Pshav-Khevsureti (Historical Pkhovi) with in the State System of Georgia

Abstract

Feudal relations took shape in Georgia in the early Middle Ages, but prefeudal social relations were preserved for a long time in the mountains, particularly in Pshav-Khevsureti – historical Pkhovi. Here, too, Christianity made its way only with difficulty. The authorities were even compelled to resort to arms in order to spread Christianity in Pshav-Khevsureti. The mountain-dwellers found it difficult to accommodate themselves to the social and religious institutions of the lowlands. In the era of Tamar, it took the authorities three months to pacify the Pkhovians. It was from this time that the separation of Pkhovi into Pshavi and Khevsureti took place. Pshavi submitted to the royal court and established as its central shrines the „Lashari Cross“ and the „Icon of Tamar“. The principal function of the Khevsurs within the Georgian state was to guard the kingdom’s borders and to send warriors at the king’s summons. Relations between the authorities and the Pshav-Khevsurs were regulated by a mouravi (governor), who was as a rule a representative of a noble family. The Pshavs, for their part, were connected to the state more in an economic respect (pastures, vineyards belonging to the crosses and icons...).
The role of Pshav-Khevsureti was significant also in that they served to balance out the demographic situation disrupted in the lowlands, since their surplus population came to occupy the place of the population lost in the lowlands and foothills. Confirmation of the close relationship between the Pshav-Khevsurs and the state is found in the ethnographic fact that the king of Georgia and the Bagrationi dynasty were regarded by them as kin to their central shrines. According to the belief of the Pshavs and Khevsurs, the Bagrationis were able to converse with their crosses and icons. It may be said, in a word, that historical Pkhovi (the later Pshavi and Khevsureti) functioned autonomously within the state system of Georgia. Pshavi and Khevsureti differed from one another in social and religious circumstances, a difference caused by the geographical environment, distinct as it was from that of the lowlands and foothills; the development of husbandry in the mountains was hindered by the scarcity and poverty of land. It was owing to this factor that the free territorial communities of the mountains (in our case, Pshavi and Khevsureti) and their inhabitants were, in practical terms, unable to exist apart from the Georgian state.