Trade and traders: An exploration into

trading communities and their activities in

early medieval Odisha

Bhairabi Prasad Sahu

The article makes an effort to locate the emergence of merchant groups in the context of agrarian
growth, availability of a marketable surplus, the rise of different types of exchange centres
and political enterprises, which must have created their own requirements and facilitated the
movement of goods and commodities. It also tries to factor in the transport and communication
routes because coastal Odisha had a large hinterland moving up to the Chhattisgarh plains, as
also access to southern Bengal and Jharkhand and beyond through the eastern littoral, especially
Dandabhukti, among other routes. The rise of transregional states under the Somavaṁśīs and
Later Eastern Gangas must have widened the orbit of activity for the regional mercantile groups.
Practices and customs followed by the trading communities and their social competence are also
investigated. The idea is to situate the developments in the region in the larger context of the
issues and debates in the field of ancient and early medieval India. This essay is largely based
on inscriptional sources and charts developments up to the fifteenth century.

Keywords: Andhra, Bengal, Kling, markets, merchants, maritime commerce, Odisha, trade

The Early Historical Setting

A large number of ports such as Pithunda, Kalingapatnam, Dantapura/

Dantavarapukota, Palur and Manikapatna are said to have contributed to the
prosperity of Kalinga, and by extension early Odisha. The first three sites are in
modern Andhra Pradesh situated north of the river Godavari and the remaining
two are in Odisha. With the exception of Palur, the others have produced early
historical material. However, in the present state of our knowledge, any attempt at
precise dating of the port sites would be hazardous. The connotation of the term
Kalinga varied through time and usually extended from the Cuttack–Puri area up
to Srikakulam and adjoining parts of Visakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh.
The remains of Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW), rouletted ware, knobbed
ware, stamped ware, amphorae, glass and semi-precious beads, and seals and
sealings at different sites in coastal Odisha such as Radhanagara, Manikapatna,
Sisupalgarh and Jaugada, in central Odisha such as Asurgarh, Budhigarh, Nehena
and Manmunda, and some sites (Malhar and Tarighat) in Chhattisgarh, which
was a part of Daksina Kosala, has led archaeologists and historians to envisage
flourishing trade and exchange networks in early Odisha. The find of clay
bullae and caltrop from settlements such as Sisupalgarh and punch-marked and

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SAGE Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore/Washington DC/Melbourne
DOI: 10.1177/2348448919875282
 Trade and traders: An exploration into trading communities / 135

Puri–Kushana (Kushana imitation) coins collected from several locations in the

region have reinforced the perceived image of brisk commerce.1 Most of these
artifacts have a wide distribution zone ranging from northern India and the
Deccan to all over the east coast. It is possible that semi-precious stone beads
reported from the coastal sites may have been sourced from hinterland Odisha
because the coast is bereft of gem deposits, and the settlements in and around
central Odisha have yielded evidence for the manufacture of beads in the early
historical contexts. Transport over the river Mahanadi may be supposed to have
largely sustained the inferred linkages between the hinterland and the coast.
In Odisha, we do not come across terms such as vaṇik, śreṣṭhi, goṣṭhi, nigama
or sreṇi, denoting traders and guilds. The few inscriptions of the period contain
no allusions to the presence of these commercial groups. Any comparison with
Bengal too makes the paucity of evidence in the region obvious. Motifs of ships/
boats on coins, seals or potsherds, as are found on the Andhra or Bengal coast, are
missing in Odisha. The only portrayal of a boat is found on a punch-marked coin,
which is now preserved in the British Museum, London.2 The art of neighbouring
Bengal for the same early historical period presents an entirely different picture.3
Compared to coastal Odisha, the Godavari–Krishna deltaic zone and adjacent
areas have yielded richer material for trading activities, including the ship type of
coins in the lower Krishna valley and epigraphic references to nāvika (sailors) and
mahānāvika (master/great mariner) from Guntupalli and Ghantasala among others.4
What emerges therefore is that though there must then have been trade in ancient
Odisha, goods and commodities we know very little about are the organisational
aspects of such trade, namely craft organisation, ports, boats/ships, networks of
trade and, more importantly, the traders themselves.
On the provenance of archaeological finds, including coins, broadly, two early
transport and communication routes have been envisaged. One was from the
Singhbhum area of Jharkhand to coastal Odisha and Andhra through the northern

