Editorial Note

6. Trade, [This essay offers a synoptic treatment of the major

aspects of trade during the historical period up to the
c. 500 BC–AD 1300 13th century AD. Among the literary sources the Jatakas
and the Mahabharata have been analysed in detail,
showing how the different parts of India and their
products were well-known by the periods of the
composition of these texts. In between these dates stands
the Arthashastra, another text with the whole of the
sub-continent in its scope. Another point to note is the
significance of the merchant guilds of south India and
the scope of the south Indian merchantsí trading
activities of the period.]

INTRODUCTION
It is only to be expected that with the diversity
of her natural resources and physical regions
India will have a continued historical emphasis
on the interchange of both finished products and
raw materials, including the agricultural products,
at the grassroots level. In prehistoric India lithic
sites are sometimes known to have collected
their raw materials from outside their locality.
The element of distance increased when the
demand for raw materials became more diverse
with the establishment of village economy,
which in Indiaís case denoted a long process
and was chronologically uneven. In the equally
uneven process of Indiaís adaptation to the use
of metals, both metallic ores and finished metal
products were traced over vast regions. With
the growth of the Indus civilization trade
relations included maritime links and overland
contacts far beyond the sub-continentís north-
western boundary. The inter-regional
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
178
exchanges continued to be visible and
widespread beyond the Indus orbit till, with the
beginning of the early historic period, one has a
distinct image of many pan-Indian economic
networks based on the spread of such products
as distinct types of pottery and other finished
products like beads. The element of foreign trade
does not seem to be sharp during the
archaeologically non-and- post-Indus phase but
gets back into a clearly identifiable form by the
beginning of the early historic period and is soon
enriched by a mass of materials denoting contacts
on all sidesówest, central, east and southeast
Asia, and the lands to the north and the west of
the Indian ocean. The entire landmass and the
island world between the loosely defined Pacific
belt on the east and the coast of east Africa
stretching into the Red Sea and the
Mediterranean on the west set the general stage
of Indiaís historic trade.
The internal and external trade of the Indus
civilization have figured in the second volume
of the series, and whatever evidence there is of
the sea-borne trade of the Vedic texts has been
taken into consideration in its third volume. The
primary focus of the present chapter is on the
historical phase. It has its twilight in the pre-
Jataka tradition and continues uninterrupted till
the 12th/13th century AD. As the dates of our
literary texts are generally beset with
controversies, we find it useful to divide the
whole period into at least three overlapping
phases. The first one is focussed on the middle
of the first millennium BC and continues into the
early centuries AD. The second phase possibly
begins at the turn of the Christian era and
continues till the 5th-7th centuries AD. The third
phase is likely to have begun around AD 300 and
seems to have continued till AD 1200/1300. This
arrangement may not be satisfactory but in view
of the general chronological uncertainty of the
sources and the general lack of detailed
information on the various commodities and
organizational aspects of trade in the Indian
literary sources, such an evolving and
overlapping historical scenario of ancient Indian
trade may infuse some clarity into the admittedly
jumbled and chronologically uncertain mass of
data on ancient Indian trade.
THE PRE-JATAKA TWILIGHT?
In his essay on ìthe early commerce of Babylon
with India, 700-300 BC in the Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society (1898), pp. 241-288, J. Kennedy
posed the question (p. 242): ìat what period did
regular maritime intercourse first arise between
India and western Asia?î. His answer was that
ìit arose at the commencement of the seventh
century BC î. The earliest firm evidence,
according to him, was ìan elephant,
unmistakably Asiatic, on the black obelisk of
Shalmanassar (858-824 BC)î. A beam of Indian
cedar was found in the palace of
Nebuchadnezzer (604-562 BC) at Birs Nimrud.
The temple of the moon-god of Ur was rebuilt
by Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus (555-538
BC). In the level which indicates this rebuilding,
two rough logs of teak were found, suggesting
that Indian teak was then reaching Babylon.
Further, certain Indian commodities ó rice,
peacocks and sandalwood were reputedly
known in the Phoenician coast under their Tamil
or Tamil-inspired names. Rice was supposedly
a common item of food in Greece of the time of
Sophocles (5th century BC). In Baveru Jataka
Kennedy finds a reflection of the tradition of
Indian merchants reaching Babylon. As he puts
it,
The Jataka itself may go back to 400 BC, but the
folks-tale on which it is founded must be much older.
For ... peacocks were imported into Babylon before
500 BC, and direct intercourse between Babylon and
 Trade, c. 500
179
India practically ceased after the reign of Darius
Hystaspes (Kennedy 1898).
The preceding section needs some
comments in the light of the modern knowledge
that there was commercial contact between the
Indus civilization and west Asia between c. 2600
BC and c. 1200/c. 1300 BC. These dates are based
on radiocarbon chronology, but the finds of
typical Indus seals in the 14th century Kassite
period levels at Nippur (Mesopotamia) and in
Bahrein (the Gulf region) clearly demonstrate
that Indiaís contact with the Gulf and
Mesoptamia, if not western Asia as such,
continued up to the late centuries of the second
millennium BC . The repeated Rigvedic
references to sea also drive home the point that
there was a tradition of maritime voyages even
in that uncertain and shadowy period. One does
not know how to interpret the supposed
linguistic similarity between the Greek Oryza
and the Tamil Arisi.
The history of this period is known only in
fragments. What is clear is that in the 6th-7th
century BC and earlier there is some literary
testimony attesting to Indiaís trade with west
Asia, which echoes the Jataka testimony of
overseas trade. However, in the absence of
more firm evidence, this phase of external
Indian trade may best be categorized as
somewhat shadowy. This, however, certainly
predates the categorical evidence of trade that
one finds in the early Buddhist literature,
especially the Jatakas.
THE EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE: MOSTLY
THE JATAKAS
By the time the Jataka stories or the stories
concerning the previous lives of the Buddha
were in circulation, one gets a full-blown picture
of trade covering all parts of India and
sometimes beyond India across the seas. As
BC – AD 1300
these are ëstoriesí, there is more scope of
incorporating the economic details in the Jatakas
than in the rest of the early Buddhist literature
which is more specifically concerned with the
Buddhaís sayings and the frames of the Buddhist
religious discipline. However, the general
mercantile background of the early Buddhist
literature is shown by the fact that even the
Dhammapada (IX.123) alludes to ìa trader
whose pack is great and whose caravan is smallî.
A close study of T.W. Rhys Davidís Buddhist
India (1911) and Richard Fickís The Social
Organization in North-East India in Buddhaís
Time (English translation in 1920) shows an
economically and politically well-rooted India
which was also socially well-organized. The
specific chronology of Indian literary data may
be uncertain but in the foregoing publications
both Rhys Davids and Fick had assumed that the
historical picture they obtained from the early
Buddhist sources dated from the sixth century
BC, if not a hundred or two hundred years earlier.
We have argued elsewhere (Chakrabarti 2005)
that, because of its frequent mention of
Brahmadatta, the independent king of Kasi, the
Jataka stories are likely to stand for the historical
tradition dated to 500+BC because in the 6th
century BC the kingdom of Kasi, which was one
of the sixteen Mahajanapadas of the Buddhaís
time, had lost its independence to the king
Ajatasatru of Magadha and thus the date of the
independent king of Kasi, Brahmadatta, has to
be earlier than that of Ajatasatru. Another political
fact is worth taking into consideration at this
point. In view of the well-attested Jataka
references to easy movements between Taxila
and Rajgir and other east Indian cities like Mithila,
one may assume that Taxila was not yet included
in the Achaemenid territory. This inclusion took
place towards the end of the sixth century BC,
and thus the Jatakas were very likely to have
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
180
incorporated tradition earlier than the
Achaemenid annexation of the Northwest.
Archaeologically, the beginning of early history
in the Ganga plain and elsewhere in India has
been described as a process between c. 800 BC
and c. 500 BC, with deep ëprotohistoricí roots
preceding it. Thus the well-entrenched
framework of historic India that we find in the
Jatakas in particular and the early Buddhist
literature in general should not come as a
surprise.
Another major aspect of the Jataka literature
is that it is familiar with virtually the whole of
the subcontinent from the northwest to the deep
south and from Mithila and Suhma in the east to
Bharukachha in the west. Beyond India it was
familiar with Suvannabhumi (including a city
named Karambiya in Sumatra) on the one hand
and with Baveru or Babylon on the other. It is
not that there was no possibility of this literature
being familiar with the other areas beyond this
zone. This is basically a collection of stories and
the places and areas which are mentioned here
do so only in connection with these stories.
By c. 500 BC the basic pattern of early historic
Indian trade was both deep ñrooted and secure.
That there was a close and almost interaction
between different areas is clearly highlighted
by many references to the travels of young
people from the Gangetic valley to Taxila in
search of education and knowledge. In the
Sanjiva Jataka, (no. 150) for instance,
Bodhisattva went to Taxila where he received
a complete education. In the Uddalaka Jataka
(no. 487) Uddalaka, the bastard son of a chaplain
of Benares went to Taxila and learnt there of
the presence of a world-renowned teacher. In
the Suruchi Jataka (no. 489) Suruchi Kumara,
the son of the king Suruchi of Mithila, went to
Taxila for study.
The Jataka tales (the Jataka volumes I to VI,
edited by E.B. Cowell and others, 1895-1907,
available in Sacred-texts.com, all Jataka extracts
are from this web-site) open with the Apannaka
Jataka (Jataka no. 1) where Bodhisattva was born
in a merchantís family and used to travel around
with 500 carts. An interesting sidelight on how
the leaders of caravans used to position
themselves in caravans is that whenever the
wind blew in their teeth, the leader of caravans
would travel in front of their carriage but when
wind blew from behind, they would ride in the
rear of the column. This procedure was followed
to escape the dust raised by the moving caravans.
Jataka no. 2 is Vannupatha Jataka where the
Bodhisattva was from a merchantís family and
travelled with 500 carts, arranging their carts at
dawn in a circle to form a laager or a wagon
fort, with an awning spread overhead. They
travelled through the night with the help of a
person who could establish directions through
the study of stars. In the Serivanija Jataka (Jataka
no. 3) Bodhisattva belonged to the kingdom of
Seri and dealt in pots and pans, entering in this
connection the city of Andhapura across the
river Telavaha which has generally been
identified with the Tel river flowing through
southwest Orissa. If Andhapura is taken as the
capital of Andhra it is difficult to identify the
Telavaha river with the Tel because southwest
Orissa is not associated with Andhra. In the
Chullaka-Sresthi-Jataka (Jataka no. 4) there is a
clear reference to sea -trading and how the
trading was conducted:
ìOnly a few days later his sea-trading friend brought
him news of the arrival of a large ship in port; and
another plan struck him. He hired for eight pence a
well- appointed carriage which plied for hire by the
hour, and went in great style down to the port.
Having bought the ship on credit and deposited his
signet-ring as security, he had a pavilion pitched
 Trade, c. 500
181
hard by and said to his people as he took his seat
inside, ìWhen merchants are being shewn in, let
them be passed on by three successive ushers into
my presence.î [122] Hearing that a ship had arrived
in port, about a hundred merchants came down to
buy the cargo; only to be told that they could not
have it as a great merchant had already made a
payment on account. So away they all went to the
young man; and the footmen duly announced them
by three successive ushers, as had been arranged
beforehand. Each man of the hundred severally
gave him a thousand pieces to buy a share in the
ship and then a further thousand each to buy him
out altogether. So it was with 200,000 pieces that
this pupil of ëTreasurer Littleí returned to Benares.
In the Tandulanali Jataka (Jataka no. 5)
there was a horse-dealer with 500 horses. In the
Jatakas 6 to 27 there is no reference to trading
but in the Nandivisala Jataka (Jataka no. 28) there
was a merchant in Taxila, who had a hundred
loaded carts. In the Kanha Jataka (jataka no. 29),
there was a young merchant who was at the
head of a caravan of 500 carts. There was no
further reference to trading till the Khadirangara
Jataka (no. 40) where many traders borrowed
money on bonds. In the Phala Jataka (no. 54)
Bodhisattva was a merchant on a road leading
through a forest. There is a reference to a
merchantís buried gold which was used for
trade in the Kanchanakkhandha Jataka (no. 56).
In the Sachchanikira Jataka (no. 73) a rich
merchant was then living in Benares. In the
Asamkiya Jataka (no. 76) the leader of a caravan
unyoked the carts in a jungle and a laager or
wagon fort was constructed. In the Kuhaka
Jataka (no. 89) Bodhisattva was on his way to
the border district for trading purposes.
In the Akatannu Jataka (no. 90) the story is
of a merchant
who was a correspondent and a friend of
Anathapindikaís, but they had never met. There
BC – AD 1300
came a time when this merchant loaded five hundred
carts with local produce and gave orders to the men
in charge to go to the great merchant
Anathapindaka, and barter the wares in his
correspondentís shop for their value, and bring back
the goods received in exchange. So they came to
Savatthi, and found Anathapindaka. First making him
a present, they told him their business. ìYou are
welcome,î said the great man, and ordered them to
be lodged there and provided with money for their
needs. After kindly enquiries after their masterís
health, he bartered their merchandise and gave them
the goods in exchange. Then they went back to
their own district, and reported what had happened.
This was in the context of Sravasti and the
first Jataka reference to the merchant
Anathapindika. In the Vissasabhojana Jataka (no.
93) Bodhisattva was a very wealthy merchant.
In the Kutavanija Jataka (no. 98) two merchants
were in partnership in Sravasti. They travelled
with their merchandise and came back with the
proceeds and they also took 500 wagons of
merchandise from Benares to the rural districts.
In the Veri Jataka (no. 103) Bodhisattva was a
rich merchant of Benares and in the Vattaka
Jataka (no. 118) there was reference to a young
merchant in Sravasti. There is a reference to a
border merchant in the Katahaka Jataka (no.
