South Indian Polity Kingship and Council of Ministers

History of India – 1.11.2a

South Indian Polity – Kingship and Council of Ministers

(Transcription)

There is a distinction between the South Indian experience and the North Indian experience. In North India the republican states had their existence for a long period of time. But in South India we seldom find a reference of republican states. From the Ashokan inscriptions we find names of references of some ruling lineages in plural like the Satyaputras or the Keralputras and in Sangam classic which is considered to be the earliest stratum of the Tamil literature or language, there is reference of Talkudi i.e. the old people but these were not the kind of republican states of the North.

To explain this phenomenon T.V. Mahalingam who was a very eminent historian of South India says that among many other factors, this is precisely because of the variegated nature of the geographical locale of peninsular India. It was divided into many parts. People were divided, they were very far stretched and to protect themselves from the attacks of the robbers or from the foreign invasions they needed a very strong government, which was given by the monarchical states.

Even though the monarchical state was the predominant feature of the polity in South India but compared to the Roman experience, T.V. Mahalingam says that it was very different from the Roman Empire, because in Roman Empire there was the imposition of the lingua franca Latin all over the Roman Empire and imposition of a unified legal frame work, structure, which was not prevalent in South India.

There the locality was also very strong and there was a peculiar interaction between the central forces and the local forces where barring rule of few very powerful monarchs, the centrifugal forces were very dominant. This was the dominant feature of the South Indian polity between 600 and 900 AD, and there was the emergence of Three-cornered contest. Three very important very powerful kingdoms – 1) On the north-western side of the peninsula, is the Vatapichalukyans, 2) On the south-east portions it was the Pallavas of the Kanchi and 3) Far South it was the Pandyas of Madurai which emerged almost contemporaneously between 5th and 6th century.

Peninsular India

Pallava Polity

There were four distinct phases as found from the epigraphical sources of the Pallavamonarchy. The time frame that we focus mainly upon the Singha-Vishnu line which goes on up to ParameshwaraVarman II and then after his untimely death in a battle the throne was usurped by a person from the collateral branch that is the Nandi Varman II who was also known as the Nandi VarmanPallavamulla. These are two lines of the Pallava dynasty that are important here.

Then we would be focusing on the VatapiChalukyas, but by the time of Nandi VarmanPallavamulla’s reign was coming to an end already the Chalukyans they were eclipsed by the rise of new dynasty that is the Rashtrakutas and by the same time the resurgent Pandyas now they were also under the leadership of Rajashimha. He was trying to penetrate the southern portions of the Pallava kingdom.

The dominant feature of the political development was continuous struggle between primarily the Chalukyans and the Pallavas where the Pandyans though not a second fiddle, they were also playing a very significant role in the development of polity. The Mahakuta inscriptions of Mangalesh who was the regent after the death of KirtiVarman, taking the place because Pulakesin II, he was an infant by that time, actually refers to the incipient struggle which was beginning because there is reference that he has defeated the DramilaCholiyas which means that they have already started infiltrating into the deep south where later the Pallavas tried to infiltrate.

The second ruler after Simha-Vishnu, MahendraVarman II who was very famous because of his many faceted genius, his rule was notably peaceful which was devoted to other peace time activities like poetry, temple-building etc. But the successor, NarasimhaVarman actually defeats and possibly killed Pulakesin II and had occupied Vatapi which gave him the epithet Vatapikonda that means the conqueror of Vatapi.

Later during ParameshvaraVarman it was the time for the Chalukyans to take revenge and Vikramaditya, attacked the Pallavas consecutively and occupied Kanchi. Though there are references in Kuram Copper Plate inscriptions of the Pallavas that he was defeated, his forces were forced out from the Pallava country, but the struggle went on with almost monotonous regularity.

A new factor was added when the Pandyans also started taking interest and when ParameshwaraVarman II was killed by 728 AD and there was a considerable confusion of succession in the Pallava throne, when Vikramaditya was actually espousing the cause of Chitramoy who was the ruler of the ParameshwaraVarman lineage, then a person from a collateral branch, that is Nandi Varman II, i.e. Pallavamalla, he came to throne, but he was heavily under siege which was raised only by the able assistance from his general Udaychandra. It was only because of the exertions of Udaychandra that finally Nandi Varman II Pallavamalla could ascend the throne.

But it does not mean that it was only the three powers were playing between themselves. There were many other minor feudatory chieftains who also assisted different groups, different dynasties and they also played a very significant role in the development of the political struggle.

The King

If the monarchical system is taken as the predominant feature, the role of the king becomes the most important one. The king was ruling and generally the rule was of hereditary succession though it would be very difficult to say that primogeniture was the predominant rule because the history of this period shows that there were several changes within the succession. For instance when KirtiVarman dies, Pulakesin as he was an infant, the charge of the kingdom was given to Mangalesh. But when Pulakesin attained the age, Mangalesh was not ready to deliver the kingdom to Pulakesin and this led to a kind of struggle in which it is said that the public opinion was in favour of Pulakesin and he could defeat Mangalesh.

But when ParameshVarman died, then altogether new person from collateral branch, Nandi Varman II Pallavimalla, usurps the power. This is found from the temple frieze of Vaikunthaperumal Temple where a kind of partisan statement (because the temple was built by Nandi Varman II Pallavimalla and obviously it was Nandi Varman II Pallavimalla’s version which was given the credence while making those temple friezes) which shows that the person comes from a far away place and acquires the throne though there was a rival claimant that is Chitramoy, whose cause was espoused by the Chalukyan king.

Title of Kings

When the king ascended the throne he usually took some high sounding titles which was the general feature of the early medieval period. For instance the Pallavas used to assume the title of Maharajadhiraja. But it is not just a simple title of Maharajadhiraja, but there were several other things.

At the time of coronation, they were generally conferred with a new title which was known as the Abhisekanama and then there were several other titles which were known as the Birudas. It is said that some of the Pallava kings had hundreds of titles. Lastly there were several titles which they got because of their activities, because of their success in battle. For instance when Pulaksin II could successfully stall the invasion of Harshavardhana, he took the title of Parameshvara. So the general title of the Chalukyan king Sri PithivivallabhMaharajadhiraja went through a slow accretion in which these later titles Paramesvara and Parambhattaraka were later attached to the title and that gives us the whole title of ‘Sri PithivivallabhaParamesvaraParambhattaraka’.

In the case of the Pallavan kings also the same thing happens. There was a very long title that was given to them.

Council of Ministers

When the king is ruling, he is being assisted by a battery of functionaries, the councillors or the ministers. The picture is not very clear but there are references in the Pallava inscriptions as well as the Chalukyan inscriptions of some Prime Ministers or Chief Ministers.

Name of a particular person Namba appears in the inscriptions of Nandi Varman II and it is said that he is a successor of a very illustrious minister who was possibly the minister of a very early Pallava king. It shows that the ministership, the Chief Ministership or the Prime Ministership actually goes through a kind of hereditary succession; the ministers also came from the same family. But it is not just the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister but there are several other functionaries whose titles also appear in the inscriptions. For instance, in the Pallava inscriptions as well as the Chalukyan inscriptions we find reference of a title Rahasyadhikrita which means a kind of close confidante who generally used to take notes of the royal orders which were proclaimed orally and then it was committed to writing and these written instructions are found in the inscriptions.

From the Chalukyan inscriptions it was the general practice that the Copper Plate inscriptions at the very end generally had the name of the person who has committed the whole order into the written form and there the title Sandhivigrahika appears. This Sandhivigrahika, was the person in charge of warfare as well as peace, a kind of role that the modern foreign minister would assume. These persons were responsible for committing the royal oral order generally known as the Kon-olai into the written format.

These people assisted the king or played a very significant role as it is very clear from another title (which also appears in the inscriptions) known as Ajnapti. Ajnapti are those people who take care of committing or translating the kings orders of his wishes into action. So these people, the Rahasyadhikrita, the Sandhivigrahika they were playing a significant role as the ministers.

A kind of secretariat, which assisted the king that is found in the subsequent Chola period is absent from the Pallava or the Chalukyan inscriptions. But it is very certain that some people they were assisting the king and the king depended on them.

Apart from these Sandhivigrahika, the minor poets who were writing the Prashastis for the king, (for instance in Tandantotam Inscriptions of Nandi Varman II) name of the person who wrote the Sanskrit verse, his name is given as ParameshwaraUttarakaranika, who is the son of a Paramuttarakarnika. Karanika(in charge of Karan that is the secretariat) name appears and from the title Karanika, Uttarakaranika, Paramuttarakarnika it shows that there was a kind of hierarchy of the functionaries. There was a kind of role division in which from the lower rank i.e. Karanika, then Uttarakaranika and finally the Paramuttarakarnika.

It is notable that in the Tamil country the person, the village accountant his official title is Karanam and possibly this Karanam comes from the Karanika, i.e. in charge of the secretariat or the ministerial, at least the scribal functions of the state. So these are the two things, one king and another his ministerial support.

King’s Orders

The king issued oral orders which were noted by officials such as the ‘Rahasyadhikrita’ or ‘VayilKelpar’ and implemented by ‘Nattarakanga’.

The king was the fountain head, he issued the order, an oral order and then it was taken down by his close confidante who is referred to as the Rahasyadhikrita. In the Pallava inscriptions there is another kind of title which is known as the VayilKelpar. Some of the historians say this VayilKelpar is almost identical with the later reincarnation of Tiruvaykkelvi or Tiruvandiraolinayakam. But we are not very confident about the relationship or the identical nature of these two persons. But the royal order emanates from the king, it is transformed into writing, it goes to the locality, it is now addressed to a particular person Nattarakanga and then he takes the follow up action of removing the old inhabitants and giving it to the donee.

For doing these things one thing done at the very outset was detailed land survey.

Elaborate Land Survey

It is very clear from some of the information gathered from the Pallava inscriptions that a survey of the village land was done. For instance in the Uruvarpalli grant it is said that the particular village which had 200 nivartanas of land and then a detailed mapping in words is given in the inscription. The land lies in the south of a river, on the north there is a hillock and this follows.

The map of the particular land that is mentioned in the Uruvarpalli grant can be found in the book written by C Meenakshi. There we can have detailed instruction that is being given, which is emanating from Kanchi and goes to the locality. But the king knows every detail of the land, what lies to the south, what lies to the north, what lies to the east.

So this kind of detailed land survey was one of the distinctive features of the administrative setup and this gave the King the knowledge about what kind of land that he was administering.

There were several other features also that show that the royal administration though almost all historians accept that the central power, the ruling dynasty was not that very invasive in its nature and left many a things to the local initiative. But the inscriptions of the Chalukyans show that whenever there was a dispute, whenever there was a kind of problem arising, the central government obviously had to intervene. They intervened and then their word was the final decision on the basis of which the local administration went.

So it will be very difficult to say that the central government stayed away as the later historians, like Burton Stein say that there was a kind of hiatus between the central government and the local administration.