होयसला एम्पायर इन कर्नाटक (Hoysala Empire in Karnataka)
Hoysala Empire
The Hoysala Empire was
a Kannadiga power originating from the Indian
subcontinent that ruled most of what is now Karnataka,
India between the 10th and the 14th centuries. The capital of the Hoysalas
was initially located at Belur but was later moved to Halebidu.
The Hoysala rulers were
originally from Malenadu, an elevated region in the Western Ghats. In
the 12th century, taking advantage of the internecine warfare between
the Western Chalukya Empire and Kalachuris of Kalyani, they
annexed areas of present-day Karnataka and the fertile areas north of
the Kaveri delta in present-day Tamil Nadu. By the 13th century,
they governed most of Karnataka, minor parts of Tamil Nadu and parts of
western Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the Deccan
Plateau.
The Hoysala era was an
important period in the development of art, architecture, and religion
in South India. The empire is remembered today primarily for Hoysala
architecture. Over a hundred surviving temples are scattered across Karnataka.
Well known temples "which
exhibit an amazing display of sculptural exuberance" includes
the Chennakeshava Temple, Belur, the Hoysaleswara
Temple, Halebidu, and the Chennakesava Temple,
Somanathapura. The Hoysala rulers also patronised the fine arts,
encouraging literature to flourish in Kannada and Sanskrit.
History
Kannada folklore tells a tale
of a young man, Sala, who saved his Jain guru, Sudatta, by striking
dead a lion or tiger he encountered near the temple of the goddess Vasantika at
Angadi, now called Sosevuru. The word "strike" literally
translates to "hoy" in Old Kannada, hence the name
"Hoy-sala". This legend first appeared in the Belur inscription of
Vishnuvardhana (1117), but owing to several inconsistencies in the Sala story
it remains in the realm of folklore. The legend may have come into
existence or gained popularity after King Vishnuvardhana's victory over
the Cholas at Talakadu as the Hoysala emblem depicts the
fight between the mythical warrior Sala and a tiger, the tiger being the emblem
of the Cholas.
Early inscriptions, dated 1078
and 1090, have implied that the Hoysalas were descendants of the Yadava by
referring to the Yadava vamsa (clan) as the
"Hoysala vamsa". But there are no early records directly
linking the Hoysalas to the Yadavas of North India.
Historians refer to the
founders of the dynasty as natives of Malenadu based on numerous inscriptions
calling them Maleparolganda or "Lord of the Male (hills)
chiefs" (Malepas). This title in the Kannada language was proudly
used by the Hoysala kings as their royal signature in their inscriptions.
Literary sources from that time in Kannada (Jatakatilaka) and Sanskrit (Gadyakarnamrita)
have also helped confirm they were natives of the region known today as
Karnataka.
The first Hoysala family record
is dated 950 and names Arekalla as the chieftain, followed by Maruga and Nripa
Kama I (976). The next ruler, Munda (1006–1026), was succeeded by Nripa Kama II
who held such titles as Permanadi that show an early alliance
with the Western Ganga dynasty. From these modest beginnings, the
Hoysala dynasty began its transformation into a strong subordinate of the
Western Chalukya Empire. Through Vishnuvardhana's expansive military
conquests, the Hoysalas achieved the status of a real kingdom for the first time. He
wrested Gangavadi from the Cholas in 1116 and moved the capital from
Belur to Halebidu.
The Hoysalas extended their
foothold in areas known today as Tamil Nadu around 1225, making the city of
Kannanur Kuppam near Srirangam a provincial capital and giving them
control over South Indian politics that began a period of Hoysala hegemony in the
southern Deccan. Vira Narasimha II's son Vira Someshwara earned
the honorific "uncle" (Mamadi) from the Pandyas and Cholas.
The Hoysala influence spread over Pandya kingdom also. Toward the end of
the 13th century, Veera Ballala III recaptured territory in the Tamil
country which had been lost to the Pandya uprising, thus uniting the northern
and southern portions of the kingdom.
