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1. Towns, Traders
and Craftsmen
By
Sruthi R

2. Towns developed in Medieval India
•In the medieval times (between
the 8th and the 18th centuries),
there were temple towns,
administrative centres,
commercial towns famous for arts
and crafts, and port towns.
Moreover, some big towns and
cities were famous for more than
one of those things.

3. Administrative Centre
The centres where medieval rulers held
court rapidly grew into cities. Among
such cities were Thanjavur, Delhi, Agra,
Patan, Lakhnauti, Daulatabad and
Hampi, Royal Attendants, nobles,
officials, soldiers, scholars, physicians,
artists, and enterainers settled in these
cities to serve the ruler. Their needs
created a demand for goods such as
silks, fine ornaments, decorative items,
weapons, paper and so on.

4. Karkhanas
Karkhanas (workshops) were set up, for
crafts such as weaving, leather working,
metalworking, and paper-making. Large
numbers of mansons, sculptors, etc., were
employed to build public works and
monuments. Learning and cultural activities
also flourished . All this led to rapid
urbanization (town development) at these
centres.

5. Administrative Centres, Temple Towns, Pilgrimage
Centres
•Thanjavur, situated on the banks of river Kaveri in Tamil-Nadu, was the capital of the
Chola dynasty a thousand years ago.
•It was a busy commercial town with markets for grains, spices, cloth, and jewellery. And
water was supplied to its people and visitors from big wells and tanks.
•Its architecture included different temples and palaces with
'mandapas' (pavallions) that were used by kings to hold courts and carry out their
administrative affairs. But they were also used as prayer halls, and some even housed
religious dancing and music concerts.
•So Thanjavur is also an example of a temple town, where urbanisation (town
development) happened as temples became central to society and economy.

7. •Temples were built by rulers not only to show their devotion but also to unify
different communities. And they were maintained through cash and land grants from
rulers and merchants, as well as from donations made by pilgrims. Big temples also
used surplus (extra) funds for businesses such as trade and banking.
•To cater to the needs of the pilgrims and of the temples, priests, workers, artisans,
traders, etc. started living in the areas around the temples. This led to the growth of
temple towns such as Somnath in Gujarat, Kanchipuram and Madurai in Tamil Nadu,
Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, and towns around Bhillasvamin (Bhilsa or Vidisha in
Madhya Pradesh).
•Centres of pilgrimage also started turning into townships such as Vrindavan in Uttar
Pradesh and Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu. Ajmer, the city in Rajasthan that was
both the capital of the Chauhans in the 12th century and the suba headquarters of
the Mughals, is a great example of religious co-existence.

8. Large Villages Become
Small Towns
•After the 8th century, many small towns
emerged out of large villages all over the
Indian sub-continent.
•These towns had 'mandapikas' where
markets or (haats) were set up to sell
agricultural produce, horses, salt, camphor,
saffron, betel nut and spices like pepper.
Streets were also set up to help small
businesses and artisans such as potters, oil
pressers, sugar makers, toddy makers, smiths,
and stonemasons.

9. •Samantas (zamindar,
landlords) built forts around
large villages and turned
them into developing towns.
They also collected taxes
from traders and artisans,
and inscriptions in temples
tell us that
some samantas gave away
the rights to collect taxes to
temples.

10. Different Traders
• There were different kinds of traders in
the medieval times, including
the banjaras (nomadic people). And
traders who travelled a lot came
together to form traders' associations
or guilds, the most famous ones being
Manigramam and Nanadesi. They did
this to protect their interests both
within the Indian sub-continent and in
Southeast Asia and China.
• The largest Indian trading groups were
the Chettiyars and Marwari Oswal, and
Gujarati traders such as Hindu Baniyas
and Muslim Bohras.

11. •There was extensive trade with the
ports of the Red Sea, the Persian
Gulf, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and
China. Indian spices and cloth were
exported, and gold, ivory, spices, tin,
Chinese blue pottery, and silver were
imported.
•Many of these products also
reached European markets, and this
attracted European traders to India.
Their arrival once again changed the
structure of trading and towns in
India.

12. Different Towns,
Different Crafts

13. Biddar
Vishwakarma
community
The inlay work in copper and
silver done by the craftspersons
of Bidar (a district in north-east
Karnataka) became very famous
and came to be called bidri (from
Bidar)
Goldsmiths, bronze smiths,
blacksmiths, masons, and
carpenters of the Panchala or the
Vishwakarma community built
many public buildings such as
temples, palaces, tanks,
reservoirs etc.

14. Continued…
Developed towns
As town developed, some aspects of cloth making,
such as cotton cleaning, spinning and dyeing,
became specialised and independent crafts. And
many weavers, such as those from the Saliyar and
the Kaikkolar communities, became very rich and
made donations to temples.

15. A Closer Look
Hampi, Masulipatnam
and Surat
The Architectural
Splendour of Hampi

16. •Hampi is a village in northern Karnataka. It was located in the ruins of
the city of Vijayanagara (once the capital of the the Vijayanagara
Empire).
•By archeological findings, we know that the city was well fortified but
no cementing material was used for binding the bricks or stones, rather
they were wedged together by interlocking.
•The architecture in there was splendid, consisting of the royal
buildings with arches, domes, pillared halls, sculptures, well-designed
gardens and orchards.
•In the 15th and the 16th centuries, Hampi became the centre for
various cultural and commercial activities. The markets consisted of
traders such as Moors (name used for muslim merchants), the Chettis
and the Portuguese.

