(a) The Virashaiva Movement of Southern Deccan in the twelfth century was essentially an attempt at social reform. Discuss. (15 marks) (b) The various Gharanas of Hindustani classical music were outcomes of patronage by regional princely courts, rath

Question

(a)

The Virashaiva Movement of Southern Deccan in the twelfth century was essentially an attempt at social reform. Discuss. 15 marks

(b)

The various Gharanas of Hindustani classical music were outcomes of patronage by regional princely courts, rather than central imperial ones. Discuss. 15 marks

(c)

The prolonged conflict between the Vijayanagara Kingdom and the Bahmani successor states was influenced less by cultural factors, and more by strategic and economic considerations. Comment. 20 marks

UPSC Answer Check · Accepted Answer

The Virashaiva Movement: Social Reform and Beyond

The 12th-century Virashaiva movement led by Basavanna (c. 1130–1167) in the Kalachuri kingdom was fundamentally an egalitarian social critique. By rejecting Vedic ritualism, temple-centric worship, pollution taboos, and caste hierarchies, it instituted radical social egalitarianism through the Anubhava Mantapa (hall of spiritual experience) and championed gender equality, epitomised by women mystics like Akka Mahadevi. However, characterising it purely as social reform understates its theological core—monotheistic Ishtalinga devotion and the Shatsthala path—as well as its linguistic assertion via vernacular Kannada Vachanas. Furthermore, the radical casteless ideal faced internal contradictions, as the movement eventually underwent institutionalisation into the distinct Lingayat community with its own social stratification.

Regional Courts and the Emergence of Musical Gharanas

While imperial Mughal courts provided foundational synthesis—exemplified by Tansen’s lineage—the distinct gharanas of Hindustani classical music (Gwalior, Agra, Kirana, Jaipur-Atrauli, Patiala) were primarily products of 18th- and 19th-century regional patronage. Following Mughal decline, regional princely courts across Awadh, Rajputana, and the Maratha states sheltered migrating musicians, fostering specialised vocal idioms nurtured through hereditary guru-shishya parampara. Nonetheless, imperial Delhi initially established the cross-regional classical idiom that these regional nodes diversified. By the early 20th century, court dependence dissolved as urban public platforms, recording technology, and V.N. Bhatkhande’s musicological documentation institutionalised classical music into modern national pedagogy.

Vijayanagara-Bahmani Conflict: Strategic and Economic Imperatives

The prolonged warfare between Vijayanagara and the Bahmani kingdom (and its successor sultanates) was driven by geopolitical and resource competition rather than civilizational antagonism. The primary material driver was control over the fertile Raichur Doab and the Konkan-Goa coastal corridor, crucial for customs revenue, pepper trade, and the strategic import of Arabian warhorses—a trade later complicated by Portuguese naval dominance. The diamond mines of the Krishna valley further intensified this rivalry.

Contemporary chronicles by Firishta and Fernão Nuniz reveal a pragmatic realpolitik marked by shifting coalitions, cross-confessional mercenary employment (such as Deva Raya II employing Muslim archers and Vijayanagara generals commanding Sultanate troops), dynastic marriages, and shared courtly aesthetics. The climactic Battle of Talikota (1565) was thus the culmination of balance-of-power diplomacy and territorial containment, not religious warfare.

Synthesis

These historical trajectories illustrate how regional dynamics shaped medieval and early modern India: Virashaivism represented an anti-Brahmanical socio-religious articulation, the gharana system reflected decentralized cultural regionalism, and the Deccan wars embodied resource-driven territorial state formation.

(a) The Virashaiva Movement of Southern Deccan in the twelfth century was essentially an attempt at social reform. Discuss. (15…

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