trade and architechture

Are they as detailed as those on the coast? Follow the course of the River Ganga and see how it is shown.

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Around 200 years later -Satavahanas became powerful in western India .

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Chinese rulers -sent gifts of silk- Iran and west Asia, About 2000 years ago- fashion

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Compare the following (1) In the middle of the thirteenth century a scholar wanted to copy a book. He did not have enough paper. So he washed the writing off a manuscript he did not want, dried the paper and used it. (2) A century later, if you bought some food in the market you could be lucky and have the shopkeeper wrap it for you in some paper. When was paper more expensive and easily available ? — in the thirteenth or the fourteenth century?

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Discovery of silk making about 7000 years ago The Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas about 2300 years ago Growing demand for silk in the Roman Empire about 2000 years ago Kanishka, the Kushana ruler about 1900 years ago Fa Xian comes to India about 1600 years ago Xuan Zang comes to India, Appar composes devotional poems in praise of Shiva about 1400 years ago

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In this book we will read about the following thousand years, from roughly 700 to 1750 CE. You will notice some continuity in the sources used by historians for the study of this period. They still rely upon coins, inscriptions, architecture and textual records for information.

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Kanishka, 1900 years ago Buddhist council Ashvaghosa Buddhacharita

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Mahayana Buddhism Buddha statues-Mathura,Taxila. bodhisattavas

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Of these six cities, two were very important: Puhar or Kaveripattinam, the port of the Cholas, and Madurai, the capital of the Pandyas.

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Sanskrit into Chinese. Nalanda -Nalanda, (Bihar)

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Silk route:The paths they followed came to be known as the Silk Route.

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Sometimes you cannot read your friend's handwriting and are forced to guess what is written. As a result there are small but significant differences in your copy of your f r iend's work. Manuscript copying is somewhat similar. As scribes copied manuscripts, they also introduced small changes — a word here, a sentence there.

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South India - gold, spices, especially pepper, and precious stones. Roman Empire- black gold. Roman gold coins - south India.

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Techniques of making silk were first invented in China around 7000 years ago.

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The Kushanas were amongst the earliest rulers of subcontinent to issue gold coins.

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The Kushanas, central Asia and north-west India around 2000 years ago. Peshawar and Mathura. Taxila

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The most important ruler of the satavahanas was the gautamiputra shrl Satakarni.

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We know about him from an inscription composed by his mother, Gautami Balashri.

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central asia -seaports at the mouth of the river Indus- Roman Empire.

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demanded and received gifts from the people. tribute from neighbouring areas.

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muvendarT- three chiefs- the Cholas, Cheras, and Pandyas -2300 years ago.

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several sea routes. advantage of the monsoon winds to cross the seas more quickly. Chiefs and kings who controlled the river valleys and the coasts became rich and powerful the sangam poems mention the muvendar.

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two centres of power: one inland, and one on the coast.

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1. Tracing Changes Through A Thousand Years 1 2. New Kings And Kingdoms 16 3. The Delhi Sultans 30 4. The Mughal Empire 45 5. Rulers And Buildings 60

6. Towns, Traders And Craftspersons 75 7. Tribes, Nomads And Settled Communities 91 8. Devotional Paths To The Divine 104 9. The Making Of Regional Cultures 122 10. Eighteenth-Century Political Formations 138

the medieval period a "foreigner" was any stranger who appeared say in a given village, someone who was not a part of that society or culture. (In Hindi the term pardesi might be used to describe such a person and in Persian, ajnabi.)

A city-dweller, therefore, might have regarded a forest-dweller as a "foreigner", but two peasants living in the same village were not foreigners to each other, even though they may have had different religious or caste backgrounds. Historians and their sources Historians use different types of sources to learn about the past depending upon the period of their study and the nature of their investigation. Last year, for example, you read about rulers of the Gupta dynasty and Harshavardhana.

I t p r o v i d e s a n e x c e l l e n t e x a m p l e o f r e l i g i o u s c o e x i s t e n c e . K h w a j a M u i n u d d i n C h i s h t i , t h e celebrated Sufi saint (see also Chapter 8) who settled there in the twelfth century, attracted devotees from all creeds. Near Ajmer is a lake, Pushkar, which has attracted pilgrims from ancient times.

From the eighth century onwards the subcontinent was dotted with several small towns. These probably emerged from large villages. They usually had a mandapika (or mandi of later times) to which nearby villagers brought their produce to sell. They also had market streets called hatta (haat of later times) lined with shops.

In the political culture of the Middle Ages most rulers displayed their political might and military success by attacking and looting the places of worship of defeated rulers.In what ways do you think the policies of Rajendra I and Mahmud of Ghazni were a product of their times? How were the actions of the two rulers different?

