Kingship in early Medieval India

by Sudip Narayan Maitra | 2015 | 67,940 words

This thesis is called: Kingship in early Medieval India: A comparative study of the Cholas and the Eastern Gangas. It represents a detailed empirical study of “kingship and polity” of two broad deltaic alluvial stretch of land on the “eastern coast”, namely ‘Mahanadi’ and ‘Kaveri’ delta. These were among the main centers of political and cultural a...

Part 7 - Hero-Ship and Kingship (of the Kaveri Delta and the Cholas)

Burton Stein emphatically identified the early Tamil kingship interwoven the hero-ideal. The use of Puram poems in the later inscriptions like Kuram plates of Paranesvaravarman, he strongly suggested the war-hero ideal was prevalent in the early phase. In his view the hero was a aggressive ruler who is capable of conquering all his enemies.[1] The common Pandyan and Chola epithets like Arikesari and Parakesari, resembling with ‘one who subjugated the circles of his enemies’ and ‘lion to the foe’ respectively, are clear expressions of that hero ideal. Kings were being glorified in their prasastis, and uphold them as a hero who could never lose a battle. K. Veluthat, in this regard, questioning the exaggerations expressed in eulogies which definitely have other purposes.[2] The emphatic descriptions and statements of military achievements were certainly purposed to create the ideal of military hero always victorious in wars. These depictions in turn generate an image indispensable for the political validation.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Burton Stein, op.cit, p.33

[2]:

K. Veluthat, op.cit. p. 68

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