125). In the Kalanduka Jataka (no. 127) there is
a reference to the daughter of a border-
merchant. There is a reference in the Babbu
Jataka (no. 137) to a very rich merchant who
had amassed 40 crores in gold.
In the Suhanu Jataka (no. 158) some horse-
dealers from the north brought down 500
horses. In the Gijjha Jataka (no. 164) a merchant
of Benares issued from the city with the
intention of taking a bath. In the Kalyana-
dhamma-Jataka (no. 171) Bodhisattva was a
merchantís son in Benares. In the Dadhi-
Vahana-Jataka (no. 186), a man from the Kasi
country ìhad made his way to a sea-port, where
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
182
he embarked on shipboard as a sailorís drudge.
In mid-sea the ship was wrecked, and he floated
upon a plank to reach this islandî. In the
Silanisamsa Jataka (no. 190) a disciple took
passage on board ship, and the ship was
wrecked in mid-ocean. In the Valahassa Jataka
(no. 196) there was a goblin town in the island
of Ceylon. This was known as Sirisavatthu and
peopled by she-goblins.
When a ship is wrecked, these adorn and deck
themselves, and taking rice and gruel, with trains of
slaves, and children on their hip, they come up to
the merchants.
In the Kutavanija Jataka (no. 218) there
were two traders with 500 wagons at Sravasti,
one pious and the other a cheat. In the Kasava
Jataka no. 221) mention is made of a trader of
Rajagriha who brought a magnificent perfumed
yellow robe. This Jataka also mentions the ivory
market of Benares where workers in ivory used
to make bangles and all manner of ivory trinkets.
In the Vina-Thuna-Jataka (no. 232), mention is
made of the daughter of a rich merchant of
Sravasti and similarly, the Vachcha-Nakha-Jataka
(no. 235) and the Ekapada Jataka (no. 238)
mention a merchant and a rich merchantís son,
both in Benares.
In the Guttila Jataka (no. 243) certain traders
of Benares made a journey to Ujjeni for trade.
According to the Kundaka-Kucchi-
Sindhava-Jataka (no. 254) Bodhisattva was born
in a traderís family in the northern province. Five
hundred people of that country, horse-dealers,
used to convey horses to Benares and sell them
there. There is a reference to some traders based
in Sravasti in the Jarudapana Jataka (no. 256).
The Paduma-Jataka no.261) mentions
Bodhisattva as a rich merchantís son in Benares.
The Khurappa Jataka (no. 265) mentions a
merchantís son of Benares, who arrived at a
village at the entrance to a forest with a caravan
of 500 carts. In the Vatagga-Sindhava-Jataka (no.
266) Bodhisattva was a horse from Sind. The
Sujata-Jataka (no. 269) mentions a daughter-in-
law of Anathapindika, who was the daughter of
ëthe great merchant Dhananjayaí. In the Lola-
Jataka (no. 274) mention is made of a rich
merchantís cook of Benares. The Bhadra-Ghata-
Jataka (no.291), Matrodana Jataka (no. 317),
Chammasataka Jataka (no.324) and Pitha Jataka
(no. 337) associate Bodhisattva with a merchantís
family of Benares. The Mamsa Jataka (no. 315)
mentions four sons of rich merchants who were
living in Benares. The Rathalatthi Jataka (no.
332) mentions a ëcaravan in a narrow roadí.
In the Baveru Jataka (no. 339) Bodhisattva
was a peacock:
at that time some merchants came to the kingdom
of Baveru, bringing on board ship with them a
foreign crow.
In another mission they took with them a
peacock.
The next time these merchants came to the
kingdom of Baveru, they brought a royal peacock
which they had trained to scream at the snapping
of the fingers and to dance at the clapping of the
hands. When a crowd had gathered together, the
bird stood in the fore part of the vessel, and flapping
its wings uttered a sweet sound and danced.
In the Visayha Jataka (no. 340) Bodhisattva
was a great merchant of Benares. In the
Ambachora Jataka (no. 344) mention is made
of the daughters of a rich merchant of Sravasti.
The Sussondi Jataka (no. 360) mentions both
Bharukachchha and Suvarnabhumi: the king of
Benares asked his ministrel Sagga to search for
his lost queen Sussondi.
 Trade, c. 500
183
He took what was necessary for his journey, and
beginning the search from the city gate, at last came
to Bh‚rukaccha. At that time certain merchants of
Bh‚rukaccha were setting sail for the Golden Land.
He approached them and said, ìI am a minstrel. If
you remit my passage money, I will act as your
minstrel. Take me with you.î They agreed to do so,
and putting him on board weighed anchor. ... a
certain sea monster leaping up fell upon the ship
and broke it in two. Sagga lying on a plank was
carried along by the wind till he reached a banyan
tree in the N‚ga island, where the Garu king lived...
At the end of a month and a half from that time
some merchants, who dwelt at Benares, landed at
the foot of the banyan tree in this island, to get fire-
wood and water. The minstrel went on board ship
with them, and (reached) Benares.
In the Hiri Jataka (no. 363) a rich merchant
who was a friend of Anathapindika lived in a
border province.
The Setaketu Jataka (no. 377) suggests that
reading books was known during the period and
so was regular teaching:
he set himself at the door of the hut on a chair with
a head-rest, put a book with a brilliant-coloured
wrapping on a painted stand, and explained texts
as they were inquired about by four or five intelligent
pupils.
In the Sirikalakanni Jataka (no. 382)
Bodhisattva was a merchant of Benares. In the
Dhammaddhaja Jataka (no. 384) it is said that
certain merchants of Kasi acquired a crow which
was used to journeying and started on a voyage
by sea. In the midst of the sea the ship was
wrecked, with the crow escaping to an island.
Some sort of trade in metals and metal-goods is
indicated by the Suchi Jataka (no. 387) where
Bodhisattva was born in a smithís family of
Benares. The smithsí village consisted of a
thousand houses and the principal smith was a
royal favourite. People of the neighbouring
BC – AD 1300
villages came to have razors, axes, ploughshares
and goads made in that village. The Mayhaka
Jataka (no. 390) mentions a rich merchant of
Sravasti. In the Jagara Jataka (no. 414) a caravan-
leader set out by a forest roads from Sravasti with
a caravan of carts. The Garigamala Jataka (no.
421) refers to a rich merchant in the city named
Suchiparivara (unidentified). In the Atthana
Jataka (no. 425) Mahadhana, son of a rich
merchant of Benares, was enamoured of certain
courtesan of the city, giving her a thousand
pieces daily. The Nigrodha Jataka (no. 445)
mentions both merchants and caravans in the
context of Rajagriha. It also mentions ëmerchant
guildsí. The Supparaka Jataka (no. 463) refers
to a ship from Bharukachchha getting lost in the
sea and moving from ocean to ocean ñ
Khuramala, Aggimala, Dadhimala,
Nilakusamala, Nalamala and Balabhamukha.
Of these Khuramala has been identified with
the Gulf and Aggimala with the Red Sea.
Balabhamukha has been identified with the
Mediterranean. However, these identifications
are purely speculative, although it is not beyond
reason that a ship starting from Bharukachchha
might have strayed into the Gulf and the Red
Sea, but there was no way it could reach the
Mediterranean. In the Kalingabodhi Jataka (no.
479) Dantapura has been mentioned as the city
of Kalinga and Sagala has been mentioned as
the capital of Madra. The Akitta Jataka (no. 480)
refers to the kingdom of Damila and the city of
Kaveripattana. The Takkariya Jataka (no. 481)
mentions a rich merchant of Benares and so does
the Ruru Jataka (no. 482). The Mahavanija
Jataka (no. 493) mentions some traders from
Sravasti with 500 cartloads of merchandise. The
Matanga Jataka (no. 497) mentions Mangalika,
the daughter of a Benares merchant.
In the Chitta-Sambhuta Jataka (no. 498)
there was a Chandala village outside the capital
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
184
of Avanti, Ujjayani, and Chiita and Sambhuta,
both Chandala young men hid their caste and
went to Taxila for study. The Pandara Jataka
(no. 518) narrates the following story:
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was king in
Benares, five hundred trading folk took ship and set
sail, and on the 7th day when they were out of sight
of land, they were wrecked in mid-ocean, and all,
save one man, became food for fishes. This one by
favour of the wind reached the port of Karambiya.
Karambiya was possibly a city of the same
name in modern Sumatra.
The Sama Jataka (no. 540) mentions a
wealthy merchant of Sravasti, but a more
important reference occurs in the Mahajanaka
Jataka (no. 539). The prince Mahajanaka
declares that he shall go to Suvarnabhumi and
earn great riches there:
having got together his stock-in-trade he put it on
board a ship with some merchants bound for
Suvarnabhumi.
The foregoing Jataka evidence sums up the
total picture of trade in the Jatakas. Both inland
and maritime trade were parts of the economic
life of the period. The rest of the early Buddhist
literature is generally silent on trade. In the
Navasutta section of the Suttanipata, there is a
reference to ìa strong ship, provided with oars
and ruddersî, and in the Vinayapitaka (8.1) there
is a reference to the ìsetthi of Rajagrihaî who
had acquired ëa block of sandalwood of the most
precious sandalwood flavourí.
The preceding review of the early Buddhist
literature also shows that it is more or less silent
on the nature of the traded commodities and the
nature of the mercantile organizations, although
the trading class, the Sresthis, had its own
importance. The reference (Vinayapitaka 8.1)
to ìthe setthi of Rajagrihaî is important from the
point of view of later developments in
consideration of the fact that Nagarasresthis or
the most prominent merchant of a city had his
traditional role of importance in the affairs of
that particular city. The Vinayapitaka reference
may be the earliest reference of its kind in the
early Indian literature. In places like Benares,
the Hindi term Nagarseth is still applied to denote
one or two (or more) prominent business houses
of the place. That the early cities were also rich
centres of trade is amply borne out by the
mention of merchants in the context of cities like
Rajagriha, Sravasti, Varanasi/Kasi, etc In the
Nigrodha Jataka the post of royal treasurer was
given to a certain Pottika ìand with it went the
judgeship of all the merchant guilds. Before that
no such office had existed, but there was this
office ever after.î This is an important reference,
possibly one of the earliest references to the
merchant guilds in early Indian literature.
THE EPICS
The Sri Lankan scholar A. Guruge (1991) in his
analysis of the society of the Ramayana clearly
points out that the cities are described as full of
merchants, dealing in corn, fruit, flowers, roots,
perfumes and yarn. Cities in fact were centres
of trade full of various commodities. Caravans
are mentioned and so also is foreign trade. More
importantly, trade guilds are mentioned. Of the
three terms used in this connection, Gana,
Nigama, Sreni, the last has been used in the
sense of the Pali Sresthi. The term
Srenimahattara has been used in the sense of
the chief of the tradersí guild. Broadly, the
Ramayana evidence of trade is not different
from the general picture obtained in the Buddhist
literature.
 Trade, c. 500
185
The same is broadly true of the Mahabharata
(the text used is K.M. Ganguli, translator, 1893-
1896, Sacred-texts.com, all Mbh extracts are from
this text), although in this case a special class of
transporter of the trade goods has been
mentioned under the rubric Gomis which may
be the ancient counterpart of the modern
Banjaras. The sheer spread of the geographical
areas which have been mentioned in the
Mahabharata is enough to suggest that trade
must have been a strong factor in the
maintenance of links between the diverse areas:
Kamboja in the northwest (cf. I.177.15,
VI.83.10), Pandya (cf. II.13.20; VI.46.50),
Kerala (cf. II.28.48, VI.10.57), Simhala
(III.48.19), Pragjyotisha cf. 31.9, II.47.12),
Kachchha (VI.10.55) Surparaka (cf. II.28.43, III.
86.9), etc. The foregoing names of the
geographical units is conclusive proof that the
Mahabharata text shows clear and firm
familiarity with the subcontinent from the north
to the south and from the east to the west.
Nowhere is it more clear than the sections
51 and 52 of the Dyuta Parva (a part of the
Sabha Parva) where the tributes of the kings
and people of different areas are listed in
connection with Yudisthiraís Rajasuya sacrifice:
ìthe monarchs came into that sacrifice of the wise
son of Pandu bringing with them every kind of
wealthî.
Kamboja sent ìskins of the best kind and
blankets made of woolî, 300 horses of two
varieties, 300 camels and an equal number of
she-asses. The Sudra kings that dwelt in the
regions on the sea-coast brought with them
serving girls of the Karpasika country and also
many skins of the Ranku deer. The tribes who
lived upon crops that depended on water from
the sky or of the river, came with goats and kine
and asses and camels and vegetable honey and
BC – AD 1300
blankets. Bhagadatta, ìthe brave ruler of
Pragjyotishaî brought tribute comprising horses
of the best breed and also ìswords and handles
made of the purest ivory and well-adorned with
diamonds and every kind of gemî. That the king
of Pragjyotisha or Assam would send gem-
encrusted ivory handles is not a matter of
surprise, but the reference to horses in the
context of Assam is singularly interesting and
recalls the old ëTea Horseí road which took tea
to Tibet and horse or Tibetan pony to China. A
National Geographic article (May 2010) had the
following to write on this trade route:
The ancient passageway once stretched almost
1,400 miles across the chest of Cathay, from Yaan,
in the tea-growing region of Sichuan Province, to
Lhasa, the almost 12,000-foot-high capital of Tibet.
One of the highest, harshest trails in Asia, it marched
up out of Chinaís verdant valleys, traversed the
wind-stripped, snow-scoured Tibetan Plateau,
forded the freezing Yangtze, Mekong, and Salween
Rivers, sliced into the mysterious Nyainqentanglha
Mountains, ascended four deadly 17,000-foot
passes, and finally dropped into the holy Tibetan
city.
Snowstorms often buried the western part of the
trail, and torrential rains ravaged the eastern portion.
Bandits were a constant threat. Yet the trail was
heavily used for centuries, even though the cultures
at either end at times despised each other (and still
do). The desire to trade was why the trail existed,
not the romantic swapping of ideas and ethics,
culture and creativity associated with the legendary
Silk Road to the north. China had something Tibet
wanted: tea. Tibet had something China desperately
needed: horses.