17. •The cultural activities included celebration of various festivals such as
Mahanavami (known as Navaratri now in the sothern part of India), one
of the most important festivals of Hampi. Temples became the centre
for not only worship but also for the development of various religious
and cultural traditions such as that of 'devadasis' (the temple dancers).
•Archaeologists have also found the Mahanavami platform, that the
kings used to hold meetings and from where they watched various
music and dance performances and wrestling matches.
•Inspite of all these developments, Hampi, the cultural capital, started
deteriorating after the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire, as it was
defeated by the Deccani Sultans- rulers of the Golconda, Bijapur,
Ahmadnagar, Berar and Bidar.

18. Krishnadeva Raya (1509-1530)

19. Surat and Trade

20. •The city of Surat was cosmopolitan as people
of all castes and creeds lived there. During the
Mughal period, Surat, Cambay (present day
Khambhat) and later Ahmedabad carried out
trade with the west.
•It was also called the gate to Mecca as the
pilgrim ships set sail from here.
•In the 17th century, the Portuguese, the
Dutch and the English set up their factories
and warehouses in Surat. Textile industry of
Surat has been famous for its Zari Work
(intricate art of weaving threads of fine gold
and silver) and has a market in West Asia,
Africa and Europe.

21. •Architecture of the city included magnificent buildings, many rest
houses, pleasure parks, huge banking houses (set up by Kathiawad
seths or Mahajans). The 'hundis' (financial instrument developed in the
medieval times for use in trade and credit transactions) of Surat were
honoured in markets of Cairo in Egypt, Basra in Iraq, and Antwerp in
Belgium.
•Towards the end of the 17th century, Surat began to decline as the
trade capital because of many reasons like the decline of the Mughal
Empire and resulting in the loss of markets and productivity, control
over the sea routes by the Portuguese and competition from Bombay
(present day Mumbai) as the East India Company shifted its
headquarters there in 1668. However, Surat is a bustling commercial
centre of Gujarat today.

23. Masulipatam

24. •The town of Masulipatnam is located on the bank of river Krishna.
•In the 17th century, the English and the Dutch East India
Companies tried to control the town as it became the most
important port of the coast near Andhra Pradesh.
•The Golconda rulers established royal monopolies on the sale of
the textiles, spices etc. to prevent the various East India Companies
to control them completely. But due to this competition between
the Golconda nobles, Persian merchants, Telugu Komati Chettis,
and European traders – made the city populous and prosperous.

25. •The Mughals in the 17th century started extending their
power to Golconda and in 1686-1687, Mughal Emperor
Aurangzeb conquered Golconda. Thus the East India
Companies then devised a new policy which described that
the new trading centres should combine the political,
administrative and commercial roles.
•In the 18th century, Masulipatnam declined and lost its
merchants and prosperity as the Company traders moved
to Bombay, Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) and Madras
(present-day Chennai).

27. New Towns and
Traders

28. •In the 16th and the 17th centuries, the English, the Dutch and the
French formed East India Companies in order to expand their
commercial activities in the east.
•Initially they faced a resistence from the local traders, but the
companies soon gained control over the sea routes and forced the local
traders to be their agents and emerged as the commercial and political
superpower of the subcontinent.
•The demand for goods like textiles increased and so the crafts of
spinning, weaving, bleaching, dyeing, etc. expanded greatly as many
people participated in it and the quality of the textiles improved.

29. •But this period saw the decline of the independence of craftspersons as they
now began to work on a system of advance payments which meant that they
had to weave cloth which was already promised to European agents.
Weavers no longer had the liberty of selling their own cloth or weaving
their own patterns.
•The 18th century saw the rise of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras which are
major metropolitan cities today.
•The crafts and commerce also underwent changes as the local or native
artisans and merchants were moved to the 'black towns' (areas set up by the
whites for the blacks or locals) while they occupied the superior residencies
of Fort St George in Madras or Fort St William in Calcutta.

31. Conclusion

32. Things to
Remember

33. Overview
•There were different towns with different functions in the medieval times such as
temple towns, administrative centres, commercial towns famous for arts and
crafts or port towns.
•These towns represented the process of urbanisation.
•After the 8th century, many small towns emerged out of large villages in the
whole subcontinent and tax and the zamindari system developed.
•Extensive trade was carried out with the ports of the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, East
Africa, Southeast Asia, China. The products in turn reached different European
markets and thus due to it, the European traders were drawn to India. Their arrival
changed the scenario of the trading and towns of India.
•Different crafts like Bidri, weaving, cotton cleaning, spinning and dyeing
developed and the architecture included temples, palaces, tanks, reservoirs etc.
•Hampi (village in Karnataka) developed as an architectural splendour and
became the cultural capital of Vijayanagara Kingdom in the 15th and 16th
centuries.

34. •Surat (city in Gujarat) developed as a major trading centre in the
beginning of the 17th century.
•Masulipatnam became a major port of the coast of Andhra Pradesh
in the 17th Century.
•In the 16th and the 17th centuries, the English, the Dutch and the
French formed East India Companies in order to expand their
commercial activities in the east and emerged as the commercial
and political superpower of the subcontinent.
•New arts,crafts and new towns were developed.
•The 18th century saw the rise of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras
which are major metropolitan cities today.

35. Important Glossary
1. Karkhanas – Workshops
2. Dargah – Shrine
3. Mandi – wholesale market
4. Haats – Occasional markets
5. Bohras – Mostly Muslims
6. Hundis – Bills of exchange
7. Sharrafs – moneychangers
8. Guilds – associations
9. Nanadesis – guilds of traders from other kingdoms
10. Zari – Gold or silver thread