New Beginnings: Cities and States

Class 07 Social Science

In the early 2nd millennium BCE, the Harappan civilisation disintegrated. Some of its cities were abandoned and in others, some people continued living there, but reverting to a rural or village lifestyle.

For a whole millennium, urban life remained absent from India, though there may have been a few towns here and there in north India. Then, in the 1st millennium BCE, a vibrant new phase of urbanisation began in the Ganga plains, parts of the Indus (or Sindhu) basin and neighbouring regions, gradually spreading to other parts of the Subcontinent.

Janapadas and Mahājanapadas

Towards the end of the 2nd millennium BCE, regional cultures gradually reorganised themselves in north India. As people formed clans or groups, probably sharing a common language and common customs, each clan came to be associated with a territory or janapada led by a rājā or ruler.

The janapadas grew as trade networks expanded and connected them. By the 8th or 7th centuries BCE, some of those early states had merged together. The resulting bigger units were known as mahājanapadas.

Early Democratic Traditions

Each janapada had an assembly or council, called sabhā or samiti, where matters concerning the clan would be discussed. We may assume that most of the members were elders in the clan. The rājā was not expected to rule independently or arbitrarily. A good ruler was supposed to take the advice from those assemblies, apart from the ministers and administrators.

In their political systems, the mahājanapadas expanded the basic principles of the janapadas. Some were monarchies, in the sense that the rājā was the ultimate authority, supported by ministers and an assembly of elders. His position was hereditary, in the sense that a rājā would usually be the son of the previous one. The king would collect taxes or revenue, maintain law and order, get impressive fortifications built around their capital, and maintain an army to defend the territory or wage war with neighbouring ones, as the case may be. Magadha (located in part of today’s Bihar), Kosala (in part of today’s Uttar Pradesh) and Avanti (in part of today’s Madhya Pradesh) were among the most powerful such states.

However, at least two mahājanapadas, Vajji and the neighbouring Malla, had a different system. The sabhā or samiti had more power and took important decisions through discussion, and, if necessary, through vote. This included the selection of the rājā. Their functioning might be called democratic, since members of the assembly were the ones to select the ruler and take major decisions.

More Innovations

The age of the janapadas and mahājanapadas was an age of profound change, which would impact Indian civilisation until present times. Urbanisation does not happen without technologies. The Harappan civilisation mastered copper and bronze metallurgy. Now, in this Second Urbanisation, a major shift in technology involved iron metallurgy.

In several regions of India, the techniques of extracting and shaping iron were actually perfected from the early 2nd millennium BCE, but it took a few centuries for iron to become a part of daily life. By the late 2nd millennium BCE, iron tools had become widespread, facilitating agriculture on a bigger scale. Iron also made better weapons than bronze, lighter and sharper - swords, spears, arrows, shields, etc.

Another innovation was the first use of coins in India, made necessary by growing trade. Very soon, coins were exchanged across different regions and even with other parts of the world. The first Indian coins were made of silver, a soft metal into which symbols could be ‘punched’. They are called ‘punch-marked coins’. Later, coins of copper, gold and other metals were also made. Generally, a mahājanapada issued its own coins, but coins from neighbouring regions were used as well as exchanged in trade.

The Varṇa–Jāti System

Human societies grew more complex with the rise of civilisation. Whenever this happens, a society organises itself in several groups based on class, occupation or some other criteria. For example, there could be different groups concerned with governance, administration, religion, education, trade, town-planning, farming, crafts, arts and all kinds of other professions.

In an ideal society, all those groups would complement each other and work in harmony. But most of the time, these divisions also lead to inequalities: some groups acquire more wealth, power or influence than others. In other words, while equality is an ideal that human societies have often aspired to, very few, if any, have ever achieved it.

In India, the society was organised in a two-fold system. One category was the jāti, a group or community of people with a specific professional occupation closely tied to their livelihood. The skills that defined a particular jāti like agriculture, metallurgy, commerce or any craft. it was generally transmitted from generation to generation.

Along with the jāti, there is another category, that of varṇa, a concept that emerged from Vedic texts. There were four varṇas: Brahmins were engaged in preserving and spreading knowledge, and in the performance of rituals; Kshatriyas were expected to defend the society and the land, and to engage in warfare if necessary; Vaishyas were supposed to increase the society’s wealth through occupations of trade, business or agriculture; finally, Shudras were the artisans, craftspeople, workers or servants.

The varṇa-jāti system has had a deep impact on Indian society. The system was more flexible in earlier periods and became more rigid with the passage of time, in particular during the British rule in India.

Developments Elsewhere in India

In this 1st millennium BCE, important communication routes opened up for purposes of trade, pilgrimage, military campaigns, etc. Two routes became widely used: the Uttarapatha and the Dakṣhiṇapatha. The first connected the northwest regions to the Ganga plains, all the way to eastern India the second started from Kauśhāmbī (near Prayagraj), then a capital of one of the mahājanapadas, and crossed the Vindhya Range of hills to proceed all the way south.

In the Subcontinent’s southern regions, cities began emerging from about 400 BCE. Around this time, three kingdoms emerged - the Cholas, the Cheras and the Pānḍyas. Because the southern regions are rich in resources such as precious and semiprecious stones, gold, and spices, they profitably traded not only with the rest of India but also with kingdoms and empires overseas.