Gardens, Tombs and Forts Under the Mughals, architecture became more complex. Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, and especially Shah Jahan were personal ly interested in literature, art and a r c h i t e c t u r e . I n h i s autobiography, Babur described his interest in planning and laying out formal gardens, placed within rectangular walled enclosures and divided into four quarters by artificial channels

There were several such guilds in south India from the eighth c e n t u r y o nwa r d s - t h e mo s t f amo u s b e i n g t h e Manigramam and Nanadesi. These guilds traded extensively both within the peninsula and with Southeast Asia and China.There were also communities like the Chettiars and the Marwari Oswal who went on to become the principal trading groups of the country.

Gujarati traders, including the communities of Hindu Baniyas and Muslim Bohras, traded extensively with the ports of the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, East Africa, Southeast Asia and China. They sold textiles and spices in these ports and, in exchange, brought gold and ivory from Africa; and spices, tin, Chinese blue pottery and silver from Southeast Asia and China

Archaeologists have found the Mahanavami platform where the king received guests and accepted tribute from subordinate chiefs. F r o m h e r e h e a l s o w a t c h e d d a n c e a n d m u s i c performances as well as wrestling bouts.

H a m p i f e l l i n t o r u i n f o l l o w i n g t h e d e f e a t o f Vijayanagara in 1565 by the Deccani Sultans - the rulers of Golconda, Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Berar and Bidar.

The search for sea routes to India had another, unexpected fallout. On the assumption that the earth was round, Christopher Columbus, an Italian, decided to sail westwards across the Atlantic Ocean to find a route to India.

He landed in the West Indies (which got their name because of this confusion) in 1492. He was followed by sailors and conquerors from Spain and Portugal, who occupied large parts of Central and South amerca,often destroying the settlements in those areas.

The difference is not just with regard to grammar and vocabulary; the meanings of words also change over time. Take the term "Hindustan", for example. Today we understand it as "India", the modern nation state. When the term was used in the thirteenth century by Minhaj-i Siraj, a chronicler who wrote in Persian, he meant the areas of Punjab, Haryana and the lands between the Ganga and Yamuna.

He used the term in a political sense for lands that were a part of the dominions of the Delhi Sultan. The areas included in this term shifted with the extent of the Sultanate but the term never included south India within it. By contrast, in the early sixteenth century Babur used Hindustan to describe the geography, the fauna and the culture of the inhabitants of the subcontinent.

Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus In the fifteenth century European sailors undertook unprecedented explorations of sea routes. They were driven by the desire to find ways of reaching the Indian subcontinent and obtaining spices. Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese sailor, was one of those who sailed across the Atlantic to the African coast, went round it, crossing over to the Indian Ocean.

His first journey took more than a year; he reached Calicut in 1498, and returned to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, the following year. He lost two of his four ships, and of the 170 men at the start of the journey, only 54 survived. In spite of the obvious hazards, the routes that were opened up proved to be extremely profitable - and he was followed by English, Dutch and French sailors.

bagh and built in the tradition known as "eight paradises" or hasht bihisht - a central hall surrounded by eight rooms. The building was constructed with red sandstone, edged with white marble.It was during Shah Jahan's reign that the different elements of Mughal architecture were fused together in a grand harmonious synthesis.

His reign witnessed a huge amount of construction activity especially in Agra and Delhi. The ceremonial halls of public and private audience (diwan-i khas or am) were carefully planned. These courts were also described as chihil sutun or forty-pillared halls, placed within a large courtyard.

As we will see later in the chapter, this was some what similar to the way the fourteenth-century poet Amir Khusrau used the word "Hind". While the idea of a geographical and cultural entity like "India" did exist, the term Hindustan did not carry the political and national meanings which we associate with it today.

Historians have to be careful about the terms they use because they meant different things in the past. Take, for example, a simple term like "foreigner". It is used today to mean someone who is not an Indian. In Can you think of any other words whose meanings change in different contexts?

As each new dynasty came to power, kings wanted to emphasise their moral right to be rulers. Constructing places of worship provided rulers with the chance to proclaim their close relationship with God, especially important in an age of rapid political change. Rulers also offered patronage to the learned and pious, and tried to transform their capitals and cities into great cultural centres that brought fame to their rule and their realm.

Importance of water The Persian terms abad, populated, p r o s p e r o u s , a n d abadi, flourishing, are both der ived from the word ab, meaning water.It was widely believed that the rule of a just king would be an age of plenty when the heavens would not withhold rain. At the same time, making precious water available by c o n s t r u c t i n g t a n k s a n d reservoirs was highly praised. Sultan Iltutmish won universal r e s p e c t f o r c o n s t r u c t i n g a large reservoir just outside Dehli-i kuhna.

The royal charter, however, could not prevent other European powers from entering the Eastern markets. By the time the first English ships sailed down the west coast of Africa, round the Cape of Good Hope, and crossed the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese had already established their presence in the western coast of India, and had their base in Goa.

In fact, it was Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, who had discovered this sea route to India in 1498. By the early seventeenth century, the Dutch too were exploring the possibilities of trade in the Indian Ocean. Soon the French traders arrived on the scene.

Did you know that the British originally came as a small trading company and were reluctant to acquire territories? How then did they come to be masters of a vast empire? In this chapter you will see how this came about. Fig 1# Bahadur Shah Zafar and his sons being arrested by Captain Hodson After Aurangzeb there was no powerful Mughal ruler, but Mughal emperors continued to be symbolically important.

