King and Kingship

Chiefs and Kings in The South:

• The new realms that arose in the Deccan and further south, including the chiefdoms of the Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas, ended up being steady and prosperous
• The early Tamil Sangam texts contain sonnets depicting bosses and the manners by which they obtained and appropriated assets
• Many chiefs and kings, including the Satavahanas and the Shakas, derived revenues from long-distance trade

Divine kings

• One method for asserting high status was to relate to an assortment of gods; this system was best exemplified by the Kushanas

• Huge sculptures of Kushana rulers have been found in a hallowed place at Mat close to Mathura and in an altar in Afghanistan too
• This demonstrates that the Kushanas viewed themselves as divine
• Numerous Kushana rulers additionally embraced the title devaputra, potentially propelled by Chinese rulers who called themselves children of paradise

• Bigger states, including the Gupta Empire, were reliant upon samantas, men who kept up with themselves through nearby assets including command over land

• They offered respect and offered military help to rulers
• Powerful samantas could become kings

• Accounts of the Gupta rulers have been reproduced from writing, coins and engravings, including Prashastis, made in acclaim out of lords
• Prayaga Prashasti (otherwise called the Allahabad Pillar Inscription) was formed in Sanskrit by Harishena, the court writer of Samudragupta

A Changing Countryside

Popular Perceptions of Kings

• Perception of the king in the minds of subjects was known through anthologies such as the Jatakas and the Panchatantra
• Many of these stories originated as popular oral tales that were later committed to writing
• Gandatindu Jataka portrays the situation of the subjects of a fiendish lord

• At the point when the lord went in mask to discover his subjects’ opinion on him, every last one of them reviled him for their agonies, whining that they were assaulted by looters around evening time and by charge authorities during the day
• To escape from the present circumstance, individuals deserted their town and went to live in the woods

Strategies for Increasing Production

• One such procedure was the shift to furrow horticulture, which spread in prolific alluvial waterway valleys like those of the Ganga and the Kaveri
• The iron-tipped ploughshare was utilised to turn the alluvial soil in locales which had high precipitation
• In some parts of the Ganga valley, production of paddy was increased by the introduction of transplantation
• Use of irrigation, through wells and tanks, and less commonly, canals were introduced

Differences in rural society

• There was a developing separation among individuals occupied with agribusiness stories, particularly inside the Buddhist practice, alluding to landless agrarian workers, little labourers and huge landholders 
• The term gahapati was frequently used in Pali texts to assign the second and third classifications
• Huge landholders and town headmen arose as amazing figures, and frequently practised command over different cultivators
• Sangam texts specify various classes of individuals living in the towns: Large landowners or Vellalar, Ploughmen or uzhavar, Slaves or adimai.

Land Grants and New Rural Elites

• Grant of land was a common feature, and these were recorded in inscriptions, which were either on stone or copper plates
• Records which endure are for the most part about awards to strict foundations or to Brahmanas
• Most of the inscriptions were in Sanskrit and from the seventh century local languages such as Tamil and Telugu were also used
• As indicated by Sanskrit legitimate texts, ladies shouldn’t have autonomous admittance to assets like land

• However, Prabhavati, daughter of Chandragupta II, had access to land, which she then granted 
• This may have been because she was a queen, and her situation was exceptional

• One inscription explains that the rural population, the Brahmanas, peasants and others were expected to provide a part of the produce to the king
• There were provincial varieties in the spans of land given, going from little plots to tremendous stretches of crude land
• Reasons for land grants vary- to extend agriculture to new areas, to win allies and bring samantas under control through land grants

Conclusion

Key concept in nutshell-

Several developments in different parts of the subcontinent (India) the long span of 1500 following the end of Harappan Civilization:-

Rigveda was composed along the Indus and its tributaries.Agricultural Settlements emerged in several parts of the subcontinent.New mode of disposal of the dead like making megaliths.By C 600 BCE growth of new cities and kingdoms.600 BCE major turning point in early Indian history.Growth of sixteen Mahajanapadas. Many were ruled by kings.Some known as ganas or sanghas were oligarchiesBetween the 600 BCE and 400 BCE Magadha became the most powerful Mahajanapada.Emergence of Mauryan Empire Chandragupta Maurya (C 321 BCE) founder of the empire extended control upto Afghanistan and Baluchistan.His grandson Ashoka, the most famous ruler conquered Kalinga.Variety of sources to reconstruct the history of the Mauryan Empire archaeological finds especially sculpture, Ashoka’s Inscriptions, Literary sources like Indica account.