1
  For more studies contributions, see Balaram Tripathy, ‘Coastal Archaeology of Odisha: Problems
and Prospects’, in Karunasmriti: Recent Researches in History, Culture and Archaeology of Odisha,
ed. B. Tripathy and A.C. Sahoo (Delhi, 2015), 65–73; Baba Misra and Ranvir Singh, ‘Trade in Early
Historical Tel River Valley, Odisha: A Preliminary Study’, in Karunasmriti: Recent Researches in
History, Culture and Archaeology of Odisha, ed. B. Tripathy and A.C. Sahoo (Delhi, 2015), 132–46
and Benudhar Patra, ‘Ports, Port Towns and Hinterlands: A Study in Ancient Orissan Perspective’, in
Karunasmriti: Recent Researches in History, Culture and Archaeology of Odisha, ed. B. Tripathy and
A.C. Sahoo (Delhi, 2015), 243–67.
2
  See J.K. Patnaik and B.K. Tripathy, ‘Ships and Shipping in Orissan Art’, Puratattva no. 23 (1993):
61–63.
3
  See R.K. Chattopadhyay, The Archaeology of Coastal Bengal (New Delhi, 2018), especially 219–70.
For a comparative perspective of the material on the eastern coast, see Sila Tripati, ‘Seafaring
Archaeology of the East Coast of India and Southeast Asia during the Early Historical Period’, Ancient
Asia 8 no. 7 (2017): 1–22, accessed 5 September 2019, doi:htps://doi.org/10.5334/aa.118.
4
  B. Rajendra Prasad, ‘Early Historic Andhra Desa—A Perspective’, Proceedings of the Andhra
Pradesh History Congress 18 (1994): 10.

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districts of Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj, while the other connected western Odisha
with areas of Raipur and Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh. While the former route was
linked to the middle and lower Gangetic plains, the latter extended to the Bastar
and coastal region along the Mahanadi valley. The Mahanadi was used for inland
navigation, which though difficult could have functional during a good part (three
quarters) of the year. From the Chhattisgarh plains to coastal Odisha, this was impor-
tant for means of passage and transport in precolonial times.5 While the northern
uplands in the region are an extension of the Chota Nagpur plateau, Dandabhukti
acted as a bridge between Odisha and Bengal (Radha/Rarh). The eastern coast
stretching from Bengal to Odisha, Andhra and beyond fostered the movement of
people, goods and ideas all through that region, while northern coastal Odisha,
largely owing to its geographical proximity, would have had access to Tamralipti
or Tamluk in its heyday.
The presence of objects such as rouletted ware and knobbed ware, and semi-
precious stone beads at different sites in the region usually would be seen as mark-
ers of long-distance trade. However, it needs to be recognised that perceptions on
articles of trade such as rouletted ware, wine amphorae, bullae and even glassware,
which were earlier perceived to be unmistakable evidence for Roman contacts, are
now changing, and their local manufacture through imitation is being increasingly
seen as a greater possibility.6
The available evidence reinforces the impression that the Odishan littoral
attained a discernible sociopolitical profile mostly during the opening centu-
ries ad, though admittedly, the earlier Mauryan presence and the rise of the
Chedis might have stimulated a process of internal transformation across locali-
ties.7 The post-Mauryan period was characterised by a major expansion in the
Indian maritime commerce, backed by symmetrical developments in the related
domains. The fact that the Chedi Mahāmeghavāhanas were the first dynasty to rule
Kalinga as a large territorial unit in the latter half of the first century bc is instruc-
tive; in that, it points to growing economic and cultural relations between Odisha
and the surrounding region. But specific evidence of the extent of commercial
development attained is entirely lacking. The Mahāmeghavāhanas do not seem
even to have left any coins behind.

5
  J. Deloche, Transport and Communications in India Prior to Steam Locomotion, vol. II: Water
Transport (New Delhi, 1994), 32–33.
6
  H. Kulke and B.P. Sahu, History of Precolonial India: Issues and Debates (New Delhi, 2018),
258–78.
7
  See Romila Thapar, The Mauryas Revisited (Calcutta, 1987), 1–30; B.D. Chattopadhyaya,
‘Transition to the Early Historical Phase in the Deccan—A Note’, in Archaeology and History,
vol. II, ed. B.M. Pande and B.D. Chattopadhyaya (Delhi, 1988), 727–32; and B.P. Sahu, ‘Towards
Complex Society: Trajectory of Socio-political Transformations in Early Odisha’, in The Making of
Regions in Indian History: Society, State and Identity in Pre-modern Odisha ed. B.M. Pande and B.D.
Chattopadhyaya (forthcoming).

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The curious phenomenon of Odisha lagging behind some other parts of the
country in the level of sophistication of its commercial origination is also borne
upon us when we read the account of Yuan Chwang (Xuan Zhuang), the famous
Chinese pilgrim who journeyed through Odisha in c. 640. He gave distinct accounts
of three parts of Odisha, namely ‘Oḍra’ (northern Odisha), ‘Kongudha’ (central
Odisha) and ‘Kalinga’ (southern Odisha and northern coast). He tells us that in
Kongudha, at least, coinage was not in use; the currency consisted of cowries
and pearls.8 Clearly, with no coinage around, one could hardly expect complex
commercial instruments, like bills of exchange, to have been in vogue.

