 Hello dear learners. I welcome you to this lecture session today. The topic of which is society, religion and cultural development in early medieval India. The lecture is meant for the BA for semester learners of history. The lecture session on this unit will be divided into three parts. The first part shall cover the topic of the society and religious development in the early medieval India, followed by the cultural scenario prevalent at that point of time and then a detailed discussion on the later part on the topic of feudalism and jati pratha or the caste system. For today's lecture session, we shall focus on the first part. Dear learners, I am Dr. Sakmaya Lama, assistant professor in the discipline of history under Surya Kumar Bhunya School of Social Sciences. In the lecture today, we will be discussing the social conditions and religious development in the early medieval period. Let us begin with the social condition in the early medieval India. The nature of the society during this period of study has been termed as feudal, raising much debates among the historians. We should discuss about it in our next class. We shall discuss about it in our next class. Similarly, the discussion on jati pratha or the caste system which is essential to the understanding of the society for this period shall also be taken up in the following sessions. But let me just give you a simple answer to what a feudal society means. A feudal society is dominated by a class of people who derived their income from the surplus produced by the peasant. In a feudal society, the peasant is the primary producer of wealth, but his position is that of a dependent. While looking into the societal conditions, let us understand the condition of people. The literary works of the time reveals to us that ministers, officials, feudal lords, even big merchants live the life of luxury with fine houses, domestic servants to look after them, and attendants who would accompany them wherever they went. There are, however, literary accounts that tell us that such prosperity was limited to only a few. Kalhana mentions that the ordinary people did not have the luxury of eating good food and often these poor men and women took to rubbery for the survival. As for the rural folks, the peasant's life was burdened with numerous taxes and cesses over and above the land revenue. Slavery existed during this period and mostly consisted of prisoners of wars, debtors who were unable to pay their dues, women who were sold for domestic services, etc. Coming to the question of women, let us discuss a little bit about the condition. Child marriage was prevalent and under certain conditions remarriages were allowed. Women were more honored in the domestic roles where their life was regulated by the male members of their household. Pardha system wasn't in practice. As mentioned in his writings by Abu Zaid, who was an Arab traveler of the 10th century, he writes how most Indian princes allowed their women to attend the court proceedings without any pardha. Regarding dresses and accessories, men and women in general wore dhoti and saree respectively. Coats and trousers, including shoes, were mostly worn by the men of the upper class in North India as it appears from the sculptures. As for jewellery and ornaments, both men and women were fond of it. We are informed of this from the writings of the travelers. In the matter of food, vegetarian foods were consumed in certain areas and by a certain section of the population. But eating of meat was not cancelled totally. Smriti writers have mentioned the lawful consumption of meat on particular occasions. Likewise, drinking wine was popular among a certain class of people during feasts and such other ceremonial gatherings. For leisure, fairs and festivals, cockfighting, etc. were popular among the common people. The upper class indulged in activities that were royal in nature like dicing, hunting, etc. Now let us discuss about the religious development of this period. One significant development during this period was the decline of Buddhism and Jainism. The monks from both this faith faced persecution. We can trace this development to the decline of the patrons of this faith. Especially Buddhism. The decline of the Pala rulers in the east gave a serious blow to Buddhism. However, Buddhism itself was undergoing certain internal transitions. The rituals became more elaborate and the focus was on the belief in mystical practices and gestures. Tantric Buddhism thus became a tradition. It soon caught the tension of Hindu yogis and it was Gauraknath who made this tradition popular among the masses. Nathpanthis as his followers were called were able to garner a huge support base as they welcomed everyone from different castes and privileges to its fold. It can thus be said that Buddhism, though not popular, yet took a different form which was very similar along the lines of Hinduism. As for Jainism, as long as it gained the patronage from the ruling class, it thrived. The Chalukyas of Gujarat, the Paramaras of Malwa and the Ganga rulers of Karnataka were among the few ruling dynasties that favored the Jain faith. The result of which led to the building of temples, Jainalayas or rest houses for the travelers, images of Jain saints and of Mahavira, building of pillars or Mahastambas etc. However, with the increase in the rigidity and along with the loss of patronage, Jainism started to lose its popularity. The other important religious development of this period was the revival and expansion of Hinduism which took two forms. One was the growth of an intellectual movement, emphasizing the Vedas and the Vedic rituals. On the other hand was the popular movement. In North it was based on Tantra and in