Ancient India · Topic 9 of 17
Satavahanas and the Sangam-age Tamil kingdoms
The Basics
After Ashoka's death, Mauryan control over the Deccan weakened. Local chiefs who once held Mauryan titles like rathika and bhoja now called themselves maharathi and mahabhoja. Many small principalities arose across the Deccan. These are known from coins found at Kotalingala, Brahmapuri and Bhattiprolu.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsThe Basics
The Satavahana kingdom was divided into large units called aharas, also termed rashtras.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsThe Basics
Satavahana kings were Brahmanas who performed Vedic sacrifices like ashvamedha, yet also gave land grants to Buddhist monks.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsThe Basics
Kharavela was the most important king of the Chedi dynasty of Kalinga.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsThe Basics
Before Sangam-age states formed, the uplands of peninsular India had no cities, no named kings, and no writing. From roughly c. 1200 BCE (some sites even c. 1300 BCE) to about the early centuries CE, these uplands were home to communities known only from their graves. These graves were marked by large, roughly dressed stones. Archaeologists call them megaliths, from the Greek words for "big" and "stone". The people who built them are called megalith builders.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsThe Basics
By the last centuries before the Common Era, the megalithic farming communities of the far south, called Tamizhakam, had grown into villages and towns in the river valleys. There was as yet no continuous written political history, so the earliest story of this region has to be pieced together from poetry, inscriptions and Ashokan edicts rather than court chronicles.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsThe Basics
By the 3rd century BCE, three kingdoms had emerged in Tamilakam: the Cheras on the Kerala coast, the Cholas in the lower Kaveri valley, and the Pandyas in the Tamraparni and Vaigai valleys. These were not empires but fertile, rice-growing core areas. Crowned kings called vendar ruled them and dominated smaller hereditary chieftains called velir. Trade with Rome grew after the 1st century CE and brought these kingdoms wealth. This wealth fuelled rivalry among their rulers. Their history is thus one of constant warfare, alliances and succession struggles, celebrated by Sangam poets.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsThe Basics
The three Sangam kingdoms, Chera, Chola and Pandya, were called vendar or crowned kings, each with its own emblem: tiger, bow and fish.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsThe Basics
The vendar kings of Tamilakam needed resources to fight wars, reward poets and maintain armies. These resources came from two sources: agriculture in fertile river valleys and trade through famous ports.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsThe Basics
By the time Indo-Roman trade and agriculture had given Tamilakam its wealth, Sangam poets had already worked out a way of describing the land and its people. They divided the whole of Tamilakam into five ecological zones called tinai, each named after a flower and each tied to a particular way of making a living.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsThe Basics
Sangam literature is the oldest surviving Tamil literature, composed roughly between the 3rd century BCE and 3rd century CE.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsThe Basics
Indo-Roman trade grew after the discovery of monsoon winds.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsThe Basics
Brahmanas first appear in the Tamil land during the Sangam age.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQs