Moscow: Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2011, 712 p.

The new monograph of the largest Russian indologist-medievalist L. B. Alaev is a fundamental study of the social system of South India. It is based on a huge body of South Indian inscriptions and a critical understanding of modern scientific literature, taking into account the methods of statistical data processing and the latest theories of social development. In fact, L. B. Alaev completely revised his concept of "Eastern feudalism" [Alaev, 1995; 2007], setting the task "to consider the real relationships of people, classes, communities and potestar institutions in Eastern countries", "to get away from the known models and try to look at a certain society with its own eyes" (p.12). He agrees with the Japanese indologist Noboru Karashima 1 in calling for "developing empirical research" and comes to the conclusion that " in South India of the VI-XIII centuries. there was a unique society, which can be called community-political, or community-state. From the perspective of world history, it can be classified as traditional, or pre-bourgeois, or feudal, but its classification within this vague category seems difficult " (pp. 630, 631).

The reviewed monograph consists of an introduction, a review of sources and historiography, four parts, a conclusion, and appendices. Each of the parts is dedicated to the historical regions of the states of South India: Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra and Kerala. Within the parts, the presentation is based on the types of communities and communal (corporate) associations, followed by an analysis of local forms of statehood. Each section provides a brief overview of the turbulent political history of numerous South Indian dynasties: Cholas, Pandyas, Pallavas and Cheras in Tamilnadu and Kerala, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Yadavas and Hoysals in Karnataka, Eastern Chalukyas and Kakatyas in Andhra. Since most of the inscriptions are published from Tamilnadu, this area clearly dominates and appears to be the most well-studied in the monograph.

L. B. Alaev carefully reconstructs specific types of social groups in South India: the organization of the dominant Vellal caste-Nadu, the non-Brahmin village community-ur, the rural Brahmin community-brahmadeya, the urban community-nagaram, temple communities, trade guilds and professional groups-castes in Tamilnadu; areas with numerical indices and macro-communities of Nadu, Shudry communities (Occalu) led by Gaudas, Mahajan Brahmin communities, urban and temple communities, Karnataka trade corporations; diverse territorial, temple and professional communities of Andhra and temple-Brahmin communities of Kerala.

Speaking about land ownership in Tamilnadu, L. B. Alaev not only separates the supreme property (the right to collect taxes) and the grassroots, or taxable, property (the right to land as an object of economy), but adds another group - tenants (kudi), which many owners did not have the right to drive off the land. Analyzing the purchase and sale of land in the same area, the author makes an important methodological conclusion: "Thus, the studied corpus [of inscriptions] can in no way represent a representative sample if we set the goal to study the process of land movement as a whole" (p.87). Two-level ownership systems

1 See L. B. Alaev's review of the book Noboru Karashima. "Ancient to Medieval. South Indian Society in Transition" (New Delhi, 2009): Восток (Oriens). 2012. No. 3. pp. 192-197.

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They were also characteristic of the societies of Karnataka, Andhra and Kerala, although there is very little data about Andhra (one paragraph is devoted to them on p.575), and in Kerala there was no layer of "peasants"-community members - holders of the right of subordinate property (p. 606).

Speaking about the political organization of medieval Tamilnadu, L. B. Alaev proves that " medieval Indian states... they were not centralized monarchies. Each major state relied on its own "domain", ancestral territory, core, exercising only a certain degree of control over the "conquered" or" annexed " lands. The "vertical of power" existed only in this core; the rest of the territory was ruled by local leaders" (p. 302). Nevertheless, there was a certain bureaucratic apparatus, various taxes were collected, but there was no state judicial system, and "the presence of a regular army during the Chola period is questionable" (p.348).

Special attention is paid to the country of Kongu (Kongunadu, Kongumandalam) in the west of Tamilnadu, in the territory of modern districts of Koyamputtur, Iroda, Selam and Dharmapuri. Unlike the rest of Tamilnadu, the village community of ur and its headman, the district community and its chief gavunda played a major role, and the temple enjoyed greater autonomy.