Tribes coming from different regions and
those also called Aushmikas and the Nishadas
and Romakas brought as tribute ten thousand
asses, all bred on the coast of Vankhu. Many
kings gave Yudisthira much gold and silver. The
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
186
people, reputedly with only one leg brought
many wild horses with various colours. Tribute
also came with ìnumberless Chinas and Sakas
and Uddras, and many barbarous tribes living in
the woods, and many Vrishnis and Harhnnas,
and dusky tribes of the Himavat, and many
Nripas and people residing in regions on the
coastî. The people of Valhika gave as tribute
ten thousand well-trained and well-celebrated
asses, numerous blankets of woollen texture
manufactured in Chin and numerous skins of the
Ranku deer, and clothes manufactured from jute,
and others woven with threads spun by insects.
They also gave thousands of other clothes not
made of cotton, possessing the colour of the
lotus. These were all of smooth texture. They
also gave soft sheep-skins by thousands. They
also gave many sharp and long swords and
scimitars, and hatchets and fine-edged battle-
axes manufactured in the western countries.
There were also perfumes and jewels and gems
of various kinds. The Sakas, Tukharas, Kankas
and Romakas and men with horns brought with
them numerous large elephants, ten thousand
horses and millions of gold. The kings of the
eastern countries brought their own tributes:
numerous valuable articles including costly
carpets and vehicles and beds, and armours of
various hues, weapons of various kinds and cars
of various shapes and handsome make and
adorned with gold, and well-trained horse
trimmed with tiger skins, and rich and variegated
blankets for caparisoning elephants, and various
kinds of jewels and gems, long and short arrows
and various other kinds of weapons.
Those who dwelt by the side of the Sailoda
river between the Mer and Mandara mountains
brought heaps of gold raised by ants from
underneath the earth. The mountain tribes
brought Chamaras or fly-whisks and honey. The
chiefs of the Kiratas who were armed with cruel
weapons and attired in skins and survived by
eating fruits and roots, lived in different areas
such as the northern slopes of the Himavat, the
areas of Karusha on the sea-coast and on both
sides of the Lauhitya mountains, brought as
tributes sandal and aloe, skins, gold and
perfumes, serving girls, and beautiful animals
and birds of remote countries.
It is also in the Dyuta Parva that there is a
mention of the pearls from the sea: ìYudisthira
said ñ ìO king, this excellent wealth of pearls is
of great value, procured from the ocean by
churning it (of oldî. At some point The Dyuta
Parva lists various geographical areas and
people including the Audambaras, Angas,
Vangas, Kalingas, Tamraliptas and others, with
each of them giving to the Pandavas as a tribute
a thousand elephants covered with fine blankets.
Similarly,
the kings of Chola and Pandya, though they brought
numberless jars of gold filled with fragrant sandal
juices from the hills of Malaya, and loads of sandal
and aloe wood from the Darddura hills and many
gems of great brilliance and fine cloths inlaid with
gold. ... And the king of the Singhalas gave those
best of sea-born gems ... and heaps of pearls also,
and hundreds of coverlets for elephants.
The foregoing sections and passages from
the Dyuta Parva of the Mahabharata show not
merely a thorough familiarity with the sub-
continent from the north to the south ó from
Kamboja to Singhala ñ but also a complete
knowledge of its diverse areas, products and a
cross-section of its people. For instance,
reference to ëclothes manufactured from jutes,
and others woven with threads spun by insectsí
clearly suggests silk and a few other types of
cloth familiar in the northeast. By the time the
text of the Mahabharata was laid down, it was a
well-integrated land with the tentacles of trade
and commerce reaching possibly everywhere.
 Trade, c. 500
187
The idea that the Mahabharata denoted a
well-integrated land is also driven home by the
Digvijayaparva which lists the Pandava brothersí
conquest of different areas. This Parva, however,
does not list the products which find clear
mention in the Dyutaparva.
THE ARTHASHASTRA
The thoroughness with which the entire structure
of commerce was put under the government
control in the Arthashastra (Book II, chapter 16
on the duties of the Superintendent of Commerce
ñ Shamasastry 1915 ñ all Kautilya extracts are
from this publication which is also available in
the internet Project Gutenberg edition) is almost
unbelievable, considering that the text is likely
to be relevant to Mauryan India. The chronology
may not be uniform but it may be difficult to
deny that the Arthashastra basically represents
an administrative and economic picture of the
third century BC India under Mauryan control.
What emerges clearly and very convincingly
from the text is that virtually all the products of
the country, organic or inorganic, were properly
tabulated and brought within the network of the
government regulations. One does not know
how long has such an efficient administrative
machinery taken to evolve, but as we consider
the details of everything related to the state in
the Arthashastra, we simply marvel at the
amount of information behind it. For example,
in the portion relevant to the sale of the goods
imported from the foreign countries by trade the
following rules are cited:
The superintendent shall show favour to those who
import foreign merchandise: mariners and
merchants who import foreign merchandise shall
be favoured with remission of the trade-taxes, so
that they may derive some profit.
BC – AD 1300
Foreigners importing merchandise shall be
exempted from being sued for debts unless there
are (local) associations and partners.
The products of different parts of the country
are fully appreciated. Regarding cloth of some
parts of the country, the following is stated.
That which is manufactured in the country, Vanga
(vangaka) is a white and soft fabric (duk˙la); that of
P·ndya manufacture (Paundraka) is black and as
soft as the surface of a gem; and that which is the
product of the country, Suvarnakudya, is as red as
the sun, as soft as the surface of the gem, woven
while the threads are very wet, and of uniform
(chaturasra) or mixed texture (vy·misrav·na).
Single, half, double, treble and quadruple garments
are varieties of the same.
The above will explain other kinds of fabrics
such as K·sika, Benarese products, and Kshauma
which is manufactured in P·ndya (Paundraka).
M·gadhika (product of the Magadha
country), Paundraka, and Sauvarnakudyaka are
fibrous garments.
..... Of these, that which is produced in the
country of Suvarnakudya is the best.
The above will explain the fabrics known
as kauseya, silk-cloth, and chinapatta, fabrics of
China manufacture.
Of cotton fabrics, those of Madhura, of
Apar·nta, western parts, of Kalinga, of Kasi, of
Vanga, of Vatsa, and of Mahisha are the best.
The range of different products was well
understood: cf.
The superintendent of ocean-mines
(khanyadhyakshah) shall attend to the collection
of conch-shells, diamonds, precious stones, pearls,
corals, and salt (ksh·ra) and also regulate the
commerce in the above commodities. Commerce
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
188
in commodities manufactured from mineral
products shall be centralized and punishment for
manufacturers, sellers, and purchasers of such
commodities outside the prescribed locality shall
also be laid down.
Merchants belonging to trade-guilds
(samvyavaharikeshu) are clearly mentioned.
Further, strict attention is paid to the accuracy
of weights and measures of the traded goods.
Merchants who conspire either to prevent the sale
of merchandise or to sell or purchase commodities
at higher prices shall be fined 1,000 panas.
Middlemen who cause to a merchant or a purchaser
the loss of [!th of a pana by substituting with tricks
of hand false weights or measures or other kinds of
inferior articles shall be punished with a fine of 200
panas.
Fines for, greater losses shall be proportionally
increased commencing from 200 panas.
Adulteration of grains, oils, alkalis, salts, scents, and
medicinal articles with similar articles of no quality
shall be punished with a fine of 12 panas.
The tradersí profits are also specifically laid
down, as the following passage clearly states:
The Superintendent of Commerce shall fix a profit
of five per cent over and above the fixed price of
local commodities, and ten per cent on foreign
produce. Merchants who enchance the price or
realise profit even to the extent of half a pana more
than the above in the sale or purchase of
commodities shall be punished with a fine of from
five panas in case of realising 100 panas up to 200
panas.
Fines for greater enhancement shall be
proportionally increased. Whenever there is an
excessive supply of merchandise, the
Superintendent shall centralise its sale and prohibit
the sale of similar merchandise elsewhere before
the centralised supply is disposed of.
Different kinds of taxes were imposed on
different categories of merchants:
Merchants dealing in gold, silver, diamonds, precious
stones, pearls, coral, horses, and elephants shall pay
50 karas. Those that trade in cotton threads, clothes,
copper, brass, bronze, sandal, medicines, and liquor
shall pay 40 karas. Those that trade in grains, liquids,
metals (loha), and deal with carts shall pay 30 karas.
Those that carry on their trade in glass (k‚cha); and
also artisans of fine workmanship shall pay 20 karas.
Articles of inferior workmanship, as well as those
who keep prostitutes, shall pay 10 karas. Those
that trade in firewood, bamboos, stones, earthen-
pots, cooked rice, and vegetables shall pay 5 karas.
The Arthashastra also devotes a section to
the enumeration of a few general types of trade
routes.
My teacher says that of the two trade-routes, one
by water and another by land, the former is better,
inasmuch as it is less expensive, but productive of
large profit.
Not so, says Kautilya, for water route is liable to
obstruction, not permanent, a source of imminent
dangers, and incapable of defence, whereas a land-
route is of reverse nature.
Of water-routes, one along the shore and another in
mid-ocean, the route along, and close to the shore
is better, as it touches at many trading port-towns;
likewise river navigation is better, as it is
uninterrupted and is of avoidable or endurable
dangers.
My teacher says that of land-routes, that which leads
to the Himalayas is better than that which leads to
the south.
Not so, says Kautilya, for with the exception of
blankets, skins, and horses, other articles of
merchandise such as, conch-shells, diamonds,
precious stones, pearls and gold are available in
plenty in the south.
 Trade, c. 500
189
Of routes leading to the south, either that trade-
route which traverses a large number of mines
which is frequented by people, and which is less
expensive or troublesome, or that route by taking
which plenty of merchandise of various kinds can
be obtained is better.
This explains the selection of trade-routes leading
either to the east or to the west.
Of a cart-track and a foot-path, a cart-track is better
as it affords facilities for preparations on a large scale.
Routes that can be traversed by asses or camels,
irrespective of countries and seasons are also good.
This explains the selection of trade-routes traversed
by men alone (amsa-patha, shoulder-path, i.e., a
path traversed by men carrying merchandise on their
shoulders).
What is clear on the whole is that the
Arthashastra offers not merely a detailed but also
a codified picture of trade during that period.
Products of different parts of the country along
with the appreciation of their qualities and
colours, the amount of taxes levied on them, and
even the general types of traders or merchants
depending on the nature of goods they traded
in ñ these were all fully appreciated by the
Arthashastra. We would argue that the picture
that is obtained in the Jatakas with the hints of
an earlier beginning of both maritime and
overland trade with west Asia fully matured in
the Arthashastra. The general chronological
range of this development which by now covers
the whole of the sub-continent belongs quite
comfortably to the second half of the first
millennium BC, with probable extensions well
into the early centuries AD.
THE PATTERN OF TRADE IN THE SOUTH
One has to discuss the earliest literary evidence
in this regard with reference to the Sangam
BC – AD 1300
literature which was the product of an academy
of literary persons. This ëacademyí developed
under the patronage of the Pandya kings of
Madurai and underwent three main phases, the
earliest phase of which was Ten Madurai. This
phase seems to belong to a legendary phase,
with none of it surviving. Only the Tamil
grammar, Tolakappiyam, has survived from the
second Sangam phase with its centre at
Kapatpuram. The third Sangam phase has
yielded most of its literature and was based in
Madurai.
The Sangam literature is concerned with
many secular aspects of life ñ the working of
the government, war, trade, agriculture, etc.
Individuals like Tolkappiyar, Tiruvalluvar,
lllango Adigal, Sittalai Sattanar, Nakkirar, Kapilar,
Paranar, Auvaiyar, Mangudi Marudanar and
others are among the most important Sangam
literature authors. The literature basically consists
of the earliest specimens of Tamil literature such
as the Tolakappiyam, Pattupattu or the ten
poems, Ettutogai or the eight anthologies,
Padinenkilkanaku or the eighteen minor works
and the three epics.
Tolakappiyam: it is written by Tolakappiyar
or one of the twelve disciples of the sage
Agastya and divided into three major parts, each
consisting of nine iyals (sub-parts) and a total of
1612 sutras. The other extant Tamil literature of
the period includes Agattiyam (a work on
grammar of letters and life by a number of
persons including Agattiyar, Pannirupadalam
and Kakkipadiniyam. Tolkappiyam is the oldest
extant Tamil grammar written by Tokkappiyar
(one of the 12 disciples of Saint Agastya.) It is
divided into three major parts, each consisting
of nine iyals (sub-parts) and has a total of 1612
sutras. Other earliest Tamil works were the
Agattiyam (a work on grammar of letters and
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
190
life) by Saint Agattiyar, Pannirupadalam and the
Kakkipadiniyam. The ten poems of Pattupattu
were Murugarruppadai (author Nakkirar),
Sirupanarruppadai (author Nattanar),
Perumbanarruppadai, Maduraikkanji (author
Mangudi Marudam), Pattinappalai (author
Kannan) and a few more compositions. The
Pattupattu poems dealt with Aham or love and
Puram or matters capable of objectification.
The eight anthologies or Ettutogai include
Aingurunuru (compiled by Gudalur Kilar, a
collection of love poems), Agananuru (a
collection of love poems compiled by
Rudrasarman), Narrinai (love poems),
Kurunttogai (love poems), Purananuru (praise
of kings), Kalittogai (love poems), Paripadal
(love poems) and Padirrupattu (in praise of the
Chola kings).
The Padinenkilkanakku or the eighteen
minor works contain shorter poems, including
such texts as Tirukkural by Tiruvalluvar,
Naladiyar, etc.
The epics are Silappidakaram, Manimekalai
and Sivaga Sindamani, the last one belonging
to the Jaina tradition.
