Historical Atlas of South India - Timeline

Timeline

This Historical Atlas aims at presenting cartographically the entire range of the human history of south India from pre-historic times to 1600 CE. South India is recognized as a complex region with diverse physical, social and cultural components. For convenience’s sake the area covered by the four present-day linguistically defined states of Andhra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala may be taken as the macro-region of south India. But in tracing the human development the boundaries cannot be treated as rigid and fixed once for all. Moreover due to the vastness of the study area, the historical characteristics of the region are bound to vary from area to area at sub-regional level. Considered at the macro-regional level, the history of south India is broadly divided into eight periods on the basis of some salient technological, social and cultural features. Though there would be much overlapping among the different contiguous periods both at the macro-regional level and sub-regional levels, this periodization is necessary to understand the cumulative historical changes.

Old Stone Age 500,000-3000 BCE

The first of the eight periods relates to the Old Stone Age, which occupies a long duration of human existence on the earth. Within the Indian sub-continent it is traced from about 500,000 years to 3000 BCE. Geographically this period coincides with the middle and late Pleistocene periods and was marked with much climatic changes with alternating arid, semi-arid and moist phases. Given the slow development of man, his mastery of the nature was very slow over this long duration. For most part of the lower Palaeolithic stage, man lived close to river valleys with sparse forest cover or in grassland environments. The population density was very low and actually so far only two localities of this lower Palaeolithic culture are so far known in south India namely Upper Krishna valley in Karnataka and Attirampakkam valley about 50 kilometres to the northwest of Chennai (Madras) in Tamil Nadu, though some of the tools are met with now and then in a few other localities. The man at this stage was mostly a hunter using large-sized stone tools such as handaxes and choppers.

An analogy with African sites shows that this man is supposed to belong to the species of Homo Erectus. The real ancestor of modern man (Homo Sapiens Sapiens) who appeared around 50,000 years before present was a more developed species who could fabricate thinner flake tools and blade-like tools using a variety of stones. From about 10,000 years before present, still smaller tools called Microlithic tools were made. These small tools could be used as compound tools for various purposes. During this period man inhabited varying environments in open terrains, near foothills, and on seacoasts. Besides, he also started to live in semi-permanent dwellings in natural rock-shelters, where we find the display of his aesthetic instincts in the form of rock painting and etchings. At this stage he was not only a hunter-gatherer, he also took to fishing. Also he cared for his dead by giving them some ritual burials. There is also evidence for some incipient religious cults in the communities.

New Stone Age 3000-1000 BCE

Socio-Economic

This period marks an important technological development when much care was taken to make the stone tools in finer shapes by grinding and polishing. For the first time some storage vessels were made using clay. Also first experiments were made to cultivate grains on a small scale. Cattle and sheep were domesticated. That is, the Neolithic man had more than one avenue of getting his subsistence, hunting being just one among the many. More areas were begun to be occupied by man in several parts of Indian sub-continent but in different times, starting at the earliest in 7000 BCE in Baluchistan (Pakistan) and from 3000 BCE onwards elsewhere. In the south the Neolithic period had its advent around 2500 BCE. The Neolithic stage man lived mostly on small flat hills or on the foothills in small, more or less permanent settlements but for periodical transhumance for grazing purposes.

Cultural

He gave his dead kin proper burials within urns or pits. His aesthetic sense can be appreciated in the form of rock-art found near or within the rock-shelters. In certain localities Neolithic man was also using limited copper for making certain tools of weapons. Hence this age gets the name Neolithic-Chalcolithic age too.

Megalithic Age 1000-300 BCE

Socio-Economic

This is the time when man started using iron, a better metal harder than copper, for making tools and weapons. In India, there is evidence in several localities to say that this age started from about 1100 BCE or a little earlier. Unlike in north India, the Iron Age culture in peninsular India is marked by Megalithic burial sites, which are found in several hundreds of places. For the first time most of south India is studded with Iron Age sites; in other words, most of the macro-region, from Nagpur in the north to Kanyakumari in the extreme south was populated by the Iron Age folk during the course of the first millennium BCE. Still there is much to be learnt regarding the chronology of these sites. On the basis of some excavations, and on the basis of the typology of the burial monuments, it has been suggested that there was a gradual spread of the Iron Age sites from the north to the south. The southern sites are therefore considered chronologically later than the northern sites.

