Kings, Farmers, and Towns: Early States and Economies

Early Indian History: Key Developments (c. 600 BCE-600 CE)

Overview

The period of 1,500 years after the Harappan civilization saw significant developments across the Indian subcontinent.
The Rigveda was composed during this time by people along the Indus River and its tributaries.
Agricultural settlements emerged in North India, the Deccan Plateau, and parts of Karnataka.
Pastoral populations existed in the Deccan and further south.
New methods of disposing of the dead, like megaliths, arose in central and south India from the first millennium BCE, often with iron tools and weapons.
From the 6th century BCE, early states, empires, and kingdoms emerged.
These political changes were accompanied by reorganized agricultural production and the rise of new towns.
Historians use inscriptions, texts, coins, and visual materials to understand these developments, acknowledging that sources don't always tell the whole story.

Prinsep and Piyadassi

In the 1830s, James Prinsep deciphered Brahmi and Kharosthi, scripts used in early inscriptions and coins.
Most inscriptions mentioned a king called Piyadassi ("pleasant to behold"), identified with Asoka, a famous ruler from Buddhist texts.
This discovery guided investigations into early Indian political history, using inscriptions and texts in various languages to reconstruct dynasties.
By the early 20th century, the basic outline of political history was established.
Scholars then shifted to studying the context of political history, examining links between political, economic, and social changes, recognizing that these links were not always straightforward.

The Earliest States

The 6th century BCE is considered a major turning point due to early states, cities, iron use, and coinage development.
It also saw the rise of Buddhism and Jainism.
Early Buddhist and Jaina texts mention sixteen states known as mahajanapadas.
Important mahajanapadas included Vajji, Magadha, Koshala, Kuru, Panchala, Gandhara, and Avanti.
Most were ruled by kings, but some (ganas or sanghas) were oligarchies where power was shared by multiple men (rajas).
Mahavira and the Buddha belonged to such ganas.
Some states like the Vajji sangha collectively controlled resources.
Each mahajanapada had a fortified capital city.
Maintaining these cities, armies, and bureaucracies required resources.
From around the 6th century BCE, Brahmanas composed Sanskrit Dharmasutras, establishing norms for rulers to be Kshatriyas (warrior class), who should collect taxes and tribute from cultivators, traders, and artisans.
Raids on neighboring states were a legitimate way to gain wealth.
Some states developed standing armies and bureaucracies, while others relied on militias from the peasantry.

Magadha's Rise to Power

Between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, Magadha (in present-day Bihar) became the most powerful mahajanapada.
Reasons for Magadha's power included productive agriculture, access to iron mines (in present-day Jharkhand), elephants in the forests, and convenient communication via the Ganga and its tributaries.
Buddhist and Jaina writers attributed Magadha's power to ambitious kings like Bimbisara, Ajatasattu, and Mahapadma Nanda, and their ministers.
Initially, Rajagaha (present-day Rajgir in Bihar) was Magadha's capital, a fortified settlement among hills.
Later, in the 4th century BCE, the capital shifted to Pataliputra (present-day Patna), controlling communication routes along the Ganga.

The Mauryan Empire

The growth of Magadha led to the Mauryan Empire.
Chandragupta Maurya founded the empire around 321 BCE, extending control to Afghanistan and Baluchistan.
His grandson Asoka conquered Kalinga (present-day coastal Orissa).

Sources for Mauryan History

Historians use archaeological finds, especially sculpture, to reconstruct the Mauryan Empire's history.
Contemporary works, such as Megasthenes' account (Greek ambassador to Chandragupta Maurya's court), survive in fragments.
The Arthashastra, partly composed by Kautilya or Chanakya (Chandragupta's minister), is another source.
Buddhist, Jaina, and Puranic literature, as well as Sanskrit literary works, mention the Mauryas.
Asoka's inscriptions (c. 272/268-231 BCE) on rocks and pillars are valuable sources.
Asoka used inscriptions to proclaim his understanding of dhamma, including respect for elders, generosity to Brahmanas and those who renounced worldly life, kindness to slaves and servants, and respect for other religions and traditions.

Administering the Empire

The empire had five major political centers: Pataliputra (capital) and the provincial centers of Taxila, Ujjayini, Tosali, and Suvarnagiri.
Asokan inscriptions with the same message were found across a vast area.
It's unlikely the empire had a uniform administrative system due to its diversity.
Administrative control was strongest around the capital and provincial centers.
Taxila and Ujjayini were on long-distance trade routes, while Suvarnagiri was important for gold mines in Karnataka.
Communication along land and river routes was vital.
Journeys from the center to the provinces took weeks or months, requiring provisions and protection.
The army was important for ensuring protection, coordinated by a committee with six subcommittees (navy, transport/provisions, foot-soldiers, horses, chariots, elephants), as mentioned by Megasthenes.
Asoka propagated dhamma to hold the empire together, appointing special officers (dhamma mahamatta) to spread the message.