In fact, when a massive rebellion against British rule broke out in 1857, Bahadur Shah Zafar, the Mughal emperor at the time, was seen as the natural leader. Once the revolt was put down by the company, Bahadur Shah Zafar was forced to leave the kingdom, and his sons were shot in cold blood.

Kabul:With its rugged, mountainous landscape, Kabul (in present-day Afghanistan) became politically and commercially important from the sixteenth century onwards. Kabul and Qandahar were linked to the celebrated Silk Route. Besides, trade in horses was primarily carried on through this route.

In the seventeenth century Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a diamond merchant, estimated that the horse trade at Kabul amounted to Rs 30,000 annually, which was a huge sum in those days. Camels carried dried fruits, dates, carpets, silks and even fresh fruits from Kabul to the subcontinent and elsewhere. Slaves were also brought here for sale.

New towns and traders:-In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, European countries were searching for spices and textiles, which had become popular both in Europe and West Asia. The English, Dutch and French formed East India Companies in order to expand their commercial activities in the east.

Initially great Indian traders like Mulla Abdul Ghafur and Virji Vora who owned a large number of ships competed with them. However, the European Companies used their naval power to gain control of the sea trade and forced Indian traders to work as their agents. Ultimately, the English emerged as the most successful commercial and political power in the subcontinent.

A poor fishing town: This is a description of Masulipatnam by William Methwold, a Factor of the English East India Company, in 1620: This is the chief port of Golconda, where the Right Worshipfull East India Company have their Agent.

It is a small town but populous, unwalled, ill built and worse situated; within all the springs are brackish. It was first a poor fisher town ... afterwards, the convenience of the road (a place where ships can anchor) made it a residence for merchants and so continues since our and the Dutch nation frequented this coast.

The first were forts, palaces and tombs - safe, protected and grandiose places of rest in this world and the next; the second were structures meant for public activity including temples, mosques, tanks, wells, caravan serais and bazaars.

Kings were expected to care for their subjects, and by making structures for their use and comfort, rulers hoped to win their praise. Construction activity was also carried out by others, including merchants. They built temples, mosques and wells. However, domestic architecture - large mansions (havelis) of merchants - has survived only from the eighteenth century.

Besides, there were streets for different kinds of artisans such as potters, oil pressers, sugar makers, toddy makers, smiths, stonemasons, etc. While some traders lived in the town, others travelled from town to town.

Many came from far and near to these towns to buy local articles and sell products of distant places like horses, salt, camphor, saffron, betel nut and spices like pepper Usually a samanta or, in later times, a zamindar built a fortified palace in or near these towns.

A section of the world map drawn by the geographer al-Idrisi in the twelfth century showing the Indian sub continent.and there are some well-known names like Kanauj in Uttar Pradesh (spelt in the map as Qanauj).

Map 2 wasmade nearly 600 years after the first, during which time information about the subcontinent had changed considerably. This map seems more familiar to us and the coastal areas in particular are surprisingly detailed. This map was used by European sailors and merchants on their voyages (see Chapter 6). But look at the areas inland.

How trade led to battles Through the early eighteenth century the conflict between the Company and the nawabs of Bengal intensified. After the death of Aurangzeb, the Bengal nawabs asserted their power and autonomy, as other regional powers were doing at that time.

Murshid Quli Khan was followed by Alivardi Khan and then Sirajuddaulah as the Nawab of Bengal. Each one of them was a strong ruler. They refused to grant the Company concessions, demanded large tributes for the Company's right to trade, denied it any right to mint coins, and stopped it from extending its fortifications.

The king took the god's name because it was auspicious and he wanted to appear like a god. Through the rituals of worship in temple one god (rajarajadeva) honoured another (Rajarajeshvaram).The largest temples were all constructed by kings. The other, lesser deities in the temple were gods and goddesses of the allies and subordinates of the ruler. The temple was a miniature model of the world ruled by the king and his allies. As they worshipped their deities together in the royal temples, it seemed as if they brought the just rule of the gods on earth.

Muslim Sultans and Padshahs did not claim to be incarnations of god but Persian court chronicles described the Sultan as the "Shadow of God". An inscription in the Delhi mosque explained that God chose Alauddin as a king because he had the qualities of Moses and Solomon, the great law-givers of the past. The greatest law-giver and architect was God Himself. He created the world out of chaos and introduced order and symmetry.

Equally important is the fact that the science of cartography differed in the two periods. When historians read documents, maps and texts from the past they have to be sensitive to different historical backgrounds - the contexts - in which information about the past was produced.

New and old terminologies If the context in which information is produced changes with time what about languages and meanings? Historical records exist in a variety of languages which have changed considerably over the years. Medieval Persian, for example, is different from modern Persian.

Bronze is an alloy containing copper and tin. Bell metal contains a greater proportion of tin than other kinds of bronze. This produces a bell-like sound. Chola bronze statues (see Chapter 2) were made using the "lost wax" technique.First, an image was made of wax. This was covered with clay and allowed to dry.

