ECONOMY OF GOLCONDA jDURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ABSTRACT THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE O^ Bottor of $()iIosfoptip IN HISTORY BY SEEMA SINGH TO ' V>je Supervisor PROFESSOR IRFAN HABIB nrA-^si CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH 1989 ctrr t\r^ iffES^S ABSTRACT (1) . The present tnesis deals mth the Economy of Golconda during the s-venteer.th century, down to its annexation to the Mughal enpire in 1687. There has up till now been no monograph devoted to t)iis sutjcct, Uiough the works of nxjdern historians like Tap an Raycr audhuri dnj ^J'esaretnaTi tjuch upon this ther^ie, they have approcch'-d it i-u-iinly from the pC'int of view of over­ sea commerce. Our ovm sources are mainly European too (traveller's accounts and Englii^n and Dutch Company records), but the Per­ sian material has also oeen investigated, both historical works and archival sources. It has been argued that the economy of Golconda v/as primarily agrarian, vath rice as the st^le product. Pupart from seasonal rainfall, irrigation was provided through tanks, means of water-lift such as i±ie Persian v;heel appear to have been absent. The resources of the kingdom were received from dif­ ferent channels, MOart from agrcirian taxation, the revenues were also extracted from diamond mines and the ports. Tax farming was quite prevalent and this naturally led to an exce­ ssive press-ULe on the rui al population. In the seventeenth century the i;utoshdl-i tried to add to his revenues by stressing receipts only in 'old p igodas', no longer minted and therefore rising in value. • • • ^ (2) On the other hand, the tribute paid by the Qu^^bshlh to the Mughals amounting to 8 lakhs of rupees annually. The tribute doubtless if^pre-ented resources lost to Golconda, but it seems to have been spent by Mughal administration in the Deccan just across the border, and not carried to Mughal Court in the north. Textiles arid the diaTionds were the most important industries. The painted 'chintz' was unique and had a wDrld market. Similarly diamonds maintained large population as miners and generated a very specialised trade. The thesis studies the considerable evidence available on the organisa­ tion of t±ie mines and the trade in tnis product. The over-sea commerce of the kingdom appears to have benefitted considerably from the arrival of the European Companies, which in the net seem to have supplemented rather than substitute for indigenous commerce. The Eutch provided Golconda cloth a largo market in South East Asia, but it can­ not be said with any certainty that the trade had not pre­ viously existed. An effort is made to study the position of the mercan­ tile classes in Goicondr'. Uniortunately the data we have on the participation ol tiie Indian merchants in over-sea trade do not enable us either to support or to contest Steensgaard's thesis of the peddling nature of pre-Company indigenous com­ merce. ECONOMY OF GOLCONDA DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF Boctot of ${)tlostop(ip IN HISTORY BY SEEMA SINGH Supervisor PROFESSOR IRFAN HABIB CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALiGARH 1989 ^. .'p^^ ae&'C^ ^.C\c*i > T4457 1 -^O C3 , 1 - JUL 1954 ^^rr^'^V-'^ 19^56-9^ Aclmowledgements My gratitude to my Supervisor, Professor Irfan Habib, is far beyond the reach of expression, who was not only generous with his time but took personal interest in my work. Professor Shireen Moosvi was generous enough to provide me material for which I am thankful to her. I snould like to thank Persian teacher, Mr Habibtillah, for his guidance in Persian translation, I am also thankful to Mr Zahoor Ali Khan and Mr Faiz Habib for tneir help in drawing the map. My grateful thanks are due to all my research colleagues who helped and encouraged me in writing this thesis especially Jawaid Akhtar, Farhat Hasan, Fatima Ahmad Imam and SumbiiL Haleem Khan, I am indebted to Mr Rahmat Ali Khan, Documentation Officer, Salar Jang Museum, Hyderabad, for much of his help at the Museum Library. Dr Najmuddin helped me by providing material from the private collection of Raja of Wanaparthy, Hyderabad, for which I am grateful to him. Mr Zakir Hussain, Archivist, National Archives of India, extended his full co­ operation to find some related material from the Archives for which I am i-hankful to him. (ii) I am indebted to the staff of the Research Library, Department of History, AMU, especially to Mr Arshad Ali, Mr M. Yusuf Siddiqi and Mr Noor Ahmad for their help; staff of Maulana Azad Library, AMU; National Archives of India, New Delhi, Delhi School of Economics, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, Salar