NCERT Extracts - Economic and Social Life, Education and Religious Beliefs (800 - 1200)
Category : UPSC
Economic and Social Life, Education and Religious Beliefs (800 - 1200)
- The setback to trade and commerce was, in part, due to the collapse in the West of the Roman Empire with which India had flourishing and profitable trade.
- The chief Indian port for sailing to Java, Sumatra, etc., was Tamralipti in Bengal.
- Many of the Rajput clans trace their genealogy to the solar and lunar families of kshatriyas which are mentioned in the Mahabharata.
- Some others trace their ancestry back to a sacrificial fire said to have been held at Mt. Abu by the sage Vasistha.
- An instance of this is the kayastha caste, which begins to be mentioned more prominently from this period.
- The Matsya Purana authorises the husband to beat his erring wife (though not on the head or the breasts) with rope or a split bamboo.
- Nalanda in Bihar was the most famous of these. Other such centres of learning included Vikramsila and Uddandapura which also were in Bihar.
- Kashmir was another important centre of education.
- However, some advance was made in the field of mathematics. The Lilawati of Bhaskar-II which was written during this period remained a standard text for a long time.
- Although a great admirer of Indian science and learning, Al-Biruni noted the insular attitude of the learned people of the country, viz., the brahmanas. He says : "They are haughty, foolish vain, self-conceited, and stolid,
- The followers of Gorakhnath were called Nath-Panthis, and at one time they were popular all over north India. Many of these yogis belonged to the lower castes.
- The Chalukyan rulers of Gujarat patronized Jainism. It was during this time that some of the most magnificent Jain temples, such as the Dilwara temple at Mt. Abu, were built
- During this period, many Jain basadis (temples) and mahastambhas (pillars) were set up in different parts.
- The colossal images at Sravana Belgola was set up during this time. The status is about 18 metres high and was cut out of a granite rock.
- At the intellectual level, the most serious challenge to Buddhism and Jainism was posed by Sankara who reformulate the Hindu philosophy.
- Sankara was bom in Kerala, probably in the ninth century,
- Sankara's philosophy is called Advaitavada or the doctrine of non-dualism. This philosophy is called Vedanta. Thus, Sankara upheld the Vedas as the fountainhead of true knowledge,
- In the eleventh century, another famous scholar, Ramanuja, tried to assimilate bhakti to the tradition of the Vedas.
- Ramanuja tried to build a bridge a between the popular movement based on bhakti and upper caste movement based on the Vedas.
- The tradition established by Ramanuja was followed by a nimber of thinkers such as Madhavacharya (tenth century), and in north India by Ramananda, Vallabhacharya and others.