The megalithic burials are so called due to their construction using large-sized stones, natural boulders or quarried slabs. But there is quite a variety among these burials. Though some of them do not have any associated stone structures, they are also considered as ’Megalithic’ on the basis of their other common cultural material like iron tools and weapons, pottery, etc. The most accepted classification of burials on the basis of their structure is as follows (Allchin 1996: pp. 331-33):

(A) Large urns, often pyriform, containing collected bones previously excarnated, and buried in a small pit, marked in some cases by a stone circle or small capstone or both. The pits, and sometimes the urn itself, often contain grave goods. Urn burials of this sort are common on the eastern coastal plains, and have a wide distribution elsewhere.

(B) Legged urns and legged pottery sarcophagi, the latter sometimes with an animal’s head, are less frequently found but have a fairly wide distribution. Sarcophagi without legs also occur.

(C) Pit circle graves, of which several examples were excavated at Brahmagiri, in which the body had evidently been placed on a wooden bier in a large open pit and exposed, perhaps to allow for excarnation. Grave goods are found in the pits, and a stone circle is erected round the circumference.

(D) Cist graves. Of these there is a great variety. The stone cists are usually of granite slabs, sometimes with portholes, variously oriented. The cists may be deeply buried in pits, partly buried, or erected upon the bare rock surface. Some cists are compartmented and have several separate chambers: in some instances a separate slab resting on four stones suggests a bed. The capstones may be single or multiple. Many different arrangements of burial — both single and multiple — are found, and grave goods were placed both within and around the cists. In some cases a ramp below ground level leads down to the porthole entrance and a slab door has covered this. The cist is usually marked by a stone circle or on occasion by a double or treble circle.

(E) In the Malabar coastal laterites small rock-cut chambers are found sometimes approached by an entrance from above and covered with a capstone. Some of these chambers have vaulted roofs.

(F) One further monument associated with the graves and belonging to the Iron Age is the stone alignment comprising carefully oriented rows of standing stones set in a square of diagonal plan. The standing stones are generally from 1. 5 to 2. 4 metres in height but occasionally examples of over six metres are recorded. Small alignments have been reported with as few as three rows of three stones, four rows of four, five rows of five, etc, but large diagonal alignments with sometimes many hundreds of standing stones are reported from Gulbarga district. These monuments are so far mainly distributed in the Central Deccan, in the districts to the south of Hyderabad.

An intriguing aspect of the megalithic burials is the very rare occurrence of associated habitations and even in the case of the available habitations; the evidence suggests their existence for a short duration only. Perhaps the authors of these burials were mostly pastoralists leading a semi-nomadic life. It is therefore from the grave goods found in the various burials that most of the information relating to the society and culture of this period is obtained. The magnitude of the burials would suggest that fairly big communities were living together, which may be characterized as clans. There was a sort of ranking, the clan or lineage chiefs occupying the superior positions. Warfare was quite prevalent in the society as revealed by the large number of weapons in the grave goods. Iron implements would indicate that agriculture was also an important component of the livelihood of the megalithic people, besides of course the pastoral activities.

Iron technology was highly developed and shows a high degree of uniformity through the length and breadth of peninsular India. Both iron tools and weapons show quite a variety. The tools that could be used for a variety of agricultural and other purposes included axes with crossed iron bands for hafting, varieties of flanged spade, hoes, pick axes, sickles or bill-hooks, wedges and crowbars, knives, chisels, and adzes. The weapons were daggers, swords, arrowheads, spearheads, and tridents. Horse furniture like snaffle bits and stirrup was also conspicuous in certain burials. The widespread nature of most of these objects and their uniformity over a wide area would suggest that there had developed a good trade network connecting various parts of south India and even outside.