The major polities evidenced in the Sangam
literature were those of the Pandyas (Tirunelveli,
Ramnad and Madurai areas; capital Madurai), the
Cholas (between the Pennar and Velar rivers,
north and south of the Kaveri; capital Uraiyur
and later Puhar or Kaveripattinam) and the Cheras
(to the west and the north of the Pandyan
territory; capital Vanji). The Sangam polity was
based on the king being at the centre of the
administration. He was helped by ministers,
priests, military commanders, envoys and spies.
Below the general kingly territory or Mandalam
was Nadu or province and below the level of
Nadu was a variety of villages. The hereditary
chiefs ruled the Nadus and the villages were
under the control of the local assemblies
(Manrams). There was a well-organized system
of revenue administration, beginning with Karai
or land tax centred around the land unit of
Variyam. The tax collector was called Variyar.
There were other sources of revenue including
trade, war booties, contributions by feudatory
chiefs and the duties paid to the king. There was
an organized army, horses and elephants being
its major adjuncts.
The precise date of the Sangam literature is
uncertain bit now that the date of the beginning
of the Tamil-Brahmi script has been pushed
back to 500 BC or somewhat earlier at the two
sites of Porunthal (Palni hills) and Kodumanal
(Kongu country), it may be assumed that the
Sangam literature carries on the historical and
cultural tradition of most of the first millennium
BC, continuing into the early centuries AD. The
number of potsherds inscribed with Tamil
Brahmi are many and this fact suggests by itself
richly developed trade interactions. Further, the
geographical spread of the Sangam territory
suggests considerable geographical diversity not
merely in the physical features but also in natural
products and agricultural produce. Paddy was
the staple crop but the other varieties of
agricultural produce included cotton, ragi
millets, sugarcane, pepper, ginger, turmeric,
cardamom, cinnamon, etc. There was a rich
tradition of weaving, boat-building, metal-crafts,
carpentry, ivory products, ornaments, dyeing
and tanning, etc. Internal trade was apparently
based on barter. One hears of caravans, carts
and pack-animals.
It appears that the tradition of maritime trade
also developed in the southern region quite
early, a major fixed point in this regard being
Megasthenesí reference to the Pandyan
kingdom and Sri Lanka. By the third century BC
the Bay of Bengal seems to have opened up for
 Trade, c. 500
191
trade and there is no reason why this could not
touch the west coast as well. The Roman trade
developed by the late centuries BC, although its
main impact seems to have been in the early
centuries AD. The links with Southeast Asia,
which we observe in some of the Jataka stories,
go possibly back to c. 500 BC, and it is likely that
the contacts of the Tamil Nadu coast with this
region cannot be much later than this, especially
when there is a base-line of the third century BC
offered by Megasthenes to cover Tamil Nadu
and Sri Lanka.
The Megasthenes reference and other
Classical references to the Pandya kingdom and
the island of Sri Lanka, the distribution of punch-
marked coins in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and
finally, the recent dating of the Tamil-Brahmi
potsherds and rock-cut inscriptions as early as
c. 500 BC have a major role in the assessment of
the chronology of the beginning of trade and
the development of coastal settlements as centres
of trade in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.
The crucial evidence is furnished by the
radiocarbon dates of Porunthal and Kodumanal
in about 500 BC. Once this date is accepted,
everything else including the NBP from Korkai
and Alagankulam (the former at a tip of the
Tinnevelly/Tirunelveli area and the latter near
Madurai itself on the way to Rameshwaram) and
the punch-marked coins near Madurai and in
parts of Kerala falls in place (the issues in this
section have been discussed in detail in
Chakrabarti 2012)
OBSERVATIONS ON THE FIRST PHASE OF INDIAN
HISTORICAL TRADE
The evidence which we have discussed here,
i.e. the testimony of the Jatakas, the
Mahabharata, the Arthashastra and the Sangam
literature, all conform to a clearly identifiable
pattern: the strong presence of the merchant
BC – AD 1300
class including the merchantsí guilds, the
awareness of local products, the taxation
structure imposed on the merchants, overseas
trade, direct familiarity with southeast Asia and
possibly the Gulf region (if not the seas beyond
the Gulf) and the development of maritime trade
all along the coast from the west to the east.
Among other things, the NBP occurs at a number
of coastal sites ñ Broach or Bharukachchha,
Sopara or Surparaka, Alagankulam, Korkai,
Tamralipta, virtually a chain of such sites from
the west to the east coasts. The NBP-associated
deposit at Korkai yielded a date of 8th/9th
century BC and thus it is possible that the this
trading world began to take shape as early as
the beginning of the first millennium BC. The
same date is hinted at by what Kennedy pointed
out in the context of Babylonia and what we
have underlined in the early section of this essay.
The Jataka and the Mahabharata evidence need
not have a specifically early pointer, but a mid-
first millennium BC date seems certainly to be
suitable for the Jataka testimony, if not for the
Mahabharata as well.
THE EXTRA-INDIAN DIMENSION OF THIS TRADE:
THE EVIDENCE FROM BEGRAM, AND THE
TESTIMONY OF THE PERIPLUS OF THE
ERYTHRAEAN SEA
The extra-Indian dimension of the trade of this
phase has to be suitably highlighted. When the
northwestern part of the sub-continent was
incorporated in the Achaemenid empire, the
vast region between northern Africa and the
Indus valley became integrated into one political
unit, understandably leading to the growth of
multiple networks of trade within it. It is not
fortuitous that India figures as a revenue-paying
area of the Achaemenid empire or that
Herodotus records an exploration of the Indus
by Scylax of Caryanda at the behest of the
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
192
Achaemenid Darius I. This was also the period
when historic India was thrust into the central
Asian orbit which was also a part of the
Achaemenid empire. Alexander came to India
as the inheritor of the Achaemenid territory. The
links with west and central Asia were not
severed under the Mauryas and the various
Greek, Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian, Indo-Parthian
and the Kushan powers which came after them.
It was in fact quite natural that geographically
India of the period was feeling the impact of
the west and central Asian political and economic
changes. The most significant of the economic
changes was perhaps the development of Silk
Route between China and Rome, which as a
complex of routes linking these far-flung
regions became important from at least the
second century BC onward. Under the shadow
of the Tienshan mountain, the Taklamakan
desert had both its northern and southern edges
traversed by routes, the northern one linking
Bokhara, Samarkand, Kashgar, Akshu, Kucha,
Turfan and Hami and the southern one linking
Merv, Balkh, Yarkand, Hetian, Niya, Endere and
Miran. Both these alignments met at Dunhuang
at the Chinese border on the west and on the
east the route from Merv went to the southern
edge of the Caspian and then to the entry points
of Europe.
The route complex was dotted with
settlements and monasteries which were first
recorded by Aurel Stein. However, in relation
to the sub-continent, perhaps the most significant
site throwing light on the far-flung trade of the
period is Begram between Jalalabad and Kabul.
Sanjyot Mehendale describes the basic
archaeological background of the site very well:
The ruins of Begram constituted a substantial urban
settlement incorporating two fortified enclosures:
to the north, what was called the ìOld Royal Cityî
by Foucher ... and was locally known as the ìBurj-i
Abdullahî; and to the south, what has been referred
to as the ìNew Royal Cityî, where most excavations
have taken place. The site was initially identified
by A. Foucher in the 1920s as the ancient Kapisa,
summer capital of the Kushan emperors ...Although
subsequent research, in this writerís opinion, has
failed to confirm this identification, it gave early
impetus to archaeological investigations of the site
which were carried out by the French Archaeological
Delegation between 1936 and 1946...Architectural
investigations by Roman Ghirshman indicated to
him that the lowest levels of that part of the site
called the ìNew Royal Cityî are to be dated in the
Graeco-Bactrian/Early Kushan period, that is, the
2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE; that the
subsequent two strata correspond to the period of
the Great Kushans, up to the 3rd century CE; and
the topmost stratum to the 3rd to 4th/5th centuries
CE, the later Kushan period ...Ghirshmanís assertions
were based on analysis of the architectural levels
and the numismatic evidence. It should be noted
that several scholars have questioned his theories
concerning dating of the strata, and one should thus
be cautioned against accepting them, standing
alone, as precise.
The Begram site is most famous for the discovery
during the 1937 and 1939 campaigns ...under the
direction of Joseph Hackin, of a large number of
extraordinary objects neatly stored in two,
apparently anciently sealed-off, rooms in that part
of the ìNew Royal Cityî which the excavators came
to refer to as the ìPalaceî.... the appellation ìPalaceî
for this structure, and the excavatorsí reference to
the finds as a royal ìtreasureî or ìhoardî, may result
from a misapprehension by these early researchers
concerning the nature and the dating of the finds.
The objects found in these sealed-off rooms
consisted of numerous pieces which evinced a high
degree of artisanship and which, fascinatingly, had
their origins in various and distant parts of the world:
among them, an Indianesque piece of earthenware
referred to as the ìKinnariî pot, Graeco-Roman
objects such as a bronze satyr head, painted glass
 Trade, c. 500
193
beakers with analogies to Roman Alexandria, pillar-
moulded bowls found also in several sites of the
Arabian peninsula and in Arikamedu in India, and
plaster medallions. Also found were fragments of
Chinese lacquer objects the decoration of which is
similar to ones found in Noin-ula, Mongolia and in
Lo-lang, Korea, as well as numerous carved ivory
and bone objects generally thought to originate
either from north-central or southern India.
The intensity of trade with the 1st century
AD as its focal point comes alive at Begram as
the foregoing extract from Mehendale indicates,
and if one recalls that the Rabatak inscription
found near Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan mentions
the Indian cities of Ujjayini, Kundina (?), Saketa,
Kausambi, Pataliputra and Champa as being
under the direct rule of Kanishka, one has to
assume that the impact of this diverse trade was
reaching the interior commercial network of the
sub-continent. Kausambi, Pataliputra and
Champa lie in a straight alignment along the
southern bank of the Ganga. Saketa or Ayodhya
is located on the Ghaghra which joins the Ganga
downstream in Bihar but is otherwise an
important place in ancient Indiaís
communication network. Ujjayini in the heart of
western Malwa is easily approachable from the
Kushan city of Mathura. Kundina or
Kaundinyapura is in the general area of Nagpur.
If the reading of the relevant portion as Kundina/
Kaundinya is true, this will mean that the Kushana
trading network was coming down south as far
as Nagpur, possibly on the way down to the
Deccan and further south.
If we look at the Indian trade scenario of
the Kushana period, we cannot get away from
the impression that this network is a direct and
expanded version of the trading network which
covered a vast part of northern India from the
Jataka- Mahabharata- Arthashastra phase
BC – AD 1300
onward. Because of the wealth of
archaeological finds including coins and art
objects which suggest influence from diverse
quarters, this is also a sharply visible version.
Sharp visibility, however,does not necessarily
indicate that there was a correspondingly sharp
jump in the quantum of Indian trade in the early
centuries AD. It may be noted that most of the
coins and other finds which lead to a sharp
image of trade and cultural contacts during the
Kushana period have been found primarily from
the northwestern part of the sub-continent which
has had traditional links with Afghanistan and
beyond. The finds from other parts are much
less equivocal on this issue.
Elsewhere in the sub-continent, especially
along the coast and in the south the image of
trade gains a sharp profile primarily in the light
of the literary evidence on the Indo-Roman trade
and the finds of Roman coins in some profusion
in the south where the epics of Silappadikaram
and Manimekalai both indicate the Yavana or
generally Greek presence. By this time one may
also put up a more or less full list of the coastal
trading settlements dotting the entire length of
the Indian coast, beginning with Thatta or the
ancient port of Patala, the main port of the Indus
delta during the time of Alexander. The port
retained its traditional importance till the modern
period in the sense that the Dutch had a small
trading post there. Its ancient counterpart should
be Brahminabad which has long been known
as an ancient site yielding finds from the early
historic period.
Possibly the most important document on the
chain of ports along the Indian coast is the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, dated AD 40-70
(the extract is W.H. Schoffís translation, Schoff
Calcutta 1921) from. It clearly mentions the
Indus.
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
194
38. This river has seven mouths, very shallow and
marshy, so that they are not navigable, except the
one in the middle; at which by the shore, is the
market-town, Barbaricum. Before it there lies a small
island, and inland behind it is the metropolis of
Scythia, Minnagara; it is subject to Parthian princes
who are constantly driving each other out.
39. The ships lie at anchor at Barbaricum, but all
their cargoes are carried up to the metropolis by
the river, to the King. There are imported into this
market a great deal of thin clothing, and a little
spurious; figured linens, topaz, coral, storax,
frankincense, vessels of glass, silver and gold plate,
and a little wine. On the other hand there are
exported costus, bdellium, lycium, nard, turquoise,
lapis lazuli, Seric skins, cotton cloth, silk yarn, and
indigo.
Regarding the next major trading entrepot Barygaza
the Periplus mentions that it receives a lot of cotton
from Minnagara. The nautical environment of
Barygaza is well described including the difficulties
of reaching the harbour at the mouth of the
Narmada.
48. Inland from this place and to the east, is the city
called Ozene, formerly a royal capital; from this place
are brought down all things needed for the welfare
of the country about Barygaza, and many things for
our trade: agate and carnelian, Indian muslins and
mallow cloth, and much ordinary cloth. Through this
same region and from the upper country is brought
the spikenard; ... also costus and bdellium.
49. There are imported into this market-town, wine,
Italian preferred, also Laodicean and Arabian;
copper, tin, and lead; coral and topaz; thin clothing
and inferior sorts of all kinds; bright-colored girdles
a cubit wide; storax, sweet clover, flint glass, realgar,
antimony, gold and silver coin, on which there is a
profit when exchanged for the money of the
country; and ointment, but not very costly and not
much. And for the King there are brought into those
places very costly vessels of silver, singing boys,
beautiful maidens for the harem, fine wines, thin
clothing of the finest weaves, and the choicest
ointments. There are exported from these places
spikenard, costus, bdellium, ivory, agate and
carnelian, lycium, cotton cloth of all kinds, silk cloth,
mallow cloth, yarn, long pepper and such other
things as are brought here from the various market-
towns.