The Early Medieval Scenario

Things changed when early medieval times began from the eighth century onwards.
Like other regions in South Asia, Odisha too witnessed the simultaneous interplay
of multiple processes of change during the early medieval centuries leading to the
formation of subregional agrarian bases, peasantisation of autochthons, local and
subregional state formation, among other concomitant developments.9 Inscriptions
across subregions attest the growth of agriculture, horticulture and floriculture.
Paddy, sugarcane, betel nut, betel leaves, coconut, ghee and oil along with mango,
tamarind and jāmbu (black plum) are reported from various parts of the region.10
The expanding rural economy with bearing on the available marketable surplus
led to the emergence of village fairs and markets (haṭṭas) from the eighth century
onward, and the visible manifestation of commercial centres (paṭṭanas) appear
from the next century. While a mid-eighth century Bhaumakara grant provides the
earliest record of a haṭṭa, Angulakapaṭṭana, identified with modern Angul town in
central Odisha, offers the first instance of a paṭṭana in the region. Interestingly,
the Baud plates of Nettabhanja, dated to the early ninth century, suggest that the
settlement derived its prosperity from the community of merchants who traded
in various goods and articles.11 Almost simultaneously, Suvarnapura (Sonepur)
on the confluence of the rivers Mahanadi and Tel River began to attract attention
under the Somavaṁśīs (tenth–eleventh centuries). Market centres such as these

8
  See Thomas Watters, On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India (London, 1905; reprint, New Delhi, 1988,
vol. III), 193–99. The statement about currency will be found in Watters, On Yuan Chwang’s Travels, 197.
9
  For details, see B.D. Chattopadhyaya, The Making of Early Medieval India, Introduction (New
Delhi, 1994), 1–37; also see B.P. Sahu, The Changing Gaze: Regions and the Constructions of Early
India (New Delhi, 2013), 251–77.
10
  A.P. Sah, Life in Medieval Orissa (Circa ad 600–1200) (Varanasi, 1976), 89–97; A.K. Rath, ‘Flori-
culture in Early Medieval Orissa’, in Studies on Some Aspects of the History and Culture of Orissa, ed.
A.K. Rath (Calcutta, 1987), 113–22; A.K. Rath, ‘Horticulture in Ancient and Early Medieval Orissa’, in
Studies on Some Aspects of the History and Culture of Orissa, ed. A.K. Rath (Calcutta, 1987), 123–35;
Sahu, The Changing Gaze, 263–64.
11
  Sahu, ‘Markets, Merchants and Towns in Early Medieval Odisha’, Studies in People’s History 2
no. 1 (2015): 10–12.

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multiplied and continued well into the Ganga–Gajapati times, that is, the twelfth–
sixteenth centuries. Paṭṭanas were usually located on the banks of rivers or, as.
Kalinga-paṭana and Vishakha-paṭana on the latter.
The expression peṇṭhā in the Deccan, like maṇḍapikā in north India, meant a
local market, catering to a group of settlements.12 We come across Codaganga-peṇṭā
in an inscription at Mukhalingam in the early part of the twelfth century, and again
notice Dhimadalama-peṇṭhā in a record at Srikurmam under Prataparudradeva in
the sixteenth century.13 Peṇṭhā as place-name suffix is now quite common in the
Andhra region.
Angulaka-paṭṭana has been described in an inscription as a charming town, which
looked like a garden. It was densely populated by learned Brahmanas, scholars,
wealthy persons and supplicants coming from different countries and was made
prosperous by the merchants’ community who traded in various commodities.14
Suvarnapura, Murasima, about 20 km from the modern town of Bolangir and Arama,
a ‘victorious’ camp in the same locality, in western Odisha have been similarly
praised in contemporary Somavamsi inscriptions.15 Admittedly, these descriptions
are stereotypical in nature, to be, but the stereotype itself was based on the reality
of a town. Besides Angulakapattana, Suvarnapura and Murasima have also been
described as pattanas or commercial centres in our sources.
Kaylakan of early Arabic classical accounts has been identified with
Kalingapatanam on the eastern coast of India. Similarly, Urishin has been identified
with a place in the neighbourhood of Puri or to the north of the Mahanadi. The island
or peninsula was rich in mountains, plants and elephants. Tusks of elephants were
exported from there, and it had iron mines too. However, with the identification of
Samundar with Sonargaon in modern Bangladesh, the location of Urishin in Odisha
has been problematised because it is stated to have stood only at a distance of
12 farsakh or about 58 km from Samundar.16
Traders are mostly known to us from terms such as vaṇika (traders), vipani
vaṇika, śreṣṭhin and puraśreṣṭhin. Vaṇikas are referred to in the inscriptions of
the Khinjali Bhanjas (ninth and tenth centuries) and the Somavaṁśīs (tenth and
eleventh centuries) in central and western Odisha and adjoining localities.17 One
comes across the expression vipani vaṇika in the sense of traders in the market in
the Baud plates of Netabhanja.18 While puraśreṣṭhis (town merchants) appear in

