End of the Ancient World: Social, Religious, and Political Change in Post-Gupta India

Transformation of the Ancient Phase (5th–7th Century AD)

The ancient Indian social order — based on the varna system, centralised taxation, cash-paid officials, and urban-commercial networks — underwent a profound structural crisis from around the third-fourth centuries AD. By the sixth and seventh centuries, the cumulative effects of this crisis had dissolved the old order and laid the foundations of medieval India. RS Sharma's analysis identifies the land grant system as the single most important mechanism driving this transformation, with cascading consequences for polity, economy, society, culture, and religion.

This transformation was not a sudden collapse but a slow, systemic unravelling — making it one of the most analytically complex topics in ancient Indian history for UPSC.

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The varna-based social order rested on the productive activities of the vaisyas (peasants/traders) and sudras (labourers), whose taxes and labour sustained the royal apparatus. By the third-fourth centuries AD, this system faced a deep structural crisis:

• Lower orders began refusing to pay taxes and render labour services — they attempted to arrogate the status of higher varnas.
• Puranic texts of the period complain of varna-sankara (intermixture of social classes) — a metaphor for the breakdown of the brahmanical social hierarchy.
• This state was described as Kaliyuga — reflecting elite anxiety about the disintegration of the established order.

Why did land grants emerge? Kings granted land to priests and officials in lieu of cash salaries and remuneration. This served multiple purposes:

• It relieved the king of the burden of collecting taxes — transferring this to the beneficiaries.
• Beneficiaries could manage recalcitrant peasants directly on the spot.
• New lands could be brought under cultivation.
• In conquered tribal areas, implanting brahmanas helped teach tribal peoples the brahmanical way of life and the obligation to pay taxes to the king.

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Land grants became frequent from the fifth century AD. The consequences for royal authority were severe:

• Brahmanas were granted villages free from taxes — all taxes previously collected by the king were transferred to the brahmanas.
• Beneficiaries were given the right to govern the people of donated villages — including law and order functions.
• From the Maurya period onward, officials had been paid in cash; this continued under the Kushans (copper and gold coins). Under the Guptas, the practice lingered. But from the sixth century AD, law-books recommended rewarding services in land.
• From the time of Harsha-vardhana, public officials were paid in land grants. A fourth of the royal revenue was earmarked for endowment of great public servants.
• Villages were granted to brahmanas in perpetuity — the power of the king was heavily undermined from the end of the Gupta period.
• This created numerous pockets of vested interest beyond royal control.

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The land grant system fundamentally restructured agrarian relations:

• Landed beneficiaries could neither cultivate lands themselves nor collect revenues themselves — actual cultivation was entrusted to peasants or sharecroppers (ardhasitikas) who were attached to the land but did not legally own it.
• Chinese pilgrim I-tsing states that most Indian monasteries got their lands cultivated by servants and others.
• Hsuan Tsang describes sudras as agriculturists — suggesting they no longer cultivated land mainly as slaves but as agricultural labourers, possibly occupying it temporarily.
• From the sixth century onwards, sharecroppers and peasants were increasingly asked to stick to the land granted to the beneficiaries in backward and mountainous areas (Orissa, Deccan, etc.), and then the practice spread to the Gangetic basin.
• In north India, artisans and peasants were asked not to leave the villages — they had to live in the same village to cater to all its needs, foreshadowing serfdom and self-sufficient village economies.
• This gave rise to smaller units of production, each meeting its own needs — a hallmark of the medieval agrarian economy.

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From the sixth century AD, trade began to decline systematically:

• Trade with the western Roman Empire ended in the third century AD.
• Silk trade with Iran and Byzantium stopped in the middle of the sixth century.
• India carried on some commerce with China and South-East Asia, but benefits were reaped by Arabs acting as middlemen — in the pre-Muslim period, Arabs practically monopolised the export trade of India.
• The decline of trade is strikingly demonstrated by the virtual disappearance of gold coins after the sixth century — true for both north and south India.
• Towns decayed: Towns had flourished under the Satavahanas and Kushans; a few cities continued under the Guptas. But the post-Gupta period witnessed the ruin of many old commercial cities in north India.
• Excavations show several towns in Haryana, east Punjab, Purana Qila (Delhi), Mathura, Hastinapur (Meerut district), Sravasti, Kausambi (near Allahabad), Rajghat (Varanasi), Chirand, Vaisali, Pataliputra — began to decline in the Gupta period and mostly disappeared in post-Gupta times.
• Hsuan Tsang found several towns considered sacred but almost deserted or dilapidated.
• On account of restricted market for Indian exports, artisans and merchants migrated to the countryside and took to cultivation — e.g., a group of silk weavers from the western coast migrated to Mandasor in Malwa in the late fifth century, gave up silk weaving, and adopted other professions.
• Villagers now had to meet their needs in oil, salt, spices, cloth, etc. by themselves — self-sufficient village emerged.

