, a law book of pre-Christian
running in
as
settled areas the brahmanas went to the peripheral centuries.154 The Kalivarjyas forbade it for the other two varnas as
likely that from the well. This could be linked
welcomed by the new princes. to commercial decline in the initial phase
where they were of the
areas
social turmoil, when people were unwilling to pa early medieval period.
In a period of The features of the Kali age as described in the texts of the third
land grants can hardly be exaggerated. Land
taxes, the usefulness of and fourth centuries become
to religious parties on a large scale with administrative riphte meaningful only if they are examined
grants of collecting revenues and against the general background of the period. The period following
relieved the kings of the responsibility the age of the Ku_nas and Satavähanas and
law and order. The same purpose could be served by preceding
that of the
maintaining Guptas shows political instability and the decline of trade and towns.
secular parties. t was found no longer necessary to
grants made to Even inscriptions suggest a drive for more taxes. All this seriously
maintain a bureaucracy of the Maurya type, largely paid in metalic affected the old scheme of the varnas, which did not exactly suit the
were granted land to fend
money. Fiscal and administrative officials new situation.
Apparently the Kali accelerated the pace of transition
for themselves, and eventually emerged as powerful landed groups from the classical varna model to the modified one of a feudal
type.
with vested interests. Those who practised varFasamkara wanted to exchange
places in
the sudras. Land grants
The Kali crisis benefited certain sections of the existing social order; they never conceived of a system in which
i n tribal areasledto the assimilattonof aborigines in varnasociety
the social classes would be eliminated. They attacked property and

as sudras andmade them agricuturalists. The lawgivers adopteda privilege, but they did not foresee a society in which these two would

liberalattitudetowards somesections ofsudras and madetheir food disappear. Similarly, those who tried to restore the old classical varna
acceptable. promoted orthodoxy.
Nonetheless the Kali crisis also system based on birth and ritual failed to resurrect it in its pristine
purity. They found it necessary to rearrange and redistribute property
Certain practices were forbidden in the Kali era, and t+ey Were and
declared to be Kalivarjyas. Almost all the earlier Puranas are unaware privilege. They had to come to terms with many foreign and
of the practices prohibited in the Kali age.148 The Kalivarjyas first
indigenous chiefs who owed power not to legitimacy and kshatriya
origins but to valour and adventure in a period of social upheaval.
appear in the Brhaspati Smrti, a law book of the sixth century,Dut
Iind These were now accorded suitable rirualistic status and were
they are not too many. By the tenth or the eleventh century we
grudgingly called kshatriyas. Similarly, such brahmanas as came to
long lists of Kalivarjyas in later Puranas.
acquire land and political power came to be known as brahma-ksatra.
The Kalivarjyas added to the privileges of the brahmanas. 1ne
penance of death could not be imposed on a brahmana sinner eve 151. Ibid.. pp. 942-43.
152. Ibid., p. 55.
148. P.V. Kane, HDS, 1, 153. Ibid., p. 953.
p. 926.
49. Ibid. 154. Ibid., p. 933.
150. Ibid., p. 968.
75

74
 INDIAN SOCIETY
EARLY MEDIEVAL

appears to have taken placa

in the
fundamental change
A more
slaves and labourers, who seem
position of
agricultural have
The practice of employing slavesi agricul- THREE
been mostly sudras. times.155 On account of
declined in Gupta this factor
turalproduction aboriginal peasants in.
the practice of absorbing ociety
as well as
the sudras came to be considered
pea The Nature of Indian Feudalism
through land grants, n
post-Gupta texts. While the sudras were upgraded in this manner,
were downgraded by the creation of
the vaishya peasants landed
intermediaries who replaced royal ofticials in many areas for the

maintenance of order. Seen in its totalit

collection of taxes and
Kali crisis of the late third and fourth centuries acted as a catalysttfor
Indian
the feudalisation of
the Several scholars have
questioned the use of the term feudalism to
characterise the early medieval socio-economic
society. formation in India.
But thepoints raised by Harbans Mukhia deserve serious attention.
According to him, unlike capitalism, feudalism is not a universal
phenomenon. But in my view, tribalism, the stone age, the metal age
andthe advent of the food producing economy are universal pheno-
mena. They do indicate some laws
conditioning the process and
pattern of change.
Tribalism is universal and continues to be followed
by different
forms of state and class society. Tribal
society has many variations.
It can be connected with
any of the modes of subsistence such as

1. D.C. Sircar, Landlordism and

Tenancy in Ancient and Medieval India, 1969.
D.C. Sircar, 'A Chinese Account of India-732 AD', Journal
of Indian History
44, 1966, Pp. 351-57. D.C. Sircar, 'Review of Upendra Thakur, Mints and
Minting in India, Chowkhamba Publicatuons, Varanasi, 1972', Journal of
Ancient Indian History, 6, 1972-73, pp. 337-39; D.C. Sircar, ed. Land
System and Feudalism in Ancient india, Calcutta, University of Calcutta, 1966,
Pp. 11-23. Irfan Habid discusses Indian feudalism in his Presidential Address,
PIHC, 43rd Session, Kurukshetra, 1982. pp. 16-37.
2. Harbans Mukhia, "Was There Feudalism in Indian
History?, JPS, vol. 8, no. 3,
April 1981, pp. 273-310. In this paper Mukhia discusses the entire medieval
period, but the present chapter concems carly medieval times and first ap
peared as 'How Feudal was Indian Feudalism?' in JPS, vol. 12, nos. 2-3, 1985,
PP. 19-43. Mukhia's criticisms have been effectively met by B.N.S. Yadava
in his Presidential Address, Ancient India Section, PIHC, 4
1stSesion, Bombay
1980, pp. 17-78. In a similar address at the 40th Session held at Waltair, (PIHC
1979, pp. 13-45), D.N. Jha anticipated and answered many of these
objections. Also see Suvira Jaiswal 'Studies in Early lndian Social History',
R.S.
IHR, vol. 6, nos. 1-2, July 1979- January 1980. pp. 18-21.
D Sharma, Skdras in Ancient India, 1990, pp. 252-56; IF,
1980 p. 4,
17
76