NCERT CLASS 7 HISTORY Chapter 9 The Making of Regional Cultures

NCERT CLASS 7 HISTORY Chapter 9 The Making of Regional Cultures

   One of the commonest ways of describing people is in terms of the language they speak. We also
      tend to associate each region with distinctive kinds of food, clothes, poetry, dance, music and
      painting.

   The frontiers separating regions have evolved over time (and in fact are still changing). Also,
      what we understand as regional cultures today are often the product of complex processes of
      intermixing of local traditions with ideas from other parts of the subcontinent.

   Some traditions appear specific to some regions, others seem to be similar across regions, and yet
      others derive from older practices in a particular area, but take a new form in other regions.

The Cheras and the Development of Malayalam

   The Chera kingdom of Mahodayapuram was established in the ninth century in the south-western
      part of the peninsula, part of present-day Kerala. It is likely that Malayalam was spoken in this
      area.

   The rulers introduced the Malayalam language and script in their inscriptions. In fact, this is one
      of the earliest examples of the use of a regional language in official records in the subcontinent.

   At the same time, the Cheras also drew upon Sanskritic traditions. The temple theatre of Kerala,
      which is traced to this period, borrowed stories from the Sanskrit epics.

   The first literary works in Malayalam, dated to about the twelfth century, are directly indebted to
      Sanskrit.

   Interestingly enough, a fourteenth-century text, the Lilatilakam, dealing with grammar and

poetics, was composed in Manipravalam- literally, “diamonds and corals” referring to the two languages, Sanskrit and the regional language.

Rulers and Religious Traditions: The Jagannatha Cult

   In other regions, regional cultures grew around religious traditions. The best example of this

process is the cult of Jagannatha (literally, lord of the world, a name for Vishnu) at Puri, Orissa.

   To date, the local tribal people make the wooden image of the deity, which suggests that the deity
      was originally a local god, who was later identified with Vishnu.

   In the twelfth century, one of the most important rulers of the Ganga dynasty, Anantavarman,
      decided to erect a temple for Purushottama Jagannatha at Puri.

   Subsequently, in1230, king Anangabhima III dedicated his kingdom to the deity and proclaimed
      himself as the “deputy” of the god.

   As the temple gained in importance as a centre of pilgrimage, its authority in social and political
      matters also increased.

   All those who conquered Orissa, such as the Mughals, the Marathas and the English East India
      Company, attempted to gain control over the temple. They felt that this would make their rule
      acceptable to the local people.

The Rajputs and Traditions of Heroism

   In the nineteenth century, the region that constitutes most of present-day Rajasthan, was called
      Rajputana by the British. While this may suggest that this was an area that was inhabited only or
      mainly by Rajputs, this is only partly true.

   There were (and are) several groups who identify themselves as Rajputs in many areas of
      northern and central India.

   From about the eighth century, most of the present-day state of Rajasthan was ruled by various
      Rajput families. Prithviraj was one such ruler.

   These rulers cherished the ideal of the hero who fought valiantly, often choosing death on the
      battlefield rather than face defeat.

   Stories about Rajput heroes were recorded in poems and songs, which were recited by specially
      trained minstrels. These preserved the memories of heroes and were expected to inspire others to
      follow their example.

   Ordinary people were also attracted by these stories - which often depicted dramatic situations,
      and a range of strong emotions - loyalty, friendship, love, valour, anger, etc.

   Sometimes, women figure as the “cause” for conflicts, as men fought with one another to either
      “win” or “protect” women.

   Women are also depicted as following their heroic husbands in both life and death - there are
      stories about the practice of sati or the immolation of widows on the funeral pyre of their
      husbands. So those who followed the heroic ideal often had to pay for it with their lives.

Beyond Regional Frontiers: The Story of Kathak

   If heroic traditions can be found in different regions in different forms, the same is true of dance.

   Let us look at the history of one dance form, Kathak, now associated with several parts of north
      India. The term kathak is derived from katha, a word used in Sanskrit and other languages for
      story.

   The kathaks were originally a caste of story-tellers in temples of north India, who embellished
      their performances with gestures and songs.

   Kathak began evolving into a distinct mode of dance in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with
      the spread of the bhakti movement.