Importance of the Empire

In the 19th century, the Mauryan Empire's emergence was considered a major landmark.
Indian historians found the idea of an early Indian empire challenging and inspiring.
Archaeological finds, including stone sculpture, were considered examples of spectacular art.
Asoka's inscriptions were seen as different from those of other rulers, suggesting Asoka was more powerful, industrious, and humble.
Nationalist leaders in the 20th century regarded him as an inspiring figure.
However, the Mauryan Empire lasted only about 150 years and did not encompass the entire subcontinent.
Control within the empire was not uniform.
By the 2nd century BCE, new chiefdoms and kingdoms emerged.

New Notions of Kingship

Chiefs and Kings in the South

New kingdoms emerged in the Deccan and further south, including the Cholas, Cheras, and Pandyas in Tamilakam, proving stable and prosperous.
Chiefs are powerful men whose position may or may not be hereditary, deriving support from kinfolk.
Their functions include performing rituals, leading in warfare, and arbitrating disputes.
They receive gifts from subordinates (unlike kings who collect taxes) and distribute them among supporters.
Chiefdoms generally lack regular armies and officials.
Information about these states comes from sources like early Tamil Sangam texts, which contain poems describing chiefs and their resource acquisition and distribution.
Many chiefs and kings, including the Satavahanas (who ruled parts of western and central India) and the Shakas (from Central Asia), derived revenues from long-distance trade.
Their social origins were often obscure, but they attempted to claim social status once they gained power.

Divine Kings

One way to claim high status was to identify with deities.
The Kushanas (c. 1st century BCE-1st century CE), who ruled a vast kingdom from Central Asia to northwest India, exemplify this strategy.
Their history is reconstructed from inscriptions and textual traditions, with their coins and sculpture evidencing their notions of kingship.
Colossal statues of Kushana rulers have been found installed in shrines, suggesting they considered themselves godlike.
Many Kushana rulers adopted the title devaputra (“son of god”), possibly inspired by Chinese rulers.
By the 4th century, larger states, including the Gupta Empire, emerged.
Many depended on samantas, men who maintained themselves through local resources, including land control.
They offered homage and military support to rulers.
Powerful samantas could become kings, while weak rulers could be reduced to subordination.
Histories of the Gupta rulers have been reconstructed from literature, coins, and inscriptions, including prashastis (poems in praise of kings).
Historians extract factual information from these compositions, but they were mainly valued as poetry.

A Changing Countryside

Popular Perceptions of Kings

Inscriptions don't reveal what subjects thought about their rulers.
Ordinary people rarely left accounts of their thoughts and experiences.
Historians examine stories in anthologies such as the Jatakas and the Panchatantra to understand popular perceptions.
These stories likely originated as popular oral tales.
The Jatakas, written in Pali around the middle of the first millennium CE, describe the plight of subjects under wicked kings, including elderly people, cultivators, herders, village boys, and animals.
People were attacked by robbers at night and tax collectors during the day.
To escape, people abandoned their villages and lived in the forest.
The relationship between kings and subjects, especially the rural population, could be strained due to high taxes.
Escaping into the forest was an option, and strategies to increase production to meet tax demands were adopted.

Strategies for Increasing Production

One strategy was the shift to plough agriculture, which spread in fertile alluvial river valleys like those of the Ganga and the Kaveri from around the 6th century BCE.
Iron-tipped ploughshares were used to turn the alluvial soil in areas with high rainfall.
In some parts of the Ganga valley, paddy production dramatically increased through transplantation, which required back-breaking work.
While the iron ploughshare led to higher agricultural productivity, its use was limited to certain parts of the subcontinent.
Cultivators in semi-arid areas like parts of Punjab and Rajasthan didn't adopt it until the 20th century.
Those in hilly tracts practiced hoe agriculture.
Another strategy was irrigation through wells, tanks, and less commonly, canals.
Communities and individuals organized the construction of irrigation works, often recorded in inscriptions.

Differences in Rural Society

While these technologies increased production, the benefits were uneven.
There was a growing differentiation among people engaged in agriculture, with landless agricultural laborers, small peasants, and large landholders.
The term gahapati was used to designate the second and third categories.
Large landholders and village headmen emerged as powerful figures, controlling other cultivators.
Early Tamil literature mentions large landowners (vellalar), ploughmen (uzhavar), and slaves (adimai).
These differences were based on unequal access to land, labor, and new technologies.
Control over land became crucial, as discussed in legal texts.

Land Grants and New Rural Elites

From the early centuries of the Common Era, land grants were made, recorded in inscriptions on stone or copper plates.
The records usually concern grants to religious institutions or Brahmanas, mostly in Sanskrit.
From the 7th century onwards, inscriptions were partly in Sanskrit and partly in a local language like Tamil or Telugu.
Prabhavati Gupta, daughter of Chandragupta II, was married into the Vakataka family.
Despite Sanskrit legal texts saying women shouldn't have independent access to resources, she had access to land, which she granted.
This may have been because she was a queen or because legal texts were not always followed.
Rural populations included Brahmanas, peasants, and others who provided produce to the king or his representatives and obeyed the new lord of the village.
Land grants have been found in several parts of the country, with regional variations in size and rights given to the recipients.
The impact of land grants is debated: some see them as a strategy to extend agriculture, while others see them as indicative of weakening political power.

