History: Early Medieval Period

The five ‘iconic’ archaeological sites mentioned in the Budget

he government proposes to set up an Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation under the Ministry of Culture, and develop five archaeological sites as “iconic sites” with onsite museums in Rakhigarhi (Haryana), Hastinapur (Uttar Pradesh), Sivsagar (Assam), Dholavira (Gujarat) and Adichanallur (Tamil Nadu).

Context

The government proposes to set up an Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation under the Ministry of Culture, and develop five archaeological sites as “iconic sites” with onsite museums in Rakhigarhi (Haryana), Hastinapur (Uttar Pradesh), Sivsagar (Assam), Dholavira (Gujarat) and Adichanallur (Tamil Nadu).

• Rakhigarhi
• Rakhigarhi in Haryana’s Hissar district is one of the most prominent and largest sites of the Harappan civilisation.
• It is one among the five known townships of the Harappan civilisation in the Indian subcontinent.
• Between 2013 and 2016, excavations were carried out at the cemetery in Rakhigarhi by a team of Indian and South Korean researchers led by Vasant Shinde of Deccan College, Pune.
• In one of their excavations, the skeletal remains of a couple were discovered.
• Interestingly, of the 62 graves discovered in Rakhigarhi, only this particular grave consisted of more than one skeletal remains and of individuals of the opposite sex together.
• Hastinapur
• Excavations at Hastinapur, in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh.
• Hastinapur finds mention in the Mahabharata and the Puranas.
• One of the most significant discoveries made at this site was of the “new ceramic industry”, which was named the Painted Grey Ware, which as per the report represented the relics of the early Indo-Aryans.
• The Painted Grey Ware would be associated with the early settlers on these sites, viz. The Pauravas, Panchalas, etc., who formed a part of the early Aryan stock in India.
• Such an association may also explain the synchronism between the appearance of the Painted Grey Ware in the Ghaggar-Sutlej valleys and the probable date of the arrival of the Aryans in that area.”
• Sivasagar
• In Sivasagar, excavations at the Karenghar (Talatalghar) complex between 2000 and 2003 led to the discovery of buried structures in the north-western and north-eastern side of the complex.
• Among the structural remains found at the site were ceramic assemblages including vases, vessels, dishes, and bowls, etc.
• Terracotta smoking pipes were also found.
• Another excavation site in Sivasagar district is the Garhgaon Raja’s palace.
• A burnt-brick wall running in north-south orientation was found, along with the remains of two huge circular wooden posts.
• Dholavira
• Dholavira in Gujarat is located in the Khadir island of the Rann of Kutch, and like Rakhigarhi is one of the sites where the remains of the Harappan civilisation have been found.
• Dholavira is unique because remains of a complete water system have been found here.
• The people who lived there for an estimated 1,200 years during the Harappan civilisation are noted for their water conservation system using rainwater harvesting techniques in an otherwise parched landscape.
• Adichnallur
• Adichnallur lies in the Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu.
• The urn-burial site was first brought to light during a “haphazard excavation” by a German archaeologist in 1876.
• Following this, an Englishman Alexander Rae excavated the site between 1889 and 1905.
• Over the years, the site has gained attention because of three important findings: the discovery of an ancient Tamil-Brahmi script on the inside of an urn containing a full human skeleton, a fragment of broken earthenware, and the remains of living quarters.

Kumbhabishegam row: How the old Aryan-Dravidian tussle played out in an iconic Tamil Nadu temple

Context

Tens of thousands of people thronged Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu’s Cauvery delta to witness the kumbhabishegam (consecration) ceremony at the Sri Brahadeeswarar Temple.

About

• This enormously significant event was held after 23 years.
• The judgment delivered the struggle for supremacy between the Sanskrit and Tamil traditions that lies at the heart of several cultural battles in the state — and which also played out in the kumbhabishegam ceremony.

Sri Brahadeeswarar Temple and kumbhabishegam ceremony

• The consecration ceremony that culminated with the maha poornahuthi or the main puja
• The Sri Brahadeeswarar Temple (also spelt Brihadisvara, and called Peruvudaiyar Koyil, which translates simply to ‘Big Temple’) is the most famous of the many temples in Thanjavur.
• The temple, one of the world’s largest and grandest, was built between 1003 AD and 1010 AD by the great Chola emperor Raja Raja I (c. 985-1014 AD).
• Holy water brought from the yaga salai — the site of the yajna in the temple compound — was poured on the gold-plated kalasam that tops the 216-foot vimanam over the sanctum sanctorum.
• The other idols at the temple too, were sanctified with holy water from the yaga salai.