50. Beyond Barygaza the adjoining coast extends
in a straight line from north to south; and so this
region is called Dachinabades, for dachanos in the
language of the natives means ësouth.í ...
51. Among the market-towns of Dachinabades
there are two of special importance; Paethana,
distant about twenty daysí journey south from
Barygaza; beyond which, about ten daysí journey
east, there is another very great city, Tagara. There
are brought down to Barygaza from these places by
wagons and through great tracts without roads, from
Paethana carnelian in great quantity, and from Tagara
much common cloth, all kinds of muslins and mallow
cloth, and other merchandise brought there locally
from the regions along the sea-coast. And the whole
course to the end of Damirica is seven thousand
stadia; but the distance is greater to the Coast
Country.
52. The market-towns of this region are, in order,
after Barygaza: Suppara, and the city of Calliena...
53. Beyond Calliena there are other market-towns
of this region; Semylla, Mandagora, Palaepatmoe,
Melizigara, Byzantium, Togarum and Aurannoboas.
...Then come Naura and Tyndis, the first markets of
Damirica, and then Muziris and Nelcynda, which are
now of leading importance.
54. Tyndis is of the Kingdom of Cerobothra; it is a
village in plain sight by the sea. Muziris, of the same
kingdom, abounds in ships sent there with cargoes
from Arabia, and by the Greeks... Nelcynda is distant
from Muziris by river and sea about five hundred
stadia, and is of another Kingdom, the Pandian. This
place also is situated on a river, about one hundred
and twenty stadia from the sea.
55. There is another place at the mouth of this river,
the village of Bacare, to which ships drop down on
 Trade, c. 500
195
the outward voyage from Nelcynda, and anchor in
the roadstead to take on their cargoes; because the
river is full of shoals and the channels are not clear.
The kings of both these market-towns live in the
interior.
56. They send large ships to these market-towns
on account of the great quantity and bulk of pepper
and malabathrum. There are imported here, in the
first place, a great quantity of coin; topaz, thin
clothing, not much; figured linens, antimony, coral,
crude glass, copper, tin, lead; wine, not much, but
as much as at Barygaza; realgar and orpiment; and
wheat enough for the sailors, for this is not dealt in
by the merchants there. There is exported pepper,
which is produced in quantity in only one region
near these markets, a district called Cottonara.
Besides this there are exported great quantities of
fine pearls, ivory, silk cloth, spikenard from the
Ganges, malabathrum from the places in the interior,
transparent stones ofí all kinds, diamonds and
sapphires, and tortoise-shell; that from Chryse Island,
and that taken among the islands along the coast of
Damirica. They make the voyage to this place in a
favorable season who set out from Egypt about the
month of July ...
57. This whole voyage as above described, from
Cana and Eudaemon Arabia, they used to make in
small vessels, sailing close around the shores of the
gulfs; and Hippalus was the pilot who by observing
the location of the ports and the conditions of the
sea, first discovered how to lay his course straight
across the ocean. For at the same time when with
us the Etesian winds are blowing, on the shores of
India the wind sets in from the ocean, and this
southwest wind is called Hippalus, from the name
of him who first discovered the passage across. From
that time to the present day ships start, some direct
from Cana, and some from the Cape of Spices; and
those bound for Damirica throw the shlpís head
considerably off the wind; while those bound for
Barygaza and Scythia keep along shore not more
than three days and for the rest of the time hold the
same course straight out to sea from that region,
with a favorable wind, quite away from the land,
and so sail outside past the aforesaid gulfs.
BC – AD 1300
58. Beyond Bacare there is the Dark Red Mountain,
and another district stretching along the coast toward
the south, called Paralia. The first place is called
Balita; it has a fine harbor and a village by the shore.
Beyond this there is another place called Comari, at
which are the Cape of Comari and a harbor; hither
come those men who wish to consecrate themselves
for the rest of their lives, and bathe and dwell in
celibacy; and women also do the same; for it is told
that a goddess once dwelt here and bathed.
59. From Comari toward the south this region
extends to Colchi, where the pearl-fisheries are;
(they are worked by condemned criminals); and it
belongs to the Pandian Kingdom. Beyond Colchi
there follows another district called the Coast
Country, which lies on a bay, and has a region inland
called Argaru. At this place, and nowhere else, are
bought the pearls gathered on the coast thereabouts;
and from there are exported muslins, those called
Argaritic.
60. Among the market-towns of these countries,
and the harbors where the ships put in from
Damirica and from the north, the most important
are, in order as they lie, first Camara, then Poduca,
then Sopatma; in which there are ships of the
country coasting along the shore as far as Damirica;
and other very large vessels made of single logs
bound together, called sangara; but those which
make the voyage to Chryse and to the Ganges are
called colandia, and are very large. There are
imported into these places everything made in
Damirica, and the greatest part of what is brought at
any time from Egypt comes here, together with
most kinds of all the things that are brought from
Damirica and of those that are carried through Paralia.
61. About the following region, the course trending
toward the east, lying out at sea toward the west is
the island Palaesimundu, called by the ancients
Taprobane. .... It produces pearls, transparent stones,
muslins, and tortoise-shell.
62. About these places is the region of Masalia
stretching a great way along the coast before the
inland country; a great quantity of muslins is made
there. Beyond this region, sailing toward the cast
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
196
and crossing the adjacent bay, there is the region of
Dosarene, yielding the ivory known as Dosarenic.....
63. After these, the course turns toward the east
again, and sailing with the ocean to the right and the
shore remaining beyond to the left, Ganges comes
into view, and near it the very last land toward the
east, Chryse. There is a river near it called the
Ganges, and it rises and falls in the same way as the
Nile. On its bank is a market-town which has the
same name as the river, Ganges. Through this place
are brought malabathrum and Gangetic spikenard
and pearls, and rnuslins of the finest sorts, which are
called Gangetic. It is said that there are gold-mines
near these places, and there is a gold coin which is
called caltis. And just opposite this river there is an
island in the ocean, the last part of the inhabited
world toward the cast, under the rising sun itself; it is
called Chryse; and it has the best tortoise-shell of all
the places on the Erythraean Sea.
64. After this region under the very north, the sea
outside ending in a land called This, there is a very
great inland city called Thinae, from which raw silk
and silk yarn and silk cloth are brought on foot
through Bactria to Barygaza, and are also exported
to Damirica by way of the river Ganges. (Source:
W.H. Schoff (tr. & ed.), The Periplus of the
Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian
Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century (Calcutta
1912).
What is important is that the Periplus
describes not merely the nautical environments
of the various trading stations along the coast
between the mouths of the Indus and the Ganga
but also lists at least the major commodities
reaching these centres from the interior. Not
everything related to these descriptions has been
corroborated by other sources or that there is no
confusion about the things he wrote, but on the
whole this is the most thorough description of
the contents of the Roman trade with India and
its general geographic context.
There is a voluminous scholarship on the
annotation and interpretation of what the
Periplus wrote, but perhaps more important in
this context is the general body of evidence on
the contemporary settlements along the coast.
First, there is a vast array of evidence on the
pre-modern ports of the Indian coast which
continued to be in use in various forms till the
modern period. Field research on many of them
is very limited but the archaeological evidence
at the relevant sites is in many cases indicative
of their antiquity going back to the pre-Christian
era. Secondly, it is only in this nautical almanack
that we get the specific commercial and nautical
details of individual sites. From these points of
view the Periplus is a text of crucial significance
in the history of ancient Indian trade.
Although not on the same level of
importance as the Periplus, there are a few more
Classical texts of some significance in judging
the evidence of Indo-Roman contacts: the
Geography of Ptolemy (2nd century AD), the
Elder Plinyís Natural Geography (1st century AD)
and Strabo (1st century BC-1st century AD), among
others. Each of these testimonies is useful in a
way. For instance, Straboís account is fairly
detailed, elaborating on the evidence left behind
by Megasthenes and others before him. Ptolemy
refers to a city called Souanagoura, located
beyond what he calls Gange located at the
Ganga mouth or the modern Bhagirathi delta.
This has been identified with the archaeological
ruins of Wari Bateshwar, a place of the 5th
century BC located on the bank of an old course
of the Brahmaputra. In fact, beginning with Wari
Bateshwar in this section, one can trace a chain
of pre-modern harbour sites up to Brahminabad
in Sindh. The stretch from Wari Bateshwar to
the modern Chittagong coast is not marked by
any ancient or pre-modern harbour site, but
 Trade, c. 500
197
Chittagong itself is a major harbour and was so
in the pre-modern context as well. One would
think that the Arab trade was touching the
Chittagong coast in the 8th century AD.
THE INTERNAL CONTEXT OF THE ROMAN TRADE
OF SOUTH INDIA: THE EVIDENCE FROM
KODUMANAL AND PORUNTHAL
The finds of Roman objects in various places of
the south, mostly coins and potsherds, have to
be appreciated not merely in the context of the
excavated coastal sites but also in the context of
the contemporary regional sites which have so
far generally been put in the prehistoric Iron
Age. However, as the evidence of historical
writing Tamil-Brahmi has been pushed back to
500+ BC at Kodumanal and Porunthal, sites of this
type can no longer be ascribed to prehistoric
Iron Age. They have to be put in the early
historic phase of Tamil Nadu and their excavated
evidence shows the trading milieu in which the
Roman trade of the region developed.
Kodumanal, a large grave-cum-habitation
site on the bank of the Noyyal, a tributary of the
Kaveri, lies on an ancient trade route between
Karur and Muziris. It has yielded 5 AMS
radiocarbon dates (200, 275, 300, 330 and 408
BC , all at successive depths) but there is an
explored depth of 65 cm below the lowest level
with an AMS date (408 BC). That the lowest
Kodumanal level will go back to 500+ BC is very
probable. In its various level right up to the
lowest one, the site has revealed more than 600
potsherds inscribed with Tamil-Brahmi. The
evidence of a gemstone industry is both rich and
extensive at the site. The assemblage includes
sapphire, beryl, agate, carnelian, amethyst, lapis
lazuli, jasper, garnet and soapstone and one can
detect in it different stages of manufacture,
discarded chips, blocks of raw materials and a
grooved stone. Furnaces both for the making of
BC – AD 1300
steel and ordinary iron have been found. There
was also furnace for copper-smelting and there
is evidence of shell industry. No less important
is the presence of NBP sherds and silver punch-
marked coins.
That the site was a major manufacturing and
trading centre which developed around 500 BC
and lasted for a few centuries after that is clear
from its wealth of beads of various materials,
evidence of steel, iron and copper manufacturing
and the presence of NBP and punch-marked
coins. The last two items and lapis lazuli
certainly suggest extensive north Indian contacts
which apparently included the northwestern
region because lapis lazuli with its source in
Badakhshan could come from only that region.
The Kodumanal evidence shows quite clearly
that there was an extensive network of north-
south trade reaching the furthest parts of
southern India around 500 BC and later.
Porunthal lies further west, in the shadow
of the Palni hills and on the bank of small river
called the Porunthiraru. The habitational site Pasi
Medu is separated from four graves which are
about 1 km away. It is the sector of graves which
has been excavated. A single burial chamber has
yielded about 8000 beads of etched carnelian,
agate and quartz, the etched carnelian beads
being among the finest such beads in the sub-
continent. The excavated assemblage of
Porunthal primarily consists of micro-beads of
steatite and quartz, glass beads, glass bangles, a
gold pendant, a copper bell, ivory weight,
stoppers, spous and gamesmen. There is an
ivory dice. The total collection of beads includes
2000 well-crafted glass beads in red, white,
yellow, blue and green, and 12000 beads of
quartz, agate, carnelian and steatite. There are
quartz micro-beads as well. The quartz micro-
beads have a diameter of less than 1.4 mm, with
a hole punched through it. The rest of the
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
198
assemblage consists of glass and shell bangles,
4-legged jars (12 cm to 1 m high), ring-stands
inscribed with Tamil-Brahmi script, 2 iron
swords, 1 big iron arrowhead, a number of iron
knives and a copper coin (possibly of the Chera
dynasty). The debris of glass bead manufacture
are generally missing at the habitation site and
it has been inferred that the partly finished glass
beads were imported to the site and put in
furnaces for polishing the beads. Grave
chambers have yielded AMS dates of 450 BC and
490 BC, thus corroborating the evidence obtained
from Kodumanal. An important find from
Porunthal is an ivory dice of a type which is
widely found in various north Indian early
historic sites and datable to the mid-first
millennium BC and later. This evidence of pre-
Christian era contact of Porunthal with north
Indian sites is in line with what has been
suggested by the evidence from Kodumanal.
If we take 500 BC as the base-line of the
chronology of these two sites of Kodumanal and
Porunthal in Tamil Nadu, a few generalizations
can be made about the trading situation of Tamil
Nadu of this period. First, there was extensive
trade network of this region going up to the
north-western part of the subcontinent, through
which lapis lazuli reached Kodumanal. Its close
contact with northern India is also clear on the
basis of the find of NBP sherds and punch-
marked coins at the site. The Porunthal evidence
shows the same type of north Indian contact
during this period in the form of an ivory dice.
Further, the occurrence of a wide variety of
beads in large numbers at these sites clearly
suggests that much of this was used in the
regionís international trade. What is also
interesting is that two major routes of south India
had developed by this period: Karur to the west
coast (the location of Kodumanal; from Karur to
Urayur and Kaverpattinam) and from Madurai
to the west coast, possibly Pattinam; the location
of Porunthal). The finds from these two sites and
their datings also suggest that the southern
trading network was not oriented only to the
maritime trading network but also to an inland
network reaching as far as the northwest. One
in fact would suggest that the more familiar
maritime network of southern India was based
on the development of a wide inland commercial
network.