Cultural

Gold, silver, copper, and bronze were used for making jewels and objects of art, which were things of prestige. Beads made of carnelian were ubiquitous prestige objects found among the grave goods. Megalithic period paintings and etchings are met with in rock shelters close to burial sites, but it is difficult to differentiate this art from the Neolithic art. One peculiar feature of communication in Megalithic sites is a large number of graffiti marks made on pottery. A striking thing about the graffiti is that several sites separated by long distances have yielded some almost identical graffiti. And some of the graffiti seem to have survived from earlier cultures, right from the Indus valley civilization of the third and second millennia BCE.

Ancient History I 300 BCE - 200 CE

Political

This marks the first or earliest historical phase of south India including Tamizakam or Tamil land comprising present Tamil Nadu and Kerala states, as writing in the proper sense starts appearing from early 3rd century BCE, though written documents is not available in sufficient quantity to help in the reconstruction of history. But there is a very big collection of near contemporary poems — generally bardic in nature — which throws a lot of light on the history of this period.

There were three or four monarchical states, though not of big proportion, headed by kings called ventar and several tribal chieftaincies, headed by the chiefs called by the general denomination vel. Still lower at the local level there were clan chiefs called kizar or mannar. During the third century BCE, the Deccan, i.e., the northern part of peninsular India (up to 14º North) was part of the Mauryan kingdom whose political centre was in Pataliputra in north India, and from the middle of the first century BCE to second century CE the same area was ruled by the Satavahana dynasty. The Tamil area had all along an independent political set-up. The kings and chiefs were always fighting with each other mostly for getting the cattle and other wealth of the enemy. It was a typical heroic age where the brave men were extolled in life and venerated after their death. The royal courts were mostly places of social gathering rather than places of dispensation of authority; they were centres for distribution of resources. Gradually the rulers came under the spell of north Indian ideology of kshatriya varna (ruling class), which encouraged performance of Vedic sacrifices to enhance the status of the ruler and equated him with the heroes of the Itihasa-Purana tradition.

Socio-Economic

The society was still primitive with several tribes, most of which occupied specific localities and some of them being still nomadic. At lower level, clans (kudi) occupied a village (ur) or cluster of villages. Though patriarchy was the prevailing norm, matriarchal elements were also there. According to the different physiological and ecological situations the composition of the society showed variations.

Uneven development was the characteristic feature of the economy, in keeping with the varied physio-ecological regions. Hunting and swidden cultivation were prominent in hilly zone (kurinji according to poetic convention), pastoral activities in semi-dry, forest tracts (mullai), fishing and maritime trade in coastal zone (neytal), and developed plough agriculture and variety of crafts in riverine tracts (marutam). Agriculture was encouraged by digging irrigation tanks and canals. The dwellings ranged from very humble huts of wattle and daub in hilly tracts to tall mansions in the big settlements of the wet-rice zone. There was a well-developed trade network both internal and external. Maritime trade in pepper, spices, and semi-precious stones with the Roman world was highly flourishing, through several coastal port-towns like Muchiri on the west coast and Kavirippattinam, Arikamedu, etc. on the east coast.

Cultural

The society had become literate with the introduction of writing, but bardic poetry was the predominant medium of communication, nurtured by the traditional bards (panar) and the scholarly poets (pulavar). Viraliyar, the female counterparts of the panar were artistes who entertained the audience with dance and music. Varieties of musical instruments were in use.

Cotton and silk were used for dresses. Rich people patronized high quality cotton cloth (kalingam). Ornaments made of shell, conch, and semi-precious stones were popular, and of course gold things were the most coveted but precious things.

Primitive cults and practices dominated the religious life of the people. Animistic worship was the most popular practice, so too was the worship of ancestors and heroes. Several of the Megalithic burial practices continued in this period also. New religious ideas from the north were slowly percolating into south India. Jainism and Buddhism, the two great ethical, non-orthodox religions from the Gangetic valley were ardently received along with the orthodox Vedic religion with all its fire rituals. Still those new religions could attract only the attention of the higher stratum of the society.

Ancient History II 200-500 CE

Political

Several monarchical states of south India had their advent during this period, coeval with the Gupta state of the north. They were the Pallava state covering the southern part of Andhra and northern part of Tamil Nadu, the Kadamba state in northern Karnataka, the Ganga state in southern Karnataka, the Vakataka state in the Deccan. Besides these kingdoms there were several chieftaincies (adhiraja). A tribe called Kalabhra hailing from the northern borders seems to have occupied and ruled the central and southern parts of the Tamil country. There took place migrations of ruling clans seeking newer pastures all over south India. Most of the ruling families took pride in performing Vedic sacrifices and in upholding the Varna ideology. The statecrafts imbibed several ideas from the north, particularly from the Gupta state. The northern languages, Prakrit first and Sanskrit subsequently, became to some extent the languages of the court and the elite.

Socio-Economic

Due to the increased migrations of people, village communities in fertile tracts were becoming more complex and stratified to some extent. The two non-orthodox religions, Jainism and Buddhism, took deep roots in the society, giving birth to a large body of ethical poetry. On the other hand the orthodox Vedic-Puranic ideas also were gaining ground among the ruling people.

There was a perceptible expansion of agriculture, as more and more virgin land was brought under plough. The kings and chiefs took great interest in this process by digging irrigation tanks and by creating new settlements, especially to invite Brahmins from the north. Maritime trade with Southeast Asia and China continued as in the previous centuries.

Cultural

Writing became very widespread and vattezuttu evolved from the Tamil Brahmi became a mature script for writing Tamil. In the northern borders the proto-Telugu-Kannada script was prevailing. While several anthologies were compiled by collecting bardic poems of earlier centuries, several epic poems (Silappatikaram, etc.) and ethical works were also written in this period. The Jain and Buddhist scholars authored most of this literature. In the field of dance and music, the elite started patronizing new polished styles, partly influenced by northern ideas, in the place of the folk styles. A few of the earliest rock-cut temples belong to this period. Brick temples (known as kottam, devakulam, and palli) dedicated to various deities are referred to in literary works. Brick-built Buddhist viharas of this period have been unearthed in Kavirippattinam.

Medieval I 500-900 CE

Political

While on the one hand the states of this period expanded territorially and administratively, new states also start appearing, incorporating newly settled areas. In addition to the fair-sized monarchical states like the Pallava, the Chalukya, the Pandya, and the Chera in the fertile tracts, there were several chieftaincies occupying the intermediary and hilly zones. The political culture of these two categories differed markedly, the states imitating much of the north Indian Puranic-Sastric ideology, the chieftaincies continuing the older indigenous tradition. There was a lot of warfare among the kings and chiefs for territorial expansion and for plunder. Some of the expeditions were taken over long distances and even overseas. In the tribal belt, the old cattle raids still continued and the dead heroes were venerated with the erection of memorial stones.

An interesting development during this period is a clear territorial demarcation of the various political units with specific names like Chola-nadu, Tondai-nadu, Vanako-padi, Maza-nadu, etc. A few of them had of course crystallized even earlier. A higher level territorial unit called kottam which included within its fold several nadus is found in what is called Tondai-nadu in north Tamil Nadu. This has been considered as a territorial unit relating to pastoral communities. According to tradition there were twenty-four such kottams in Tondai-nadu. Another territorial feature which becomes clearly visible in this period is the micro-region called as either nadu or kurram, which had as its nucleus some water source, like a tank or channel, and comprised several settlements. The governments of the day were of a simple kind, with a few officials, who were primarily military leaders.

Socio-Economic

There was a clear increase of settlements, particularly in the wet zone. Some of these were established by royal charters to populate with Brahmin migrants. These latter were called as tankuru, meaning ’independent unit’, to denote their special status in a nadu. The kings and chiefs encouraged tank irrigation. Agriculture and pastoralism are the mainstay of the people. In each settlement there were a few specialist artisans and priests. Society was not yet stratified, but there was a section of people at the level of slavery.