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Frequent seizures of power and land grants gave rise to several categories of landed people:

• A person who acquired land and power naturally sought high social position; even if of lower varna, he might be favoured with land grants — creating social contradiction.
• In the Gangetic basin, vaisyas became regarded as free peasants, but land grants created landlords between peasants and the king — vaisyas became as good as sudras.
• The old brahmanical order was modified and spread from north India to Bengal and south India through fifth-sixth century land grants.
• In outlying areas, mainly two orders were found: brahmanas and sudras.
• From the seventh century onwards, numerous castes were created. A Purana of the eighth century states that thousands of mixed castes were produced by the connection of vaisya women with men of lower castes.
• Sudras and untouchables were divided into countless sub-castes.
• Rajputs appeared as an important factor in Indian polity and society from around the seventh century.
• Many tribal peoples were admitted into Hindu society because of land grants given to brahmanas in aboriginal tracts — most tribal peoples were enrolled as sudras and mixed castes. Every tribe was given the status of a separate caste in Hindu society.

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Sub-National Identities

From the sixth-seventh centuries, sub-national units crystallised: Andhra, Assam, Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, etc. The identity of these groups was recognised by both foreign and Indian sources. Hsuan Tsang mentions several nationalities; the sixth-century author Visakhadatta speaks of different regions with different customs, clothing, and language. Jaina books of the late eighth century notice 18 major peoples or nationalities.

Sanskrit and Regional Languages

• Sanskrit continued as the ruling class language from the second century AD; rulers lived in pomp and splendour, and the style became verbose and ornate.
• Ornate Sanskrit prose and poetry became common from the seventh century — the best example of verbiage in prose is found in the writings of Bana.
• From the seventh century AD, Buddhist writings from eastern India show faint beginnings of Bengali, Assamese, Maithili, Oriya, Hindi. Similarly, Jaina Prakrit works show beginnings of Gujarati and Rajasthani.
• Regional scripts became prominent from the seventh century AD. From Maurya to Gupta times, the script remained more or less uniform across the country. But from the seventh century, every region came to have its own script — hence post-Gupta inscriptions from different parts of the country cannot be read without learning several scripts.

Temple Architecture and Sculpture

• Every region evolved its own style in sculpture and temple construction from the seventh-eighth centuries.
• South India tended to become the land of stone temples.
• Stone and bronze were the two main media for representing divinities.
• Bronze statues were manufactured on an impressive scale — predominating in south India (brahmanical temples) and eastern India (Buddhist temples).
• The same gods and goddesses were worshipped throughout the country but portrayed in regionally distinct ways.

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Bhakti

• From the seventh century AD, the Bhakti cult spread throughout the country, especially in south India.
• Bhakti meant complete surrender to one's god — devotees made offerings (prasada) and received the favour of the god.
• This practice mirrored the feudal relationship: just as tenants offered services to lords and received land and protection, a similar relation was established between the individual and the god.
• Vishnu, Siva, and Durga appeared as supreme deities, presiding over other gods placed in lower positions as retainers and attendants — the divine hierarchy mirrored the earthly feudal hierarchy.
• The monastic organisations of Jainas, Saivites, Vaishnavites were divided into about five ranks, with the highest occupied by the acharya, whose coronation took place like that of a prince.

Tantricism

• The most remarkable religious development from the sixth century AD.
• In the fifth-seventh centuries, brahmanas received land in Nepal, Assam, Bengal, Orissa, central India, and the Deccan — tantric texts, shrines, and practices appeared around this time.
• Tantricism admitted women and sudras into its ranks and laid great stress on magic rituals — intended to satisfy material desires, cure diseases, and injuries.
• Tantric texts were systematised and recorded from about the sixth century AD.
• Tantricism arose as a result of the large-scale admission of aboriginal peoples into brahmanical society — brahmanas adopted many tribal rituals and charms, which were officially compiled, sponsored, and fostered by them; in course of time these were distorted by brahmanas and priests to serve the interests of their rich clients.
• Tantricism permeated Jainism, Buddhism, Saivism, and Vaishnavism. From the seventh century it continued to hold ground throughout the medieval age.

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• This chapter explains the structural transition from ancient to medieval India — not as a political event (e.g., a dynasty's fall) but as a socio-economic process.
• The land grant system is RS Sharma's central explanatory variable for Indian feudalism — directly comparable to debates about feudalism in European historiography.
• The disappearance of gold coins is a crucial material indicator of economic decline and is directly testable in MCQs.
• The emergence of regional identities, scripts, and languages in this period explains the diversity of medieval India.
• Bhakti and Tantricism are direct products of this social transformation — not spontaneous religious movements.

