DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

10.1 ] DISSIMILAKITIES AND TECHNICAL FAILURE 355
converts included, apart from the rest of the population. The Gangas
seem to have been the first to develop it in the south (Amma I, 10th
century). Later, all lords were required to serve but their jagirs shifted
from time to time. It is important to note that the military hierarchy at
the center was not hereditary in general. The emperor would be sole heir
to the court-noble whose children might be reduced to penury at the will
of the autocrat. The high courtiers might even be slaves. 6) “ Possession
by a lord of judicial or quasi-judicial functions in relation to the
dependent population.” This came in part by the lord’s sole possession
of armed force over the disarmed village, in part from displacement of the
older village council. One might trace this back to the Manusmrti
princeling who dispensed justice directly as raja, or to Mauryan
absolutism in the extensive sita crown lands. Both of these
contributed to the develbpment of later feudalism, inevitable as long
as the village had no armed force of its own. Three notable characteristics
further distinguish Indian from European feudalism : the increase of
slavery, absence of guilds, and the lack of an organized church. Caste
replaced both guild and church; being symptom and cause of a more
primitive form of production.
The failure of indigenous feudalism ‘from above’ to develop new
techniques is a basic contrast with the medieval European achievement,
such as the windmill, horse-collars, heavy plough. That some of these
inventions are certainly Chinese (e.g. the horse-harness, stern-post
rudder, drawloom, &c ; r/. J. Needham in Centaurus 3(1953). 1-2. p.
46-7) does not detract from the initiative shown by feudal Europe in
their adoption, which had been neglected by classical society. The words
of Marco Polo 2 illustrate the point:
“ You must know that in all this kingdom of Malabar there is never a Tailor to cut a
coat or stitch it, seeing that everybody goes naked at all time of the year...! For decency
only so they wear a scrap of doth; and so ’tis with men and women, with rich and poor,
aye, and with the King (Sundara-PSnxJya) himself... It is a fact that the King goes as
bare as the rest, only around his loins he has a piece of fine doth, and round his neck he
has a necklace entirely of precious stones, — rubies, sapphires, emeralds and the like,
insomuch that this collar is of great value... What this King wears, between gold and
gems and pearls, is worth more than & city’s ransom... Here are no horses bred ; and
thus a great part of the wealth of the country is wasted