Social changes in ancient India

 Introduction

1.Ancient Indian society was not a static society. It underwent social changes in different phases.

2.The British historians deliberately pointed out that Indian society never witnessed any change in its long history of 3000 years. Charles Metcalf said that when nothing seemed to last, these village communities in India lasted forever.

Indus Valley Civilisation

It was a bronze age culture. Town planning and drainage system was excellent. Trade and commerce thrived. But we have not deciphered their script. So, we cannot confidently describe their social organisation. However, the excavations at different sites indicate that the citadel was the locality where the ruling class lived. The middle settlement was meant for bureaucrats and merchants, the lower parts of the town was meant for common people. Temples have not been found in the Indus civilization, as we find in the Babylonian civilization.  Thus, scholars are of the view that a class of merchants ruled over the area in Harappa and Mohenjo Daro. After the decline of Indus Civilisation, around 1700 BC, India did not witness urban centres for the next 1000 years. It was only around 600 BC that urban centres sprang up in north India.   

Rig Vedic Period (1500 BC - 1000 BC)

1.Kinship was the basis of the social structure.

2.They were pastoral, moving from one place to another along with their cows and cattle. 

3.The concept of territory did not evolve because there is no mention of the term Janpada in the Rig Veda.

4.Family was a very large joint unit. It was a patriarchal family headed by the father.

5.Women could attend assemblies and offer sacrifices along with their husbands.

6.The institution of marriage was established but there was also the practice of widow remarriage and levirate (niyog).

7.Gradually the tribal society was divided into three occupational groups. They were warriors, priests and common people. The fourth division called Shudras appeared towards the end of the Rig Vedic period. 

8.Women were employed for domestic purposes. Slaves were not directly used in agriculture or other productive activities.

9.Differentiation based on occupation was not very sharp. 

Later Vedic Period (1000 BC - 600 BC)

1.Later Vedic Society came to be divided into the four varnas. They were Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. 

2.Brahmin conducts rituals and sacrifices for their clients and kings. They prayed for the success of their patron in war and in return the king pledged  to support them. Both Brahmin and Kshatriya fought for supremacy but when they had to deal with Vaishyas and Shudras, they set aside their differences and crushed the disobedience or revolt of the Vaishya or Shudras.

3.Kshatriyas were assigned the duties to protect the people. During this period, the king had to depend upon the voluntary gift of the people called Bali. Since the economy was not a surplus one, the king could not collect taxes on a regular basis.  

4.Vaishyas were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. Towards the end of the later Vedic period, they began to do trade and commerce. 

5.All the three upper varnas were called dwija (twice born) because they had to undergo upnayan or investiture ceremony with the sacred thread. The fourth Varna called Shudras were deprived of sacred thread ceremony and recitation of gayatri mantra. Similarly, women were also denied the recital of gayatri mantra and upnayan ceremony. 

6.Among the Shudras, Rathakar or chariot makers were given higher status because in those days battles were fought by chariots drawn by horses. This practice continued till the Mauryan period.

7.The power of the father increased who could disinherit his son. The right of primogeniture was established. The position of women deteriorated. The institution of Gotra was established in the later vedic period. The people of the same gotra could not marry among themselves  so the strict rule of Gotra exogamy was enforced. 

8.Ashramas or four stages of life like Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa were not well established during this period. Sanyasa or ascetic life developed after the later vedic period during the age of Buddhas in 600 BC. 

Age of Buddha (600 BC - 320 BC)  

1.The social differentiation became very much pronounced. Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudras were assigned well defined functions. Brahmanas demanded various privileges like exemption from taxation and punishment. The Kshatriyas ranked second in the varna hierarchy. They lived on the taxes collected from the peasants. Their main function was to fight and to govern the people. 

2.The vaishyas were engaged in agriculture, cattle rearing, trade and commerce. They had to bear the brunt of taxation collected by the king. 

3.The shudras were meant to serve the three higher varnas. They worked as domestic slaves, agricultural slaves, craftsmen and hired labourers. 

4.The society became very hierarchical. The higher the Varna, the more privileged the person was.

