New kings and kingdoms

New kings and kingdoms

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  NEW KINGS AND KINGDOMS -YOGITA GUPTA
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  EMERGENCE OF NEWDYNASTIES  By the seventh century there were big landlords or warrior chiefs in different of the subcontinent known as samantas or subordinates .  Samantas have to bring gifts for the kings and be present at there court and provide them with military support .  As samantas gained power and wealth, they declared themselves to be maha-samanta, maha-mandaleshvara (the great lord of a“circle” or region).  Dantidurga, a Rashtrakuta chief,overthrew his Chalukya overlord and performed a ritualcalled hiranya-garbha (literally, the golden womb). When this ritual was performed with the help of Brahmanas,it was thought to lead to the “rebirth” of the sacrificer asa Kshatriya, even if he was not one by birth.
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   In othercases, men from enterprising families used their military skills to carve out kingdoms. For instance, the Kadamba Mayurasharman and the Gurjara-Pratihara Harichandra were Brahmanas who gave up their traditional professions and took to arms, successfully establishing kingdoms in Karnataka and Rajasthan respectively.
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  ADMINISTRATION IN KINGDOMS Many of these new kings adopted high-sounding titlessuch as maharaja-adhiraja (great king, overlord of kings), Tribhuvan-chakravartin (lord of the three worlds)  Rents were claimed as a revenue from peasants , traders, cattle-keepers, artisans.  The inscriptions of the Cholas who ruled in Tamil Nadu refer to more than 400 terms for different kinds of taxes. The most frequently mentioned tax is vetti, taken not in cash but in the form of forced labour, and kadamai, or land revenue. There were also taxes on thatching the house, the use of a ladder to climb palm trees, a cess on succession to family property,
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  PRASHASTIS AND LANDGRANTS  These were composed by learned Brahmanas, who occasionally helped in the administration.  Kings often rewarded Brahmanas by grants of land. These were recorded on copper plates, which were give to those who received the land.  Unusual for the twelfth century was a long Sanskrit poem containing the history of kings who ruled over Kashmir. It was composed by an author named Kalhana.
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  PRASHASTIS AND LANDGRANTS
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  WARFARE FOR WEALTH One particularly prized area was the city of Kanauj in the Ganga valley. For centuries, rulers belonging to the Gurjara-Pratihara, Rashtrakuta and Pala dynasties fought for control over Kanauj. Because there were three “parties” in this long drawn conflict, historians often describe it as the “tripartite struggle”.  rulers also tried to demonstrate their power and resources by building large temples. So, when they attacked one another’s kingdoms, they often chose to target temples.
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  Warfare for wealthpart 2  One of the best known of such rulers is Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, Afghanistan. He ruled from 997 to 1030, and extended control over parts of Central Asia, Iran and the north-western part of the subcontinent. He raided the subcontinent almost every year – his targets were wealthy temples, including that of Somnath, Gujarat.  Much of the wealth Mahmud carried away was used to create a splendid capital city at Ghazni. He was interested in finding out more about the people he conquered, and entrusted a scholar named al-Biruni to write an account of the subcontinent. This Arabic work, known as the Kitab-al Hind, remains an important source for historians. He consulted Sanskrit scholars to prepare this account.
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  WARFARE FOR WEATHPART 3  Chahamanas, later known as the Chauhans, who ruled over the region around Delhi and Ajmer. They attempted to expand their control to the west and the east, where they were opposed by the Chalukyas of Gujarat and the Gahadavalas of western Uttar Pradesh. The best-known Chahamana ruler was Prithviraja III (1168-1192), who defeated an Afghan ruler named Sultan Muhammad Ghori in 1191, but lost to him the very next year, in 1192.
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  CHOLAS  A minorchiefly family known as the Muttaraiyar held power in the Kaveri delta. They were subordinate to the Pallava kings of Kanchipuram. Vijayalaya, who belonged to the ancient chiefly family of the Cholas from Uraiyur, captured the delta from the Muttaraiyar in the middle of the ninth century. He built the town of Thanjavur and a temple for goddess Nishumbhasudini there.  The successors of Vijayalaya conquered neighbouring regions and the kingdom grew in size and power. The Pandyan and the Pallava territories to the south and north were made part of this kingdom. The Chola kingdom and its neighbours Rajaraja I, considered the most powerful Chola ruler, became king in 985 and expanded control over most of these areas. He also reorganised the administration of the empire. Rajaraja’s son Rajendra I continued his policies and even raided the Ganga valley, Sri Lanka and countries of Southeast Asia, developing a navy for these expeditions.
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  CHOLAS PART 2 The big temples of Thanjavur and Gangaikonda- cholapuram, built by Rajaraja and Rajendra, are architectural and sculptural marvels.  In other words, temples were not only places of worship; they were the hub of economic, social and cultural life as well.  Amongst the crafts associated with temples, the making of bronze images was the most distinctive. Chola bronze images are considered amongst the finest in the world. While most images were of deities, sometimes images were made of devotees as well.
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  CHOLAS PART 3 that the river Kaveri branches off into several small channels before emptying into the Bay of Bengal. These channels overflow frequently, depositing fertile soil on their banks. Water from the channels also provides the necessary moisture for agriculture, particularly the cultivation of rice. Although agriculture had developed earlier in other parts of Tamil Nadu, it was only from the fifth or sixth century that this area was opened up for large-scale cultivation. Forests had to be cleared in some regions; land had to be levelled in other areas. In the delta region embankments had to be built to prevent flooding and canals had to be constructed to carry water to the fields. In many areas two crops were grown in a year.
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  cholas
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  THE END