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IGNOU HISTORY NOTES : India Earliest Times to the 8th Century A.D - Kingdoms in the Deccan and South India

IGNOU HISTORY Study Notes for IAS, UPSC Exams

India Earliest Times to the 8th Century A.D

Kingdoms in the Deccan and South India

Structure

35.0 Objectives
35.1 Introduction
35.2 Political Situation in the Deccan till the Mid-sixth Century A.D.
35.2.1 Vidarbha (Maharashtra)
35.2.2 Kamataka
35.2.3 Eastern Deccan
35.2.4 South Kamataka
35.3 Political Situation in South India
35.4 The Rise of the Chalukyas, the Pallavas and the~and~as
35.4.1 The Chalukyas
35.4.2 The Pallavas
35.4.3 The Pandyas
35.4.4 Other Powers
35.5 Conflicts Between Different Powers
35.5.1 The Role of Minor Kings
35.5.2 other Dimensions of Political Conflicts
35.5.3 Relations with other Countries
35.5.4 Kerala
35.6 Political Organisation
35.6.1 The King and the Higher Stratum of Administration.
.35.6.2 Administrative Units
35.6.3 Local Associations
35.7 Relations Between Different Categories of Rulers
35.8 Let Us Sum Up
35.9 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

35.0 OBJECTIVES

After reading this Unit you will be able to learn about:

the kingdoms that arose in the Deccan and South India with special reference to the Chalukyas of Badami and the Pallavas of Kanchi,
the relations between these kingdoms,
the role of geography in understanding the political history of our period, and
how people were governed in these kingdoms.

35.1 INTRODUCTION

People often speak of lndia south of the Vindhyas as South India or the Deccan. This
division has been made for a long time, indeed as early as ancient India when the area south
of the Vindhyas was called Dakshinapatha or the Southern Temtory. Dakhina became the
Dakkan of medieval tlmes, from which in turn the term Deccan is derived. But historians
and geographers have found it more useful to distinguish the Deccan proper from the rest of
south India. The Deccan consists of Maharashtra and northern Karnataka, and as far as the
double deltas of the Godavari and the Krishna. Following this usage, we shall speak of the
Deccan and south India as the two regions south of the Vindhyas while the term 'southern
India' will stand for both the regions and as distinct from 'northern Indla.' You will
appreciate the value of these d~stinctions more and more as you go deeper into the study of
the history and society of this area.
In Block-7 you have read about the political developmentwhich took place in the Deccan
and south lndia in the Mauryan and post-Mauryan period. You have noticed that while the
Deccari was included in the Mauryan empire, the major chiefdoms of south India, i.e. those
of the Cholas, Pandyas, Cheras and Satiyaputras were friendly neighbours of the Mauryas.
In the post-Mauryan period, initially minor chiefs assuming the title of raja or King