THE TRADE NETWORK OF THE GUPTA AND
POST-GUPTA PERIODS
For the trade network of the Gupta period (c. AD
300-550) S.K. Maityís chapter on trade and
commerce in his Economic Life of Northern India
in the Gupta Period (circa AD 300-550) provides
an excellent introduction. According to
Amarakosha a market served a number of
villages and a part of the village produce was
sold or exchanged for other necessary articles
for local consumption. A part of this produce
also joined the regional and supra-regional
network maintained by traders and merchants
in the towns and cities. According to Kalidasaís
Raghuvamsam big shops lined both sides of the
main road of an urban market place which was
decorated on festive occasions and included
wine shops where people went for drinks. The
king is advised to patronise the merchant class
in Kamandakaís Nitisastra. In Sudrakaís
Mrichchhakatikam a young merchant acquired
ample wealth by trading in various countries.
There was a clear division between big and
small traders, the former being known as
Pradhana-vyapari. The range of their mercantile
operations was wide and they hired labour to
carry merchandise from one place to another.
The legal texts associated with the names of
lawgivers such as Narada and Yajnavalkya set
down specific rules for the hire of conveyance
 Trade, c. 500
199
and labour for commercial purposes. If a
merchant proposes to hire a conveyance or a
beast of burden for the transport of merchandise
but eventually fails to transport anything, he has
to pay one-fourth of the promised hire to the
owner of the conveyance/transport concerned.
If the merchant completes half of the proposed
journey after hiring the conveyance, he has to
pay the entire stipulated amount. On the other
hand, if the owner of the said conveyance fails
to transport the concerned material after
agreeing to do so, he has to play twice the
stipulated amount to the merchant and
compensate for any loss or damage of the
material, provided the loss or damage was not
caused by fate or by the royal order.
The terms used for two types of merchants
during this period are Sreshthi or Nagara-Sreshthi
and Sarthavaha. The former occasionally
became a member of the town administration.
The Sreshthi was also a money-lender/banker.
In Mudrarakshasa, Chandanadasa was
appointed the merchant-in-chief of all the cities
of the kingdom. Sarthavaha denoted a caravan
merchant under whom the traders banded
together and set for the journey which often
resulted in high gains. In the ruling council of
Kotivarsha Vishaya or the modern Bangarjh area
of Dinajpur of Bengal a representative of
Sarthavaha was a member, thus implying
considerable importance for the caravan
merchant in the civic administration of the Gupta
period. The text of Narada Dharmasutra lists a
number of commodities which could not be
traded by Brahmins, and from this list we know
the names of commodities which were the staple
of trade at the local level: milk, sour milk,
clarified butter, honey, bee-wax, lac, pungent
condiments, liquids for flavouring, spirituous
liquor, meat, boiled rice, sesamum, juice of the
Soma plant, flowers, fruits, precious stone, men
BC – AD 1300
and women as slaves, poison, weapons, salt,
cakes, plants, garments, silk, skins, bones,
blankets, animals, earthen pots, buttermilk,
vegetables, ginger and herbs. A Brahmin was
permitted to sell dry wood, grass (such as Kusha
grass), fragrant substances, Ingudi plant, cotton
thread and articles of metal. Near the temples
and Buddhist Viharas there were sellers of
flowers and incense every morning and
evening.
The commodities listed above were possibly
sold in the local markets but the luxury goods
such as the following were possibly meant for
long-distance trade: pepper, sandal wood, coral,
musk, saffron and yakís tail, elephants and
horses, gold, copper, iron, mica, salt, rock-salt,
etc. During the times of shortage and famine,
agricultural products were moved around in
bulk.
The merchants were well protected by law-
givers such as Narada and Brihaspati. If a
merchant dies after returning to his country with
merchandise, the king is supposed to preserve
the dead merchantís merchandise till a successor
is found. According to Kalidasaís Sakuntalam,
when a commercial magnate of Hastinapura
perished in a ship-wreck, his merchandise was
duly handed over to his wife by the king. Narada
and Brihaspati laid down numerous rules for the
interest of both buyer and seller. If the sold
goods were returned in an undamaged condition
on the same day, the buyer had the right to get
his money back. If the goods were returned on
the second day, one-thirtieth of the price would
be forfeited. He could not return it after the third
day of purchase and on the third day one-
fifteenth of the price would be forfeited. The
buyers had enjoyed different periods for
examination of the purchased articles before
deciding to return them: three days for milch
cattle, five days for beasts of burden, seven days
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
200
for precious stones, pearls and corals, 10 days
for all sorts of grains, one day for iron and clothes,
half-a-month for a purchased male slave, a full
month for a purchased female slave, and so on.
There are also detailed rules of compensation
in case an article is sold with duplicity. If an
article with blemish is sold knowingly, the
purchaser will get twice the value of his
purchase price and a fine of the same amount
will be paid to the king. In case the blemish is
discovered later ñ within a prescribed period ñ
the object will be returned to the vendor and
the purchaser will get back his price. What is
also interesting is that a buyer is bound to return
the purchased good if that was sold at a very
low price by an intoxicated person or under
abnormal situations. There were also elaborate
rules to deter merchants from taking recourse
to unfair practices. Business deeds were drawn
up, at least in the case of important and valuable
transactions. Basically, it was monetary economy
based on coins and cowries, but certain cases of
barters are also known. There were fluctuations
of price, depending on various economic
situations, and weights and measures possibly
varied from area to area.
Moti Chandra (1977) draws attention to the
details of the taxation system related to
merchants, citing an inscription of Vishnusena,
dated AD 592. According to this inscription, the
merchants requested the king to issue a
proclamation in the light of which they could
safeguard their rights. There were different rates
of taxes on different kinds of goods. Moti
Chandra infers that some kind of religious cess
was charged on all kinds of goods. ìSomehow
calico-printers, weavers and other artisans had
to pay very heavy taxesî (Chandra 1977: 174).
A Gupta period text divides the trades of the
periods into seven categories: (1) business in
perfumes, (2) business in mortgage and banking,
(3) dealing in cattle, (4) receiving the known
buyers, (5) declaration of the false values of the
goods, (6) keeping false measurements, and (7)
the export of goods to foreign countries. On
foreign trade the profit was said to vary from
200 to 300 per cent. Possibly there was a royal
officer in charge of the safety of the roads. The
king Yasovarman had, according to his Nalanda
inscription, a Margapati or ëchief of the roadí
among his officials.
The network of foreign trade during the
Gupta period was also extensive. Faxianís
travels may be an indication of this. To travel
from Sri Lanka to China he took passage in a
large merchant vessel along with 200 other
passengers. The ship sprang a leak and after
ninety days of danger and hardship his ship
reached Java. Leaving Java in another ship with
more passengers Faxian reached land in seventy
days. Both overland and maritime routes were
infested with various dangers but that did not
the travellers and merchants. One gets a fairly
close idea of the sea trade of the period from
the account of Cosmas Indikopleustes of the 6th
century AD, which gave a lot of emphasis to the
position of Sri Lanka and the Indian west coast
in this maritime network. Sri Lanka was an
especially important entrepot of the period,
being frequented by ships from all parts of India
and from Persia and Ehiopia. It sent out ships on
its own to various regions. A major Sri Lankan
export to India included pearls and possibly
cloth. Indiaís trade with China included many
commodities including spices, saffron and
textiles. Another important area of Indiaís
foreign trade was Byzantium which became
important after Rome began to be invaded by
tribes of the northern Europe. Spices and silk
were the main ingredients of this trade; it has
been said that when Alaric the Goth demanded
ransom from Rome in the early fifth century AD,
 Trade, c. 500
201
he received, among other materials, 3000
pounds of pepper and 4000 robes of silk.
Byzantine coins of the 4th-6th centuries AD
have been found in southern, western and
eastern India. In the list of imported merchandise
in the Law Digests of Justinian certain Indian
imports, mostly spices, silk and cotton, may be
noted. The monopoly of silk trade, according to
Procopius, was in the hands of Persians who
bought silk from their Indian neighbours. Thus
they could control the supply and price of this
material in the Mediterranean market. Attempts
were made by Byzantium and Rome to break
this Persian monopoly, giving importance to the
merchants of Ethiopia in this regard. Ethiopian
ivory was supposedly important in the Indian
market. On the whole, it would be wrong to put
faith in the belief that the quantum of Indiaís
foreign trade dwindled significantly in the Gupta
period between the beginning of the fourth and
the mid-sixth centuries AD.
The tale of the Kashmiri prince Gunavarman
who gave up his claim to the kingdom to become
a wandering Buddhist monk amply indicates
how the world had shrunk by his time, i.e. early
5th century AD.
Leaving the state he wandered for a long time and
finally reached Sri Lanka, and preached Buddhism
there. From there he went to Java and initiated its
ruler in Buddhism. His fame began spreading all
over. In AD 424 he received the invitation of the
Emperor of China, but Gunavarman did not like to
go there. Accompanied by the Indian caravan leader
Nandi on a ship he decided to visit smaller countries,
but the ship losing direction reached Canton and in
this way he met the Emperore of China in AD 431
(Chandra 1977: 181).
Gunavarman stayed in China to translate
Buddhist texts into Chinese.
BC – AD 1300
There are some unequivocal literary
references to trade and commerce in the post-
Gupta context. The description of Ujjayini in the
Kadambari by Bana (7th century AD) has been
cited by Sukla Das (1980:317): rows of shops,
wide market-roads, heaps of conch, oyster-shell,
pearl, coral, emerald and other gems, stores
laden with incense, unguents and cosmetics,
stocks of betel-leaf-dealer. Maghaís
Sisupalavadha reference to the shops of
Dwaraka as being full of jewels and the city of
Dwaraka itself being full of merchants from
different lands signifies commercial prosperity
of western India in the 7th/8th century AD .
Dandiís Dasakumaracharita (possibly 10th
century AD) mentions market-towns resounding
with the noise of traders. According to Dandi, a
businessman Nidhipatidatta was a prominent
citizen of the city of Valabhi, the Maitraka
dynasty capital in Gujarat near Bhavnagar.
Kalhanaís Rajatarangini (c. 12th century AD)
refers to a Kashmir king called Ananta who was
supplied betel-leaf by a trader named
Padmaraja. Considering that the source of betel
leaf lies in eastern and southern India, it is
obvious that that there was a smooth trading
mechanism to distribute even a rapidly decaying
organic material like betel leaf all over the
country. Trade with foreign lands also continued
unabated. Indian saffron and aromatics went to
China and saffron, sandalwood and diamond to
Cambodia. The annals of the Chinese Tang
dynasty (7th-10th centuries AD) mention the
existence of ëBrahmana monasteriesí (temples
?) in Canton. That southeast Asia played a major
role in maintaining sea-links between China and
India is suggested by the records of the 7th
century Chinese monk I-tsing who noticed,
among other things, that Sribhoja in Sumatra was
a centre of Buddhist learning and that its king
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
202
possessed trading ships which plied between
India and Sribhoja. On the basis of the sources
adduced by Maity and Das (1980) it is obvious
that the trading networks of the sub-continent
which continued from a much earlier period
retained their identities till the 7th/8th/10th
centuries AD. That there can be no question of
decline of trade in the Gupta-post-Gupta period
is suggested by what Banabhatta in
Harshacharita reported about the horses in
Harshaís royal stables ñ horses from Vanayu
(Arabia ?), Sindh and Iran, among other places.
In the case of Orissa D.K. Ganguly (1984) points
out that in Manosollasa composed by the
Western Chalukya king Somesvara III (died c.
AD 1138) Kalinga rice and fabric figure among
the desirable objects in the court. This suggests
that the mercantile network of the period dealt
with bulky commodities like rice and textiles
on the interregional level. Ganguly (1984) also
cites a few cases of foreign contacts during this
period. A Chinese text records the gift of the
Buddhist manuscript of Gauda-Vyuha by an
Orissan king to the Chinese emperor Te-tsong
through his envoy Prajna in AD 795. Further, in
the list of foreigners who went to Java, as found
in the records of Airlangga (11th cent. AD )
mention is made of those from Kling (Kalinga),
Singhala, Dravida and Karnataka. The Sri Lankan
chronicle Chullavamsa records an invasion of
Sri Lanka in AD 1230 by a combined army of the
Javanese, Pandya, Chola and Tamil soldiers.
Further, Nagarakretagrama, a text of the 14th
century Indonesia, refers to the people of
Jambudvipa, Karnataka and Gauda as flocking
to the Javanese capital Majapahit in ships laden
with merchandise. According to N. Lahiri (1992)
an Assamese inscription of the post-Gupta
period shows easy familiarity with products of
the country from Kashmir to Karnataka, the ladies
from Karnataka being specifically noted in this
connection.
In fact, the knowledge of products of
different parts of the country and the world was
wide-spread during this period. For instance,
according to Somesvara IIIís Manasollasa, a text
which we have mentioned earlier, Paithan,
Trichinopalli or Tiruchirapalli, Nagapattinam,
Cholamandala, Chiicacole, Sri Lanka, Patan or
Anahilapatan, Multan, Tondimandala,
Panchapattana (Panchmahal?), China or
Mahachina, Kalingadesa and Bengal were the
chief centres of textile business. The first point
to note here is the spread of these centres not
merely in various parts of India from Multan to
the Dravidian south but also in China.
ëMERCHANT GUILDí OR ëTRADE GUILDí
INSCRIPTIONS AS A CATEGORY TO UNDERSTAND
SOUTH INDIAN TRADE. ALSO, THE IMPORTANCE
OF ëGENIZA DOCUMENTSí
Trade guild inscriptions happen to be a
distinctive feature of the economic life of ancient
south India covering Tamil Nadu, Kerala,
Karnataka and Andhra (Abraham1988). Some of
them have also been found in southeast Asia and
Sri Lanka (Karashima 2002) and provide clues
to the wide-spread presence of the south Indian
trading communities in this region. The
distribution of these inscriptions between AD
1000 and 1300 shows concentration in Karnataka
(114), Tamil Nadu (76) and Andhra Pradesh (20),
but there are some in Kerala (5) and Maharashtra
(2) as well. Between AD 1000 and 1400 there
are 15 such inscriptions in Sri Lanka whereas
between AD 800 and 1300 their number is 3 in
southeast Asia. The terms used by these
inscriptions to denote merchant guilds are
Ainurruvar, Manigramam, Nanadesi, Padinen-
vishayam, Padinen-bhumi and Anjuvannam.
