History Quiz: Post Mauryan kingdoms and the Early Kingdoms in Southern India |5 May, 2021

Though the three Tamil ruling families were known to Asoka in the third century BCE itself, some individual names are known only from the Sangam poems of the first century and later.

• Known as muvendar, ‘the three crowned kings’, the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas controlled major agrarian territories, trade routes and towns.

• But the Satiyaputra (same as Athiyaman) found in the Asokan inscription along with the above three houses is a Velir chief in the Sangam poems.

Source: Tamil Nadu state board.

Early Buddhist art in India expanded exponentially when, in 1994, archaeologists unearthed a spectacular ancient stupa outside the hamlet of Kanaganahalli in modern Karnataka State, in India’s southwest.

As if by magic, a lost Buddhist monastic center from the early first millennium emerged from a shapeless mound.

By virtue of its remarkable stone sculpture and hundreds of ancient stone inscriptions, Kanaganahalli instantly took its place among the most celebrated early Buddhist sites in India.

One location mentioned in the inscriptions even turns up in Ptolemy’s Geographia of the 2nd century CE, a reminder of how small the world was becoming even at the beginning of the first millennium.

Source: Ncert History

Sangam poems help us understand the social formation of the time. According to the thinai concept, Tamilagam was divided into five landscapes or eco-regions namely Kurinji, Marutam, Mullai, Neytal and Palai.

Each region had distinct characteristics – a presiding deity, people and cultural life according to the environmental conditions, as follows:

• Kurinji: hilly region: hunting and gathering
• Marutham: riverine tract: agriculture using plough and irrigation.
• Mullai: forested region: pastoralism combined with shifting cultivation
• Neythal: coastal land: fishing and salt making.

• Palai: parched land. Unsuitable for cultivation and hence people took to cattle lifting and robbery.

Source: Tamil Nadu state board.

There is evidence of craft production such as bronze vessels, beads and gold works, textiles, shell bangles and ornaments, glass, iron smithy, pottery making.

• Craft production was common in the major urban centres such as Arikamedu, Uraiyur,  Kanchipuram, Kaviripattinam, Madurai, Korkai, and Pattanam in Kerala. Maduraikanchi speaks about day markets as well as and night markets selling several craft goods.
• The names of persons mentioned in inscriptions on pottery reveal the presence of non-Tamil speakers, mostly traders, in certain craft centres and towns. Traders from faraway regions were present in the Tamil country.

• Manimegalai refers to Magadha artisans, Maratha mechanics, Malva smiths and Yavana carpenters working in cooperation with Tamil craftsmen.
• Traderelated terms such as vanikan, chattan and nigama appear in the Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions. Salt merchants called umanar, travelled in bullock carts along with their families for trade activities. Chattu referred to the itinerary or mobile merchants.

Source: Tamil Nadu state board.

Menander is mainly remembered as the eponymous hero of the Buddhist text, Milinda-pinha (questions of Milinda), in which he is engaged in a question-and-answer discussion on Buddhism with the teacher Nagasena.

He is believed to have become a Buddhist and promoted Buddhism.

Source: Tamil Nadu state board.

The Indo-Greek kingdoms in north-western India were ousted by various nomadic tribes from Central Asia, known as the Sakas (Scythians), Parthians (Pahlavis) and Kushanas (yueh-chi or yuezhi tribes in Chinese).

In spite of the fact that they followed the Greek practice of issuing vast amounts of coinage with their names and titles (mostly “king of kings”), this is a very confusing period in our history.

Source: Tamil Nadu state board.

Shakas – Kushanas introduced better cavalry & use of riding horses on large scale along with use of turban, tunic, trousers & longcoats.

• Kushanas were the 1st ruler in India to issue gold coins on wide scale & controlled major part of silk trade.
• Kushanas adopted pompous titles as King of Kings & were called Sons of god like Asoka was called Dear to gods.

Source: Old NCERT.

Kanishka was the patron of Buddhist philosophers such as Asvaghosha, Parsva and Vasumitra, as well as the great Buddhist teacher Nagarjuna.

• Asvaghosha is known for his Buddhacharita and is celebrated as the author of the first Sanskrit play, Sariputraprakarana, in nine acts.
• The great dramatist Bhasa, whose plays were re-discovered only about a hundred years ago in South India, most probably belonged to this period.
• Among the Hindu treatises, we find the Manusmriti, Vatsyayana’s Kamasutra and Kautilya’s Arthasastra taking final shape by the second century CE.

Source: Tamil Nadu state board.

King Hala is credited with the writing of Gatha Sattasai, a collection of 700 love poems. Written in Maharshtri Prakrit dialect, it has themes similar to those found in the Tamil Sangam poetry.

• Asvaghosha is known for his Buddhacharita and is celebrated as the author of the first Sanskrit play, Sariputraprakarana, in nine acts.
• Among the Hindu treatises, we find the Manusmriti, Vatsyayana’s Kamasutra and Kautilya’s Arthasastra taking final shape by the second century CE.

Source: Tamil Nadu state board.

The Cheras controlled the central and northern parts of Kerala and the Kongu region of Tamil Nadu.

• Vanji was their capital and the ports of the west coast, Musiri and Tondi, were under their control.
• Vanji is identified with Karur, while some scholars identify it with Tiruvanchaikkalam in Kerala.
• Now it is accepted by most scholars that there were two main branches of the Chera family and the Poraiya branch ruled from Karur of present-day Tamil Nadu.

Source: Tamil Nadu state board.