Major political changes were
taking place in the Deccan region in the early 14th century when significant
areas of northern India were under Muslim rule. Alauddin Khalji,
the Sultan of Delhi, was determined to bring South India under his domain and
sent his commander, Malik Kafur, on a southern expedition to plunder the
Seuna capital Devagiri in 1311. The Seuna empire was subjugated
by 1318 and the Hoysala capital Halebidu was sacked twice, in 1311 and
1327.
By 1336, the Sultan had
conquered the Pandyas of Madurai, the Kakatiyas of Warangal and the
tiny kingdom of Kampili. The Hoysalas were the only remaining Hindu empire who
resisted the invading armies. Veera
Ballala III stationed himself at Tiruvannamalai and offered stiff
resistance to invasions from the north and the Madurai Sultanate to
the south. Then, after nearly three decades of resistance, Veera Ballala
III was killed at the battle of Madurai in 1343, and the sovereign
territories of the Hoysala empire were merged with the areas administered
by Harihara I in the Tungabhadra River region. This
new Hindu kingdom resisted the northern invasions and would later prosper and
come to be known as the Vijayanagara Empire.
Economy
Importing horses for use as
general transportation and in army cavalries of Indian kingdoms was a
flourishing business on the western seaboard. The forests were harvested for
rich woods such as teak which was exported through ports located in the
area of present-day Kerala. Song dynasty records from China
mention the presence of Indian merchants in ports of South China, indicating
active trade with overseas kingdoms. South India exported textiles,
spices, medicinal plants, precious stones, pottery, salt made from salt pans,
jewels, gold, ivory, rhino horn, ebony, aloe wood, perfumes, sandalwood, camphor and
condiments to China, Dhofar, Aden, and Siraf (the entryport
to Egypt, Arabia and Persia). Architects (Vishwakarmas),
sculptors, quarry workers, goldsmiths and other skilled craftsmen whose trade
directly or indirectly related to temple construction were also prosperous due
to the vigorous temple building activities.
The village assembly was
responsible for collecting government land taxes. Land revenue was called Siddhaya and
included the original assessment (Kula) plus various cesses. Taxes
were levied on professions, marriages, goods in transit on chariots or
carriages, and domesticated animals. Taxes on commodities (gold, precious stones,
perfumes, sandalwood, ropes, yarn, housing, hearths, shops, cattle pans,
sugarcane presses) as well as produce (black pepper, betel leaves, ghee, paddy,
spices, palm leaves, coconuts, sugar) are noted in village records. The
village assembly could levy a tax for a specific purpose such as construction
of a water tank.
Administration
In its administrative practices, the Hoysala Empire followed some of the
well-established and proven methods of its predecessors covering administrative
functions such as cabinet organisation and command, the structure of local
governing bodies and the division of territory. Records show the names of
many high-ranking positions reporting directly to the king. Senior ministers
were called Pancha Pradhanas, ministers responsible for foreign
affairs were designated Sandhivigrahi and the chief treasurer
was Mahabhandari or Hiranyabhandari. Dandanayakas were
in charge of armies and the chief justice of the Hoysala court was the Dharmadhikari.
(Garuda pillar hero stone (virgal) at Halebidu with old Kannada inscription of about 1220 CE.)
The kingdom was divided into provinces named Nadu, Vishaya, Kampana and Desha, listed in descending order of geographical size. Each province had a local governing body consisting of a minister (Mahapradhana) and a treasurer (Bhandari) that reported to the ruler of that province (Dandanayaka). Under this local ruler were officials called Heggaddes and Gavundas who hired and supervised the local farmers and labourers recruited to till the land. Subordinate ruling clans such as Alupas continued to govern their respective territories while following the policies set by the empire.
