DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

366 ECONOMICS OF ICOCLASM [10.2
in images and monastic decorations (GAEB 20-25) in A. D. 574-77, 842-
45 and 955, ending in the Sting interdict of 972 on Buddhist statues
and “other objects useless for men and for other living beings”. The
last desperate resort of the brahmins, a fast unto death, often failed to
turn the king’s heart. Finally, the cultured Harsa (A. D. 1089-1101), patron
of Sanskrit poetry, himself litterateur and connoisseur, systematically
confiscated temple property, had the images removed, publicly defiled,
and melted down under a special “minister for uprooting gods
(devotpatana-nayaka) “ who was also a good Hindu. The need for
money to pay the army (then engaged in a struggle with Damaras and
pretenders) and for metal (which in Kasmir was always in short supply
for lack of efficient prospectors) were the only reasons. No
theological necessity was discovered, adduced, or needed. Harsa did employ
Muslim ‘ Titruska’ mercenaries, but showed as great contempt for
Islam as for his own religion, by his eating pork. The Hindus, brahmins
or not, took all this rather calmly (Raj. 7.1103-7 etc.), shared in the
profits wherever possible. Some brahmins had already served with
distinction in the army. Some of the dynasties were of low origin. Not all
the Hindu kings of KaSmlr kept up the fiction of caste. A complaisant
merchant surrendered his wife to a smitten king, who made her his
chief queen forthwith. Another queen was a wine-distiller’s daughter.
Domb relatives of a queen of the lowest caste obtained high offices as
well as land grants of agrakara type that had till then been brahmin
prerogatives.
Developments in other parts of India were similar in essence.
Land grants to others than brahmins, with feudal tenure involving
revenue paid to the state, became commoner. Brahmins, if they held land,
were usually taxed, even by Hindu kings, whenever a new tax came into
existence. For that matter, they had long engaged in trade. In the
Punjab, in A. D. 1030 (Alb. 2.132) they had to have a dummy vaisya
intermediary before they could engage in trade without loss of face. Marco
Polo (Benedetto p. 189) found brahmins from the Cola kingdom in great
demand in the south as trade agents, because of their honesty, fair dealing
with strangers, low commissions. An increasing number took to arras,