Trade and Traders: an Exploration Into Trading Communities and Their Activities in Early Medieval Odisha

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 ofclay bullae and caltrop from settlements such as Sisupalgarh and punch-marked and

Studies in People’s History, 6, 2 (2019): 134–145 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.

Studies in People’s History, 6, 2 (2019): 134–145 136 / Bhairabi Prasad Sahu 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 important 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 centuries ad, though admittedly, the earlier Mauryan presence and the rise of the Chedis might have stimulated a process of internal transformation across localities.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.

Studies in People’s History, 6, 2 (2019): 134–145 138 / Bhairabi Prasad Sahu 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.

Studies in People’s History, 6, 2 (2019): 134–145 Trade and traders: An exploration into trading communities / 139 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 inscription 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.

Studies in People’s History, 6, 2 (2019): 134–145 140 / Bhairabi Prasad Sahu 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 mention 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.

Studies in People’s History, 6, 2 (2019): 134–145 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 brazier 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 century) 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 mentions 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 professionals 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.

Studies in People’s History, 6, 2 (2019): 134–145 142 / 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 different 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 calledlavanakarādhikari ,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.

Studies in People’s History, 6, 2 (2019): 134–145 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 century 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.

Studies in People’s History, 6, 2 (2019): 134–145 144 / 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.

Studies in People’s History, 6, 2 (2019): 134–145 Trade and traders: An exploration into trading communities / 145 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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