Resistance versus Rebellion in a South Indian Oral Epic

This article discusses a medieval South Indian folk epic that focuses on several local groups' resistance to their paddy-growing neighbor, a Chola kingdom. Artisans and hunters both opposed the introduction of plow-based farming to an area where trade, rain-fed subsistence farming, and animal herding defined the local economy. An ancient oral legend supports noted historian James Scott's proposal that widespread resentment accompanied the growth of such grain-based power centers. This occurred in many other places as well, especially early Mesopotamia. The Chola monarchy described in this author's oral source developed later but illustrates a similar pattern. When an ambitious king sent out pioneer plowmen, hoping to introduce systematic plowing to an upland area, there was protest. This unique story provides an alternative source of history by centering around one outlying, farm-based family. By the third generation these heroes became rebels, differing from earlier non-farming resisters of change. Eventually these men, descendants of the original pioneer family, killed the reigning Chola. They rebelled against the disrespect that the successor of that first Chola ruler now displayed, despite the consistent loyalty their father and grandfather had exhibited. The ancestors of the story's two heroes had in fact succeeded in making farming this area's new, and now primary, means of subsistence.