Towns and Trade

New Cities

Urban centers emerged across the subcontinent from around the 6th century BCE.
Many were capitals of mahajanapadas.
Major towns were located along communication routes.
Pataliputra was on riverine routes, Ujjayini was along land routes, and Puhar was near the coast.
Cities like Mathura were bustling centers of commercial, cultural, and political activity.

Urban Populations: Elites and Craftspersons

Kings and ruling elites lived in fortified cities.
A wide range of artifacts, including fine pottery bowls and dishes (Northern Black Polished Ware), ornaments, tools, weapons, and vessels made of gold, silver, copper, bronze, ivory, glass, shell, and terracotta, have been recovered from these sites.
By the 2nd century BCE, short votive inscriptions in cities mentioned the names and occupations of donors, including washing folk, weavers, scribes, carpenters, potters, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, officials, religious teachers, merchants, and kings.
Guilds (shrenis) of craft producers and merchants are also mentioned.
These guilds likely procured raw materials, regulated production, and marketed finished products.
Craftspersons used iron tools to meet the demands of urban elites.

Trade in the Subcontinent and Beyond

From the 6th century BCE, land and river routes crisscrossed the subcontinent and extended in various directions.
Overland routes led into Central Asia, and overseas routes connected ports to East and North Africa, West Asia, Southeast Asia, and China.
Rulers tried to control these routes, possibly offering protection for a price.
Traders included peddlers on foot, merchants with caravans, and seafarers.
Successful merchants (masattuvan in Tamil, setthis and satthavahas in Prakrit) became wealthy.
Goods traded included salt, grain, cloth, metal ores, stone, timber, and medicinal plants.
Spices (especially pepper), textiles, and medicinal plants were in high demand in the Roman Empire.

Coins and Kings

Exchanges were facilitated by the introduction of coinage.
Punch-marked coins made of silver and copper (from the 6th century BCE) were among the earliest to be minted and used.
These have been found at various sites across the subcontinent.
Numismatists have studied these coins to reconstruct commercial networks and identify symbols with ruling dynasties like the Mauryas.
Merchants, bankers, and townspeople may have also issued coins.
The first coins to bear the names and images of rulers were issued by the Indo-Greeks, who established control over the northwest in the 2nd century BCE.
The Kushanas issued the largest hoards of gold coins from the 1st century CE, similar in weight to those issued by Roman emperors and Parthian rulers.
The widespread use of gold coins indicates valuable transactions.
Roman coins have been found in archaeological sites in south India, showing trade connections beyond political boundaries.
Tribal republics like the Yaudheyas of Punjab and Haryana issued coins, indicating their participation in economic exchanges.
The Gupta rulers issued impressive gold coins, facilitating long-distance transactions.
From the 6th century CE, finds of gold coins decreased, leading to debate among historians about a possible economic crisis.

Back to Basics: How Are Inscriptions Deciphered?

Deciphering Brahmi

Most scripts used to write modern Indian languages are derived from Brahmi, used in most Asokan inscriptions.
From the late 18th century, European scholars, with the help of Indian pandits, compared contemporary Bengali and Devanagari manuscripts with older specimens.
Scholars initially assumed early inscriptions were in Sanskrit, but they were in Prakrit.
James Prinsep deciphered Asokan Brahmi in 1838 after decades of investigations.

How Kharosthi Was Read

The decipherment of Kharosthi, used in inscriptions in the northwest, was different.
Coins of Indo-Greek kings, who ruled the area in the 2nd-1st centuries BCE, helped.
These coins had the names of kings in Greek and Kharosthi scripts.
European scholars who could read Greek compared the letters.
Prinsep identified the language of the Kharosthi inscriptions as Prakrit, allowing longer inscriptions to be read.

Historical Evidence from Inscriptions

Asokan inscriptions don't mention the name Asoka but use titles like devanampiya (“beloved of the gods”) and piyadassi (“pleasant to behold”).
The name Asoka is mentioned in other inscriptions that also contain these titles.
Epigraphists concluded that the inscriptions were issued by the same ruler based on content, style, language, and palaeography.
Historians assess statements in inscriptions to judge their truth and plausibility.
Epigraphists add words within brackets to clarify the meaning of sentences.

The Limitations of Inscriptional Evidence

Epigraphy has limits: letters may be faintly engraved, inscriptions may be damaged, and the meaning of words may be unclear.
Scholars debate alternative ways of reading inscriptions.
Not all discovered inscriptions have been deciphered, published, and translated.
Many inscriptions have not survived.
What is available is only a fraction of what was inscribed.
Inscriptions primarily focus on grand events and the perspectives of those who commissioned them, not on routine agricultural practices or daily life.
Epigraphy alone does not provide a full understanding of political and economic history.
Historians question both old and new evidence.
Scholars in the late 19th and early 20th centuries focused on the histories of kings.
From the mid-20th century, issues like economic change and the emergence of different social groups became more important.
Recent decades have seen a greater focus on the histories of marginalized groups.
This will likely lead to new investigations of old sources and the development of new strategies of analysis.