An elite and well-trained force
of bodyguards known as Garudas protected the members of the
royal family at all times. These servants moved closely yet inconspicuously by
the side of their master, their loyalty being so complete that they committed
suicide after his death. Hero stones (virgal) erected in
memory of these bodyguards are called Garuda pillars. The Garuda pillar at the
Hoysaleswara temple in Halebidu was erected in honor of Kuvara Lakshma, a
minister and bodyguard of King Veera Ballala II.
King Vishnuvardhana's coins had
the legends "victor at Nolambavadi" (Nolambavadigonda),
"victor at Talakad" (Talakadugonda), "chief of the
Malepas" (Maleparolganda), "Brave of Malepa" (malapavira)
in Hoysala style Kannada script. Their gold coin was called Honnu or Gadyana and
weighed 62 grains of gold. Pana or Hana was
a tenth of the Honnu, Haga was a fourth of
the Pana and Visa was fourth of Haga.
There were other coins called Bele and Kani.
Culture
(Chennakesava Temple, Somanathapura, built 1268 CE.)
Religion
The defeat of the Jain Western
Gangas by the Cholas in the early 11th century and the rising numbers of
followers of Vaishnavism and Lingayatism in the 12th
century was mirrored by a decreased interest in Jainism. Two notable
locations of Jain worship in the Hoysala territory were Shravanabelagola and Panchakuta
Basadi, Kambadahalli. The decline of Buddhism in South India began
in the eighth century with the spread of Adi Shankara's Advaita
Vedanta. The only places of Buddhist worship during the Hoysala time were
at Dambal and Balligavi. Shantala Devi, queen of Vishnuvardhana,
was a Jain but nevertheless commissioned the Hindu Kappe Chennigaraya temple in
Belur, evidence that the royal family was tolerant of all religions.
During the rule of the
Hoysalas, three important religious developments took place in present-day
Karnataka inspired by three philosophers, Basava, Madhvacharya and Ramanuja.
While the origin of Lingayatism
is debated, the movement grew through its association with Basava in the 12th
century. Madhvacharya was critical of the teachings of Adi Shankara and
argued the world is real and not an illusion. His Dvaita
Vedanta gained popularity, enabling him to establish eight mathas in Udupi.
Ramanuja, head of the Vaishnava monastery in Srirangam, preached the way
of devotion (bhakti marga) and wrote Sribhashya, a
critique on Adi Shankara's Advaita.
The effect of these religious
developments on culture, literature, poetry and architecture in South India was
profound. Important works of literature and poetry based on the teachings of
these philosophers were written during the coming centuries. The Saluva, Tuluva and
Aravidu dynasties of the Vijayanagara Empire were followers of Vaishnavism and
a Vaishnava temple with an image of Ramanuja exists in the Vitthalapura area of
Vijayanagara. Scholars in the later Kingdom of Mysore wrote
Vaishnavite works upholding the teachings of Ramanuja. King Vishnuvardhana
built many temples after his conversion from Jainism to Vaishnavism. The
later saints of Madhvacharya's order, Jayatirtha, Vyasatirtha, Sripadaraja, Vadiraja
Tirtha and devotees (dasa) such as Vijaya Dasa, Gopaladasa and
others from the Karnataka region spread his teachings far and wide. His
teachings inspired later philosophers like Vallabha in Gujarat and Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu in Bengal. Another wave of devotion (bhakti)
in the 17th and 18th centuries found inspiration in his teachings.
Society
Hoysala society in many ways
reflected the emerging religious, political and cultural developments of those
times. During this period, the society became increasingly sophisticated. The
status of women was varied. Some royal women were involved in administrative
matters as shown in contemporary records describing Queen Umadevi's
administration of Halebidu in the absence of Veera Ballala II during his long
military campaigns in northern territories. She also fought and defeated some
antagonistic feudal rebels. Records describe the participation of
women in the fine arts, such as Queen Shantala Devi's skill in dance and music,
and the 12th-century vachana sahitya poet and Lingayati mystic Akka
Mahadevi's devotion to the bhakti movement is well
known. Temple dancers (Devadasi) were common and some were well
educated and accomplished in the arts. These qualifications gave them more
freedom than other urban and rural women who were restricted to daily mundane
tasks. The practice of sati in a voluntary form was prevalent
and prostitution was socially acceptable. As in most of India, a caste
system was conspicuously present.
