South India Under The Cholas

Description

The Cholas dominated the south Indian political scene from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries. This book is an authoritative and comprehensive study of Chola state, society, and economy. South India under the Cholas explores the state–society interactions in medieval south India. It presents an in-depth analysis of Tamil epigraphy. Using inscriptional evidence from India and South-east Asia, it analyses the socio-economic milieu, merchant guilds, and other sociological aspects. Subbarayalu discusses the revenue system, property rights, relations between landowners, cultivators, and slaves and the structure and character of the Chola state. He scrutinizes in detail the evolution of organizations like Urar, Nattar, and Periyanattar, social classes like the left and right hand divisions, and the merchant militia. For the first time an attempt is made here to quantify the revenue of a pre-Mughal Indian state.