Cultural

In several respects this period laid the base for the later cultural development. The earliest rock-cut temples of Tamil Nadu had their advent in the late sixth century, while structural temples seem to have been built using bricks. Subsequently monolithic temples were created in Mamallapuram imitating the structural temples. From the 8th century, some beautiful structural temples using stone started appearing. Some of the finest specimens of painting also belong to this period. A number of freestanding hero stones erected in northern borders depict a local tradition of plastic art in secular context.

In the field of religion, new trends started appearing. Both Jainism and Buddhism had a large following. Partly as a reaction to their popularity, and partly encouraged by the patronage given to the Puranic-Sastric ideology by the ruling class, the Bhakti cults were projected by the orthodox practitioners. The Bhakti cults were a melange of ideas derived from the Vedic cult and various indigenous iconic cults; ultimately the Bhakti religion projected the two male deities, Siva and Vishnu. There took place at times acrimonious religious disputes between the Jain-Buddhist followers on the one hand and the Bhakti sections on the other hand. Sometimes kings seem to have taken sides in these disputes.

Literature flourished due to the religious competition. While the earlier epic tradition continued under the patronage of Jains and Buddhists, a new genre of devotional poetry set to music was popularized by the Bhakti scholar-saints travelling all over the country on pilgrimages. While the Vattezuttu script was used over the entire Tamil area including Kerala, the Tamil and Grantha scripts, which seem to have evolved in the Pallava court out of the southern Brahmi script, were used for administrative purposes by the Pallava rulers.

Medieval II 900-1300 CE

Political

This was the period of big states, which grew into fairly big proportions from their original core areas. The Chola state emerging from the Kaveri delta and the Chalukya state in north Karnataka were the two biggest states that were dominating south India and were fighting with each other almost continuously to get an upper hand. Most of the tribal chieftaincies and small states were allied with either of these two big states, maintaining a precarious independence. Several semi-civilized communities lying at the peripheries were drawn into the conflicts of the bigger neighbours and were politicized in the process and drawn into the state societies.

For some decades in the 11th century the Chola state tried successfully to dominate and rule the northern part of Sri Lanka and took a big naval expedition against the maritime state of Sri Vijaya in Southeast Asia. The army of the bigger states became naturally enormous in size, with more and more recruits from the tribal areas lying beyond the core areas. The bureaucracy was also elaborated giving importance to revenue administration. There developed a clear network of three or four-tiered administrative divisions, with the mandalam at the top level and the village at the bottom. The unit called nadu or kurram (rashtra and vishaya being Sanskrit equivalents) at the middle level was the basic revenue unit.

Socio-Economic

There was a remarkable agrarian expansion due to extension of irrigation facilities and in reclamation of barren land for cultivation. Religious donation to the large number of temples that were patronized by the royalty acted as a catalyst to the reclamation. There seems to have been a demographic explosion and even remote forest and hilly areas were penetrated for creating newer settlements. Warlike communities from such areas were in turn attracted towards the plains; gradually they also became land-based communities. The land rights which were communally owned and managed earlier broke down from the 11th century onwards and private landholdings started to increase and became the norm in the 12th-13th centuries. This phenomenon, added to the accumulation of land in possession of the temples, gave rise to complex land tenures and landed intermediaries. Another perceptible change was growth of crafts and urbanization. Itinerant trade connecting widely separated areas throughout south India was a third significant economic development . A country-wide network of trade guilds, the Ayyavole Five Hundred being the premier organization, actively participated in such trade which embraced south India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.

The society became stratified to a great extent, and the caste system takes more or less a definitive shape in the later half of this period. At the same time there took place horizontal integration at different levels of society over wider areas. This supra-local integration is found first among the commercial communities, then among the landed communities, and finally among the industrial communities. The polarization of agricultural communities as against the older ones manifested in the Left hand and Right hand groupings particularly in the less fertile tracts.

