DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

CHAPTER IX
FEUDALISM FROM ABOVE
9.1. Early feudal developments.
9.2. Growth of villages and barbarism.
9.3. The India of the Guptas and Harsa.
9.4. Religion and the development of village settlement.
9.5. The concept of property in land.
9.6. Mayurasarman’s settlement of the west coast.
9.7. Village craftsmen and artisans.
FEUDALISM 1 from above means a state
wherein an emperor or powerful king levied tribute from subordinates
who still ruled in their own right and did what they liked within their
own territories — as long as they paid the paramount ruler. These
subordinate rulers might even be tribal chiefs, and seem in general to
have ruled the land by direct administration, without the
intermediacy of a class which was in effect a landowning stratum. By
feudalism from below is meant the next stage (discussed in chap. X)
where a class of land-owners developed within the village, between the
state and the peasantry, gradually to wield armed power over the
local population. This class was subject to military service, hence
claimed a direct relationship with the state power, without the
intervention of any other stratum. Taxes were collected by small