   The legends of Radha-Krishna were enacted in folk plays called rasa lila, which combined folk
      dance with the basic gestures of the kathak story-tellers.

   Under the Mughal emperors and their nobles, Kathak was performed in the court, where it
      acquired its present features and developed into a form of dance with a distinctive style.

    Subsequently, it developed in two traditions or gharanas: one in the courts of Rajasthan (Jaipur)
      and the other in Lucknow. Under the patronage of Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh, it
      grew into a major art form.

   By the third quarter of the nineteenth century it was firmly entrenched as a dance form not only in
      these two regions, but in the adjoining areas of present-day Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and
      Kashmir, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

   Emphasis was laid on intricate and rapid footwork, elaborate costumes, as well as on the
      enactment of stories.

   Kathak, like several other cultural practices, was viewed with disfavour by most British
      administrators in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

   However, it survived and continued to be performed by courtesans, and was recognised as one of
      six “classical” forms of dance in the country after independence.

Painting for Patrons: The Tradition of Miniatures

   Another tradition that developed in different ways was that of miniature painting. Miniatures (as
      their very name suggests) are small-sized paintings, generally done in water colour on cloth or
      paper.

   The earliest miniatures were on palm leaves or wood. Some of the most beautiful of these, found
      in western India, were used to illustrate Jaina texts.

   The Mughal emperors Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan patronised highly skilled painters:

    They primarily illustrated manuscripts containing historical accounts and poetry.

   These were generally painted in brilliant colours and portrayed court scenes, scenes of
      battle or hunting, and other aspects of social life.

   They were often exchanged as gifts and were viewed only by an exclusive few - the
      emperor and his close associates.

   With the decline of the Mughal Empire, many painters moved out to the courts of the emerging
      regional states. As a result Mughal artistic tastes influenced the regional courts of the Deccan and
      the Rajput courts of Rajasthan. At the same time, they retained and developed their distinctive
      characteristics.

   Portraits of rulers and court scenes came to be painted, following the Mughal example. Besides,
      themes from mythology and poetry were depicted at centres such as Mewar, Jodhpur, Bundi,
      Kota and Kishangarh.

   Another region that attracted miniature paintings was the Himalayan foothills around the modern-
      day state of Himachal Pradesh.

   By the late seventeenth century this region had developed a bold and intense style of
      miniature painting called Basohli.

    The most popular text to be painted here was Bhanudatta’s Rasamanjari.

    Nadir Shah’s invasion and the conquest of Delhi in 1739 resulted in the migration of
      Mughal artists to the hills to escape the uncertainties of the plains.

   Here they found ready patrons which led to the founding of the Kangra school of
      painting.

   By the mid eighteenth century the Kangra artists developed a style which breathed a new
      spirit into miniature painting. The source of inspiration was the Vaishnavite traditions.    Soft colours including cool blues and greens, and a lyrical treatment of themes
      distinguished Kangra painting.

    Remember that ordinary women and men painted as well - on pots, walls, floors, cloth -
      works of art that have occasionally survived, unlike the miniatures that were carefully
      preserved in palaces for centuries.

A Closer Look: Bengal

The Growth of a Regional Language

   We often tend to identify regions in terms of the language spoken by the people. While Bengali is
      now recognised as a language derived from Sanskrit, early Sanskrit texts (mid-first millennium
      BCE) suggest that the people of Bengal did not speak Sanskritic languages.

   From the fourth-third centuries BCE, commercial ties began to develop between Bengal and
      Magadha (south Bihar), which may have led to the growing influence of Sanskrit.

   During the fourth century the Gupta rulers established political control over north Bengal and
      began to settle Brahmanas in this area. Thus, the linguistic and cultural influence from the mid-
      Ganga valley became stronger.

   In the seventh century the Chinese traveller Xuan Zang observed that languages related to
      Sanskrit were in use all over Bengal.

   From the eighth century, Bengal became the centre of a regional kingdom under the Palas.

   Between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, Bengal was ruled by Sultans who were

independent of the rulers in Delhi. In 1586, when Akbar conquered Bengal, it formed the nucleus of the Bengal suba.