12
  Ranabir Chakravarti, ‘The Pentha as a Centre of Trade in the Deccan’, in Trade and Traders in
Early Indian Society, ed. Ranabir Chakravarti (New Delhi, 2002), 201–19.
13
  Snigdha Tripathy, Descriptive Topographical Catalogue of Orissan Inscriptions (New Delhi,
2010), 706 and 855.
14
  Sahu, ‘Markets, Merchants and Towns’.
15
  Sahu, ‘Markets, Merchants and Towns’, 12.
16
  S. Maqbul Ahmad, Arabic Classical Accounts of India and China (Shimla, 1989), 24–25.
17
  See S.N. Rajaguru, Inscriptions of Orissa, vol. IV (Bhubaneswar, 1966); see also S. Tripathy,
Inscriptions of Orissa, vol. VI (Bhubaneswar, 1974).
18
  Tripathy, Inscriptions of Orissa, 227.

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the records of the Adi Bhanjas of Khijjingakota in northern Odisha broadly around
the ninth and tenth centuries, it is the śreṣṭhins (merchants) who surface in large
numbers in the inscriptions of the Somavaṁśīs and the Later Eastern Gaṅgas in the
coastal districts. Evidently, some form of gradation and hierarchy among the traders
and merchants is indicated in the plurality of terms used to denote them. In many
cases, the vaṇikas also happened to be suvarṇakāras (goldsmith) and engravers of
royal grants, which suggest their proximity to the royal court. The Sonepur plates of
Somavamsi Janamejaya refer to a merchants’ association or organisation hailing from
Kamalavana and their establishment (Kamalavana-vaṇika-sthāna) at Suvarnapura
in the context of a donation.19 On the face of it, these plates record royal patronage
to the merchants’ organisation; however, a closer look suggests that the merchants
in turn transferred the grant to two temples of Keśava (Viṣṇu) and Ᾱditya (Sun) for
meeting the regular costs of bali-caru-naivedya, and their repairs and maintenance.
The Madagam plates of the time of Devendravarman, dated to the middle of the
eleventh century (Śaka 988 = ad 1066), record the gift of a village to two merchants
(vyapāri), namely Vithana and Pandava of the same locality (Madagrama in modern
Srikakulam district).20 One should also mention the two inscriptions from Srikurmam,
dated 1402 ad, which refer to one Risidanayaka, son of Pragoda Upadhayaya and
grandson of Visnudasa Upadhayaya, as a trader in horses (ghoḍā vaṇijara) and a
Kalinga vyapāri.21 Dharmaśāstric prescriptions do not seem to have prevented the
Brāhmaṇas from trading in horses. It needs to be mentioned that this is not just one
exception, there are other such instances of Brāhmaṇas engaging in trade from other
parts of the country during the same period;22 the available evidence suggests that
everyday lives did not necessarily conform to normative traditions.
Members of merchant families could, for instance, take to other professions.
The Kudopali charter of Bhimaratha was written by Purnadatta, son of śreṣṭhin
Kirana. Badarahajor copper plate of Ranabhanja was engraved by vaṇik-śreṣṭhin
Pandi, while the Baud plates were engraved by Padmanatha, the son of Pandi,
the merchant.23 More naturally, merchants appear often as donors of perpetual
lamps in several stone inscriptions, especially at Mukhalingam and Srikurmam in
Srikakulam district.24 There is an instance at the Madhukesvara temple inscrip-
tion of Śaka 1130 (ad 1208) in Srikakulam district of the money and land meant
for the maintenance of the perpetual lamp being handed over to the mahaja-
nas (merchants) for safekeeping.25 In yet another case, a certain amount of gold

19
  Rajaguru, Inscriptions of Orissa, 132; also see A.M. Shastri, Inscriptions of the Sarabhapuriyas,
Panduvamsins and Somavamsis, pt II (Delhi, 1995), 194–99.
20
  EI XXXI (1955–56): 45–52.
21
  S.K. Panda, Medieval Orissa—A Socio-Economic Study (New Delhi, 1991), 83.
22
  See B.D. Chattopadhyaya, ‘Trade and Urban Centres in Early Medieval North India’, Indian
Historical Review 1 no. 2 (1975): 203–19.
23
  Shastri, Inscriptions, 266–67; also Tripathy, Inscriptions of Orissa, 119–24; also Tripathy,
Descriptive Topographical Catalogue, 101.
24
  See Tripathy, Descriptive Topographical Catalogue, 761, 773, for instance.
25
  Ibid., 779.