About Kumbhabhishekam

• Kumbha-abhishekam is a purification ceremony to sanctify the temple structures and the Deities.
• Kumbha (kalasa) is a pot and the abhishekam -generally means ‘bathing’ (Sanskrit root word-Shic- to sprinkle  , abhi -all around-).
• When the two words are combined, it ‘means ceremonial pouring of sanctified materials.’
• In temple worship, sixty-four worship procedures are recommended by Agama Sastras.
• Of these sixty-four, five upacharas (paadyam, gandham, pushpam, dhoopam, deepam) are of paramount importance.
• These five are then followed by naivedyam, which is distributed to devotees as prasadam.
• Among the five upachara, paadyam, or offer of water is most important.
• This is the reason why during the Kumbha-abhishekam, water contained in pots is first sanctified with Vedic prayers (Theertha kalasa Pooja), after which it used for abhishekam for the deities and other structures.

Nagardhan excavations: Why are findings important to understand Vakataka dynasty

Context

Recent archaeological excavations at Nagardhan in Ramtek taluka, near Nagpur, have provided concrete evidence on the life, religious affiliations and trade practices of the Vakataka dynasty that ruled parts of Central and South India between the third and fifth centuries.

About

• After a 1,500 year-old sealing was excavated for the first time; a new study in Numismatic Digest has tried to understand the Vakataka rule under Queen Prabhavatigupta.
• Nagardhan is a large village in Nagpur district, about 6 km south of Ramtek taluka headquarters.
• Archaeological remains were found on a surface spread over a 1 km × 1.5 km area.
• A Koteshwar temple dating back to the 15th-16th centuries stands on the banks of a stream.
• The existing village sits on top of the ancient habitation.
• The Nagardhan Fort stands south of present-day Nagardhan village.
• This was constructed during the Gond Raja period and later renovated and re-used by the Bhosales of Nagpur during the late 18th and 19th centuries.
• The area surrounding the fort is under cultivation and has archaeological remains.

Why is the excavation important?

• Very little was known about the Vakatakas, the Shaivite rulers of Central India between the third and fifth centuries.
• All that was known about the dynasty, believed to hail from the Vidarbha region, was largely through some literature and copperplates.
• There were assumptions that the excavated site of Nagardhan is the same as Nandhivardhan, the capital city of the eastern branch of the Vakatakas.
• It was after archaeological evidence from here that Nagardhan was understood to have served as a capital of the Vakataka kingdom.
• Besides, the scholars have traced archaeological evidence revealing the dynasty’s religious affiliations — the types of houses and palaces of the rulers, coins and sealings circulated during their reign, and their trade practices.

What is the significance of these finds?

• It is the first time clay sealings have been excavated from Nagardhan.
• The oval-shaped sealing belongs to the period when Prabhavatigupta was the queen of the Vakataka dynasty.
• It bears her name in the Brahmi script, along with the depiction of a conch.
• The 6.40-gram sealing, this is 1,500 years old, measures 35.71 mm by 24.20 mm, with a thickness of 9.50mm.
• The presence of the conch is a sign of the Vaishnava affiliation that the Guptas held.
• The sealing was traced on top of a mega wall that researchers now think could have been part of a royal structure at the capital city of the kingdom.
• So far, no archaeological evidence had emerged about the types of houses or palatial structures of the Vakataka people or rulers.
• These are strong indicators of Vaishnava signatures on the royal seals of the Vakatakas, reiterate that Queen Prabhavatigupta was indeed a powerful woman ruler.
• Since the Vakataka people traded with Iran and beyond through the Mediterranean Sea, scholars suggest that these sealings could have been used as an official royal permission issued from the capital city.
• Besides, these were used on documents that sought mandatory royal permissions.

What else has been excavated from Nagardhan so far?

• Earlier results from the excavations here had traced evidence in the form of ceramics, ear studs of glass, antiquities, bowls and pots, a votive shrine and tank, an iron chisel, a stone depicting a deer, and terracotta bangles.
• Some terracotta objects even depicted images of gods, animals and humans, along with amulets, scotches, wheels, skin rubbers and spindle whorls.
• An intact idol of Lord Ganesha, which had no ornaments adorned, too was found from the site.
• This confirmed that the elephant god was a commonly worshipped deity in those times.
• On the means of living of the Vakataka people, researchers found animal rearing to be one of the main occupations.
• Remains of seven species of domestic animals — cattle, goat, sheep, pig, cat, horse and fowl — were traced in an earlier study by the team.

