The Penguin History of Early India

by Romila Thapar

  Grants of land, if of a sufficient size, were an avenue to power which reinforced the fact that political power was relatively open. Nevertheless, the argument that there was now a broader distribution of power through lineage links is perhaps not a sufficient explanation for change, since the reality of power also draws on access to resources and control of labour despite claims to divinity and other forms of legitimacy suggesting power. The nature of contractual relations between those contributing labour and others appropriating labour also have to be defined. Here perhaps the hierarchy of social relationships implicit in the listing of jatis would be a better clue than varnas, since regional differences discouraged a uniform pattern with regard to the latter. Service relationships based on caste status and the hierarchy implicit in the status would have locked in the obligations of each caste and the system would be subservient to the family that held the land. Where this prevailed the peasant was reduced to a condition of unfreedom. Migration, resorted to in the earlier period, was now difficult and wasteland could not be arbitrarily cleared and settled. Such service relationships were to be increasingly built into the structure of control of landed magnates and could extend to institutional landholders such as temples. The adoption of varna statuses sharpened the division between privileged castes and the rest, and between the free and the unfree.

  This process marks a substantial departure in terms of differentiating between those who control the land and those who work it. On the first of these there have been many studies and differences of perception. On the second, the rights and terms relevant to the producers remain ambiguous, despite having been raised in the theory of the feudalization of Indian society. These have significance, irrespective of whether or not the grantee was a feudal lord. The nature of labour and its relations to other aspects of society and the economy have yet to be investigated in greater detail. A simple question of whether peasants had the right to present their complaints at court was mentioned, although infrequently, in the context of kings receiving complaints when travelling in rural areas. But there are folk-stories in which the peasant is anxious to do just that. This assumes that even if such an action was a distant wish in most cases, the peasant felt that he should be able to do so.

  Whether the grants amounted to a decentralization of royal authority or a distribution of power to those identified as branch lineages, it involved a restructuring of the agrarian economy. The grant would have acted as a lever for extending agricultural produce not just by technical aids such as irrigation, but also through the concerned supervision of the grantee. The agricultural economy was placed in the hands of those who claimed the knowledge to improve it, namely officers of the administration and brahmans. Agriculture or even its technical supervision was not generally expected of brahmans. Nevertheless, texts dealing with agriculture, such as the Krishiparashara or parts of Varahamihira’s Brihatsamhita, point to agriculture being included in their expertise. Manuals on agriculture would have been a primary requirement for brahman settlers, either to introduce cultivation or to increase the yield.

  The focus on grants of land has diverted attention from pastoralism, prevalent in wooded areas and in the drier tracts. Admittedly not as significant as in the earlier period, pastoralism was nevertheless important in the interstices of agrarian areas and in some hill states. Cattle were widely used in rural areas, not only for traction of various kinds but also for providing power to work the water-wheels and mills to crush sugar cane. Pastoral clans were also among those who, like forest-tribes, were converted to castes when they became cultivators.

  Grants of land promoted economic change with the sanction of the state, but through the agency of the grantee where the state was not the direct collector of revenue. Grantees had to organize the existing cultivators to their advantage or convert shifting cultivators to sedentary cultivation, adjusting their society to that of the grantee. According to the terms of the grant the state could concede administrative, fiscal and judicial rights to the grantee. These, together with the grant, became the nucleus of the authority of the grantee. The conversions to jati involved the creation of new castes which required some reshuffling of local caste hierarchies. The king, according to earlier texts, was to use danda or coercion to protect his subjects and to maintain the law. But it was now conceded that the law could vary according to jati, locality and occupation. The newly created jatis would continue to observe some of their previous customary law.

  Urbanism in a New Context

  In the immediate post-Gupta period commercial activity in some parts of northern India appears Co have declined, even if produce from the land did not exclude other forms of economic exchange. Excavations of urban sites suggest that material culture in the Gupta period was of a lesser standard compared to the Kushana period, or that there was a desertion of some sites, although here again horizontal excavation would be more helpful in determining de-urbanization. Floods and environmental change have been given as the cause for the latter. Possible climatic changes occurred in the mid-first millennium AD, although the evidence for these is not conclusive. The Chinese Buddhist monk, Hstian Tsang, mentioned passing through some deserted towns. Impressive monuments no longer marked the old trade routes. Declining trade in certain areas could well have been a cause. Towns became deserted when trade routes changed course and the location of markets shifted. Deserted towns have to be juxtaposed with new urban centres and such juxtaposition indicates that urban decline was not registered uniformly all over the subcontinent. Furthermore, courts were not invariably held in the capital. There were times during prolonged campaigns or tours of outlying areas when a royal court could take the form of a military camp, or was on the move, creating the impression of a deserted town.

  Urban decline would have been caused by less availability of produce for exchange. This usually consisted of manufactured items or agricultural produce such as sugarcane, cotton and indigo, which also served rural markets. Trade would have shifted to other areas, with new towns replacing the older ones. Administrative centres attached to the courts of smaller kingdoms would have attracted trade and become commercial centres. Hsüan Tsang writes of Thanesar, Kanauj and Varanasi as commercial centres. The first two had earlier been administrative centres. Increased agricultural production would have required the creation of many more rural markets and while the existence of these may not have created a major commercial decline exchange of produce could have moved out of the older urban centres.

