Name Snigdha Mehra

Course and Semester History Honors (B), 3rd Semester

Paper History of India III

Roll No. 456

Q. Analyse the social changes taking place in the Early Medieval India.

ANSWER:

Early medieval India is often characterized as a period with major political shifts, like the
Indian feudalism school, and the emergence of Rajputs. But the period also marks
some major Social changes that have taken place. The early medieval India, and the
post-gupta period, saw major changes take place in the polity, economy and society
across the subcontinent. Some of these changes were a result of the land grant system
that gained popularity in the period. Before I try to summarize the social changes, we
must get a grasp of the economy of the period. As stated by R.S. Sharma, the period
saw a decline in trade, and a collapse of urban centres. He provides us with the
evidence of less coin hoards being found from the period. He points out the limited trade
outside the subcontinent, and a major shift towards agriculture. The Land Grant system,
like Bharamdeyas and devdanas, had increased in this period. These systems
increased the land under cultivation, and also limited the amount of trade taking place.
Since the polity was becoming increasingly localized, so were the practices. As regions
were brought under the plough, R.S. Sharma studies how urban centres and
urbanization as a process were on a decline. Trade was decreasing in popularity and
villages were becoming self-sufficient. As the state wasn't extremely centralized, and
the polity was instead very localized and land based, the feudalism school had
emerged. Noted by B.D. Chattopadhyaya, it was after Niharranjan Ray's classification of
what constitutes the medieval period, that the conversations surrounding Indian
feudalism gained momentum.

Moving onto the social changes that took place in the early medieval society, we first
come across the shift from the Centralized state to a more localized structure because
of land grants. This structure also led to the inclusion of tribes into the brahmanical
structure, as many of the land grants were religious in nature. Over here, R.S Sharma
points out at the number of people who were bound to the land. The agriculturists, for
example, when the land was given to a bhraman, would be transferred alongside the
land, in fact the whole village community would be given to the brahmans alongside the
rights over the land. This decentralization process is what would constitute a marker for
feudal society. Upinder Singh states that the Brahmadeya grants had created a class of
bhraman donees who enjoyed major rights over resources and village inhabitants. But
she also states how the relationship between the peasants in early medieval India is not
the same as that of European serfdom.
B.D. Chattopadhyaya states that the major processes that were taking place were
Transformation of tribes into Peasantry, caste proliferation, and cult appropriation. R.S.
Sharma helped us peek into the social segment a little better, he said, that the artisans
which were earlier involved in trade, and merchants, were now tied down to their lands
and had to serve their masters, other urban classes got absorbed into administrative
one, which of course had no interest in trading. Although, he adds that trade had not
died down everywhere, as over the coastline trade was still pushing through, but the
system wasn't as robust as before. In the Deccan and South india, these artisans were
also to work for the lavish temples that were built in the era.
R.S sharma states that as the Peasants and the Artisans were tied to the land, they
formed a closed economy regionally. This boundation had made them immobile and the
oppression by the beneficiaries inescapable. The only mobility, he says, was possible
for the soldiers in wars, priests for acquiring new lands, and pilgrims travelling to
religious shrines.

There were new social groups that were emerging out of this society, and they could not
be accommodated well enough into the existing four varna system. RS Sharma gives
the example of Kayasthas who had gained prominence because of the increase in land
grants and hence record keeping. Kayasthas were earlier a class of brahmins, who
would get employed within the system of record keeping, but by this time, they had
absorbed people from various varnas. This eventually led to the brahmanical texts not
favoring them. Kalhan in Rajtarangini also condemns them repeatedly. Rajputs are the
best example of social groups that had emerged in this time period. They were a class
of ruling elites, and a group that came to be formed by different varnas. As B.D
chattopadhyaya studies it, he says that they were later all consolidated as rulers under
the name of Rajputs, but originally not all of them were from royalty. Some of them were
Bhramans, whilst some also came from merchant ancestry. Over the course of years,
these lineages had established them at power through land expansion and investment
in irrigation (especially in the case of Gujaras and Ghillas, and some ruling lineages in
the Tamil Nadu region)
A decline of Vaishyas can also be observed. A class earlier marked as agriculturists and
merchants, now were diminishing in importance. Since new tribes were being added
into the state, some of them were classified as Shudras, and since landholdings now
had major influence over social status, we also notice how rich shudras rose to
dominance in agriculture and were very well off socially and economically. AlBiruni
stated that there was not much significant difference between shudras and vaishyas.
There were also mixed castes emerging, hence the intermingling of varnas also became
common. All this and more, led to the proliferation of castes. As castes were being
proliferated, one can also observe the emerging population of regional deities in
brahmanical religion. The areas now under brahmanical donees, or under bhramanized
rulers, would be appropriated into the Hindu religion, and their gods and goddesses
were absorbed as regional deities. There were principal deities, which were products of
brahmanical hinduism, and then there were other deities which were absorbed into the
system to make regional consolidation a smoother process. The proliferation happened
for all varnas alike, Brahmans in Bengal had more than 80 castes, and shudras had
triple digit numbers of castes.

The social structure in Early Medieval India was hence, a very complex structure which
stood in a flux. There were many economical changes, which were a result of and would
result in major political changes, all of this would affect the society and its structure, and
in turn the society would affect the economy and polity. Despite there being proliferation
of castes, the presence of hinduism was strong, and the hold it had on the society was
also very strong. Buddhism and Jainism also came to develop castes despite their anti
caste ideology. Hence the social changes in the Early Medieval period are a very vast
matter of study.