Next it was heated, and a tiny hole was made in the clay cover. The molten wax was drained out through this hole. Then molten metal was poured into the clay mould through the hole. Once the metal cooled and solidified, the clay cover was carefully removed, and the image was cleaned and polished. What do you think were the advantages of using this technique?

Figure 1 shows the first balcony of the Qutb Minar. Qutbuddin Aybak had this constructed around 1199. Notice the pattern created under the balcony by the small arches and geometrical designs. Can you find two bands of inscriptions under the balcony? These are in Arabic.

Notice that the surface of the minar is curved and angular. Placing an inscription on such a surface required great precision. Only the most skilled craftperson could perform this taskRemember that very few buildings were made of stone or brick 800 years ago. What would have been the impact of a building like the Qutb Minar on observers in the thirteenth century? Between the eighth and the eighteenth centuries kings and their officers built two kinds of structures:

same text became substantially different from one another. This is a serious problem because we rarely find the original manuscript of the author today. We are totally dependent upon the copies made by later scribes. As a result historians have to read different manuscript versions of the same text to guess what the author had originally written.

On occasion authors revised their chronicles at different times. The fourteenth-century chronicler Ziyauddin Barani wrote his chronicle first in 1356 and another version two years later. The two differ from each other but historians did not know about the existence of the first version until 1971.

Temple authorities used their wealth to finance trade and banking. Gradually a large number of priests, workers, artisans, traders, etc. settled near the temple to cater to its needs and those of the pilgrims. Thus grew temple towns. Towns emerged around temples such as those of Bhillasvamin (Bhilsa or Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh), and Somnath in Gujarat.

Other important temple towns included Kanchipuram and Madurai in Tamil Nadu, and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. Pilgrimage centres also slowly developed into t o w n s h i p s . Vr i n d a v a n ( U t t a r P r a d e s h ) a n d Tiruvannamalai (Tamil Nadu) are examples of two such towns. Ajmer (Rajasthan) was the capital of the Chauhan kings in the twelfth century and later became the suba headquarters under the Mughals.

expensive- imports - silk

Some kings - control large portions of the route. -benefit from taxes, tributes and gifts .In return protection.

The towns on the west coast were home to Arab, Persian, Chinese, Jewish and Syrian Christian traders. Indian spices and cloth sold in the Red Sea ports were purchased by Italian traders and eventually reached European markets, fetching very high profits.

Spices grown in tropical climates (pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, dried ginger, etc.) became an important part of European cooking, and cotton cloth was very attractive. This eventually drew European traders to India. We will shortly read about how this changed the face of trading and towns.

a Sun-pedestal from the Chalukyas, a Ganesha statue and several statues of Durga; a Nandi statue from the eastern Chalukyas; an image of Bhairava (a form of Shiva) and Bhairavi from the Kalingas of Orissa; and a Kali statue from the Palas of Bengal.

Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni was a contemporary of Rajendra I. During his campaigns in the subcontinent he also attacked the temples of defeated kings and looted their wealth and idols. Sultan Mahmud was not a very important ruler at that time. But by destroying temples - especially the one at Somnath - he tried to win credit as a great hero of Islam.

Churches that touched the skies From the twelfth century onwards, attempts began in France to build churches that were taller and lighter than earlier buildings. This architectural style, known as Gothic, was distinguished by high pointed arches, the use of stained glass, often painted with scenes drawn from the Bible, and flying buttresses.

Tall spires and bell towers which were visible from a distance were added to the church. One of the best-known examples of this architectural style is the church of Notre Dame i n P a r i s , wh i c h wa s c o n s t r u c t e d through several decades in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Some distance away at Svamimalai ,the sthapat is o r sculptors are making exquisite bronze idols and tall, ornamental bell metal lamps. Thanjavur is also an example of a temple town. Temple t o w n s r e p r e s e n t a v e r y i m p o r t a n t p a t t e r n o f urbanisation, the process by which cities develop.

Temples were often central to the economy and society. Rulers built temples to demonstrate their devotion to various deities. They also endowed temples with grants of land and money to carry out elaborate rituals, feed pilgrims and priests and celebrate festivals. Pilgrims who flocked to the temples also made donations. Why do you think people regarded Thanjavur as a great town?

In its heyday in the fifteenthsixteenth centuries, Hampi bustled with commercial and cultural activities. Moors (a name used collectively f o r Mu s l im me r c h a n t s ) , C h e t t i s a n d a g e n t s o f E u r o p e a n t r a d e r s s u c h a s the Portuguese, thronged the markets of Hampi.

Temples were the hub of c u l t u r a l a c t i v i t i e s a n d devadasis (temple dancers) performed before the deity, royalty and masses in the many-pillared halls in the Virupaksha (a form of Shiva) temple. The Mahanavami festival, known today as Navaratri in the south, was one of the most important f e s t i v a l s c e l e b r a t e d a t Hampi.