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and land meant for the maintenance of a perpetual lamp was entrusted with Jayarājā,
the head of the guild of garland-makers (mālakāra-śreṣṭhin).26 Furthermore, there
are some instances of seṭṭis and their daughters donating perpetual lamps at
temples in the first half of the twelfth century in Visakhapatnam district for the
well-being of Codagangadeva, the Later Eastern Gaṅga king, and enhancement of
his powers.27
There are some references to vaiśya agrahāras in inscriptions of early medieval
Odisha. The Chicacole copper plate of Madhukamarnava, assigned to 1024 ad. It
mentions the merger of three rural settlements in the constitution of a vaiśya agrahāra
and its conferment on Srī Erapa Nāyaka, ‘the ornament of the spotless family of
merchants’.28 He is also referred to as a vaiśya of Dantapura (dantapura-vastavya-
vaiśya-kula-vaṁśa). The Chikkavalasa plates of Vajrahasta III, dated 1059 ad, record
the donation of land by the king to Mallaya-śreṣṭhin, son of Somana-śreṣṭhin and
grandson of Madhava belonging to the vaiśya community. The śreṣṭhin keeping a part
of the village for himself donated the bulk of it to three hundred Brāhmaṇas headed
by Mapaya-nāyaka, grandson of Pillisarman.29 One of the votive inscriptions at the
entrance of the Jagamohana of the Lingaraja Temple during the reign of Raghava
Deva, son of Chodagangadeva, attests the grant of perpetual lamps by Medama Devi
as also her parents for the pleasure of Kirttivaseśvara (Śiva). For the maintenance
of these grants a village was donated after purchase by a śreṣṭhin. Another piece of
land was bought from the merchants to support a perpetual lamp for Khellautleśvara
(Śiva) at Khilor.30 Instances such as these point to the rising status of the merchants
in society, especially to cordial ruler–merchant relations. It may be pertinent to men-
tion that under the Later Eastern Gaṅgas, there are possibly some service grants, at
times, made to persons designating themselves Nāyaka (warrior) and yet claiming
vaiśya status. The term vaiśya may have been deliberately used by a rising stratum to
distinguish themselves from the general mass of peasants, artisans and craftsmen and
seek parity with merchants, a segment with considerable status in society. Upwardly
mobile groups in regional societies at the beginning of the second millennium were
nothing unusual; comparable situations prevailed in Andhra and the Tamil territories
in the south almost simultaneously under the Kakatiyas and the Cholas respectively.31
The Nagari plates of Anangabhima III (Śaka 1151/ad 1229), recovered about 24
km away from Cuttack, refers to the grant of a township covering 30 vāṭīs of land
(about 375 acres) to a Brāhmaṇa.32 The township is said to have comprised four
26
  Ibid., 417.
27
  See, for example, Ibid., 877 and 883.
28
  Rajaguru, Inscriptions of Orissa, 175–76.
29
  Panda, Medieval Orissa, 86.
30
  Rajaguru, ‘Two Lingaraja Temple Inscriptions of the Time of Sri Raghava Deva’, Orissa Historical
Research Journal 5 no. 4 (1957): 179–82; also EI XXXV: 115–17.
31
  See Cynthia Talbot, Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region and Identity in Medieval Andhra
(New York, NY: 2001), 48–86 and Noboru Karashima, A Concise History of South India: Issues and
Interpretations (New Delhi, 2014), 135–38 and 175–82.
32
  EI XXVIII: 235–58.

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 Trade and traders: An exploration into trading communities / 141

houses resembling royal residences and was adorned with walls, mukha-maṇḍapas,
madhya-maṇḍapas and thirty other houses occupied by a number of residents. The
township included a good number of merchants and artisans such as a perfumer
(gandhika), a conch-shell worker (sankhika), a silk weaver, a goldsmith and a bra-
zier or worker in bell metal (kāṁsika), three sellers of betel leaves, one florist, one
jaggery maker, two milkmen, two weavers (tantuvāya), two oilmen, two potters,
three fishermen (kaivartta), a barber (nāpita), some craftsmen and a washerman
(rajaka). This provides a good instance of a local market developing in the midst of
a group of villages providing the necessary services to the surrounding settlements.
It also suggests that the town and the countryside were of necessity interdependent.
The Kendupatna copper plate of Narasimhadeva II (the late thirteenth cen-
tury) mentions Nari-śreṣṭhin, son of Purai-śreṣṭhin and grandson of the Kōmati
(a merchant) Manku-śreṣṭhin, of the village Tucada; Dhiti-velali, grandson of
Mahadeva-belali, the betel leaf seller of Kanthipadi-haṭṭa; Annai, the Usthali-
tāmrakāra (coppersmith), associated with Purusotamapura-haṭṭa; and Mahai, the
Usthali-kamsakāra (brazier), of Vedapura33 who were transferred along with the
gift village (śāsana). The Kendupatana plates Set II similarly mentions Kalidasa,
a sankhakāra in a haṭṭa and Keso śreṣṭhin, an inhabitant of Kōmati Cchangula
and who belonged to Jayanagara-haṭṭa, among others. Set III of the records men-
tions three haṭṭas and two śreṣṭhins along with a milkman and a potter again in
the context of the transfer of rent-paying subjects to the newly founded śāsanas
or Brāhmaṇic settlements. The allotment of the tax-paying merchants and profes-
sionals to the newly created śāsanas was most likely dictated by the need to ensure
their assured, regular functioning. Similar instances of the transfer of such groups
associated with haṭṭas can be seen in other contemporary inscriptions as well.34
The Alalpur plates of Narasimhadeva II (Śaka 1215/ad 1293) refer to a number of
rent-paying subjects spread over half a dozen hattas being attached to the gift land.
Madhi śreṣṭhin, the son of Bhrati śreṣṭhin, was a potter, so was Parakha śreṣṭhin
who was the son of Jaguli śreṣṭhin, an oilman. It also mentions Dharmmu śreṣṭhin,
the grandson of Kukamacandra and a relation of an oilman, together with other
professionals such as jaggery maker/seller, betel leaf grower/seller and goldsmith.35
The Puri copper plate inscription of Bhanudeva II (1312 ad) refers to the transfer
of several professionals, conveyed through the use of the expression sapta prajāh
(seven subjects), from five haṭṭas. The use of the suffix sādhu (Ravi-sādhu or
Vadu-sādhu) after the name of a professional or seller emerges for the first time in
this record placed in the early part of the fourteenth century.36 However, there are
references to sādhu-prajā and sādhu-pradhāna in temple inscriptions dated to the

