Logo

The Cholas dominated the south Indian political scene from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries. This book is an authoritative and comprehensive study of Chola state, society and economy.

South India under the Cholas explores the state-society interactions in early medieval south India. It presents an in-depth analysis of Tamil epigraphy. Using inscriptional evidence from India and South-east Asia. It analysis the socio-economic milieu, merchant guides, and other sociological aspects.

Subbarayalu discusses the revenue system, property rights, relations between landowners, cultivators, and slaves and the structure and character of the Chola state. He scrutinizes in detail the evolution of organizations like Urar, Nattar and Periyanattar, social classes like the left and right hand division and the merchant militia. For the first time an attempt is made here to quantity the revenue of a pre- Mughal Indian state.

Based on a wealth of primary sources examind over a period of thirty years, this book will be indispensable to scholars, reasearchers and student of south India and early medieval history.