The eighteenth century saw the rise of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, which are nodal cities today. Crafts and commerce underwent major changes as merchants and artisans (such as weavers) were moved into the Black Towns established by the European companies within these new cities.

The "blacks" or native traders and craftspersons were confined here wh i l e t h e "wh i t e " r u l e r s o c c u p i e d t h e s u p e r i o r residencies of Fort St George in Madras or Fort St William in Calcutta. The story of crafts and commerce in the eighteenth century will be taken up next year.

king, Sena I (831-851), the Buddhist monk and chronicler Dhammakitti noted: "he removed all the valuables ... The statue of the Buddha made entirely of gold in the Jewel Palace ... and the golden images in the various monasteries - all these he seized." The blow to the pride of the Sinhalese ruler had to be avenged and the next Sinhalese ruler, Sena II, ordered his general to invade Madurai, the capital of the Pandyas.

The Buddhist chronicler noted that the expedition made a special effort to find and restore the gold statue of the Buddha.Similarly in the early eleventh century, when the Chola king Rajendra I built a Shiva temple in his capital he filled it with prized statues seized from defeated rulers. An incomplete list included:

Accusing the Company of deceit, they claimed that the Company was depriving the Bengal government of huge amounts of revenue and undermining the authority of the nawab. It was refusing to pay taxes, writing disrespectful letters, and trying to humiliate the nawab and his officials.

The Company on its part declared that the unjust demands of the local officials were ruining the trade of the Company, and trade could flourish only if the duties were removed. It was also convinced that to expand trade it had to enlarge its settlements, buy up villages, and rebuild its forts.The conflicts led to confrontations and finally culminated in the famous Battle of Plassey.

these walls are not like those of other cities, but are made of very strong masonry such as would be found in few other parts, and inside very beautiful rows of buildings made after their manner with flat roofs. Why do you think the city was fortified?

The architecture of Hampi was distinctive. The buildings in the royal complex had splendid arches, domes and pillared halls with niches for holding sculptures. They also had well-planned orchards and pleasure gardens with sculptural motifs such as the lotus and corbels.

A gateway to west: Surat in Gujarat was the emporium of western trade during the Mughal period along with Cambay (presentday Khambat) and somewhat later, Ahmedabad. Surat was the gateway for trade with West Asia via the Gulf of Ormuz. Surat has also been called the gate to Mecca because many pilgrim ships set sail from here.

The city was cosmopolitan and people of all castes and creeds lived there. In the seventeenth century the Portuguese, Dutch and English had their factories and war ehouses at Surat . Accor ding to the Engl ish chronicler Ovington who wrote an account of the port in 1689, on average a hundred ships of different countries could be found anchored at the port at any given time

S h a h J a h a n ' s a u d i e n c e h a l l s we r e s p e c i a l l y constructed to resemble a mosque. The pedestal on which his throne was placed was frequently described as the qibla, the direction faced by Muslims at prayer, since everybody faced that direction when court was in session. The idea of the king as a representative of God on earth was suggested by these architectural features

The connection between royal justice and the imperial court was emphasised by Shah Jahan in his newly constructed court in the Red Fort at Delhi. Behindthe emperor's throne were a series of pietra dura inlays that depicted the legendary Greek god Orpheus playing the lute. It was believed that Orpheus's music could calm ferocious beasts until they resided together peaceably.

They levied taxes on traders, artisans and articles of trade and sometimes "donated" the "right" to collect these taxes to local temples, which had been built by themselves or by rich merchants. These "rights" were recorded in inscriptions that have survived to this day.

The following is a summary from a tenth-century inscription from Rajasthan, which lists the dues that were to be collected by temple authorities: There were taxes in kind on: Sugar and jaggery, dyes, thread, and cotton, On coconuts, salt, areca nuts, butter, sesame oil, On cloth.

Mughal rulers were particularly skilled in adapting regional architectural styles in the construction of their own buildings. In Bengal, for example, the local rulers had developed a roof that was designed to resemble a thatched hut. The Mughals liked this "Bangla dome" (see Fig. ... in Chapter 9) so much that they used it in their architecture.

The impact of other regions was also evident. In Akbar's capital at Fatehpur Sikri many of the buildings bear the impact of the architectural styles of Gujarat and Malwa.Even though the authority of the Mughal rulers waned in the eighteenth century, the architectural styles developed under their patronage were constantly used and adapted by other rulers whenever they tried to establish their own kingdoms

B e s i d e s t h e t e m p l e , t h e r e a r e p a l a c e s w i t h mandapas or pavilions. Kings hold court in these mandapas, issuing orders to their subordinates. There are also barracks for the army.

The town is bustling with markets selling grain, spices, cloth and jewellery. Water supply for the t own c ome s f r om we l l s a n d t a n k s . T h e S a l i y a we a v e r s o f T h a n j a v u r a n d t h e n e a r b y t own o f Uraiyur are busy producing cloth for flags to be used in the temple festival, fine cottons for the king and nobility and coarse cotton for the masses.