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• GS Paper I (Medieval History transition): This chapter is the bridge between ancient and medieval India — understanding it is essential for answering questions on the origins of feudalism, Bhakti movement, and regional cultures.
• Land Grants and Decentralisation: Directly parallels debates on centre-state fiscal relations and devolution — useful for comparative governance analysis.
• Agrarian Economy and Self-Sufficient Villages: Connects to the debate on India's pre-colonial economic structure (often raised in Economic History questions).
• Trade Decline ↔ Urban Decay: A classic cause-effect chain — useful in understanding why medieval India lacked the commercial vitality of ancient India.
• Tribal Integration: The admission of tribal peoples as sudras/castes through brahmanical land grants is a key theme in social history — connects to questions on caste origins and Adivasi history.
• Bhakti Origins: Bhakti as a feudal devotional form (mirroring lord-tenant relations) is RS Sharma's provocative thesis — likely to be tested in analytical MCQs.
• Interlinks: Land Grants ↔ Decline of Mauryan/Gupta Centralisation ↔ Rise of Regional Kingdoms ↔ Bhakti Movement ↔ Caste Proliferation ↔ Medieval India.

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1. When did land grants become FREQUENT? From the fifth century AD — not from the Maurya period (when officers were paid in cash). Land grants existed earlier but became the norm only from the fifth century.
2. Kaliyuga term: In this context, Kaliyuga is used by RS Sharma to describe the social crisis of the 3rd–4th centuries AD — not an astronomical/religious concept. Do not confuse with its cosmological usage.
3. Varna-sankara: Means intermixture/confusion of social classes — NOT a positive concept. Puranic texts used it to lament the breakdown of varna order.
4. Gold coins disappearance: After the sixth century, gold coins practically disappeared — this signals trade collapse, NOT a monetary policy choice. It affected both north AND south India.
5. Silk weavers of Mandasor: They migrated from the western coast to Malwa (not from eastern India) in the late fifth century — a specific detail about urban-to-rural migration due to trade decline.
6. I-tsing vs Hsuan Tsang: I-tsing describes land cultivation by monastery servants. Hsuan Tsang describes sudras as agriculturists (not slaves). Both are 7th-century Chinese pilgrims — do not conflate their specific observations.
7. Harsha-vardhana and land grants: It was from Harsha's time that public officials were paid in land, with a fourth of royal revenue earmarked for great servants — not Gupta period.
8. Bhakti = feudal analogy: RS Sharma explicitly compares Bhakti devotion to the lord-tenant relationship — this is a historiographical interpretation, not a religious doctrine.
9. Tantricism's origin: Arose NOT from pure Hindu tradition but from into brahmanical society — brahmanas absorbed and distorted tribal rituals.

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• Social crisis: 3rd–4th century AD → varna-sankara, Kaliyuga discourse
• Land grants: in lieu of cash salaries; frequent from 5th century AD
• Brahmanas granted villages free from taxes; given right to govern donated villages
• From Harsha: officials paid in land; ¼ royal revenue for great servants
• New agrarian economy: sharecroppers/peasants attached to land; self-sufficient villages
• Trade decline: Roman trade ended 3rd c. AD; silk trade with Byzantium/Iran ended mid-6th c.
• Arabs monopolised India's export trade in pre-Muslim period
• Gold coins disappeared after 6th century — indicator of trade collapse
• Towns decayed post-Gupta: Mathura, Kausambi, Pataliputra, Sravasti, Hastinapur, Vaisali
• Silk weavers: western coast → Mandasor (Malwa), late 5th century
• Vaisyas ↓ to sudra level in Gangetic basin; Rajputs emerge 7th century
• Tribal peoples → enrolled as sudras/mixed castes via land grants
• Sub-national identities crystallise: 6th–7th century
• Sanskrit: ornate style from 7th century; Bana = best example of prose verbiage
• Regional languages begin: Bengali, Assamese, Maithili, Oriya, Hindi (from Buddhist writings, 7th c.)
• Regional scripts: from 7th century (post-Gupta inscriptions require learning several scripts)
• Stone temples (south India), bronze statues (south + east India) from 7th–8th century
• Bhakti: 7th century onwards; complete surrender to god = feudal lord-tenant analogy
• Vishnu, Siva, Durga = supreme; others = retainers (divine feudal hierarchy)
• Tantricism: 6th century AD; admitted women + sudras; magic rituals; arose from tribal absorption
• By 6th–7th century: ancient India ending, medieval India taking shape