Three of these termsó-Padinen-vishayam,
Padinen-bhumi, and Nanadesióóare
synonymous with Ainurruvar or literally, ëthe
Five Hundred Membersí. N. Karashima and Y.
 Trade, c. 500
203
Subbarayalu (2002 in Karashima 2002) classify
the ëcomponent groupsí of about 55 such
inscriptions into 10 categories: (1) organizations
or groups of big merchants, (2) local
organizations of landlords having chiefly power,
(3) groups of local merchants dealing with
specific merchandise, (4) merchants-cum-
warriors, (5) warriors who protect merchants,
(6) organization of foreign merchants, (7) local
shop-keepers, (8) artisans including jewellers,
(9) writers and messengers, and (10) servant
groups. Oil merchants, betel-leaf merchants,
cloth merchants figure prominently among their
list of local merchants dealing with specific
merchandise. P. Shangumam (2002 in Karashima
2002) lists the various commodities mentioned
in the 12th century AD inscriptions from
Karnataka: 18 kinds of cereals (paddy, rice,
millets, grass and pulses), oil seeds (coconuts,
castor seeds, sesamum, mustard), betel leaf,
miscellaneous agricultural products (green
ginger, dry ginger, turmeric, garlic, cumin,
clarified butter, jaggery, vegetables, tamarind,
salt, honey, wax, wood, flowers, herbs, and
drugs), agricultural products of greater
commercial value (black pepper and long
pepper, areca nut, myrobalan, saffron,
asafoetida, coriander), and such other products
as cotton and related items (yarn, varieties of
cloth and sarees), silk and woollen materials,
domesticated animals (horses, elephants,
camels, cows, bulls, buffaloes and different
varieties of cattle), aromatic articles (incense,
musk, sandal, camphor, etc.) and valuable
articles such as conch, ivory, gems, corals, pearls
and metals (gold, copper, brass, iron). To
illustrate the commercial network which touched
the different parts of Karnataka in the 12th
century AD, this list is invaluable.
In the case of Kerala we drew attention to
the Sthanu Ravi copper-plate inscription from
BC – AD 1300
Quilon (8th century) and the 13th century
copper-plate inscriptions of Vira Raghava in the
possession of the Syrian Christian church of
Kottayam. They throw light on Keralaís overseas
trade between the 9th and the 13th centuries
AD.
There are two sets of Sthanu Ravi inscriptions.
Sthanu Ravi was the king of the region in the 9th
century and, according to the first inscription, the
governor of Venadu or the Travancore area
authorised the Christian church of Tarisappalli built
by Eso da Tapir at Quilon to have certain rights over
a few families of toddy-tapper and washerman
castes, withdrawing his right to collect some
specified taxes from them. The implication was that
the church would be able to utilize the services of
the families whose taxes were withdrawn by this
royal decree. They could also ply their trade within
the walls of the cityís fort, and it was mentioned
that all this was secured through the efforts of
Maruvan Sapir Iso mentioned earlier as Eso da Tapir.
The second inscription details the grants of lands
made to the Tarisapalli church. The boundaries of
the gifted land were detailed, and the names of two
local families who owned lands on the northern and
northeastern boundaries of this land were
mentioned.
The representative of one of these families was
present when the governor of Venadu drew up the
agreement with the church, and Abraham infers that
this family could be indigenous Christians. The
second inscription also grants several trading rights
to the Church, including its right to collect a specified
amount of cess on the merchandise coming by land
or movingin and out of the harbour. What is
remarkable is that the signatures appended to the
plates of the Sthanu Ravi grants were in three
languages and scripts ñ Arabic, Pahlavi and Hebrew.
The presence of Muslim, Jewish and Christian traders
in the 9th century Quilon can easily be inferred.
The inscription of Vira Raghava, dated c. AD 1225,
states the rights granted to Ravikorran of the
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
204
Manigramam trading guild in the port of Kodungallur
(Cranganore). In the inscription he is called ëlord of
the cityí.
As Abraham (1988, p. 35) puts it, Monopoly rights
were granted as well as a commission on many
commodities including musk, salt and sugar.
Unfortunately the other commodities are not
named. The Manigramam was also given the right
to the customs which could be levied on goods
which arrived at the mouth of the river and were
then transported to the interior.
Another inscription, dated this time in the 10th-11th
century, from a village called Talakkad in the
Mukundapuram taluk of Kerala (possibly
somewhere in the Cochin area) defines a market
area set up with the approval of the prominent
villagers or the members of the village assembly
and gave them right to levy tax in kind on the stalls
put up by the merchants. Otherwise, the merchants
were given a free hand to run the market. Two
members of the Manigramam guild were granted
exemptions from certain specific taxes, although
all the merchants had to pay taxes coming in from
the sea. It is obvious that in the 10th-11th century,
overseas goods were being sold even in village
markets of Kerala.
The foregoing evidence (for the details of
the preceding extract, Chakrabarti 2012)from
Kerala, indicating among other things the
presence of Jewish traders in Kerala is also
supported by the evidence of the Geniza
documents of Old Cairo, which is primarily
applicable to Mangalore at the top of the Kerala
coast. As we wrote earlier (Chakrabarti 2012),
The documents edited and analysed by S.G. Goitein
and M.A. Friedman under the title India Traders of
the Middle Ages: Documents from the Cairo Geniza
(Goiteinand Friedman 2008) deal with the
economic, juridical and family aspects of the ëIndia
tradeí conducted principally through Aden during
that period.
The historical picture which comes through is that
of infinitesimal details, which is possible only in the
case of very close and easy links between all the
relevant regions, principally Egypt, Arabia and the
west coast of India. For instance, one letter (dated
c.1137-1140) written by Joseph B. Abraham to Ben
Yiju, then resident in Mangalore, states the following:
I am sending you a broken ewer and a dipper that
together weigh seven pounds less a quarter. Please
make me a ewer of the same measure from its
copper, for its copper is good copper. The weight
of the ewer should be five pounds exactly. I am
sending also eighteen and a quarter pounds of good
yellow copper in bars and five pounds of Quali lead
in a big mould and a piece of Egyptian lead (in the
form of a shell). Please put the bars, the lead, and
what remains from the manufacture of the ewer
together and have made for me ... a lamp, two table
jugs for two platters ñ they should be of good
workmanship ... Joseph Abraham goes to specify
the exact shape and features of the lamp he
ordered. The point is that he sent to Mangalore two
of his broken copper vessels along with some more
copper and lead to be shaped into finished goods
of specific weights and features. One letter of the
same general period refers to the dispatch of a bag
of ëred copperí of specified pieces, weights and
price to ëPandaraina (Fandarayna)í, which has been
identified with the present day Pantalayini south of
Cannanore in the Kerala coast .... Interestingly, an
Andalusian ëIndia traderí sent to Tripoly in Libya a
shipment of various goods including ìtwo bales of
cowrie shells, Indian popular ornaments, which
were as avidly sought after in the Mediterranean
area, especially in Spain, as corals were in Indiaî
(Goitein and Friedman 2008, p. 224). Examples can
be multiplied but the Geniza documents fully
substantiate what can be gathered from the copper-
plate inscriptions of Sthanu Ravi and Vira Raghava
and various other inscriptions and sources analysed
by Meera Abraham (1988).
The merchant guilds of south India, which
figure in inscriptions from about 8th/9th century,
 Trade, c. 500
205
deserve some space in this context. It is not that
the merchant guilds were unknown before. The
merchant guilds have been a part of the
economic life, as we have seen earlier, since at
least the Jataka context However, certain south
Indian guilds deserve attention in their own right
because of the frequency of their inscriptions
both inside and outside India. Collectively such
guilds were known as the Five Hundred Guild
with the names of Ayyavole in Karnataka,
Ayyavole in Andhra, Aryarupa in its Sanskrit form
and Ainurvar in Tamil. Known as early as the
Pallava rule, these guilds became more powerful
under the Cholas. Their code of conduct was
known as Vira Banaju Dharma ñ ëthe law of
the noble or heroic merchantsí. The broad scope
of their activities may be found in an inscription
of AD 1055 (in Karasima 2002):
Famed throughout the world, adorned with many
good qualities, truth, purity, good conduct, policy,
condescension, and prudence; protectors of the
vira-Bananju-dharma [law of the heroic traders],
having 32 veloma, 18 cities, 64 yoga-pithas, and
asramas at the four points of the compass; born to
be wanderers over many countries, the earth as their
sack,....the serpent race as the cords, the betel
pouch as a secret pocket,...by land routes and water
routes penetrating into the regions of the six
continents, with superior elephants, well-bred
horses, large sapphires, moonstones, pearls, rubies,
diamonds,...cardamoms, cloves, sandal, camphor,
musk, saffron and other perfumes and drugs, by
selling which wholesale or hawking about on their
shoulders, preventing the loss by customs duties,
they fill up the emperorís treasury of gold, his
treasury of jewels, and his armoury of weapons; and
from the rest they daily bestow gifts on pundits and
munis; white umbrellas as their canopy, the mighty
ocean as their moat, Indra as the hand-guard of their
swords, Varuna as the standard bearer, Kubera as
the treasurer,...
BC – AD 1300
They can be first noted in an inscription from
Aihole ñ ëmerchant guild of the five hundred
Svamis of Ayyavoleí (Lad Khan temple, East
wall, outside). The inscription, according to Y.
Subbarayalu and P. Shanmugam (Karashima
2002: 226), is dated c. AD 800 and records ìa
grant of fees on the occasion of life-cycle
ceremonies made by Bennamma Somayaji to
the Five Hundred, who constituted the great
body of Chaturvedis of the excellent capital of
Aryapura which arose from a collection of
worthy people.î Another Aihole inscription, also
dated c. 800 and inscribed on a beam in the
Gaudara gudi temple, mentions them as
Mahachaturvediya Samudaya of 500 Mahajanas
of Aryapura: ìsome gift to the deity of
Durgabhagavati by the Five Hundred Mahajanas,
well versed in the four Vedas, the Eight Nagaras
and the Hundred-and-twenty Uralis of Aryapuraî
(Karashima 2002: 228). The terms ësvamií,
ëchaturvedií and ëmahajanaí all denote
Brahmins, although the ëfive hundred guildí is
also recorded as being under non-Brahmin
leadership. The style of their functioning is
suggested by an inscription from Tirumalai in
the Sivaganga district which gives a list of people
who were members of the guild. They met in
the Siva temple of Tirumalai and the names and
origin of the members included the following:
Tisai Ayirrrattu Ainurvar of Vadakalavali Nadu,
Tirukottiyur Maniyambalam, Kollikurichi,
Vembarrur, Malaimandalam, Alagimangarah,
and others. Terms like Ainurvar Bhattan and
names like Ainurvar Inban Devan Chetti
indicate heterogenous caste composition.
Apparently, groups of people of disparate
origins associated for the purpose of trade.
Another group of merchants coexisted with
the ëguild of the five hundredí, being known as
Manigramam. Such guilds were found in
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
206
commercial places including ports, and
undertook various charitable activities like
supporting temples, feeding Brahmins and
maintaining irrigation works. Widely distributed
in southern India and also in southeast Asian
countries, as the findspots of the related
inscriptions show, they have occasionally been
named Nanadesis (ëof many countriesí) and
Swadeshis (ëof oneís own countryí). In Telegu
the term was Vira Balija which along with Vira
Balanja in Kanarese and Vira Valanjigar in Tamil
meant ëvaliant merchantsí with their own code
of conduct and related laws. An inscription of
AD 1531 from a village called Anilama in
Cuddapah (Andhra) shows the continuity of this
guild practice. This particular inscription records
the grant of income from tolls (Magama) on
articles such as cotton, yarn, cloth, etc., which
was accrued to the merchant guild of Ayyavolu,
for the lamp-offerings of God Sangameshwara
of that village. Some inscriptions from Nellore
(Andhra) state that the organization of the ëfive
hundredí or Ayyavole protected the Vira Balanja
Dharma (also known as Vira Bananja Dharma)
and followed the Vira Banaja Samaya or
tradition. An inscription of AD 1240 found at
Chintapalli in Guntur (Andhra) records that this
trade corporation comprised the
Ubhayananadesis, the Gavaras and the
Mumuridandas who were the recipients of the
five hundred hero edicts. The Ubhayananadesis
were a merchant unit derived from all quarters
and countries, comprising Desis, Paradesis and
Nanadesis, and the Gavaras stood for a body of
merchants worshipping Lord Gavareshwara.
Trade guilds based on religious identities
included Nakaras (a group of Vaisya devotees
of Nakareshwara). An inscription of AD 1177
states that the Mummuridandas were a branch
of the ëfive hundredí who were eminent in
Aryapura, i.e. Aihole. It is interesting that these
trade corporations survived centuries of wars
and invasions. Inscriptions dated AD 1090 from
Visakhapatnam (Andhra) suggest that such
trading organizations were active in the region
and that the Anjuvannam people (possibly
denoting West Asiatic Muslims present in the
Indian coast) were patronized by the Ayyavole-
500 guild. The trace of this guild was also found
in southeast Asia including western Sumatra and
other parts of Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand.
From the 11th to the 13th centuries south
Indian trade with southeast Asia was dominated
by the Cholas who were preceded in this
connection by the Pallavas. The traders of
Kalinga dealt in, among other products, cotton
which was also exported to southeast Asia.