33
  S.N. Rajaguru, Inscriptions of Orissa, vol. V pt 1 (Bhubaneswar, 1975), 293–96; Tripathy,
Descriptive Topographical Catalogue, 271–78.
34
  EI XXVIII no. 3 (185–95); EI XXXI no. 3 (1955–56): 17–24.
35
  EI XXXI (1955–56): 17–24.
36
  S.K. Acharya, Copper-plate Inscriptions of Odisha (New Delhi, 2014), 500.

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142 / Bhairabi Prasad Sahu

twelfth century, which have been interpreted to mean merchant subjects and leading
merchant, respectively, by D.C. Sircar.37 Sādhus occasionally surface as managers
of endowments for perpetual lamps in later centuries. One is not sure if they were
the ones who have been valourised in the Sādhaba (maritime merchant) tradition
of coastal Odisha. It is obvious that exchange centres, markets and merchants were
a common site in the core territories of the Later Eastern Gaṅgas. For purposes of
identifying and recording the personal identity of those belonging to occupational
groups associated with the haṭṭas and neighbouring settlements, names of persons
up to three generations in the male line were usually recorded. There are several
instances where the name of the father is missing but that seems to have been made
up by the inclusion of the grandfather’s name.
The haṭṭas mentioned in the Later Eastern Ganga records were spread over the
present-day districts of Jajpur, Kendrapada, Cuttack, Khurda and Puri. Some of
them mentioned in the Kendupatana plates (Sets II and III) of Narasimha II may
have been situated around modern Balasore in northern coastal Odisha.38 The
haṭṭas constituted the sites of exchange of rural marketable produce and were the
spaces of interaction for peasants, artisans, and traders and merchants. The range
of goods and services available at these centres could have been locally produced
for consumption in the immediate neighbourhood. Admittedly, goods such as those
produced by the goldsmith, coppersmith, brazier and even betel leaf grower might
have had a wider market. Similarly, the śreṣṭhins could have engaged with a larger
network of relationships. Furthermore, various grades of textiles, rice and salt too
might have had distant supply sources as well as markets.
Paddy, wheat, barley, sugarcane, betel leaf, oils including castor oil, coconut
and jaggery as attested in the inscriptions are likely to have been produced in dif-
ferent sub-regions and obtained through trade and traders. To this, one can add a
list of fruits and flowers which grow naturally in the region and many of which
are mentioned in the inscriptions.39 One of Chodagangadeva’s inscriptions refers
to a salt-tax official called lavanakarādhikari,40 suggesting that it was being manu-
factured for commercial purposes in the coastal areas. Salt was a taxable item is
evident from the remission of the duties on salt and cowrie-shells in front of Lord
Jagannatha in the presence of some officials, as recorded in a temple inscription
of Kapilesvaradeva in the mid-fifteenth century.41
The issue of Odisha’s maritime commerce warrants some discussion. The
evidence for it Khalakata-paṭṭana (near Konark), Manika-paṭṭana (near the mouth
of the Chilika Lake), among others, emerged as lively trading centres/port towns

37
  EI XXX (1953–54): 158–61; EI XXXV (1963), 115–17.
38
  EI XXVIII no. 3: 185–95.
39
  Chattopadhyaya, The Making of Early Medieval India; Sahu, The Changing Gaze.
40
  Panda, Medieval Orissa, 53.
41
  Tripathy, Descriptive Topographical Catalogue, 428–29.