Early Medieval Period

The early medieval period in Indian history marks the growth of cultivation and organisation of land relations through land grants. These grants began around the beginning of Christian era and covered practically the entire subcontinent by the end of the twelfth century. In the early medieval period agricultural expansion meant a greater and more regular use of advanced agricultural techniques, plough cultivation and irrigation technology. Institutional management of agricultural processes, control of means of production and new relations of production also played an important role in this expansion. With this expansion, new type of rural tensions also emerged. Commercial activities in agricultural and non-agricultural commodities also increased.

Agrarian Economy

The agrarian expansion, which began with the establishment of brahmadeya and agrahara settlements through land grants to Brahamana from the fourth century onwards acquired a uniform and universal form in subsequent centuries. The centuries between the eighth and twelfth witnessed the processes of this expansion and the culmination of an agrarian organisation bad on land grants to religious and secular beneficiaries, i.e. Brahmanas, temples and officers of the King's government. However, there are important regional variations in this development, both due to geographical as well as ecological factors.

Cultivation was extended not only to the hitherto virgin lands but even by clearing forest areas. This was a continuous process and a major feature of early medieval agricultural economy. There is a view prevalent among some scholars that land grants started in outlying, backward and tribal areas first and later gradually extended to the Ganga valley, which was the hub of the brahmanical culture. In the backward and aboriginal tracts the Brahrnanas could spread new methods of cultivation by regulating agricultural processes through specialised knowledge of the seasons (astronomy), plough, irrigation, etc., as well as by protecting the cattle wealth. However, this is not true of all regions in India, for, land grants were also made in areas of settled agriculture as well as in other ecological zones, especially for purposes of integrating them into a new economic order.

Ideas relating to the gift of land emphasise the importance of dana or gift. The idea of dana or gift to Brahmanas was developed by Brahmanical texts as the surest means of acquiring merit (puny.) and destroying sin (pataka). It appears to be a conscious and systematic attempt to provide means of subsistence to the Brahamana. Grants of cultivable land to them and registration of gifts of land on copper plates are recommended by all the Smriti and Purana of the post-Gupta centuries.

Among the gifts are also included the plough, corn, oxen lad plougshare. However, the gift of land was considered to be the best of all types of gift nude to the learned Brahmana. Imprecations against the destruction of such gifts and the resumption of land donated to the Brahmana ensured their perpetuity. Thus land grants began to follow and set legal formula systemised through Law books.

AGRARIAN ORGANISATION

The agrarian organisation and economy were highly complex. This can be understood on the basis of intensive studies of the regional patterns of land grants and the character and role of the brahmadeya and non-brahmadeya and temple settlements. The growth and nature of Land rights, interdependence among the different groups related to land and the production and distribution processes also help in a better understanding of the situation.

Character and Role of Various Types of Agarian Settlements

 Brahmadeya: A brahmadeya represents a grant of land either in individual plots or whole vilIages given away to Brahmana making them landowner or land controller. It was meant either to bring virgin land under cultivation or to integrate existing agricultural (or peasant) settlements into the new economic order dominated by a Brahmana proprietor. These Brahmana donees played a major role in integrating various socio-economic groups into the new order, through service tenures and caste grouping under the Varna System.

The practice of land grants as brahmadeya was initiated by the ruling dynasties and subsequently followed by chiefs, feudatories, etc. Brahmadeya facilitated agrarian expansion because they were:

• • exempted from various taxes or dues either entirely or at least in the initial stages of settlement(e.g. for 12 years);
  • also endowed with ever growing privileges (padharm). The ruling families derived economic advantage in the form of the extension of the resource base, moreover. by creating brahmadeyns they also ,gained ideological support for their political power.
• Lands were given as brahmadeya either to a single Brahmana or to several Brahmana families which ranged from a few to several hundreds or even more than a thousand, as seen in the South Indian context.
• Brahmadeyas were invariably located near major irrigation works such as tanks or lakes. Often new irrigation sources were constructed when brahmadeyas were created, especially in areas dependent on rains and in arid and semi-arid regions.
• When located in areas of intensive agriculture in the river valleys, they served to integrate other settlements of a subsistence level production. Sometimes, two or more settlements were clubbed together to form a brahmadeya or an agrahara.
• The taxes from such villages were assigned to the Brahmana donees, who were also given the right to get the donated land cultivated. Boundaries of the donated land or village were very often carefully demarcated.
• The various types of land, wet, dry and garden land within the village were specified. Sometimes even specific crops and trees are mentioned. The land donations implied more than the transfer of land rights.
• For example, in many cases, along with the revenues and economic resources of the village, human resources such as peasants (cultivators), artisans and others were also transferred to donees.
• There is also growing evidence of the encroachment of the rights of villagers over community lands such as lakes and ponds. Thus, the Brahmanas became managers of agricultural and artisanal production in these settlements for which they organised themselves in to assemblies.
  
  

Rights in Land

• An important aspect relating to land grants is the nature of rights granted to the assignees. Rights conferred upon the grantees included fiscal and administrative rights.
• The taxes, of which land tax was the major source of revenue, theoretically payable to the King or government, came to be assigned to the donees.
• The reference to pariharas or exemptions in the copper plate and stone inscriptions registering such grants indicate that what was theoretically payable to the King was not being completely exempted from payment but the rights were now transferred to the grantees.
• This was apparently based on the sanction of the dharmashastras, which sought to establish the royal ownership of land and hence justify such grants, creating intermediary rights in land.
• Although there is some evidence of a communal basis of land rights in early settlements, the development of private ownership or rights is indicated by the fact that the grantees often enjoyed rights of alienation of land.
• They also enjoyed other hereditary benefits in the settlements. Land gifts were often made after purchase from private individuals. Hereditary ownership seems to have developed out of such grants, both religious and secular.
  
  

THE CHARACTERISATION OF EARLY MEDIEVAL AGRARIAN ECONOMY

Different views have been put forward regarding the nature of the overall set up of early medieval agrarian economy. On the one hand, it is seen as a manifestation of feudal economy, while on the other it is dubbed as a peasant state and society.

The salient features of 'Indian Feudalism' are:

1. Emergence of hierarchical landed intermediaries. Vassals and officers of state and other secular assignee had military obligations and feudal titles. Sub-infeudation (varying in different regions) by these donees to get their land cultivated led to the growth of different strata-of intermediaries. It was a hierarchy of landed aristocrats, tenants, share croppers and cultivators. This hierarchy was also reflected in the power/administrative structure, where a sort -of lord-vassal relationship emerged. In other words, Indian feudalism consisted in the gross unequal distribution of land and its produce.
2. Another important feature was the prevalence of forced labour. The right of extracting forced labour (vishti) is believed to have been exercised by the Brahmana and other grantees of land. Forced labour was originally a prerogative of the King or the state. It was transferred to the grantees, petty officials, village authorities and others. In the Chola inscriptions alone, there are more than one hundred references to forced labour. Even the peasants and artisans come within the jurisdiction of vishti. As a result, a kind of serfdom emerged, in which agricultural labourers were reduced to the position of semi-serfs.
3. Due to the growing claims of greater rights over land by rulers and intermediaries, peasants also suffered a curtailment of their land rights. Many were reduced to the position of tenants facing ever growing threat of eviction. A number of peasants were only ardhikas (share croppers). The strain on the b peasantry was also caused by the burden of taxation, coercion and increase in their indebtedness.
4. Surplus was extracted through various methods. Extra economic coercion was a conspicuous method. With the rise of new property relations, new mechanisms of economic subordination also evolved. The increasing burden is evident in the mentioning of more than fifty levies in the inscription of Rajaraja Chola.
5. It was relatively a closed village economy. The transfer of human resources along with land to the beneficiaries shows that in such villages the peasants, craftsmen and artisans were attached to the villages and hence were mutually dependent. Their attachment to land and to service grants ensured control over them by the beneficiaries.

In brief, a subject and immobile peasantry, functioning in relatively self-sufficient villages buttressed by varna restrictions, was the marked feature of the agrarian economy during the five centuries under survey. The theory of the existence of autonomous peasant societies is put forward in opposition to the theory of Indian feudalism. It is based mainly on the evidence from
south Indian sources.

