Old NCERT Summary (RS Sharma): Spread of Civilization in Eastern India

Signs of Civilization

• Civilization Criteria: A region is considered civilised if its people possess writing, establish a system of taxation, maintain public order, form social classes, and produce specialists such as artisans, administrators and religious functionaries. Crucially, a civilised society must generate sufficient surplus to sustain non-producing groups (priests, officials, monks, etc.).
• Historical Context: In much of eastern India the elements of civilisation emerged comparatively late. Written records are scarce in large parts of eastern Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Bangladesh and Assam before the mid-fourth century AD.
• Economic and Social Development: Between the fourth and seventh centuries AD there was substantial progress in rural economy, state organisation and social stratification in eastern Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, eastern Bengal, south-east Bengal and Assam. This progress is visible in the appearance of numerous Sanskrit inscriptions from the Gupta period.
• Sanskrit Inscriptions: Many inscriptions of the Gupta era are land grants issued by local rulers for religious purposes, benefitting brahmanas, Vaishnava temples and Buddhist monasteries. These religious and learned institutions played a key role in spreading and reinforcing advanced cultural traits.
• Regional Survey: To understand the spread of civilisation during this period it is necessary to survey individual regions - their archaeology, inscriptions, monetary evidence and patterns of land control and settlement.

Orissa, and Eastern and Southern Madhya Pradesh

Kalinga's Historical Significance

• The coastal region south of the Mahanadi, known as Kalinga, became prominent under Ashoka, though a strong state existed there from at least the first century BC.
• The famous king Kharavela of Kalinga extended his influence into Magadha in the early centuries AD.
• During the first and second centuries AD Orissa's ports were engaged in overseas trade in goods such as pearls, ivory and muslin.

Trade and Archaeological Evidence

• Excavations at Shishupalgarh (the site of Kalinganagari and Kharavela's capital) yielded Roman artefacts, indicating active trade links with the Roman world.

State Formation and Conquests

• Despite coastal trade, much of northern Orissa did not immediately show intensive state formation or commercial urban growth.
• In the fourth century Samudragupta is recorded as having conquered regions such as Kosala and Mahakantara, which included parts of northern and western Orissa.
• Between the late fourth and sixth centuries a number of small to medium states emerged across Orissa; historians can identify at least five distinct polities from this period.

The Matharas and Neighbouring States

• The most notable polity in this period were the Matharas (also called Pitribhaktas), who at their height controlled territory between the Mahanadi and the Krishna rivers.
• Other nearby states included the Vasishthas, the Nalas and the Manas.

Taxation, Administration and Money

• Each state developed its own systems of taxation, administration and military organisation. The Nalas, and possibly the Manas, struck their own coinage.
• Kings supported the brahmanas through land grants and invited learned brahmanas from other regions; many rulers performed Vedic sacrifices to enhance legitimacy and prestige.

Culture and Economic Practices

• Advanced cultural elements were found beyond the coastal belt and were evident across Orissa.
• Finds of Nala gold coins in the tribal Bastar region of Madhya Pradesh suggest a monetary economy in which gold was used for large transactions and payments to high officials.
• The issue of copper coins by the Manas indicates that metal money circulated among artisans and peasants.

Economic Expansion and Agricultural Administration

• States increased revenue by creating new fiscal and administrative units in the countryside.
• The Matharas established districts such as Mahendrabhoga and Dantayavagubhoga; the latter supplied ivory and rice-gruel to officials despite being a less developed area.
• They also created agraharas - grants of land and income from villages to support the religious and educational activities of brahmanas.

Timekeeping and Writing Practices

• Under the Matharas (mid-fifth century) the year began to be divided into twelve lunar months, an arrangement useful for agricultural planning.
• Writing is attested on the Orissan coast from the third century BC, with inscriptions in Prakrit until the mid-fourth century AD; from around AD 350 Sanskrit inscriptions become increasingly common.
• The appearance of Sanskrit inscriptions inland shows the spread of writing and Sanskritic culture across much of Orissa.

Sanskrit and Cultural Integration

• Sanskrit became the language of brahmanical religion, culture, property law and social regulation in newly integrated areas.
• Land charters often quoted verses from the Puranas and Dharmashastras, and kings claimed to uphold the varna order.
• Local rulers emphasised links with the cultural centres of the Gangetic basin; important religious places such as Prayag were celebrated by victorious kings.

Bengal

Bengal during Ashoka's reign

• Parts of north Bengal (now in the Bogra district) show writing and administrative activity in Ashoka's time.
• An inscription records settlements with storehouses for coins and grain to support Buddhist monks, indicating organised provisioning.
• Local peasants could spare produce for taxes and gifts, and residents knew Prakrit and practised Buddhism.

Coastal Noakhali and early evidence

• An inscription from Noakhali (south-east Bengal) indicates familiarity with Prakrit and the Brahmi script in the second century BC.
• However, for most of Bengal direct evidence remains thin until the fourth century AD.

Fourth Century Developments

• By the mid-fourth century a local ruler bearing the title maharaja ruled at Pokharna in Bankura district; he was a Sanskrit speaker and a devotee of Vishnu and probably granted land for Vishnu worship.

Fifth and Sixth Centuries

• The tract between the Ganges and Brahmaputra (present-day Bangladesh) became settled and fairly Sanskrit-educated.
• Gupta governors in north Bengal became effectively independent around AD 550 and established local power centres.
• Feudatory princes (samanta maharajas) developed their own administrative and military infrastructures.

By AD 600:

• The region came to be known as Gauda, an independent state under rulers such as Shashanka, who opposed Harsha.