   While Persian was the language of administration, Bengali developed as a regional language. In
      fact by the fifteenth century the Bengali group of dialects came to be united by a common literary
      language based on the spoken language of the western part of the region, now known as West
      Bengal.

   Thus, although Bengali is derived from Sanskrit, it passed through several stages of evolution.
      Also, a wide range of non-Sanskrit words, derived from a variety of sources including tribal
      languages, Persian, and European languages, have become part of modern Bengali.

   Early Bengali literature may be divided into two categories - one indebted to Sanskrit and the
      other independent of it.

   The first includes translations of the Sanskrit epics, the Mangalakavyas (literally auspicious

poems, dealing with local deities) and bhakti literature such as the biographies of Chaitanyadeva, the leader of the Vaishnava bhakti movement.

   The second includes Nath literature such as the songs of Maynamati and Gopichandra, stories
      concerning the worship of Dharma Thakur, and fairy tales, folk tales and ballads.

   The texts belonging to the first category are easier to date, as several manuscripts have been
      found indicating that they were composed between the late fifteenth and mid-eighteenth
      centuries.

   Those belonging to the second category circulated orally and cannot be precisely dated. They
      were particularly popular in eastern Bengal, where the influence of Brahmanas was relatively
      weak.

Pirs and Temples

   From the sixteenth century, people began to migrate in large numbers from the less fertile western
      Bengal to the forested and marshy areas of south-eastern Bengal. As they moved eastwards, they
      cleared forests and brought the land under rice cultivation.

   Gradually, local communities of fisher folk and shifting cultivators, often tribals, merged with the
      new communities of peasants. This coincided with the establishment of Mughal control over
      Bengal with their capital in the heart of the eastern delta at Dhaka.

   Officials and functionaries received land and often set up mosques that served as centres for
      religious transformation in these areas.

   The early settlers sought some order and assurance in the unstable conditions of the new

settlements. These were provided by community leaders, who also functioned as teachers and

adjudicators and were sometimes ascribed with supernatural powers. People referred to them with affection and respect as pirs.

   Th term pir included saints or Sufis and other religious personalities, daring colonisers and

deified soldiers, various Hindu and Buddhist deities and even animistic spirits. The cult of pirs became very popular and their shrines can be found everywhere in Bengal.

   Bengal also witnessed a temple-building spree from the late fifteenth century, which culminated
      in the nineteenth century.

   Many of the modest brick and terracotta temples in Bengal were built with the support of several
      “low” social groups, such as the Kolu (oil pressers) and the Kansari (bell metalworkers).

   The coming of the European trading companies created new economic opportunities; many

families belonging to these social groups availed of these. As their social and economic position improved, they proclaimed their status through the construction of temples.

   When local deities, once worshipped in thatched huts in villages, gained the recognition of the
      Brahmanas, their images began to be housed in temples.

   The temples began to copy the double-roofed (dochala) or four-roofed (chauchala) structure of
      the thatched huts. This led to the evolution of the typical Bengali style in temple architecture.

   In the comparatively more complex four-roofed structure, four triangular roofs placed on the four
      walls move up to converge on a curved line or a point.

   Temples were usually built on a square platform. The interior was relatively plain, but the outer
      walls of many temples were decorated with paintings, ornamental tiles or terracotta tablets.

   In some temples, particularly in Vishnupur in the Bankura district of West Bengal, such
      decorations reached a high degree of excellence.

Fish as Food

   Traditional food habits are generally based on locally available items of food. Bengal is a riverine
      plain which produces plenty of rice and fish.

   Fishing has always been an important occupation and Bengali literature contains several
      references to fish.

   What is more, terracotta plaques on the walls of temples and viharas (Buddhist monasteries)
      depict scenes of fish being dressed and taken to the market in baskets.

   Brahmanas were not allowed to eat non vegetarian food, but the popularity of fish in the local diet
      made the Brahmanical authorities relax this prohibition for the Bengal Brahmanas.

   The Brihaddharma Purana, a thirteenth-century Sanskrit text from Bengal, permitted the local
            Brahmanas to eat certain varieties of fish.


Important questions.
1. What were the important architectural features of the temples of Bengal?
2. Why did the conquerors try to control the temple of Jagannatha at Puri?
3. Why were temples built in Bengal?