URBAN SETTLEMENTS

Study of urban centres is an important aspect of socio economic history. Urban centres in early medieval India have generally been studied in two ways :

1. As a part of economic history i.e. history of trade, commerce and craft production, etc., and
2. As a part of administrative or political history, i.e. as capitals, administrative centres, centres of major and minor ruling families and fort towns.

Hence the focus of urban studies has so far been mainly on types of urban centres. Accordingly towns or cities have been listed under various categories such as market, trade or commercial centres, ports, political and administrative centres, religious centres, etc. However, there has been no sufficient attempt to explain the causes behind the emergence of towns.

Prior to the coming of the Turks, the Indian sub-continent experienced at least three phases of urban growth:

1) During the bronze age Harappan civilization (fourth-second millennium B.C.),

2) Early historic urban centres of the iron age (c. sixth century B.C. to the end of the third century A.D.),

3) Early medieval towns and cities (c. eighth/ninth to twelfth centuries A.D.)

• Amongst the earliest attempts to define an urban centre one can easily mention Gordon Childe's notion of 'Urban Revolution’. He listed monumental buildings, large settlements with dense population, existence of such people who were not engaged in food production (rulers, artisans and merchants) and cultivation of art, science and writing as prominent features to identify an urban centre. Further, Childe laid great stress on the presence of craft specialists and the role of agricultural surplus which supported non-food producers living in cities. Not all these traits, which were spelt out in the context of bronze age cities, are to be seen in the towns of iron age. There has been no dearth of urban centres with sparse population and mud houses.
• Though agrarian surplus collected from rural areas is almost indispensable for the existence of a town, merely a settlement of non-agriculturists cannot be regarded as an urban centre. Early medieval literary texts refer to towns inhabited by people of all classes surrounded by a wall and moat and marked by the prevalence of the laws and customs of the guilds of artisans and merchants.

Accordingly, some prominent traits of urban centres which can be applied to early medieval settlements as well, are identified as:

1. Size of a settlement in terms of area and population.
2. Proximity to water resources-river banks, tanks, ring wells, etc.
3. Presence or absence of artefacts representing activities of artisans, e.g. axes, chisels, plough-shares, sickles, hoes, crucibles, ovens, furnaces, dyeing vats, moulds for beads, seals, sealings, jewellery, terracotta, etc.
4. Evidence of coin moulds signifying mint towns. The discovery of metallic money, when listed with the presence of artisans and merchants, certainly lends a clear urban character to such sites.
5. Presence or otherwise of luxury goods such as precious and semi-precious stones, glassware, ivory objects, fine pottery etc. The possibility is not ruled out that luxuries of ancient towns might become necessities for superior rural classes of early medieval times.
6. Considering the moist, rainy climate of many alluvial plains such as the middle Ganga plain, baked brick (not just burnt bricks) structures on a good scale assume special importance. Though in Central Asia towns consisting of mud structures are also not unknown.
7. Streets, shops, drains and fortifications also give a good idea of the nature of the urban settlement. At several places in the Deccan and elsewhere silos and granaries occur at historical sites, like at Dhulikatt in Andhra Pradesh.
   
   

