Bharat Janani

 PALLAVA ADMINISTRATION: 

Kingship was attributed to define origin. The kings claimed their descent from the God Brahma. It has hereditary. Yet, on one occasion a king was elected. Most of the kings were accomplished scholars. Mahendravarman I wrote the famous burlesque, Masttavilasa Prahsana. Many of the vaishnava azhvars and saiva nayanars flourished during their rule. 

The kings adopted high-sounding titles like maharajadhiraja, dharma-maharjadhiraja (great king of kings ruling in accordance with the dharma), agnistomavajpeya, asvamedha-yaji (he who has performed the agnithtoma-vajapeya and asvamedha sacrifices) they were assisted by ministers. History shows that the ministerial council played a great part in the state policy in the later period. 

A hierarchy of officials in provincial administration, the governor of a province was assisted by district officers, who in turn worked in collaboration with autonomous local bodies. In local administration the meeting of assembles were frequent, and the administration the meeting of assemblies were frequent, and the assemblies were of many varieties and of many levels. Often special meetings were held. As the village level the assembly was the sabha which looked after almost all the matters of the village, along with endowments, irrigation, crime, maintaining census and other necessary records, Courts at villages level dealt More >

Political History of Pallavas  

The first important ruler was Siva Skandavarman who performed an Aswamedha and other Vedic sacrifices. His capital was Kanchi. Samudragupta forced the Pallava king, Vishnugopa, to acknowledge the Gupta suzerainty. And the story of the Pallavas in the 5th and 6th centuries is very sketchy.

By end of the sixth century the Pallavas re-emerged on the scene. Simhavishnu (575 to 600 A.D.) captured the territory of the Cholas and humbled the pride of his neighbors including Ceylon. He was ovavaishnava faith as borne out by the magnificent reliefs representing Simhavishnu and two of his consorts in the Varsha cave at Mamallpuram. 

With Mahendravarman I, the son and successor of Simhavishnu, began the titanic tripartite struggle with the Chalukyas of Vathapi and the Cholas. The Chalukya king, Pulakesin II, captured Kanchi. Pulakesin II won the pitched battle fought at Pullalur, fifteen miles north of Kanchi. However, Narsimhavaram I, the son and successor of Mahendravarman I, defeated Pulakesi  II in many battles and probably killed Pulakesi himself. He also defeated the Cholas, the Cheras and the Pandyas. He even sent two naval expeditions to Ceylon and placed his protégé on the throne of Ceylon. Narasimhavarman I was a great builder too. More >

Sangam works may be generally classified into three parts like Ettuttogai (the eight anthologies) and Pattupattu (the ten idylls) and pathinenkilu kanakku. The group of Ettuttogai consists of:

1. Narrinai 2. Karuntogai 3. Aingurunuru 4. Padirrupattu 5. Paripadal 6. Kalittogai 7. Ahanamuru 8. Puraanuru. The group Pattupattu includes:

1. Tirumurugarruppadai 2. Porunararruppadai 3. Sirupanarruppadai 4. Perumbanarruppadai 5. Mullaipattu 6. Maduraikanchi 7. Nedunalvadai 8. Kurinjipattu 9. Pattinappalai 10. Malaipadukanchi

· Some scholars have included Tolkapium, the Tamil grammatical treatise by Tolkappiyar (supposed to be the disciple of Agastya, the famous saint who is said to have crossed the Vindhyas first and propagated the Brahmanical culture in the South), Patinenkilkanakku, the eighteen didactical texts (comprising:

1. Nladiyar 2. Nammanikkadigai 3. Inna Narpadu 4. Iniya Narpadu 5. Kar Narpadu 6. Kalavali Narpadu 7. Aintinai Aimpadu 8. Aintinai Elupadu 9. Tinaimoli Aimpadu 10. Tinaimalai Nurraimpadu 11. Kainnilai (or Innilai) 12. Kural 13. Tirikadugam 14. Charakkovai 15. Palamoli 16. Sirupanchachamulam 17. Mudumo Likkanchi 18. Eladi),

· Silappadikaram and Manimegalai, the twin epics, remnants of poems like Togadur Yattirai and Bharatam of Perundevanar in the Sangam corpus.

The Ettutogai and Pattupattu are together grouped as Melkanakku (the longer serials) for they consist stanzas composed of metre which permits of a larger numbers of lines.

· On the other hand the Kilkkanakku works (the shorter serials) are so called because they consist of poems composed in the Venba metre which permits on an average four lines for each stanza.

· There More >

The religion of the Sangam age was not uniform.

· Their rituals were related to animism and other forms of anthropomorphic deity worship.

· The whole philosophy of reincarnation, hero worship, ancestor worship, sati worship etc. were related to death.

· Animism accounts for a good part of Tamil Sangam religion and comprised worship stones, water, stars and planets.

· A mere planted log of wood called Kandu was an object of worship for it was believed that a deity resided in that log of wood.

· Three strands of religion, clearly marked off from each other, are discernible during the Sangam period:

1. The indigenous Gods and systems of worship 2. The exotic Hindu Gods and systems of worship 3. The exotic non-Hindu religious faiths and functions.

· The hunters of the hill tracts worshipped murugan as the God of the hillock. · Indra, God of Marudam, was worshipped by the agriculturists. There was a special festival instituted in puhar in honor of Indra.

· The fishermen and the people of the coastal regions worshipped Varuna, the God of the wide ocean.

· Korravai was the goddess of victory.

· Among the established Gods worshipped according to rituals, the three eyed god (Siva), Murugan, Tirumal, Balram and Indra seem to have been More >

The road to dholavira goes through a dazzling white landscape of salty mud flats. It is close to noon in early April and the mercury is already past 100F. The desert monotones are interrupted only by the striking attire worn by the women of the nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoral tribes that still inhabit this land: Ahir, Rabari, Jat, Meghwal, and others. When I ask the driver of my hired car to stop for a photo, they receive me with curious stares, hoots, and giggles..

 The Rann of Kutch, an area about the size of Kuwait, almost entirely within Gujarat and along the border with Pakistan. Once an extension of the Arabian Sea, the Rann (“salt marsh”) has been closed off by centuries of silting. During the monsoons, parts of the Rann fill up with seasonal brackish water, enough for many locals to even harvest shrimp in it. Some abandon their boats on the drying mudflats, presenting a surreal scene for the dry season visitor. Heat mirages abound. Settlement is limited to a few “island” plateaus, one of which, Khadir, hosts the remains of the ancient city of Dholavira, discovered in 1967 and excavated only since 1989. 

Entering Khadir, we pass a village and More >