Cultural

In the field of religion the two Agamic religions, Saivism and Vaishnavism, became dominant. Saivism was patronized more by the Chola kings and became more or less a state religion. Temples dedicated to Siva and Vishnu received liberal donations of money, jewels, animals, and land, and thereby became powerful economic institutions. Thus they could involve in the economic activities of the local community, besides catering to its spiritual needs. The Brahmin settlements that had been spiritual leaders so far lost their importance to the temples.

Literacy was quite widespread compared to the previous period. ‘Tamil’ script replaced the Vattezuttu script throughout Tamil Nadu for writing Tamil. Both secular and religious literature flourished during the period. The greatest epic in Tamil, Kampar’s Ramayanam, was written in the 12th century. The secular literature was mostly court poetry devoted to the eulogy of the rulers. The Bhakti poems of the previous period were collected and systematized into several anthologies. Sanskrit was patronized by the elite groups for religious rituals and other ceremonial purposes.

The ‘Dravidian’ school of architecture reached its high watermark in this period. Numerous stone temples were raised all over the country. The biggest of them, namely the Great temples at Tanjavur and Gangaikondacholapuram, attest to the grandeur and excellence of Chola architecture, sculpture, and painting. Dance and music were liberally patronized in temples.

Medieval III 1300-1600 CE

Political

A major part of south India south of the Krishna river came under a single state, namely the Vijayanagara state. Thus it became really a multi-linguistic state. It has also been characterized as a sort of military state as much importance was given to the organization of the military from the very beginning. The captains of the army became in course of time rulers of localities with the title nayaka. In the beginning (1350-1500) the royal princes and commanders (dannayaka) were the pradhanis ruling over the different rajyas or provinces; from the later half of the fifteenth century the rule by nayakas themselves in more than two hundred localities (nayakkattanam) was encouraged by the kings themselves. The nayakas resembled the feudal lords of medieval Europe and had a hierarchy among themselves. A few of the bigger nayakas established almost independent rule in their respective territories from the later half of the 16th century. The local leaders who were in the fringe areas, like in Pudukkottai, were known as arasus; they ruled their localities independently, making only some nominal allegiance to the Vijayanagara king.

Socio-Economic

There took place in this period lots of migrations and demographic shifts, more than ever before, creating multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic communities in most localities. Internally the society was clearly perceived as making of two separate entities, one comprising the land-based communities and the other, industrial communities. At the lower levels all the direct producers were grouped into two potential groupings, namely Right-Hand and Left-Hand classes, whose earlier character had changed much by this time. Multiplication of subcastes is another notable feature. Though religion and temples were integrating factors, they were also causes for social conflicts due to sectarian rivalries within the ‘Hindu’ religion itself.

Economy was very much monetized. This period saw considerable development in industries, commerce, and urbanization. Industrial settlements (pettai) were created by the king and the nayakas to encourage various industries, particularly the weaving industry. A good exchange network linked interior towns with the coastal ports facilitating brisk foreign trade in textiles. This must have acted as a fillip to the European interest in Asia trade.

Cultural

Elaboration of the existing temples with large pillared halls, and tall gateway towers was a striking feature in the religious architecture of this period. There survive several secular buildings too, which show much influence from Persian architecture brought in by the Muslim rulers. Another important component of architecture consisted of the large number of forts which were built from the 14th century onwards. Paintings in temple walls and palaces were made on a large scale depicting both Puranic and secular themes. Along with the elite kind of dance and music, temples and palaces also encouraged varieties of folk theatre and music. Professional acrobats and jugglers provided popular entertainment. Both Saivism and Vaishnavism became more and more dominated by sectarian rivalries, and philosophic disputes. Several commentaries were written in a hybrid language mixed with Sanskrit and Tamil on the simple Bhakti poems to introduce Vedantic ideas at a popular level. At the same time the prabandha genre of literature was written in simple and elegant Tamil using popular metres to cater to a wider audience.