Market Centres, Trade-Network and Itinerant Trade

• Early medieval centuries also witnessed the emergence of urban centres of relatively modest dimensions, as market centres, trade centres (fairs, etc.) which were primarily points of the exchange network. The range of interaction of such centres varied from small agrarian hinterlands to regional commercial hinterlands.
• Some also functioned beyond their regional frontiers. However, by and large, the early medieval urban centres were rooted in their regional contexts. This is best illustrated by the nagnram of South India, substantial evidence of which comes from Tamil Nadu and also to a limited extent by the existence of nakhara and nagaramu in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh respectively.
• The nagaram served as the market for the nadu or kurram, an agrarian or peasant region. Some of them emerged'due to the exchange needs of the nadu. A fairly large number of such centres were founded by ruling families or were established by royal sanction and were named after the rulers, a feature common to all regions in South India. Such centres had the suffix pura or pattana.
• Nagarams located on important trade routes and at the points of intersection developed into more important trade and commercial centres of the region. They were ultimately brought into a network of intra-regional and inter-regional trade as well as overseas trade through the itinerant merchant organisations and the royal ports.
• Such a development occurred uniformly throughout peninsular India between the tenth and twelfth centuries. During these centuries South lndia was drawn into the wider trade network in which all the countries of South Asia, South-east Asia and China and the Arab countries came to be involved. The nagarams linked the ports with political and administrative centres and craft centres in the interior.
• In Karnataka nagarams emerged more as points of exchange in trading network than as regular markets for agrarian regions. However, the uniform features in all such nagarams are that they acquired a basic agricultural hinterland for the non-producing urban groups living in such centres. Markets in these centres were controlled by the nagaram assembly headed by a chief merchant called
• A similar development of trade and market centres can be seen in Rajasthan and western parts of Madhya Pradesh. Here, the exchange centres were located in the context of the bases of agrarian production i.e. where clusters of rural settlements occur. In Rajasthan these centres were points of intersection for traffic of varying origins, giving rise to a certain measure of hierarchy. The network was further elaborated with the growth of generations of well-known merchant families in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They are named after their places of origin such as Osawala (Osia), Shrimalis (Bhirimal). Pallivalas and Khandelvalas,
• The resource bases, the main routes for the flow of resources and the centres of exchange were integrated through the expansion of these merchant families. Rajasthan provided the main commercial links between Gujarat, Central India and the Ganga Valley. Such links were maintained through towns like Pali, which connected the sea coast towns like Dvaraka and Bhrigukachcha (Broach) with Central and North India.
• Gujarat, with its dominant Jain merchants, continued to be the major trading region of Western lndia where early historic ports or emporium like Bhrigukachcha (Broach) continued to flourish as entrepots of trade in early medieval times. Bayana, another notable town in Rajasthan was the junction of different routes from different directions. The range of merchandise started probably with agricultural produce (including dairy products) but extended to such high-value items as horses, elephants,horned animals and jewels.
  
  

Sacred/Pilgrimage Centres

• The idea of pilgrimage to religious centres developed in the early medieval period due to the spread of the cult of Bhakti. Its expansion in different regions through a process of acculturation and interaction between the Brahmanical or Sanskritic forms of worship and folk or popular cults cut across narrow sectarian interests.
• As a result, some local cult centres of great antiquity as well as those with early associations with brahmanical and non-brahmanical religions, became pilgrimage centres. The pilgrimage network was sometimes confined to the specific cultural region within which a cult centre assumed a sacred character.
• However, those cult centres, which became sacred tirthas attracted worshippers from various regions. Both types of pilgrimage centres developed urban features due to a mobile pilgrim population, trade and royal patronage. The role of emerging market in the growth of tirthas is now being recognised by historians in a big way.
• Pushkara near Ajmer in Rajasthan was a sacred tirtha of regional importance with a dominant Vaishnava association. Kasi (Banaras) acquired a pan-Indian character due to its greater antiquity and importance as a brahrnanical sacred centre. In South India, Srirangam (Vaishnava), Chidambaram (Shaiva) and Madurai (Shaiva) etc. developed as regional pilgrimage centres, while Kanchipuram became a part of an all India pilgrimage network.
• While Melkote was a regional sacred centre in Karnataka, Alampur, Draksharama and Simhachalam show a similar development in Andhra Pradesh.
• Tirupati was initially an important sacred- centre for the Tamil Vaishnavas but acquired a pan-Indian character later in the Vijayanagara period. Jain centres of pilgrimage emerged in Gujarat and Rajasthan where merchant and royal patronage led to the proliferation of Jain temples in groups in centres such as Osia, Mount Abu, Palitana, etc.
• The changes introduced by the system of land grants in the post-Gupta centuries were not confined to a new agrarian economy.
• Urban settlements, which had been in the state of decay in the few centuries after the arrival of the Guptas, saw a new life infused into them.
• The revival of trade, rise of new markets, dispersal of political authority and consolidation of economic power by religious establishments had given rise to numerous towns and cities in different regions of the lndian sub-continent with only minor variations noticeable in the relative importance of causative factors.
  
  

TRADE AND COMMERCE

The collection, distribution and exchange of goods is called trade. It is a process which depends on a number of factors such as the nature and quantity of production, facilities of transport, safety and security of traders, the pattern of exchange, etc. It also involves different sections of society including traders, merchants, peasants and artisans. In a somewhat indirect manner, even political authorities have a stake in it as taxes on the articles of commerce imposed by them constitute an important source of revenue of the state.