5.The vedic practice of killing cattle indiscriminately in sacrifices hampered the progress of new agriculture and therefore, the vaishyas very much detested the animal sacrifices and supremacy of Brahmanas.  Similarly, Kshatriyas protested very much against the various privileges enjoyed by Brahmanas. The scholars are of the view that the reaction of Kshatriyas against the Brahmin domination led to the rise of Jainism and Buddhism in north India. Both Mahavir and Gautam Budhha came from Kshatriya Varna. Buddhism gave the kshatriyas the highest place in the varna hierarchy above the Brahmanas. 

6.The rise of the Magadha empire at the cost of other Mahajanapadas in the sixth century  BC under the leadership of Bimbisara and Ajatshatru further strengthened the position of the Brahmanas and Buddhist monks. 

7. But in the republics like Vaishali and Shakyas, Brahamanas had no importance in governance.

8.The Indian legal and judicial system originated and developed during this period. Dharma Sutras define the duties of each of the four varnas. The civil and criminal laws came to be based upon varna division. All forms of disabilities were imposed upon shudras. Crimes committed against Brahamanas were severely punished but when Brahamanas committed crime they were given light punishment.

9. During this period, a theory was developed that Brahamanas were created from the mouth, Kshatriyas from arms, Vaishyas from thighs and Shudras from the feet  of the lord Brahma. During this period social stratification strengthened very much. Shudras were not allowed to dine with upper varnas. Inter-marriage among four varnas was prohibited. The shudras could not be appointed to the high post in the government. The civil and criminal punishment became very harsh. Tit for tat was the common method for the punishment.  

Mauryan Period (300 BC - 300 AD)

1.Kautilya advises the king to promulgate dharma because the king was the protector of dharma. This means that no varna should be allowed to deviate from their assigned duties. Nobody should encroach upon the four stages of life (Ashram).

2.The policy of Ashoka was very much resented by the Brahamanas because he prohibited killings of birds, animals and sacrifices. 

3.Ashoka appointed Rajukas and Dharma Mahamatras to govern the people on the basis of vyavhar samta (equality in criminal law) and danda samta (equality in civil law) for all varnas. The entire Dharma sutras compiled by Brahmanas were based upon varna discrimination. And so, the privileges enjoyed by Brahamanas were curtailed by the emperor Ashoka. Scholars are of the view that because of the Brahmanical reaction, Pushyamitra Shunga, a brahmin,  killed the last Mauryan king Brihdatta in the broad public view and established the Shunga dynasty. Later on, in the western deccan Satvahanas established their rule. They were brahmins.  They performed vedic sacrifices on the large scale and donated land grants to brahmanas.   

4.Since 200 BC onwards several invasions of India happened. The Indo-Greeks, the Sakas, the Parthians, the Kushanas and the Indo-Sassanians entered into India and became an integral part of Indian society. They were Indianised. They had no separate ideology or religion and so they were assimilated in Indian society. They lost their identity. Since they had come as invaders, they were placed as Kshatriyas.

5.In the Deccan, Satavahanas established their rule and extended their kingdom to Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Originally they have been deccani tribes but they were brahamanised. They performed many ashwamedha yagya. The Satavahanas showed the traces of matrilineal social structure; it was customary for their king to be named after their mother like Gautamipurta or Vashishti Putra. This means that mothers, particularly the women, enjoyed higher status in the society. The queens exercised power and acted as regents in case of minor kings. However, the Satavahanas society was patriarchal and succession passed through the male members. 

6.The Satvahanas started giving tax free villages to Brahamanas and the Buddhist monks. The granted villages could not be intruded by police or other royal officers.  This led to the autonomous region within the kingdom. The feudatories became powerful and thus we see that society became graded. The king was at the top while the second grade was enjoyed by Mahabhoj, the big feudatories and the third grade by Senapati. 

Sangam age in the South (300 BC- 300 AD)

1.Three kingdoms of the Chola with its capital at Uraiyur, Pandya with its capital at Madurai and Chera with its capital at Muziris sprang up in the far south.

2.Brahmins enjoyed a powerful position in the Sangam kingdoms. Unlike the Brahmins of North India, they ate meat and drank wine. 