Jang Museum, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh Archives, Hyderabad, and Central Library, Hyderabad, gave me their full cooperation for which I am thankful to them. Constant encouragement from my family enabled me to complete this work, I am highly obliged to Mr Aftab Afridi for his patience with my scripts and typing it speedily and accurately. (Seema Singh) CONTENTS Pages Introduction : I Agriculture 18 II Agrarian and Fiscal System 29 III The Tribute 58 IV Industries 67 V Prices 96 VI Towns 107 VII Money and Bills of Exchange 130 VIII Commodities :n Foreign Trade 139 IX Shipping and Comrrerce with Asian Countries 173 X European Companies 182 Conclusion : 203 Appendix I 206 (Comparison of Jama' and Hasil) Appendix II 215 (Vv'eights and Pleasures) 217 Abbrevi ations : 220 Bibliography: Map (Facing Page 18) •k-k-k-k-k-kf. -k-k k-kk-k ki^ * k -k-k-k-k •k-k k k (1) The present thesis deals with economic history of Golconda during the 17th century. The kingdom of Golconda anerged as an independent kingdom in the 16th 'century and survived for more than a hundred years (1512-1687). The kingdom was situated on the eastern side of the Deccan plateau. The Mughal sub a of Berar adjoined it to the north; and the sub a of Orissa on the north-east. On the west it had the kingdoms of Ahmad- nagar, Bidar and Bijapur. On the south by the early 17th century, it extended to Penner river from the territories of the Vijayanagar onpire. Physio graphically, tlie kingdom may be divided into tvK> zoneS/ viz, the coastal plains and the uplands running parallel to tiiem in the west. The major rivers draining it - - — 2 are the Godavari, Krishna aiid Penner. The coastal area of the region contained important ports like Masulipatam, Nizampattan, Pulicut and later on Madras. In the south-east v*iere a portion of 'Carnatic' then called Karnataki-Hyderabad! was included in the kingdom, the 1. The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Delhi, Vol. XIII, p. 227. 2. Irfan Haoib, An Atlas of the Mughal anpire, Delhi, 1982, ISA. • • • ^ (2) hills are baie of vegetation. The soil is sandy and does not retain moisture and the rivers run dry during stammer. "^ A considerable forest belt extended to the north of the kingdom, _ -2 across the Godavari. About two thirds of annual rainfall is registered during the south-west monsoon^ the first showers of which be­ gin to fall in May. The precipitation in the coastal tracts, as at Masulipatam is considerably heavier than in the in-land regions. The founder of the kingdom was Sult.3n Qull, a native of Hamadah in Persia. He came to India as an adventurer and was taken in the service of the Bahmani Sultan Shihabuddin Mahmud. He earned rapid promotions and became the Governor of the province of Tilangana, vdth the title of Qutbul Mulk. By 1512/ the province became almost independent and only owed theoretical allegiance to the Bahmani Sultan. Cutbul Mulk 4 ^ died as a noble and not as a king. In I5 30's Sultan Quli invaded Vi jay an agar and after the battle of Palaukchipur a 1. The Imperial Gazetteer-, Vol. XIII, p. 227. 2* An Atlas of the Mughal Qnpir^e, 16B. 3. The Imperial Gazetteer, Vol. XVI, p. 32], 4. H.K. Sherwani, History of Qutbshahi Dynasty, New Delhi, 1974, p. 33. * • • o (3) treaty was signed according to which the whole of the Tilan- gana coast fell into hands of Sultan Quli. After this he was able to rule over the Godavari-Krishna doab as far as Ellore in the centre and Rajmundari in the north. Now Krishna was fixed as che frontier between Golconda and Vijaynagar. He also annexed -the territories of Kohir, Nalgonda and Kondvidu. The kingdom passed through a series of political dis­ turbances for seven years after the death of Sultan QulT, but conditions stabilized under Ibrahim Qutbsh5h (1550-1580). Ibrshim was the first real sovereign of Golconda. The 2 coins of tile period also bear testimony to this. The four combined forces of the Deccan^ Bij^ur, Golconda/ Ahmadnagar and Berar defeated Ram Raj of Vijaynagar in the battle of Bannihatti (1566), initiating the decline of the Vijaynagar empire and making it possible for Golconda and Bijapur to ex­ pand southwards at its expense, Ibrahim Qutbshah also extend­ ed the frontiers of Golconda in the north-east by conquering 3 Chandabam in 1574. Ibrahim was succeeded by Muhammad QulI Qutbshah (1580-1612). He maintained good relations with the Shah of Persia. During his reign Hyderabad was established as the 1. Sherwani, p. 33. 2. Ibid. 3. Sherwani, p. 156. ...4 (4) new capital on the southern banks of river Musi."'" Muhammad Quli Qutbshah was succeeded by Sultan Muhammad Qutbshah (1612-1626).