Socio-political relations in Karnataka were "even more mosaic" than in Tamilnadu (p. 536). There are no distinctions between villagers, merchants, and managers. Self-government co-existed with certain chiefs or prefects, as well as officials and merchants. Regions with numerical indexes (a feature of Karnataka) appear either as macro-communities, or as fiefs distributed to governors. There is no single system of taxation, no connection between government and taxes. At the same time, there were three "verticals of power": between the king and the local hereditary rulers, between the king and the governors, between the leaders of the regions-nadu (nad-gavunda) and the leaders and elders of different communities. The State did not have a monopoly on violence.

In Andhra, community institutions were less developed than in Tamilnadu and Karnataka. At the top of the village community were three castes - Reddy, velama and kapu. There were inter-caste meetings and, as in other parts of India, the jajmani system (traditional inter-caste exchange of services). But "there was no sense of Varna superiority in Andhra" (p.566). A system of military vassalage was formed: allotment of land on condition of service; from the XI century, the layer of such vassals was called nayaks (Skt. nāyaka - "leader, leader").

The peculiarity of medieval Kerala is the predominance of temple-Brahmin communities (ur or grama) in the social structure. The temple and Brahmin communities here are inseparable, and the usual Shudra community of Tamilnadu simply does not exist. The districts were led by local Noodaghi chieftains, who relied on armed groups of Nayars. The king was only first among equals. Inscriptions of the Later Cher (IX-XII centuries) mention only military commanders, personal representatives and the king's butler (p. 616).

Thus, the vast factual material collected by L. B. Alaev convincingly shows the specifics of the regions of South India. Further research may clarify some details and suggest some definitions of the South Indian social system. I think it would be useful to consider medieval South India not in isolation, but within the framework of the then existing world-system (in Wallerstein's term), taking into account the constant flow of goods, people and ideas from west to east and from east to west. How much did international exchange affect medieval societies in South India? And in what ways did they respond to the external world?

In conclusion, a peer-reviewed monograph would certainly benefit if it contained a detailed map of South India in the Middle Ages. The map of districts and principalities in the first half of the 20th century (p. 702) helps you navigate the places where inscriptions were found, but it does not even show the approximate borders of medieval kingdoms and important geographical features, in particular the Kaveri River, around which the history of lowland Tamilnadu was built. The definition of Chulamanivarman of Kadaram as a "local magnate" (p. 163) is puzzling: he is the ruler of Kadaram (Kedah region in Malaysia) and, possibly, the Sumatran kingdom of Srivijai, who founded a Buddhist monastery in Nagapattinam, for the supply of which King Rajaraja I Chola granted revenues from the village of Anaimangalam around 1006 (Aiyer, 1933, P. 213-266; Nilakanta Sastri, 1949, p. 128-131, 75-76; Karashima and Subbarayalu, 2009, p. 272-275].

These suggestions do not in any way detract from the merits of the monograph. This is undoubtedly a fundamental study of South India. It would be highly desirable to translate it to

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English language. Monograph by L. B. Alaev " South India. The communal and political system of the VI-XIII centuries" can already be ranked among the golden fund of world Oriental studies.

list of literature

Alaev L. B. The East in the world typology of feudalism. Eastern feudalism // Ietoria of the East. In 6-and vol. Vol. II. The East in the Middle Ages I Ed. by L. B. Alaev, K. Z. Ashrafyan, Moscow: Vostochny lit., 1995.

Alaev L. B. Istoriya Vostoka [History of the East]. The primitive era. Antiquity. The Middle Ages. New time. Textbook, Moscow: ROSMEN Publ., 2007.
Aiyer K.V. Subrahmanya. The Larger Leiden Plates (of Rājarāja I) // Epigraphia Indica. Vol. 22. 1933.

Karashima N., Subbarayalu Y. Ancient and Medieval Tamil and Sanskrit Inscriptions Relating to Southeast Asia and China // Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia / Ed. H. Kulke, K. Kesavapany, V. Sakhuja. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009.

Nilakanta Sastri K.A. History of Srī Vijaya (Sir William Meyer Lectures, 1946-1947). Madras: University of Madras, 1949.

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