Tracing Changes Through A Thousand Years take a look at Maps 1 and 2. Map 1 was made in 1154 CE. by the Arab geographer al-Idrisi. The section reproduced here is a detail of the Indian subcontinent from his larger map of the world. Map 2 was made in the 1720s by a French cartographer.

The two maps are quite different even though they are of the same area. In al-Idrisi's map, south India is where we would expect to find north India and Sri Lanka is the island at the top. Place-names are marked in Arabic, A person who makes maps.

There were also several retail and wholesale shops selling cotton textiles. The textiles of Surat were famous for their gold lace borders (zari) and had a market in West Asia, Africa and Europe. The state built numerous rest-houses to take care of the needs of people from all over the world who came to the city.

There were magnificent buildings and innumerable pleasure p a r k s T h e K a t h i a w a d s e t h s o r m a h a j a n s (moneychangers) had huge banking houses at Surat. It is noteworthy that the Surat hundis were honoured in the far-off markets of Cairo in Egypt, Basra in Iraq and Antwerp in Belgium.

These gardens were cal led c h a h a r b a g h, f o u r g a r d e n s , because of their symmetrical division into quarters. Beginning with Akbar, some of the most beaut i ful chahar baghs were constructed by Jahangir and Shah Jahan in Kashmir, Agra and Delhi (see Fig. 9).

There were several important architectural innovations during Akbar's reign. For inspiration, Akbar's architects turned to the t o m b s o f h i s C e n t r a l A s i a n ancestor, Timur. The central towering dome and the tall gateway (pishtaq) became important aspects of Mughal architecture, first visible in Humayun's tomb. It was placed in the centre of a huge formal chahar

Besides, there were taxes on traders, on those who sold metal goods, on distillers, on oil, on cattle fodder, and on loads of grain. Some of these taxes were collected in kind, while others were collected in cash. Traders big and small:There were many kinds of traders.

These included the Banjaras (see also Chapter 7). Several traders, especially horse traders, formed associations, with headmen who negotiated on their behalf with warriors who bought horses. Since traders had to pass through many kingdoms and forests, they usually travelled in caravans and formed guilds to protect their interests.

widely available. People used it to write holy texts,chronicles of rulers, letters and teachings of saints, petitions and judicial records, and for registers of accounts and taxes. Manuscripts were collected by wealthy people, rulers, monasteries and temples. They were placed in libraries and archives.

These manuscripts and documents provide a lot of detailed information to historians but they are also difficult to use. There was no printing press in those days so scribes copied manuscripts by hand. If you have ever copied a friend's homework you would know that this is not a simple exercise.

The construction of Shah Jahan's audience hall aimed to communicate that the king's justice would treat the high and the low as equals where all could live together in harmony.In the early years of his reign, Shah Jahan's capital was at Agra, a city where the nobility had constructed their homes on the banks of the river Yamuna.

These were set in the midst of formal gardens constructed in the chahar bagh format. The chahar bagh garden also had a variation that historians describe as the "riverfront garden". In this the dwelling was not located in the middle of the chahar bagh but at its edge, close to the bank of the river.

The spurt in demand for goods like textiles led to a great expansion of the crafts of spinning, weaving, bleaching, dyeing, etc. with more and more people taking them up. Indian text i le designs became increasingly refined. However, this period also saw the decline of the independence of craftspersons.

They now began to work on a system of advances 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. They had to reproduce the designs supplied to them by the Company agents.

Labour for the Agra Fort Built by Akbar, the Agra Fort required 2,000 stone-cutters, 2,000 cement and l ime -ma k e r s a n d 8,000 labourers.Engineering Skills and Construction:- Monuments provide an insight into the technologies used for construction. Take something like a roof for example. We can make this by placing wooden beams or a slab of stone across four walls. But the task becomes difficult if we want to make a large room with an elaborate superstructure.

This requires more sophisticated skills.Between the seventh and tenth centuries architects started adding more rooms, doors and windows to buildings. Roofs, doors and windows were still made by placing a horizontal beam across two vertical columns, a style of architecture called "trabeate" or "corbelled". Between the eighth and thirteenth centuries the trabeate style was used in the construction of temples, mosques, tombs and in buildings attached to large stepped-wells (baolis).

wheel in irrigation, the spinning wheel in weaving, and firearms in combat. New foods and beverages arrived in the subcontinent: potatoes, corn, chillies, tea and coffee. Remember that all these innovations - new technologies and crops - came along with people, who brought other ideas with them as well. As a result, this was a period of economic, political, social and cultural changes.

This was also a period of great mobility. Groups of people travelled long distances in search of opportunity. The subcontinent held immense wealth and the possibilities for people to carve a fortune. One group of people who became important in this period were the Rajputs, a name derived from "Rajaputra", the son of a ruler.

The urge to secure markets therefore led to fierce battles between the trading companies. Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries they regularly sank each other's ships, blockaded routes, and prevented rival ships from moving with supplies of goods.

Trade was carried on with arms and trading posts were protected through fortification.This effort to fortify settlements and carry on profitable trade also led to intense conflict with local rulers. The company therefore found it difficult to separate trade from politics. Let us see how this happened.

