Short notes on Society of Gupta Period

Avantisundari-katha, a Sanskrit romance of the sev­enth century ad, gives an eloquent description of Kanchipuram and stresses “on the riches and trade and on the learning and practice of fine arts that were the most notable features of life in the city” (V.R.R. Dikshitar).

It is, however, open to question how much of it is fact and how much fiction, and reconstruction of the life and times should therefore be sparingly based on it.

Nonetheless, it may be deduced that the bulk of the population was Hindu and that there was a tangible connection between caste and occupation, but by no means rigid and unalterable.

Departures from the code were allowed, and for expediency, the upper castes changed to occupations of the lower orders and vice versa. On being insulted by a Pallava cavalier in Kanchipuram, the Brahman Mayurasarman left his Vedic studies, became a warrior and founded the Kadamba dynasty of Banavasi.

The caste diver­sifications and occupations prevailing in the fourth- fifth century ad are apparent in a Pallava Sanskrit inscription. It listed metal and leather workers, makers of ploughs, shop-keepers, weavers, barbers, rope-makers, supervisors of water sources (for agri­culture) and so on.

Higher education was imparted in the urban centres, such as Kanchipuram. Sanskrit was the language patronized by the Pallava kings and there were artisans who engraved long inscriptions in that language on stone and copper. The Buddhist dia­lectician, Diganga, came to Kanchi for studies.

The poet Bharavi was an invitee to the court of Pallava, Simhavishnu, and Dandin the famous writer on poetics was a contemporary of Narasimhavarman II. In Kavyadarsha, Dandin ex­pounded two styles of composition and ten qualities of expression.

He preferred the Vaidarbhi (southern) style with its grace, clarity and simplicity over the Gandi (eastern) style in which hyprbole, involved expressions and long compounds made it rather heavy.

An accomplished poet himself, Dandin set the standard of literary criticism in the South, and the Kannada Kavirajamarga, the Tamil Dandiyalangaram and the Sinhalese Siva-bas-lakara were all based on his works.

Of the Pallava kings, Mahendravarman was famous for his lampoons Mattavilasa and Bhagavadajjukiya on the Kapalikas and Buddhists.

Religious literature under the Pallavas was enriched by Saivism and Vaishnavism. The Saiva Nayanars and the Vaishnava Alvars loved their gods with passionate devotion.

The Nayanars and Alvars composed equisite devotional poetry echoing their longing, and two religious leaders Nambi-Andar Nambi and Sri Nathamuni collected and preserved these songs.

“The former arranged the available Saiva hymns into eleven Tirumurais, the first seven collectively called Tevaram, bringing together the hymns of Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar.

Like­wise, Sri Nathamuni arranged the extant Vaishnava hymns into a huge collection, Nalayira Prabandham, consisting of four thousand hymns which included the work of twelve Alvars” (S.N. Sen, Ancient Indian History and Civilisation).

Appar and Sambandar were contemporaries and Sundarar lived two or three decades after Appar’s death in AD 681.

Appar was a man of the soil, being an agricul­turist by birth. He reached the hearts of the poor, speaking in metaphors.

He sings: if you plough with Truth, weed out Untruth, pledge with Propriety and stand by in Affection then you would surely reach Siva’s place and see Him. Sundarar’s hymns are popular even today and are sung by musicians in temples.

With regard to Vaishnavism, the Pallava country contributed the first four Alvars: Poykai, Bhutattar, Periyalvar and Tirumangai Alvar.

Aivar in Tamil means those who are immersed in their devotion to the Lord. The hymns of these Vaishnava saints reflect that creed; these are poems in praise of Vishnu, the Supreme Being.

Hsuan-Tsang, however, observed that in Kanchipuram there were some hundred sangharamas and 10,000 monks, among them Dharmapala of Nalanda.

He did not refer to any patronage to Buddhism by the Pallava king, but said that there were many Nirgranthas.

In the early centuries of the Christian era, Kanchi was a Jaina centre, and Mahendravarman Pallava was a Jain before he converted to Saivism. A Jaina scholar, Saravanandin wrote Lokabhibaga in Prakrit in AD 438 during Simhavarman reign.

Perhaps, the hold of Buddhism and Jainism earlier on unsettled the Brahmanical social order, and during the reign of the later Pallavas the situation changed.

The construction of a number of Siva temples by the Pallava monarchs indicates that. The upsurge in Hinduism also resulted from the teachings of the great Saiva and Vaishnavite sages of those times.