The historical features of trade during the early medieval times can be best understood if we divide this period into two broad phases:

a) Relative decline of trade, metallic currency, urban centres and a somewhat closed village economy in the first phase, and

b) Reversal of most of the aforesaid tendencies in the second phase. So, one notices trade picking up momentum not only within the country best in relation to other countries as well. Metal coins were no longer as scarce as they were in the first phase. Of course, it was not a phase of deeply penetrated monetary economy as was the case in the five centuries following the end of the Mauryas (c.200 B.C.-A.D.300). Nor did the pattern of urban growth remain unaffected by the revival of trade and expansion of agriculture.

THE FIRST PHASE (c.A.D. 700-900)

The period from A.D. 750-1000 witnessed wide-spread practice of granting land not only to priests and temples but also to warrior chiefs and state officials. As already seen it lead to the emergence of a hierarchy of landlords. Even graded state officials such as maha-mandaleshwara, mandalika, samanta, mahammanta, thakkura, etc. developed interests in land. However, they were different from the actual tillers of the soil and lived on the surplus extracted from the peasants who were hardly left with anything to trade. It resulted in the growth of rural economy where local needs were being satisfied locally through the imposition of numerous restrictions on the mobility of actual producers. The relative dearth of medium of exchange, viz.metal coins only strengthened this trend.

Relative Decline of Trade

• Internally, the fragmentation of political authority and the dispersal of power to local chiefs, religious grantees, etc. seem to have had an adverse effect, at least in the initial centuries of the land grant economy. Many of the intermediary landlords, particularly of less productive areas, resorted to loot and plunder or excessive taxes on goods passing through their territories. This must have dampened the enthusiasm of traders and merchants. No less discouraging were the frequent wars amongst potential ruling chiefs. Though two Jain texts of the eighth century, Samaraicchakaha of Haribhadra Suri and the Kuvalayamala of Uddyotana Suri, refer to brisk trade and busy towns, it is rightly argued that these texts heavily draw their material from the sources of earlier centuries and. therefore, do not necessarily reflect the true economic condition of the eight century.
• As regards the decline of foreign trade with the West, it is pointed out that it bad greatly diminished after the fall of the great Roman Empire in the fourth century. It was also affected adversely in the middle of the sixth century when the people of Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) learnt the art of making silk lndia thus lost an important market which had fetched her considerable amount of gold in the early centuries of the Christian era.
  
  

Urban Settlements : Decay

• The first phase was also marked by-the decay and desertion of many towns. It is an important symptom of commercial decline because the towns are primarily the settlements of people engaged in crafts and commerce.
• As trade declined and the demand for craft-goods slumped, the traders and craftsmen living in towns had to disperse to rural areas for alternative means of livelihood. Thus towns decayed and townsfolk became a part of village economy.
• Beside the accounts of Hiuen Tsang, the Pauranic records too, while referring to Kali age indicate depopulation of important cities. This seems to have been the continuation of the trend already indicated by Varahamihira (5th century).
• The decay of important towns such as Vaishali, Pataliputra, Varanasi, etc. is evident from the archaeological excavations which reveal poverty of structure and antiquities. The pan-Indian scene is marked by desertion of urban centres or their state of decays in the period between the third and eighth centuries.
• Even those settlements which continued upto the eighth century, were deserted thereafter. One can mention Ropar (in Punjab), Atranjikhera and Bhita (in Uttar Pradesh), Eran (in Madhya Pradesh), Prabhas Patan (in Gujarat), Maheswar and Paunar (in Maharashtra), and Kudavelli (in Andhra Pradesh) in this category of urban settlements. Even the medieval greatness of Kanauj (in the Farrukhabad district of Uttar Pradesh) for which several wars were fought amongst the Palas, Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas, has still to be testified by the excavator's spade.
• The commercial activity during the first phase of early medieval period had declined but did not disappear completely. In fact, trade in costly and luxury goods meant for the use of kings, feudal chiefs and heads of temples and monasteries continued to exist.
• The articles such as precious and semi-precious stones, ivory, horses, etc. formed an important part of the long distance trade, but the evidence for transactions in the goods of daily use is quite meagre in the sources belonging to this period. The only important article mentioned in the inscriptions are salt and oil which could not be produced by every village, and thus had to be brought from outside.
• If the economy had not been self-sufficient, the references to trade in grains, sugar, textile, handicrafts, etc. would have been more numerous. In short the nature of commercial activity during A.D. 750-1000 was such which catered more to the landed intermediaries and feudal lords rather than the masses.
• Though there were some pockets of trade and commerce such as Pehoa (near Karnal in Haryana) and Ahar (near Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh) where merchants from far and wide met to transact business, they could not make any significant dent in the closed economy of the country as a whole.
  
