New Notions of Kingship

Chiefs and Kings in the South

• The new kingdoms that emerged in the Deccan and further south, including the chiefdoms of the Cholas, Cheras, and Pandyas in Tamilakam proved to be stable and prosperous.
• We know about these states from a variety of sources. For example, the Tamil Sangam text contains poems describing the chiefs and how they acquired and distributed resources.
• Many chiefs and kings, including the Satavahanas who ruled over parts of western and central India, and the Shakas, a people of Central Asian origin who established kingdoms in the north-western and western parts of the subcontinent, derived revenues from long-distance trade.
• The social status of Satvahanas was often obscure, but they tried to maintain their social status within the society through marriage alliances and religious rituals.

Divine Status of Kingship

Kushanas

• One means of claiming high status was to identify with a variety of deities. This strategy is best exemplified by the Kushanas who ruled over a vast kingdom extending from Central Asia to northwest India.
• Their history has been reconstructed from inscriptions and textual traditions. The notions of kingship they wished to project are perhaps best evidenced in their coins and sculptures.
• Colossal statues of Kushana rulers have been found installed in a shrine at Mat near Mathura (Uttar Pradesh). Similar statues have been found in a shrine in Afghanistan as well.
• Some historians feel this indicates that the Kushanas considered themselves godlike.
• Many Kushana rulers also adopted the title devaputra, or “son of god”, possibly inspired by Chinese rulers who called themselves sons of heaven.

Gupta Empire

• By the fourth century, there is evidence of larger states, including the Gupta Empire. Many of these depended on samantas, men who maintained themselves through local resources including control over land.
• They offered homage and provided military support to rulers. Powerful samantas could become kings: conversely, weak rulers might find themselves being reduced to positions of subordination.
• Histories of the Gupta rulers have been reconstructed from literature, coins, and inscriptions, including prashastis, composed in praise of kings in particular, and patrons in general, by poets.
• While historians often attempt to draw factual information from such compositions, those who composed and read them often treasured them as works of poetry. rather than as true accounts.
• The Prayaga Prashasti (also known as the Allahabad Pillar Inscription) composed in Sanskrit by Harishena, the court poet of Samudragupta, arguably the most powerful of the Gupta rulers (c. fourth century CE), is a case in point.

From the 6th Century B.C.E, the most visible change noticed in India was the emergence of early states, empires, and kingdoms. The Mauryan Empire lasted for about 150 years, which is not very long in the vast span of the subcontinent’s history. Within the frontiers of the empire, control was not uniform. By the second century B.C.E., new chiefdoms and kingdoms emerged in several parts of the subcontinent.

Let us learn more about new notions of kingship!