3.The rich peasants called Vellalas occupied civil and military offices in both the kingdoms of Cholas and Pandyas. The ruling class had a matrimonial relationship with Vellalas. These Vellalas held the bulk of the Tamil land. The rich peasants did not plough themselves but employed the labourers to cultivate their lands. 

4.There was great social inequality. While the rich lived in the houses made of brick and mortar, the poor lived in thatched houses. 

5.Since the three Sangam aged kingdoms fought among themselves, the war booty was the main source of livelihood and the warrior class enjoyed special status in the Sangam society. 

Gupta Period (319 AD -550 AD )

1.Large scale land grants to Brahamanas made them the most powerful during the Gupta period. They claimed many privileges and amassed huge wealth.The practice of land grants to government officials in lieu of salaries further eroded the authority of the Gupta kings. This practice of land grants to brahmanas and government officials led to the rise of landlordism in northern India and devolution of the central authority.  

2.The proliferation of the caste into numerous subcastes occurred during this period because of the infiltration of the foreigners. The Huns came into India on a large scale in the second half of the fifth century AD. 

3.Many tribes were Brahamanised and brought into the fold of brahmanical order. The position of shudras improved during this period. They became agriculturists also, in addition to domestic slaves and servants and agricultural labourers.

4.The number of untouchables increased during this period on account of the prohibited marriage of the pratiloma marriage where the shudra groom married with the bride of higher varna like Brahmana, Kshatriya or and Vaishya. The untouchables lived outside the village.

5. Sati system became prevalent during this period and in patriarchal society women began to be treated as the item of the property and except stree dhan they were not allowed to inherit landed property of their parents. Widow remarriage and niyog were completely prohibited among higher varnas. But shudras could practise widow remarriage or niyog.

The period of Chalkuyas and Pallavas (300 AD - 700 AD)

1.The period saw the rise of Brahmanism in south India. However, Pallavas and Chalukyas fought against each other for supremacy for 200 years and ultimately destroyed themselves.

2.Society was dominated by the princes and priests. The king claimed the status of Brahmin. However, many of them were local clans. The priests got extensive land grants and so they became very much influential. Below the princes and priests were peasants who were shudras.   The king was ordained to protect dharma, which means that nobody was allowed to deviate from their assigned duties. Most of the kings adopted the title of dharma maharaja. This period saw extensive agrarian expansion in the peninsula. Because of the high taxation upon lower varnas and acute social inequality, Kalbharas revolted against the supremacy of Brahamanas. They captured Brahmadey villages. They defeated one by one the Chola, the Pandya and the Cherra kings. Their revolt could be quelled only by the joint efforts of Pallavas, Chalukyas and Pandyas kings. This shows that the large scale land grants to Brahmanas adversely affected the peasants. 

Conclusion 

1.Thus we see that the society in ancient India passed from several stages of evolution. From the food gathering society of the palaeolithic age , it was succeeded by food producing society of the neolithic and chalcolithic age.  Indus valley people developed an urban civilisation. 

2.During the Rig Vedic the society was tribal and pastoral. 

3.During the later Vedic period the society became agricultural and they practised subsistence farming.

4.During the post Vedic period the society was fully divided into four varnas of Brahamana, Khastriya, Vaishya and Shudras. The interaction among these varnas became less with the passage of time. Because of the introduction of iron in the agricultural activities in the Gangetic valley, the peasants could produce surplus and so, they were then in the position to pay taxes to the kings. This led to the rise of the Magadha empire.

5.During the Mauryan period, the Brahmanical reaction was witnessed against Ashoka's policy. During the Kushan period, so many castes and sub-castes proliferated because of the intrusion of large scale foreigners into India. 

6.In the Gupta period in north India and during the period of the Chalukya and the Pallavas of peninsular India, large scale land grants to Brahmanas and government officials eroded the central authority. The burden of the heavy taxation upon peasantry was very much resented by them and they revolted against the kingdoms of Chalukyas, Pallavas and Pandyas.  And the revolt was so extensive that it could be quelled only by the joint efforts of all the kingdoms of the peninsula. Thus, we see the growth and development of landlordism in both north and south India since 5th century AD. This phenomenon weakened the central authority leading to the rise of so many kingdoms throughout India.