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 Trade and traders: An exploration into trading communities / 143

during the twelfth–fourteenth centuries.42 Remains of blue and white Chinese por-
celain, celadon ware, coins with the typical square perforations in the middle and
legends on both sides, and egg-white glazed and chocolate glazed ware of Arabian
origins have been recovered from these sites indicating Odisha’s participation
in the Bay of Bengal trade networks and overseas trade with the Arabs and the
Chinese. Ian Glover in early 1998 identified a few sherds of Turquoise Glazed
Ware (TGW) from the excavated assemblage at Manikapatna and Pallur at the
northern edge of the Chilika Lake and among the surface finds from Gourangapatna
near Rambha, in Ganjam district.43 TGW has recently been dated to the tenth cen-
tury and after, and it is seen as an item of trade which straddled the seas from Iran
and West Asia to South, Southeast and East Asia. These overseas contacts seem to
have begun under the Bhaumakaras. An autographed manuscript of the Gandavyuha
(an important text for the study of pilgrimage in early Buddhism) is said to have
been presented to the Chinese emperor in 795 by an Odishan king, most likely
a member of the Bhaumakara dynasty. The text and a letter were deposited with
the monk Prajna who was to render it into Chinese. Unfortunately, the inscriptional
evidence is silent on this facet of Odisha’s history. Deriving from the seventeenth-
century material, it may be posited that the region exported rice, textiles and
salt, among other articles of trade,44 in exchange for its imports. However, the
quantity of cotton textile made and sold to the English and Dutch traders ‘was
considerably lower compared to Bengal and Coromandel’.45 Besides the Later
Eastern Gaṅga coins known as fanams, the cowrie appears to have served the
purpose of monetisation of the wider population. Apart from the fifteenth-
century reference to the remission of duties on cowrie shells which is already
mentioned, and which unambiguously suggests their circulation on the littoral,
that ‘humble currency’ continued to be important in coastal Odisha in the mid-
late seventeenth century.46 This should not surprise us because cowries since the
early medieval centuries continued to remain important in local exchanges in large
parts of eastern India, including Odisha.47 The Maldives was the usual source of their
procurement.
Despite such extended evidence for trade, we do not find merchants of the highest
ranks in early medieval Odisha. Barring one reference to Kamala-vana-vaṇik-sthāna,

42
  R.C. Tripathi, ed., Indian Archaeology 1984–85—A Review (New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of
India), 57 and 59; B.K. Sinha, ‘Khalakatapatana: A Small Port on the Coast of Orissa’, in New Trends
in Indian Art and Archaeology, ed. B.U. Nayak and N.C. Ghosh (Delhi, 1992), 423–28.
43
  Ian Glover, ‘West Asian Sassanian-Islamic Ceramics in the Indian Ocean, South, Southeast and
East Asia’, Man and Environment XXVII no. 1 (January–June 2002): 165–77.
44
  See L.D. Mohapatra, Commerce in Orissa, 1600–1800, (Jagatsinghpur, 2010), Chapters 4, 5 and 9.
45
  A. Tanabe, ‘Kingship, Community and Commerce in Late Precolonial Khurda’, in Kingship in
Indian History, ed. N. Karashima (New Delhi, 1999), 221.
46
  Tanabe, ‘Kingship, Community’, 219–23.
47
  S.B. Majumdar, ‘Monetary History of Bengal: Issues and Non-Issues’, in The Complex Heritage
of Early India: Essays in Memory of R. S. Sharma, ed. D.N. Jha (New Delhi, 2014), 595–99. It may be
recalled that Xuan Zhuang had noted the cowries serving for money in what in now Odisha.