Subbarayaluís epigraphic studies (2012:
184-185) have led him to a major conclusion
about the term Anjuvannam of Tamil
inscriptions of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
According to him, it is the same as Hanjamana
found in the Konkan coast in Marathi-Sanskrit
and Kannada inscriptions and it was the name
of a trading body composed of West Asian
seafaring merchants.
Originally it denoted all the West Asian merchants,
both Arabs and Persians, including Jews, Syrian
Christians, Muslims, and Parsis. This body surfaces
in the inscriptions from the middle of the ninth
century, traversing the whole of the Indian Ocean
from Arabia to Java. Initially, it interacted with
Manigramam, a south Indian merchant guild, which
itself had been carrying on sea trade by ninth century,
besides being active in the interior towns and
villages. When the Ayyavole-500 emerged in the
tenth century and developed as a big overarching
merchant guild in southern India, most of the existing
indigenous and local trade guilds got associated with
it. Anjuvannam too interacted with the Ayyavole
guild and actively participated in big gatherings
(Samayam or Peruniravi) led by the latter. In the
 Trade, c. 500
207
eleventh century and after, Anjuvannam seems to
have been mostly composed of Muslim traders.
There was a remarkable difference between
Anjuvannam and other merchant guilds. While all
the others were found both on the coastal sites and
in the interior, the former was just confined to coastal
sites. That is, it was primarily a maritime guild. At
the same time it became a permanent part of the
local community in the coastal villages. Its presence
as a trading guild is visible until the end of the
thirteenth century after which it is not heard of and,
of course, the Ayyavle-500 and other guilds too
almost disappear from the scene in the fourteenth
century and after
That they did not entirely do so is suggested
by the 16th century Cuddapah inscription which
we have cited earlier. As Subbarayalu himself
points out (2012: 179), the Kannada inscriptions
down to the Vijayanagara period mention
Hanjamana in several coastal places like Basrur,
Barakur and such others.
The full story of these merchant guilds is
likely to be remarkably interesting because of
its complexity and the variety of issues they
raise. One would assume that the story of the
north Indian guilds was no less complex and
interesting, but in their case there is little
corresponding epigraphic evidence.
A.H. Christie calls the period from the tenth
to the thirteenth centuries an era of major Asian
trade booms. This is a period when merchant
associations or guilds were common to many
mediaeval economies including the Middle East
(introduced in the 10th century), Europe
(introduced into the Italian seaports by the 11th
century), and China where a nearly autonomous
trade association and the organization of
collective financing and management of
overseas shipping ventures became increasingly
complex in about the same period. This in fact
is the broad period when integrated mercantile
BC – AD 1300
organizations which did not necessarily bow to
caste began to develop in south India as well.
To outline the character of trade in the
southeast Asian world from the Indian angle,
Christie dwells on the composition of foreigners
listed in the inscriptions of Java.
Javanese inscriptions are particularly rich in
information about overseas trade connections. Shifts
over time in the composition of the lists of foreigners
who were resident at ports in Java appear to reflect
changing patterns of trade.... The earliest dated
original inscription to contain such a list is that of
Kalirungan... from Kedu in central Java, dated 883
AD. The list of foreign traders in this inscription
includes mainland Southeast Asians from Campa
(Champa), Remman (Ramanyadesa, in Mon Lower
Burma), and Kmira (Cambodia); the listed South
Asians came from Kling (Kalinga), Aryya (Aryapura/
Ayyavole), Pandikira (in Kamataka), and perhaps
Singhala (Sri Lanka) - although this last reading is
uncertain. The one surviving original inscription of
the early tenth century to contain a list of foreigners
- the Palebuhan charter of 927 AD, which concerns a
community on the banks of the Solo river near
Madiun... - is, unfortunately, only partially legible.
The names Singhala, Pandikira, and Ramman have,
however, been preserved, suggesting that the
composition of the lists had not changed markedly
in the forty-four years following the Kalirungan
inscription. The Indians in Javanese ports during the
later ninth and early tenth centuries appear to have
been drawn either from the east coast districts of
what are now Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and
southern Orissa, or from the western Konkan coastal
region already dominated by the Ayyavole
merchant association. These three regions remained
a constant in the Javanese lists from the ninth to the
fourteenth century. The two east coast regions of
India - particularly that of Kalinga - appear to have
been important sources of cotton textiles at an early
date. It was perhaps because of the regionís
dominance of the early textile exports to Southeast
Asia that the term ìKlingî was widely adopted in
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
208
the Indonesian archipelago as a blanket-term
covering all South Asians, and in some cases all
foreigners from the Indian Ocean.
Textiles remained important in Indiaís
southeast Asian trade, along with iron, in the
eleventh century. ìFour original Javanese
inscriptions containing lists of foreigners survive
from the eleventh century. They range in date
from the 1020s to the 1050s. The Cane
inscription of AD 1021,... from the Brantas delta
region of east Java, lists foreigners from Kling,
Aryya, Singhala, Pandikira, Drawida, Campa,
Remen, and Kmir. The inscription of Patakan,...
from the same district, lacks a legible date, but
was commissioned in the same period and
contains an identical list. The new name in these
two lists, Drawida, refers to the east coast
Dravidian region of Tamil Nadu, where the
Cholas had overthrown the Pallavas late in the
ninth century. The Cholas - who gained power
within southern India towards the end of the
tenth century, and then extended their influence
into Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Laccadives by
the first decade of the eleventh century - had
by this time joined the merchants operating in
the larger ports in maritime Southeast Asia. The
Chola state had clearly become, by the 1020s, a
major player in the eastern sector of the Indian
Ocean.
Chinese records indicate that textiles gained
in importance among Indian exports to the East
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.... Further
changes in the textiles illustrated on Javanese
statuary reflect the growing influence of certain
densely-patterned block-printed Indian
export textiles during this period... The
Nagarakertagama, a Javanese text completed
around AD 1365, mentions merchants and others
from China, various parts of Southeast Asia, and
Jambudwipa (India) - specifically from Goda
(Gaur in Bengal) and Karnataka, ...Although
some of the patterns on Javanese statuary may
represent local batik copies of Indian export
cloths, there is no doubt that Indian printed
cottons were hugely popular all around the
Indian Ocean - and beyond - by this time. Even
during this century of relative trade depression
in parts of maritime Southeast Asia, Indiaís
cottons found a ready market.î
In the context of both southeast Asia and
China there seems to be a considerable amount
of material, the famous Tamil inscription of 1281
at Quanzhou, a famous mediaeval port in south
China, and the assorted Chinese ceramic
material, primarily from the thirteenth century
onward, in the Indian coast. The Quanzhou
inscription reveals that a Tamil man named
Champanda Perumal, by permission of
Chekachai Kan (Kublai Khan ?) installed an idol
of Siva there to pray for the health of the
authority. Karashima (2002) adds that the
existence of Saivite sculptures and designs and
a Tamil inscription recording the installation of
a Siva idol suggests the fact that ìthere was a
considerable Hindu Tamil population in
Quanzhou in the thirteenth centuryî. On the
Indian side, N. Karashima and N. Kanazawa
(2002) have reported the discovery of a lot of
Chinese sherds at various places in south India
and Sri Lanka ìto provide tangible evidence of
continuous foreign trade during the long period
from the ninth to the eighteenth centuriesî.
Interestingly, a significant number of these
sherds is from the area of the Gulf of Mannar,
including the sites of Periyapattinam and Kayal.
One of the reasons why we are highlighting
this outline evidence of southern Indiaís foreign
contacts is the fact that such close and extensive
maritime contacts must have had equally close
impacts on the indigenous production and
 Trade, c. 500
209
market systems. One would not have existed
without the other. Interestingly, the continued
significance of certain areas is clearly suggested
by the fact that the site of Periyapattinam and
Kayal which we have cited in the previous
paragraph were successively the successors of
the ancient ports of Alagankulam and Korkai.
One may draw this section to a close by
highlighting the fact the historicity of a Buddhist
temple established by a Sri Vijaya (Sumatra) king
has been established by an (c.) eleventh century
inscription on a Buddha image found at
Nagapattinam (Karashima and Subbarayalu
2002).
One would say that these commercial aspects
of the south Indian links with southeast Asia
found a political expression in Rajendra Cholaís
invasion of Sumatra, Malaya and Burma in about
AD 1015. Sri Vijaya with its centre in Palembang
in southern Sumatra was the first territory to be
conquered and was followed by a few other
territories and cities: Pannai, a city on the eastern
coast of North Sumatra, Malaiyur in the Jambi
province of central Sumatra (also identified with
the southern part of the Malaya peninsula),
Mayirudingasm or the city of Chaiya in the
Malayan peninsula, Ilangasoka or the east coast
of the Malayan peninsula, Mapappalam or lower
Burma, Talaittakkolam or Takuapa in the
Isthmus of Kra between the Andaman Sea and
the Gulf of Thailand, Nakkavaram or the Nicobar
islands and Kadaram or modern Kedah in
Malaya. Identifications may differ but there is
no doubt about the extent of Chola influence on
southeast Asia in the early eleventh century, a
period when both Sri Lanka and the Maldives
also came under strong Chola political influence.
There were also three Chola embassies to China:
Raja Raja Cholaís embassy in 1015, Rajendra
Cholaís embassy in 1033 and Kulottunga Cholaís
embassy in 1077.
BC – AD 1300
NORTHERN INDIA, c. AD 700-1300
In his book The Economic Life of Northern India,
c. AD 700-1200, Lallanji Gopal (1989) devotes a
chapter to ëguildsí. His conclusion is that ìthe
guilds of any one area regulated their affairs
without any reference to their counterparts in
other districts or to any central body, if it existed
at all ì(Gopsal 1989: 85). This is a strong
departure from the merchant guilds that we have
noticed in southern India with their clear
regional and international links. The power of
the heads of guilds was an acknowledged
feature of the period There is a reference to the
head of a guild of oilmen in Jhalrapatan
inscription of AD 1086 (Gopal 1989: 86). The
guilds enjoyed the power to levy cess on their
members. It is interesting to reflect that there is
no ëmerchant guildí as such during this period
in the north Indian sources.
The contemporary inscriptions are, of
course, full of references to merchants. Gopal
(1989: 91) draws attention to an inscription from
Ahar (Udaipur), dated AD 953, which mentions
merchants from Karnataka, Madhyadesa, Lata
and Takka or the region between the upper
waters of the Chenab and the Ravi coming to
the place and agreeing to pay a levy on their
articles of sale. Some literary sources of the
period such as Bhavisayaattakaha describe how
caravan journeys were conducted.
ìThe merchandiuse, difficult to carry, was carried
by camels, buffaloes, fine oxen, mules and donkeys.
The mules had sacks on their sides. The merchants
were sitting in carts which looked like moving
houses. The huge-bodied and high-shouldered
buffaloes were carrying water. The camels were
carrying huge loads. Surrounded on all sides by
armed guards, the caravan advanced safely along
the roadî (Gopal 1989: 94).
 Economy: Agriculture, Crafts and Trade
210
Gopal (1989) discusses the relative
importance of some relevant routes of this
period, giving importance to the routes through
Tibet to China. Horses were brought to Assam
from Tibet. In the northwest Ghazni was a major
centre of Indian commerce in the northwest. We
have earlier referred to the presence of West
Asiatic traders all along the Indian coast from
the 9th century onward, especially as members
of the Anjuvanam guild. In north India too the
Muslim merchants were active, and Gopal (1989:
117) cites an opinion to the effect that ìthe far-
flung campaigns of Sultan Mahmud would have
been impossible without an accurate knowledge
of trade routes and local resources of India,
which he probably obtained from Muslim
merchants.î
Gopal (1989: 145 ff) further states that the
Indian kings were then trying to draw trade to
the coastal ports within their domain, the
Kakatiya king Ganapatideva mentioning clearly
the duties to be paid by the ships visiting the
Motupalli port. The fixing of the dues to be paid
by the visiting ships was also fixed by the
Silahara king Rattaraja.
CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS
That ancient India had a long and continuous
history of trade between its different regions is
not in doubt. Equally irrefutable is the fact that
in both sea trade and overland trade between
north and east Africa and the Mediterranean belt
on the one hand and the world of southeast Asia
and coastal China on the other, India acted as a
central point, All relevant sources, irrespective
of their chronologies, support the assumption
of this vast trade network that the ancient Indian
merchants and sailors had built for themselves.
It is because of the abundance of sources in
certain sectors that our attention has by and large
been focussed on a limited number of regions
and chronological segments. For instance, the
emphasis on the early historic phase that one
gets from the Jatakas and the Mahabharata is
not matched by anything else from this period.
The Arthashastra shows that trade was a major
part of the state economy and administrative
structure but the basic human touch of the Jataka
and Mahabharata testimony is missing from it.
To a great extent this is relieved by the details
provided in the literature and material records
of the cultural contacts and trade that developed,
within a few centuries, to link the African and
Mediterranean worlds with both southeast Asia
and China. The details regarding the trade
situation within India remain somewhat
disjointed over a long period, right from the
Gupta-post-Gupta phase to c. AD 1200/1300, at
least in the case of north India. However, there
are enough indications that there was no
question about trade becoming a less significant
activity during this period. The scholars who
have researched the economic history of this
long period (cf. Maiti, Das, Gopal) are certain
on this issue, pointing out both the power and
status enjoyed by the important merchants and
the general ease with which the trading activities
flourished in the Bay of Bengal and Indian
Ocean orbits. The southern regions possess by
this time an enormous amount of epigraphic
material and whatever picture one has of the
trading activities of the south Indian merchants
and their guilds amply underlines the importance
of their power and status in society. It is also
apparent that the great demands for south Indian
textiles in the outside world are perceptible from
this period onward and it is likely that it led to
significant changes in the textile production
technology and its social set-up.
As far as one understands it, the data are firm
on the spread, continuity and expansion of
ancient Indian trade and its links with the
 Trade, c. 500
211
external economies of vast inter-continental
proportions. A well-connected account with the
details of how this trade was linked to the wider
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