It was called the hauz-i Sultani or the "King's Reservoir". Can you find it on Map 1 in Chapter 3? Rulers often constructed tanks and reservoirs - big and small - for use by ordinary people. Sometimes these tanks and reservoirs were part of a temple, mosque (note the small tank in the jami masjid in Fig. 7) or a gurudwara (a place of worship and congregation for Sikhs, Fig. 8).

Why were Temples Destroyed? Because kings built temples to demonstrate theirdevotion to God and their power and wealth, it is not surprising that when they attacked one another's kingdoms, they often targeted these buildings. In the early ninth century when the Pandyan king Shrimara Shrivallabha invaded Sri Lanka and defeated the

East India Company Comes East In 1600, the East India Company acquired a charter from the ruler of England, Queen Elizabeth I, granting it the sole right to trade with the East. This meant that no other trading group in England could compete with the East India Company.

With this charter the Company could venture across the oceans, looking for new lands from which it could buy goods at a cheap price, and carry them back to Europe to sell at higher prices. The Company did not have to fear competition from other English trading companies. Mercantile trading companies in those days made profit primarily by excluding competition, so that they could buy cheap and sell dear.

Bodhisattavas-Central Asia, China, and later to Korea and Japan;western and southern India

cave monasteries -passes-Western Ghats. Roads connecting prosperous ports on the coast with cities in the Deccan ran through these passes.

They also played an important role in the construction of palaces, big buildings, tanks and reservoirs. Similarly, weavers such as the Saliyar or Kaikkolars emerged as prosperous communities, making donations to temples. Some aspects of cloth making like cotton cleaning, spinning and dyeing became specialised and independent crafts

changing fortunes of towns:Some towns like Ahmedabad (Gujarat) went on to become major commercial cities but others like Thanjavur shrank in size and importance over the centuries. Murshidabad (West Bengal) on the banks of the Bhagirathi, which rose to prominence as a centre for silks and became the capital of Bengal in 1704, declined in the course of the century as the weavers faced competition from cheap mill-made cloth from England.

Satavahana rulers -lords of the dakshinapatha

controlled eastern western and southern coasts

Gems + gold -Himalayas, Sandalwood -western hills, The pearls - southern seas

corals-eastern oceans The yield - Ganga crops -Kaveri, Foodstuffs - Sri Lanka, pottery - Myanmar

In the seventeenth century Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a diamond merchant, estimated that the horse trade at Kabul amounted to Rs 30,000 annually, which was a huge sum in those days. Camels carried dried fruits, dates, carpets, silks and even fresh fruits from Kabul to the subcontinent and elsewhere. Slaves were also brought here for sale.

crafts in town: The craftspersons of Bidar were so famed for their inlay work in copper and silver that it came to be called Bidri. The Panchalas or Vishwakarma community, consisting of goldsmiths, bronzesmiths, blacksmiths, masons and carpenters, were essential to the building of temples.

2000 years ago christianity - west asia,africa and europe west asian preachers- 100 years of christs death

kerala christians-syrian christians west asians -oldest christian communities

Fa Xian- 2 ships java-90 days

northwest and central asia- land route statues of gold and silver buddhas sandal wood over 600 manuscripts 50 were lost-crossing indus

However, Surat began to decline towards the end of the seventeenth century. This was because of many factors: the loss of markets and productivity because

of the decline of the Mughal Empire, control of the sea routes by the Portuguese and competition from Bombay (present-day Mumbai) where the English East India Company shifted its headquarters in 1668. Today, Surat is a bustling commercial centre.

Shah Jahan adapted the river-front garden in the layout of the Taj Mahal, the grandest architectural accomplishment of his reign. Here the white marble mausoleum was placed on a terrace by the edge of the river and the garden was to its south. Shah Jahan

strongly influenced by the style of architecture found in the adjoining Sultanates of Bijapur and Golcunda (see Chapter 6). In Vrindavan, near Mathura, temples were constructed in architectural styles that were very similar to the Mughal palaces in Fatehpur Sikri.The creation of large empires that brought different r e g i o n s u n d e r t h e i r r u l e h e l p e d i n t h i s c r o s s - fertilisation of artistic forms and architectural styles.

South eastwards, to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia.

theravad buddhism

The Architectural Splendour of Hampi : Hampi is located in the Krishna-Tungabhadra basin, wh i c h f o r me d t h e n u c l e u s o f t h e Vi j a y a n a g a r a Empire, founded in 1336. The magnificent ruins at Hampi reveal a well-fortified city. No mortar or cementing agent was used in the construction of

these walls and the technique followed was to wedge them together by interlocking.Fortified city: This is how a Portuguese traveller, Domingo Paes, described Hampi in the sixteenth century: ... at the entrance of the gate where those pass who come from Goa, this king has made within it a very strong city fortified with walls and towers;

What would a traveller visiting a medieval town expect to find? This would depend on what kind of a town it was - a temple town, an administrative centre, a commercial town or a port town to name just some possibilities. In fact, many towns combined several functions - they were administrative centres, temple towns, as well as centres of commercial activities and craft production.