  Ports and coastal towns appear to have been less affected by commercial decline, although references pick up from the ninth century. Debal in the Indus Delta, Veraval (the port for Somanatha) and Cambay in Gujarat, Thana and Sopara further south, and ports in the Ganges Delta, were mentioned. Cargoes were of goods either produced in India or brought by Indian merchants from further east. Of the items imported, silk and porcelain came from China, while China imported cotton textiles, ivory, rhinoceros horn and a variety of precious and semi-precious stones from India. The exports westwards continued to be substantially pepper and spices, and textiles. Mention of improved technologies in the production of cotton probably register its importance to commerce. Merchants from west Asia and the eastern Mediterranean settled along the west coast, participating in the Indian trade with the west, and encroaching on the eastern trade as well. Arab merchants strove to replace Indian middlemen in the trade between India, south-east Asia and China by going directly to these places. The north Indian overland trade with central Asia met with vicissitudes owing to the movements of peoples such as the Turks and Mongols.

  From the tenth century onwards, commercial exchange finds more frequent reference. Certain guilds continue to be mentioned, such as those of goldsmiths, the organizers of caravans, braziers, oil-pressers and stonemasons. These could of course have been based in the capitals of courts rather than in commercial centres. But some new items were introduced and routes seem to have changed. The most striking item was the import of horses on a large scale. A g
reater frequency of even small campaigns would have required more horses, which may have been accompanied by a greater dependence on the cavalry wing of the army. Metal stirrups, improved saddles and horse trappings converted the cavalry into a more formidable wing than it had been. The horse became a major item of trade, not only in the north-west but along the west coast down to south India. Indian horse-traders in the north, some of whom were brahmans, traded with merchants from the Indo-Iranian borderlands and the north-west, and doubtless with centres such as Ghazni or others further into central Asia. Commercial centres in India were often located at new sites such as Prithu-daka/Pehoa in the Indo-Gangetic watershed, or others in the western Ganges Plain, and at Veraval and Cambay. New commercial centres in eastern India also became economically profitable.

  Horse-dealers at Pehoa included brahmans who were defying the Dharmashastra rule against brahmans living by trading in animals. Providing horses to the elite was doubtless too attractive a business proposition. The other traders involved in the commerce at Pehoa have names that seem to suggest they were nonbrahmans. The management of the trade was handled by a committee. Donations were made to temples in Pehoa and Kanauj. Centres for the horse trade seem to have developed from the locations of animal fairs where horses were the prize animals. Horses were then sold in widely distributed markets. Pehoa was located at the point of entry to the Ganges Plain and was also linked to routes going south-west to Rajasthan and south to the Deccan. The latter would have cut through what had been regarded as areas of isolation. Markets along these routes also became instrumental in introducing caste society to these areas and impinged on those living in nearby forests. Bana’s description in the Harshacharita of a Shabara settlement in a Vindhyan forest touches on many nuances of this transition, even though it was written earlier in the seventh century.

  An increase in the volume of trade was brought about by a variety of factors. The more obvious among them was the interest of Arab traders in Indian products, and in turn the interest of Indian traders in exchanges with south-east Asia. The initial Arab intention to conquer western India was probably motivated by the wish to control the hinterland of ports and trade centres, rather than merely territory. Where trade had already existed as a viable economic enterprise, as in Gujarat, there was less dependence on affluent landholders. But elsewhere, a less obvious though significant factor would have been a partial repetition of the earlier processes encouraging the evolution of towns. With the growth of the agrarian economy, through inputs by the state or by landholders, there was wealth available for investing in trade. Much of the agricultural surplus went not to those who laboured to produce it, but to those to whom the producers had to pay rent and labour taxes. Added to this were the many varieties of taxes collected from the sale or exchange of produce or from using the facilities provided, such as irrigation works, tools and mills. The existence of wealthy landholders encouraging exchange centres in rural areas led to consumer demand for locally produced items. Such a demand had already existed for necessities such as salt and metals, but now other items could be added.

  This encouraged the setting up of rural exchange centres, such as the hatta. Some grew into towns trading in items from within the subcontinent, partly determined by the distribution of what was grown. Sugarcane, for example, required a place where the cane or molasses could be exchanged or sold, and the same applied to cotton. Places where the state administration collected its taxes and customs dues, the mandapika, were also potential towns. The location of temples and places of pilgrimage could encourage urbanization, such as the location of the Somanatha temple which adjoined the port of Veraval. Temples and shrines at such places were sometimes built or maintained by merchants, with those operating out of Pehoa, for instance, recorded as having made donations to the local places of worship.