Trade on the west coast brought
many foreigners to India including Arabs, Jews, Persians, Han
Chinese and people from the Malay Peninsula. Migration of people
within Southern India as a result of the expansion of the empire produced an
influx of new cultures and skills. In South India, towns were called Pattana or Pattanam and
the marketplace, Nagara or Nagaram, the
marketplace serving as the nuclei of a city. Some towns such as Shravanabelagola developed
from a religious settlement in the 7th century to an important trading center
by the 12th century with the arrival of rich traders, while towns like Belur
attained the atmosphere of a regal city when King Vishnuvardhana built the
Chennakesava Temple there. Large temples supported by royal patronage served
religious, social, and judiciary purposes, elevating the king to the level of
"God on earth".
Temple building served a
commercial as well as a religious function and was not limited to any
particular sect of Hinduism. Shaiva merchants of Halebidu financed
the construction of the Hoysaleswara temple to compete with the Chennakesava
temple built at Belur, elevating Halebidu to an important city as well. Hoysala
temples however were secular and encouraged pilgrims of all Hindu sects, the
Kesava temple at Somanathapura being an exception with strictly Vaishnava
sculptural depictions. Temples built by rich landlords in rural areas
fulfilled fiscal, political, cultural and religious needs of the agrarian
communities. Irrespective of patronage, large temples served as establishments
that provided employment to hundreds of people of various guilds and
professions sustaining local communities as Hindu temples began to take on the
shape of wealthy Buddhist monasteries.
Literature
Although Sanskrit literature
remained popular during the Hoysala rule, royal patronage of local Kannada
scholars increased. In the 12th century some works were written in
the Champu style, but distinctive Kannada metres became
more widely accepted. The Sangatya metre used in
compositions, Shatpadi (six line), tripadi (three
line) metres in verses and ragale (lyrical poems) became
fashionable. Jain works continued to extol the virtues of Tirthankaras (Jain
saviour figures).
(Old Kannada inscription dated to 1182 of King Veera Ballala II at Akkana Basadi, Shravanabelagola.)
The Hoysala court supported
scholars such as Janna, Rudrabhatta, Harihara and his nephew Raghavanka,
whose works are enduring masterpieces in Kannada. In 1209, the Jain scholar
Janna wrote Yashodharacharite, the story of a king who intends to
perform a ritual sacrifice of two young boys to a local deity, Mariamma. Taking
pity on the boys, the king releases them and gives up the practice of human
sacrifice. In honour of this work, Janna received the title "Emperor
among poets" (Kavichakravarthi) from King Veera Ballala II.
Rudrabhatta, a Smarta Brahmin,
was the earliest well-known Brahminical writer. HIs patron was Chandramouli, a
minister of King Veera Ballala II. Based on the earlier work Vishnu
Purana, he wrote Jagannatha Vijaya in the Champu style
relating the life of Krishna leading up to his fight with the
demon Banasura.
Harihara, (also known as
Harisvara) a Lingayati writer and the patron of King Narasimha I, wrote
the Girijakalyana in the old Jain Champu style
which describes the marriage of Shiva and Parvati in ten
sections. He was one of the earliest Virashaiva writers who was not part
of the vachana literary tradition. He came from a family of
accountants (Karanikas) from Halebidu and spent many years in Hampi writing
more than one hundred ragales (poems in blank verse) in praise
of Virupaksha (a form of Shiva). Raghavanka was the first to
introduce the Shatpadi metre into Kannada literature in
his Harishchandra kavya which is considered a classic even
though it occasionally violates strict rules of Kannada grammar.