Pundravardhanabhukti Documents

• Land sale documents from AD 432-3 in Pundravardhanabhukti (largely in present Bangladesh) record purchases made with gold coins called dinara.
• Land granted for religious purposes was exempted from tax.

Local Administration and Society

• Land transactions involved scribes, merchants, artisans and local landed classes; ordinary cultivators were often consulted about land sales.
• Local administration was managed by governors appointed under Gupta authority, who later asserted independence.

Expansion of Agriculture and Colonisation

• Religious endowments often targeted fallow, untaxed land; grants aimed to bring such plots under cultivation and settlement.
• Deltaic Bengal (Samatata) acknowledged Samudragupta in the fourth century and by AD 525 a well-organised polity covered Samatata and parts of Vanga.
• Rulers such as Sama Haradeva issued gold coinage in the sixth century, demonstrating wealth and monetisation.

Seventh Century Polities and Local Grants

• By the seventh century local states included the Khadgas (rulers associated with Dhaka), the kingdom of a brahmana feudatory called Lokanatha, and the Ratas in Comilla; these princes issued land grants in the sixth and seventh centuries.
• Like Orissan rulers, Bengal princes created agraharas to promote religious and educational activity and to encourage settlement.

Dandabhukti, Vardhamanabhukti and Frontier Policy

• Dandabhukti was created as a fiscal and administrative unit to pacify tribal inhabitants and to promote Sanskritic culture in newly settled forest regions.
• Vardhamanabhukti (Burdwan) served a similar purpose in the sixth century, encouraging colonisation and cultivation.

Colonisation, Land Rights and Community Control

• Land grants to Buddhist monasteries and brahmanas in forest tracts - often noting local wildlife - record processes of colonisation, settlement and the extension of new land rights.
• Although land was typically owned by individual families, sale and purchase were regulated by village communities and customary controls.

Overall Development

• The period witnessed the consolidation of civilisation in Bengal: emergence of states, expansion of agriculture, monetisation, the spread of Sanskrit learning and the combined influence of Brahmanism and Buddhism.

Assam

Early settlements and polities

• By the seventh century the kingdom of Kamarupa in the Brahmaputra basin was well established; excavations at Ambari near Guwahati show settlements from as early as the fourth century CE.
• In the fourth century Samudragupta received tribute from Davaka and Kamarupa; Davaka likely covered part of present Nowgong district, while Kamarupa encompassed much of the Brahmaputra valley.
• Rulers who paid tribute to Samudragupta were probably chiefs sustained by tribute from tribal peasantry rather than by large fiscal states.

Historical Developments, Inscriptions and Culture

• Ambari excavations and regional inscriptions show well-developed settlements by the sixth-seventh centuries and the use of Sanskrit and writing by the early sixth century.
• Kamarupa kings adopted the suffix "varman", a title associated with warrior status and widely used in several regions of India.
• The kshatriya class consolidated power by granting land to brahmanas, thereby strengthening claims to authority and ritual status.

Bhaskaravarman and External Contacts

• In the seventh century Bhaskaravarman emerged as a leading ruler controlling much of the Brahmaputra basin and neighbouring areas.
• Buddhism had a significant presence, and the Chinese traveller Hsuan Tsang visited the region and recorded its importance.

The Formative Phase

Development of Eastern India (fourth to seventh centuries)

• Writing and Sanskrit learning: Over the fourth to seventh centuries writing and Sanskrit education spread across eastern Madhya Pradesh, north Orissa, West Bengal, parts of Bangladesh and Assam.
• Vedic rituals and brahmanical institutions: The practice of Vedic sacrifices and the formation of brahmanical social classes developed in this period.
• Gupta influence: Strong cultural and administrative links with the Gupta Empire stimulated the spread of political and cultural institutions in eastern India.

Gupta Influence, States and Feudalisation

• North Bengal and north-west Orissa came under direct Gupta control, while other regions show Gupta influence through the use of Gupta-era dates in inscriptions.
• New states were formed by feudatories who maintained large military establishments with elephants, horses and boats and who collected taxes from rural communities to support professional armies.

Writing, Religions and Social Change

• The fifth and sixth centuries saw a marked increase in large-scale documentation and the use of Sanskrit for land grants and official records.
• There was increasing structuring of society along varna lines and growth of religious currents such as Buddhism, Brahmanism, Shaivism and Vaishnavism.

Property, Monetisation and Agrarian Economy

• Evidence for private property in land and the use of gold coins (dinara) for land purchases points to an advanced food-producing economy.
• Agriculture relied on iron-ploughshare technology, wet paddy cultivation and a variety of crafts supporting rural economies.
• Literary evidence such as references by Kalidasa mention transplanting paddy seedlings in Vanga; whether this was indigenous or borrowed from regions such as Magadha is unclear.

Regional Production and Rural Expansion

• North Bengal was noted for high-quality sugarcane production, contributing to surplus sufficient to sustain both the populace and the state.
• Rural settlement and cultivation expanded into previously sparsely populated or forested tracts, supported by land grants, agraharas and creation of fiscal units.
• The decline of central Gupta power coincided with significant political and economic progress in peripheral regions, as local chiefs and petty rulers consolidated control.

Soils, Ecology and Settlement Patterns

• Areas with red soils (parts of West Bengal, north Orissa and sections of present Jharkhand) gained significance despite being comparatively difficult to cultivate and settle.
• Alluvial tracts with heavy rainfall, such as much of Bangladesh and the Brahmaputra basin, also became important agricultural and settlement zones.