  Royal action could also be conducive to establishing a market. A ninth-century inscription of a Pratihara king in Rajasthan described the setting up of a market at a location near Jodhpur. Earlier occupied by the pastoral cattle-keeping Abhiras, it became the base for their looting the inhabitants of the area since it was not so accessible to policing by the administration. This was an activity frequently associated with Abhira pastoralists. The king, in a bold action, burnt their villages, took away their cattle and introduced the cultivation of sugarcane and the planting of fruit orchards in the area. The village of Rohinsakupa was converted into a market with a settlement of merchants. A Jaina temple was built and maintained by Jaina monks and merchants. An activity of a different kind that also led sometimes to the emergence of towns was associated with the court. Royal courts often preferred the sophistication of urban culture but sometimes had to make do with temporary, albeit elaborate, encampments. Some royal inscriptions were issued from temporary camps. Such locations, if visited regularly, could enter the network of urbanization. Terms for towns continued to be those used earlier – pura, nagara, pattana, and those of a larger size were mahanagaras.

  Carriers of trade ranged from cattle-keepers to ship-owners. The banjaras were cattle-keepers who traversed various parts of the subcontinent and came to be widely used for transporting goods. Camel-herders transported goods across deserts and arid terrain. Such groups indulged in peddling and incipient trade, with occasional more complex commercial transactions. Cattle-herders also provided bullocks for carts, the most common form of transporting goods in the plains. Pack-asses were more frequent in steep, hilly areas. This was an informal arrangement compared to the professional caravans drawn by oxen, or in deserts by camels, and maintained by the sarthavahas. The term shreshthi for a merchant continued in use, as it does in the present day setthi. The nauvittaka, or its Arabic equivalent of nakhuda, referred to the particularly rich merchants who owned ships, pointing to the expansion of maritime trade. Some wealthy merchants of the thirteenth century, such as Vastupala and Jagadu, made their fortunes in overseas commerce and were admired for this, becoming respected members of the urban council at the Chaulukya capital at Anahilapattana. Jaina centres in western India received handsome donations from some among these merchants.

  Interest on money lent, kusida, was handled professionally by the financier and moneylender, and was normally 15 per cent. But 15 per cent was known in the Rashtrakuta kingdom and other places. Rates varied according to the item, its method of transportation and the distance it travelled. Both compound interest and interest in kind were mentioned. Interest paid in kind could include commodities or labour. Caste considerations as applied to interest rates appear to have been regularized. Where the brahman was charged 2 per cent the shudra was charged 5 per cent or more on the same capital.

  A paucity of coins from the seventh to the tenth century, and particularly the termination of good-quality gold coins after the Gupta period, has been cited as characteristic of a feudal economy. Whereas gold coins became less frequent in this period, the broader generalization is problematic, as there were regional variations and the intervention of monetization in various economies differed. A large variety of coins was referred to in the texts, particularly from the ninth century, although the quantity in circulation varied: dramma, dinara, nishka, rupaka, gadyanaka, vimshatika, karshapana, gadhaiya, tanka and so on. The mention of transactions in money would imply that coins were in use, the question being the degree of monetization. In some areas, such as the Punjab, Haryana, the north-west and Sind, the circulation of coins was common, and, interestingly, these are areas with few if any grants of land.

  Indo-Sassanian coins circulated in large numbers from the fifth century onwards. Gadhaiya coins, although of low value, were also in circulation in post-Gupta times. From the eighth to the eleventh century, reference was made to the billon drammas, of mixed silver and copper, associated with the Gurjara Pratiharas, and to local issues of bimetallic or copper coins in Sind, the north-west and Kashmir. A tenth-century inscription from coastal western India referred to one gold gadyanaka being the tax on every ship that brought commercial goods, and
this tax was to be given to the temple and its priests. Gold coins issued by the Ummayads were used in centres along the west coast. From the eleventh century onwards the bull-and-horseman billon coins were circulating in northern and western India and, to a lesser extent, some gold issues. In eastern India there were references to the widely used silver coinage of Harikela. Packets of silver-and gold-dust may also have circulated, despite being a clumsy method of exchange compared to coins. For lesser transactions copper coins were preferred and cowrie shells were normal for more localized exchange. In some cases coinage was debased.

  Coins continued to be minted in the north-west and Sind, and their range of circulation would have included some other parts of north India. The Ganges heartland appears to have had a shorter supply of coins until the tenth century. The circulation of coins for the period from the seventh to the tenth century needs a more detailed regional study, focusing on mints, the weight of coins, material, design and legends. If a paucity of coins contributed to the creation of feudal conditions, then the increased use of coins after the tenth century in many parts of northern India would doubtless have brought about noticeable changes from the earlier pattern.

  The Senas in eastern India introduced a cash assessment for revenue. In a thirteenth-century land-charter from western India a payment of three thousand dramma was required as revenue, together with various other sums in taxes. An earlier contract of a similar kind dates to the eighth century and suggests that coined metallic money was available. Gradually, gold coins were revived, with the need for high-value money in the purchase and sale of luxury commodities. Arab sources mentioned that Indian merchants bought horses for a large sum counted in dirhams, the money used by the Arabs. This may have been only an equivalent valuation in Arab money or else Arab high-value money may have been in use among Indian traders.