In Sanskrit, the
philosopher Madhvacharya wrote the Rigbhshya on
the Brahma Sutras (a logical explanation of Hindu scriptures, the
Vedas) as well as many polemical works rebutting the doctrines of other
schools. He relied more on the Puranas than the Vedas for
logical proof of his philosophy. Another famous writing was Rudraprshnabhashya by
Vidyatirtha.
Architecture
The modern interest in the
Hoysalas is due to their patronage of art and architecture rather than their
military conquests. The brisk temple building throughout the kingdom was
accomplished despite constant threats from the Pandyas to the south and the
Seunas Yadavas to the north. Their architectural style, an offshoot of the
Western Chalukya style, shows distinct Dravidian influences. The
Hoysala architecture style is described as Karnata Dravida as
distinguished from the traditional Dravida, and is considered
an independent architectural tradition with many unique features.
A feature of Hoysala temple
architecture is its attention to exquisite detail and skilled craftsmanship. The
tower over the temple shrine (vimana) is delicately finished with
intricate carvings, showing attention to the ornate and elaborately detailed
rather than to a tower form and height. The stellate design of the base of
the shrine with its rhythmic projections and recesses is carried through the
tower in an orderly succession of decorated tiers. Hoysala temple sculpture
replicates this emphasis on delicacy and craftsmanship in its focus on
depicting feminine beauty, grace and physique. The Hoysala artists
achieved this with the use of Soapstone (Chloritic schist), a soft
stone as basic building and sculptural material.
The Chennakesava Temple at
Belur (1117), the Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebidu (1121), the Chennakesava
Temple at Somanathapura (1279), the temples at Arasikere (1220),
Amruthapura (1196), Belavadi (1200), Nuggehalli (1246), Hosaholalu (1250), Aralaguppe (1250), Korvangla (1173), Haranhalli (1235), Mosale and Basaralu (1234)
are some of the notable examples of Hoysala art. While the temples at Belur and
Halebidu are the best known because of the beauty of their sculptures, the
Hoysala art finds more complete expression in the smaller and lesser known
temples. The outer walls of all these temples contain an intricate array
of stone sculptures and horizontal friezes (decorative mouldings) that depict
the Hindu epics. These depictions are generally clockwise in the traditional
direction of circumambulation (pradakshina). The temple of Halebidu has
been described as an outstanding example of Hindu architecture and an
important milestone in Indian architecture. The temples of Belur and
Halebidu are a proposed UNESCO world heritage sites.
Language
(Old Kannada inscription (1270 CE) of King Narasimha III at Keshava Temple, Somanathapura.)
The support of the Hoysala
rulers for the Kannada language was strong, and this is seen even in
their epigraphs, often written in polished and poetic language, rather
than prose, with illustrations of floral designs in the margins. According
to historian Sheldon Pollock, the Hoysala era saw the complete displacement of
Sanskrit, with Kannada dominating as the courtly language. Temples served as
local schools where learned Brahmins taught in Sanskrit, while Jain and
Buddhist monasteries educated novice monks. Schools of higher learning were
called Ghatikas. The local Kannada language was widely used in the
rising number of devotional movements to express the ecstatic experience of
closeness to the deity (vachanas and devaranama).
Literary works were written in it on palm leaves which were tied together.
While in past centuries Jain works had dominated Kannada literature, Shaiva and
early Brahminical works became popular during the Hoysala reign. Writings
in Sanskrit included poetry, grammar, lexicon, manuals, rhetoric, commentaries
on older works, prose fiction and drama. Inscriptions on stone (Shilashasana)
and copper plates (Tamarashasana) were written mostly in
Kannada but some were in Sanskrit or were bilingual. The sections of bilingual
inscriptions stating the title, genealogy, origin myths of the king and
benedictions were generally done in Sanskrit. Kannada was used to state terms of
the grants, including information on the land, its boundaries, the
participation of local authorities, rights and obligations of the grantee,
taxes and dues, and witnesses. This ensured the content was clearly understood
by the local people without ambiguity.
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