  

THE SECOND PHASE (c.A.D.900 - 1300)

This phase is marked by the revival of trade and commerce. It was also the period of agrarian expansion, increased use of money and the re-emergence of market , economy in which goods were produced for exchange rather than for local consumption. These centuries also witnessed a substantial growth of urban settlements in different parts of the sub-continent.

Crafts and Industry

• The growth of agricultural production was supplemented by increased craft production. In the first phase of early medieval period the decline of internal and external trade meant the narrowing down of markets for industrial products. The production remained largely confined to local and regional needs. In the second phase, however, we notice a trend towards increased craft production which stimulated the process of both regional and inter-regional exchange.
• Textile Industry, which had been well established since ancient times, developed as a major economic activity. Coarse as well as fine cotton goods were now being produced. Marco Polo (A.D. 1293) and Arab writers praise the excellent quality of cotton fabrics from Bengal and Gujarat. The availability of madder in Bengal and indigo in Gujarat might have acted as important aides to the growth of textile industry in these regions, Manasollasa, a text of the twelfth century, also mentions Paithan, Negapatinam, Kalinga and Multan as important centres of textile industry. The silk weavers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also constituted a very important and influential section of the society.
  
  

Coins and Other Media of Exchange

• The revival of trade received considerable help from the re-emergence of metal money during the centuries under discussion. There is, however, substantial discussion about the degree and level of monetization. Very often the contenders of the penetration of money in the market invoke literary and inscriptional references to numerous terms purporting to describe various types of coins of early medieval India. Thus texts such as Prabandhachintamani, Lilavata, Dravyapariksha, Lekhapaddhati, etc. mention bhagaka, rupaka, virnshatika, karshapana, dinar, dramma, nisahka, gadhaiya-mudra, gadyanaka, tanka, and many other coins with their multiples. No less prolific are inscriptional references.
• For example the Siyadoni inscription alone refers to varieties of drammas in the mid-tenth century. The Paramara Chalukya, Chahmana, Pratihara, Pala, Candella and Cola inscriptions corroborate most of the terms found in contemporary literature. There has also been considerable speculation about the value of these coins, their metal content and their relationship with one another. Nothing could be more simplistic than to suggest the penetration of money in the market simply on the basis of listing of numismatic gleanings from a mixed bag of inscriptions and literature.
  
  

Inland Trade

A large variety of commodities were carried for trading through a network of trade r0utes.i~ the country.

Commodities of Trade and their Consumer

• There are numerous inscriptions which refer to merchants carrying foodgrains, oil, butter, salt, coconuts, arecanuts, betel leaves, madder, indigo, candid sugar, jaggery, thread cotton fabrics, blankets, metals, spices, etc. from one place to another, and paying taxes and tolls on them. Benjamin Tudela, a Jesuit priest from Spain (twelfth century) noticed wheat, barley and pulses, besides linseed fibre and cotton cloth brought by the traders to the island of Kish in the Persian Gulf on their way home from India.The export of palm sugar and coir for ropes is noted by Friar Jordanus who wrote in about A.D. 1330. Marco Polo refers to the export of indigo from Quilon (on the Malabar Coast) and Gujarat. Besides, cotton fabrics, carpets, leather mats, swords and spears also appear in various sources as important articles of exchange. High value items such as horses, elephants, jewellery, etc. also came to various exchange centres.
• The chief customers of Indian goods were of course the rich inhabitants of China, Arabia and Egypt. Many of the Indian goods might have found their way to Europe as well as via Mediterranean. While the aspects of foreign trade will be discussed at length later, it needs to be highlighted that the domestic demand was not insignificant. A new class of consumers emerged as a result of large scale land grants from the eighth century onwards. The priests who earlier subsisted on a meagre fees offered at domestic and other rites were now entitled to hereditary enjoyment of vast landed estates, benefices and rights. This new landowing class, along with the ruling chiefs and rising mercantile class became an important buyer of luxuries and necessities because of their better purchasing power.
• The overall picture of trade and commerce during the six centuries under discussion is that of feudalisation. The way in which money transactions took place, the manipulations of landed interests including those of state officials and ruling chiefs, functioning of the ruling elite in the interests of big traders and merchants and putting restrictions on artisans and craftsmen are indicators of the process of feudalisation.

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