Social History Of Andhra Pradesh (Seventh To Thirteenth Century: Based On Inscriptions And Literature) (An Old And Rare Book)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Till the latter half of the nineteen fifties when Kosambi revolutionised the study of history on a socioeconomic basis through his An Introduction of Indian History, historical studies in India were mostly dynastic and political-cataloguing the list of the kings and their achievements. Since then many have followed the footsteps of the savant and have published tomes on the socioeconomic aspects of India-regional and pan-Indian. Yet this trend was rather slow to pick up in South India, more so in Andhra, where very few books of this type have been brought out. One of them is the present volume by Nagolu Krishna Reddy. Reddy's period of study is from the seventh to thirteenth century A.D.-a time span of six hundred eventful years. For the commencement of the study marks the blossoming of Telugu into an effective popular language of the people and the end deals with the turbulent years of the Muslim invasion and the valiant ventures of the Kakatiya generals trying to uphold Hindu dharma.

The book is divided into five chapters. The first being an introduction to the subject and background of the study. The next three chapters are titled Society, Education, and Agriculture and Industries. In Society the author analyses the various castes, their functions, position of women, crime and punishment, beliefs of people, their customs and manners, folklore, etc. Under Education, Reddy evaluates the learning imparted to the various varnas, technical education, institutions of learning like ghatikas, the role of temples in this regard, the propagation of fine arts and performing arts. The chapter on Agriculture and Industries is a very important section of the book, for agriculture and industries formed the very backbone of the country and the economic survival of the people. Here we are told about the ownership of land by the king, communities and common ownership by the villages service conditions, tenure cropping, irrigation facilities, etc. Weaving, smithy and other minor industries show how far the people of Andhra progressed in their economic sphere.

In the last chapter, Reddy's conclusion is significant. In his analytical study of the inscriptions he has found that none of the four castes Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras - had followed strictly the profession assigned to them by the dharma sastras. To quote "the Brahmanas unhesitatingly hold the sword, Kshatriyas took to agriculture, Vaisyas occupied important positions in the bureaucracy, Sudra, by dint of his valour became the ruler of the land." In other words economy and proficiency decided ones occupation-caste did not.

NAGOLU KRISHNA REDDY is a noted scholar of Andhra Pradesh. He has contributed articles to learned journals on history, particularly of the Andhra country. He is an upcoming writer, who by his approach uncovers little known facets of history, which by themselves contribute to an understanding of the overall historical picture. The present book is based on his doctoral thesis.

Ever since James Prinsep successfully deciphered the Brähmī script deciphering and interpreting Indian inscriptions received the attention of scholars like Fergusson, Sir Walter Elliot, Rev. Stevenson and Bhau Daji. This resulted in transcribing a good number of inscriptions and interpreting the data thus obtained to reconstruct Indian history, particularly political. Epigraphical studies received great impetus with the starting of the Government of India's journal Epigraphia Indica. Doyanas like J.F. Fleet, Lewis Rice, Hultzsch, Kielhorn, H. Krishna Sastri, N.L. Rao, B. Ch. Chhabra, D.C. Sircar edited and published a good number of inscriptions in Epigraphia Indica and South Indian Inscriptions volumes. This helped the scholars to a great extent who took up the task of writing Indian history. Epigraphy, the land of wonders, also attracted the scholars of Andhra like K.V. Lakshmana Rao, Ch. Veerabhadra Rao, Mallampalli Somasekhara Sarma, N. Venkataramanaiah, R. Subba Rao, J. Ramayya Pantulu, B.V. Krishna Rao, K. Iswara Dattu, R. Subramanyam, K.H.V. Sarma, N. Ramesan, P.V. Parabrahma Sastry and others whose untiring efforts resulted in bringing a number of inscriptions to light. In the galaxy of these scholars Mallam palli Somasekhara Sarma is the brightest star. All these scholars exploited the epigraphical material to reconstruct Andhra history. In the course of writing political history some of these scholars made significant attempts to draw our attention to social history also. Consequently social history received only a secondary place in the hands of these scholars. However, the History of the Reddy Kingdoms by Mallampalli Somasekhara Sarma is an exception to this. This work is divided into two parts, the second one being totally devoted to the social history of the period of the Reddi kings. Somasekhara Sarma set an example by his comprehensive treatment of this section to future writers on social history.