Administrative centres: You read about the Chola dynasty in Chapter 2. Let's travel in our imagination to Thanjavur, the capital of the Cholas, as it was a thousand years ago. The perennial river Kaveri flows near this beautiful town. One hears the bells of the Rajarajeshvara temple built by King Rajaraja Chola. The townspeople are all praise for i ts ar chi tect Kunjaramal lan Rajaraja Perunthachchan who has proudly carved his name on the temple wall. Inside is a massive Shiva linga

path of bhakti bhagavadgita bhaj -'to divide or share.' Bhagavat

Appar-tamil poet vellala a devotee of Shiva, 1400 years ago. Hindu-arabs and iranians

Aurangzeb was the last of the powerful Mughal rulers. He established control over a very large part of the territory that is now known as India. After his death in 1707, many Mughal governors (subadars) and big zamindars began asserting their authority and establishing regional kingdoms.

As powerful regional kingdoms emerged in various parts of India, Delhi could no longer function as an effective centre. By the second half of the eighteenth century, however, a new power was emerging on the political horizon - the British.

This caused the European Companies to look for alternatives. It was a part of the new policy of the English East India Company that it was not enough if a port had connections with the production centres of the hinterland. The new Company trade centres, it was felt, should combine political, administrative and commercial roles.

As the Company traders moved to Bombay, Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) and Madras (present-day Chennai), Masulipatnam lost both its merchants and prosperity and declined in the course of the eighteenth century, being today nothing more than a dilapidated little town.

The Qutb Shahi rulers of Golconda imposed royal monopolies on the sale of textiles, spices and other items to prevent the trade passing completely into the hands of the various East India Companies.Fierce competition among various trading groups - the Golconda nobles, Persian merchants, Telugu Komati Chet t is, and Eur opean t raders - made the ci ty populous and prosperous.

As the Mughals began to extend their power to Golconda their representative, the governor Mir Jumla who was also a merchant, began to play off the Dutch and the English against each other. In 1686-1687 Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb annexed Golconda.

East India Company begins trade in Bengal The first English factory was set up on the banks of the river Hugli in 1651. This was the base from which the Company's traders, known at that time as "factors", operated. The factory had a warehouse where goods for export were stored, and it had offices where Company officials sat.

As trade expanded, the Company persuaded merchants and traders to come and settle near the factory. By 1696 it began building a fort around the settlement. Two years later it bribed Mughal officials into giving the Company zamindari rights over three villages.

It remained lost in large library collections. New social and political groups The study of the thousand years between 700 and 1750 is a huge challenge to historians largely because of the scale and variety of developments that occurred over the period.

At different moments in this period new technologies made their appearance — like the Persian Different kinds of handwriting could make the reading of Persian and Arabic difficult. The nastaliq style (on the left) is cursive and easy to read, the shikaste (on the right) is denser and more difficult.

One of these was Kalikata, which later grew into the city of Calcutta or Kolkata as it is known today. It also persuaded the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb to issue a farman granting the Company the right to trade duty free. The Company tried continuously to press for more concessions and manipulate existing privileges.

Aurangzeb's farman, for instance, had granted only the Company the right to trade duty free.But officials of the Company, who were carrying on private trade on the side, were expected to pay duty. This they refused to pay, causing an enormous loss of revenue for Bengal. How could the Nawab of Bengal, Murshid Quli Khan, not protest?

fishing in toubled waters:masulipatnam:-The town of Masulipatnam or Machlipatnam (literally,fish port town) lay on the delta of the Krishna river. In the seventeenth century it was a centre of intense activity.

Both the Dutch and English East India Companies attempted to control Masulipatnam as it became the most important port on the Andhra coast. The fort at Masulipatnam was built by the Dutch

Two technological and stylistic developments are noticeable from the twelfth century. (1) The weight of the superstructure above the doors and windows was sometimes carried by arches. This architectural form was called "arcuate". (2) Limestone cement was increasingly used in construction. This was very high quality cement, which, when mixed with stone chips hardened into concrete. This made construction of large structures easier and faster

Building Temples, Mosques and Tanks Temples and mosques were beautifully constructed because they were places of worship. They were also meant to demonstrate power and wealth devotion of the patron. Take the example of the Rajarajeshvara temple. An inscription mentions that it was built by King Rajarajadeva for the worship of his god, Rajarajeshvaram. Notice how the name of the ruler and the god are very similar.

The problem was that all the companies were interested in buying the same things. The fine qualities of cotton and silk produced in India had a big market in Europe. Pepper, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon too were in great demand.

Competition amongst the European companies inevitably pushed up the prices at which these goods could be purchased, and this reduced the profits that could be earned. The only way the trading companies could flourish was by eliminating rival competitors.

pilgrims-traders Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, Fa Xian, - 1600 years ago, Xuan Zang -1400 years ago I-Qing,- 50 years after Xuan Zang.

Fa Xian returned to China Fa Xian began his journey back home from Bengal