South India it was the Bhakti movement that disregarded the caste inequalities. There was rise of the worship of Shiva and Vishnu who were considered the chief gods and to claim their supremacy many grand temples were built. This led to the process of the Hinduization of many local and tribal gods and goddesses who were now worshipped but more of as a consort or subordinate. Thus goddess Tara began to be worshipped as the consort of Buddha and goddess Kali and Durga as the consort of Shiva which gained prominence in eastern India. This developments within Hinduism increased the power of the Brahmins who grew arrogant and as a result of which popular movements emerged targeting them and aimed at preaching the principles of human equality and freedom. Now what popular movements are we talking about? We are talking about the Bhakti movement that grew in South India and led by many saints like the Nayanmer and Alvars. The emphasis was to give away with the austerities and advocate the bond of love between the worshipper and the god. The emphasis was to give away with the austerities and advocate the bond of love between the worshipper and god. Shiva and Vishnu remained the chief objects of their worship. The Nayanmer worshipped Shiva the Alvars worshipped Vishnu. Tamil became the medium of speech and writing which made it popular among the people. The saints who mostly belonged to the lower class preached the message of love and devotion and emphasized that the path of Bhakti was not exclusive to any caste. Tamil became the medium of speech and writing which made it popular among the people. The saints who mostly belong to the lower class preached the message of love and devotion and emphasized that the path of Bhakti was not exclusive to any caste. The success of the Bhakti movement lies in the fact that it could bring the followers of Jainism and Buddhism within its fold along with the followers of the tribal cults. The teachings of the Alvars were systematized and declared as equivalent to the Vedas by different acharyas and Nathamuni was the leader of these acharyas. These group of saints and acharyas began to be worshipped in the temple and later it developed many rituals which is still practiced today. Another popular movement was the Lingayat or Vir Saiva movement of the 12th century founded by Basava and Channa Basava. Worshipers of Shiva, the Lingayats were strictly against the caste system. The elaborate rituals of fasting and feasting. On the social front they opposed child marriage and advocated for widow remarriage. The biggest blow to Jainism and Buddhism was on the intellectual front and it was brought upon by Shankara. Born in Kerala, Shankara is said to have won an intellectual debate against the Jain scholars leading to the loss of their influence. His reformulation of the Hindu philosophy is called Advaitavada or the doctrine of non-dualism. His philosophy is also called Vedanta as it considers Vedas as a source of true knowledge. According to Shankara, the road to salvation was devotion to God knowing that God and the created beings were one. It did not gain much followers among the masses as this philosophy stressed on Jain or knowledge to clean the soul for the attainment of salvation. Nath Muni and other Acharyas who followed him claimed that the path of Bhakti lay in the study of the scriptures and practicing the rituals prescribed by the Brahmins and hence limited only to the three upper castes. Another Acharya named Ramanuja made an attempt to assimilate the Bhakti movement to the Veda tradition on the basis of his argument that for attaining salvation God's grace was important than Jnana or knowledge about the superior being. According to him the path of Bhakti was open to all including the Dalits and the Shudras. This tradition continued to flourish towards later period under Madhavacharya, Ramananda, Vallabhacharya etc. So with this we come to the end of this lecture. For reference books or any suggested reading I would request our learners to go through Satish Chandra's history of medieval India and Romila Thapar's early India from the origins to A.D. 1300. As for questions and answers segment the common questions under this segment would be the condition of society during the early medieval period. The other questions that may be asked would be on the Bhakti movement or the reason behind the decline of Jainism and Buddhism. Bullet points may be used for answering these questions. The answers should also ensure that all relevant points are included. For example while writing on the society the conditions of women slaves must not be excluded. In the next session we will be discussing the architectural traditions of the early medieval period focusing on the Nagara, Dravida and the Vesara style of architecture. Before leaving let me give you a brief summary of what we have discussed so far. We have discussed the society of the early medieval period and the religious development that took place during this time. We discussed the living condition of the people, the condition of women and the activities pursued during leisure. During this discussion we understood that the society was stratified and feudal in character along with the presence of the caste system. With regard to the religious matters we discussed the decline of Jainism and Buddhism due to the intellectual and literary challenges coming from those who aimed at reviving Hinduism by laying stress on Vedas. We also discussed the Bhakti movement that grew in South India which opened the gateways to attain salvation for all people irrespective of their caste. Dear learners, that is it for today. We will meet you soon in yet another interesting session. Till then take care and stay safe. Thank you.