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144 / Bhairabi Prasad Sahu

we still do not come across terms such as mahānāvika, mahāsārthavāha (great

caravan leader) and paṭanasvāmi or seṭṭi-paṭanasvāmi (heads of trading guilds)
as in Andhra or their equivalents elsewhere. Even if we assume the puraśreṣṭhis
to be somewhat comparable to the rājaśreṣṭhis48 in status, it does not take us very
far. Nor for that matter is there any evidence for the big merchant bodies such as
Anjuvannam engaged in seafaring and maritime commerce, or even Manigramam
and Ayyavole-500, which were active in long-distance inter-regional trade, in south
India.49 The term Kling usually perceived to represent the Indians in general or even
the people of Kalinga did not necessarily coincide with the present-day boundaries
of Odisha. The historical region known as Kalinga spanned the coastal stretch from
the south of the Chilika Lake to Visakha-paṭṭanam and occasionally even beyond,
a good part of which is in today’s Andhra Pradesh. Naturally, evolved historical
and cultural regions do not usually coincide with modern political boundaries,
and historians are usually sensitive to such issues. Furthermore, the term ‘Kling’
was widely used in Indonesia and adjoining areas, including Malacca, during the
late early medieval times and after. In some quarters, it has been construed as an
adaptation of the expression Kalinga. However, recently, it has been convincingly
demonstrated that it referred to a group of traders from Tamil Nadu. They are shown
to have been a Tamil trade diaspora, much like the Chulias, and were active on
the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal from around the twelfth to the nineteenth
century.50 Finally, it needs to be mentioned that the giraffe, an African animal, in
a sculpture at Konarak was not necessarily the result of its import through trade
but most likely is a representation of the gift to king Narasimha by the Sultan of
Bengal.51 One is not trying to be unnecessarily critical but just being cautious so as
to situate the available data in context on a theme that is quite emotive,52 especially
in coastal Odisha.
There seems to be a maṇḍala or subregion-specific distribution of the trading
groups. While vaṇikas are usually encountered in the records of Daksiṇa Kośala
and Khinjali maṇḍala, and the puraśreṣṭhis are mentioned in the inscriptions of the
Khijjingakota maṇḍala, and the śreṣṭhins usually emerge in the Somavaṁśī and
Later Eastern Ganga records of the Utkala region. That apart, vaṇijara, vyapāri
and seṭṭis appear to be more specific to Kalinga, and the latter term seems to be a
derivation from śreṣṭhin (cf. seṭh in Hindi). The emergent pattern broadly converges

48
  Ranabir Chakravarti, ‘Rajasresthi’, in Trade and Traders in Early Indian Society, ed. Ranabir
Chakravarti (New Delhi, 2002), 102–12.
49
  See Y. Subbarayalu, South India under the Cholas (New Delhi, 2012), 176–87.
50
  Kenneth McPherson, ‘Chulias and Klings: Indigenous Trade Diasporas and European Penetration
of the Indian Ocean Littoral’, in Trade and Politics in the Indian Ocean: Historical and Contemporary
Perspectives, ed. G. Borsa (New Delhi, 1990), 33–45.
51
  See H. Kulke et al., eds., Imaging Odisha (Jagatsinghpur, 2013), 55 and 433.
52
  A good discussion particularly of the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries is available in L.D. Mohapatra,
‘Maritime Tradition in Orissa (1500–1862)’, in Imaging Odisha, ed. H. Kulke et al., (Jagatsinghpur,
2013), 88–98; also Mohapatra , Commerce in Orissa.

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with the dissimilar patterns of social segmentation across sub-regions/maṇḍalas,

within otherwise comparable social structures. Besides, the caste-occupation
linkages do not seem to have fully crystallised as late as the end of the thirteenth
century. There is evidence for a śreṣṭhin’s grandson being a potter and associated
with a haṭṭa, and in yet another instance, a potter associated with a haṭṭa happened
to be the grandson of a goldsmith.53 There are many more such instances. However,
it needs to be mentioned that the details of the occupational groups/castes emerge
with greater clarity during the later part of the Ganga and Gajapati rule.
The emergence of the haṭṭas from the middle of the eighth century, paṭṭanas
around the late ninth–early tenth century and tīrthas and towns through the early
medieval period coincided with the increasing visibility of the vaṇikas, śreṣṭhins,
puraśreṣṭhis and, in fewer cases, even the mahājanas, vyapāri and Kōmati, as
discussed above. Vyapāri continues to mean a trader in Odiā language even today,
while Kōmati represents a member of a trading community who seems to have
come into Odisha from Andhra in medieval times. The mahājana has usually been
perceived as a heartless, usurious moneylender all through the last century. The
hierarchies among traders and trading centres highlight the pervasiveness of non-
agricultural activities in early medieval societies. Not only is there a reference to
an organisation or association of merchants but also in several cases, evidence for
more than a generation of merchants in the same family from around the turn of
the first millennium onwards. Their association with land grants, both as recipients
and donors, royalty and claims to the vaiśya varṇa unmistakably suggests their
urge for social mobility, derived from their economic competence and possibly a
new-found esteem for them by the beginning of the second millennium.
The emergent pattern in Odisha seems to conform to comparable histories in
several regions of South Asia such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan,
for instance. What was common to all of them was that the emergence of markets,
merchants and towns was rooted in their respective expanding early medieval
regional agrarian bases, as suggested by B.D. Chattopadhyaya almost thirty
years ago.54 There were wide-ranging and continuous interregional linkages but
no epicentric origin of these developments. It needs reiteration that the region’s
maritime past and the traders associated with it need much further investigation.

53
  See the ‘Alalpur Plates of Narasimha II, Saka 1215’, EI XXXI: 17–24 and the ‘Kendupatana Plates
of Narasimha II: Sets II and III’, EI XXVIII: 185–95.
54
  B.D. Chattopadhyaya, ‘Urban Centres in Early Medieval India: An Overview’, in Situating Indian
History, ed. S. Bhattacharyya and Romila Thapar (New Delhi, 1986); also Chattopadhyaya, The Making
of Early Medieval India, 155–82.

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