Brief notes on Castesim during the period of Chola Dynasty

A curious committee was the vdasina committee which either looked after ascetics or foreigners or orphans. The committee got no remuneration for its services. The nadu was also a local assembly. The autonomy of the Tamil village of Chola times suffered a set-back under Vijayanagar due to the imperial policy of centralisation.

In the Chola period also as in the earlier Pallava period the society was caste-b Apart from the castes standing for the varnas there were numerous tribes and communi” The Brahmin was the object of respect and a beneficiary of royal and aristocratic favours. The sabhas were brahmanical villages administered by committees of Brahmins whose prescribed qualifications included knowledge of the sastras.

They played an important role in local governments. They were also chieftains and commanders of armies and could perhaps in rare cases enter into matrimonial relations with royal families and even the mercantile communities. The brahma-kshatriyas and the brahma-vaisyas of whom we hear in inscriptions perhaps indicate hybrid communities.

Such communities must have suffered from the handicaps of both and could not enjoy the privileges of either. Some historians, however, hold that the expression brahma-vaisya means ‘brahmins following Vaisya occupation’.

Brahmins doing political duties were called brahmarayas or brahmadhiray among the other castes we hear of one left-hand and another right-hand. We do not know what communities are meant by these. The usual tribal communities differentiated on the basis of functions were large in number.

The extension of the empire territorially meant an enlargement of the bureaucracy; and as new duties came to be enumerated new sub-castes would have originated. The nomenclatures for these communities in medieval times were not the same as they are today, since the names Pillai, Mudali, etc., had different connotations in those times. But a Chetti was a merchant. The society was based on caste differentiation in prestige and privileges.

The Bhakti movement tried to bring about an equality in communaj^tatus but it had a relevance only in the religious context. In the Chola period itself the story of Ramanuja’s attempts to make Vaishnava bhaktism more catholic and democratic even in the social sphere did not make much headway even during his times.

Religious values changed considerably so the dhana became a subtitute for yajna and the sacrificing Brahmin suffered some diminution in his status and importance.

Since a number of temples came up the Brahmins became significant as temple priests and the traditional three thousand priestly families of Chidambaram became a clan by themselves. The caste system was rigid so that the major castes not only kept away from each other but also developed sub-castes.

The Smarta-Vaishnava division became important among the Brahmins after the advent of the Acharyas. Religious sectarianism also became acute as between the Vaishnavas and the Saivas. Scholars and poets were to be found among most of the communities.

Kamban and Sekkilar the greatest of the poets of the Chola period belonged to the fourth Varna. We find a number of Brahmins becoming eminent as commentators, while in the field of linguistic studies we find many Jainas contributing much to grammar and prosody and poetics. Asceticism of the Hindu, Jaina and Buddhist order prevailed in the country.

The tradition of anti-brahmanism usually generated and sustained by the siddha group was becoming quite articulate. Pattinattar, a Saiva saint, continued the tradition of Urumular while the author of the Kapilar Ahaval enshrined patently anti-brahmanical sentiments in his poem.

Slavery was not unknown though it was perhaps not as harsh as in ancient Greece or Rome. The Periyapuranatn mentions a suit brought against Sundarar by an old Brahmin who quoted an ancient agreement to show that the former was a slave of the latter.

This shows that even Brahmins could own and themselves be slaves. People often sold themselves into slavery to clear debts. They commuted their debts into slave labour. There was probably no slave market.