Themes in Indian Hry-II.pdf

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THEMES IN

PART II

INDIAN HISTORY


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Textbook in History

for Class XII

THEMES IN

PART II

INDIAN HISTORY


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F i r st E d i t i o n

May 2007 Va is ak ha 1929

Rep r i n t e dDecember 2007 Pausa 1 929

January 2009 Magha 1930

PD 60T MJ

Na t i o n a l Co u n c i l of E d u c a t i o n a l Res ea r c h and T r a i n i n g , 2007

Rs 65.00

Printed on 80 GSM paper w ith NCERTw atermark

Published at the Publication Departmentby the Secretary, National Council ofEducational Research and Training,

Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi 110 016and printed at Shakun Printers, 241,Patparganj Ind. Area, Delhi - 110 092.

ISBN 81-7450-651-9 (Part I)

81-7450-753-3 (Part II)

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or

transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade, be lent,re-sold, hired out or otherwise disposed of without the publishers consent, in any

form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

The correct price of this publication is the price printed on this page, Any revisedprice indicated by a rubber stamp or by a sticker or by any other means is incorrectand should be unacceptable.

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FOREWORD

The Nat iona l Curr icu lum Fram ework(NCF), 2005, recommends thatchildrens life at school must be linked to their life outside the school.

This principle marks a departure from the legacy of bookish learning

which continues to shape our system and causes a gap between the

school, home and community. The syllabi and textbooks developed on

the basis of NCF signify an attempt to implement this basic idea. They

also attempt to discourage rote learning and the maintenance of sharp

boundaries between different subject areas. We hope these measures

will take us significantly further in the direction of a child-centred system

of education outlined in theNational Pol icy on Ed ucat ion(1986).

The success of this effort depends on the steps that school

principals and teachers will take to encourage children to reflect ontheir own learning and to pursue imaginative activities and questions.

We must recognise that, given space, time and freedom, children

generate new knowledge by engaging with the information passed on

to them by adults. Treating the prescribed textbook as the sole basis

of examination is one of the key reasons why other resources and sites

of learning are ignored. Inculcating creativity and initiative is possible

if we perceive and treat children as participants in learning, not as

receivers of a fixed body of knowledge.

These aims imply considerable change in school routines and mode

of functioning. Flexibility in the daily time-table is as necessary as

rigour in implementing the annual calendar so that the required

number of teaching days are actually devoted to teaching. The methods

used for teaching and evaluation will also determine how effective this

textbook proves for making childrens life at school a happy experience,

rather than a source of stress or boredom. Syllabus designers have

tried to address the problem of curricular burden by restructuring

and reorienting knowledge at different stages with greater consideration

for child psychology and the time available for teaching. The textbook

attempts to enhance this endeavour by giving higher priority and space

to opportunities for contemplation and wondering, discussion in small

groups, and activities requiring hands-on experience.The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)

appreciates the hard work done by the textbook development committee

responsible for this book. We wish to thank the Chairperson of the

advisory group in Social Sciences, Professor Hari Vasudevan, and the

Chief Advisor for this book, Professor Neeladri Bhattacharya, Centre for

Historical Studies, J awaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi for guiding

the work of this committee. Several teachers contributed to the

development of this textbook; we are grateful to their principals for

making this possible. We are indebted to the institutions and

organisations which have generously permitted us to draw upon their


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resources, material and personnel. We are especially grateful to the

members of the National Monitoring Committee, appointed by the

Department of Secondary and Higher Education, Ministry of Human

Resource Development under the Chairpersonship of Professor MrinalMiri and Professor G.P. Deshpande, for their valuable time and

contribution. As an organisation committed to systemic reform and

continuous improvement in the quality of its products, NCERT

welcomes comments and suggestions which will enable us to

undertake further revision and refinement.

Director

New Delhi National Council of Educational

20 November 2006 Research and Training


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DEFINING THE FOCUS OF STUDY

What defines the focus of this book? What does it seek to do? Howis it linked to what has been studied in earlier classes?

In Classes VI to VIII we looked at Indian history from early

beginnings to modern times, with a focus on one chronological

period in each year. Then in the books for Classes IX and X, the

frame of reference changed. We looked at a shorter period of time,

focusing specifically on a close study of the contemporary world.

We moved beyond territorial boundaries, beyond the limits of nation

states, to see how different people in different places have played

their part in the making of the modern world. The history of India

became connected to a wider inter-linked history. Subsequently in

Class XI we studied Themes in Wor ld H is tory, expanding ourchronological focus, looking at the vast span of years from the

beginning of human life to the present, but selecting only a set of

themes for serious exploration. This year we will study Themes in

Ind ian H is tory.

The book begins with Harappa and ends with the framing of the

Indian Constitution. What it offers is not a general survey of five

millennia, but a close study of select themes. The history books in

earlier years have already acquainted you with Indian history. It is

time we explored some themes in greater detail.

In choosing the themes we have tried to ensure that we learn

about developments in different spheres economic, cultural, social,

political, and religious even as we attempt to break the boundaries

between them. Some themes in the book will introduce you to the

politics of the times and the nature of authority and power; others

explore the way societies are organised, and the way they function

and change; still others tell us about religious life and ritual

practices, about the working of economies, and the changes within

rural and urban societies.

Each of these themes will also allow you to have a closer look at

the historians craft. To retrieve the past, historians have to find

sources that make the past accessible. But sources do not just revealthe past; historians have to grapple with sources, interpret them,

and make them speak. This is what makes history exciting. The

same sources can tell us new things if we ask new questions, and

engage with them in new ways. So we need to see how historians

read sources, and how they discover new things in old sources.

But historians do not only re-examine old records. They discover

new ones. Sometimes these could be chance discoveries.

Archaeologists may unexpectedly come across seals and mounds

that provide clues to the existence of a site of an ancient civilisation.

Rummaging through the dusty records of a district collectorate a


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historian may trip over a bundle of records that contain legal cases

of local disputes, and these may open up a new world of village life

several centuries back. Yet are such discoveries only accidents? You

may bump into a bundle of old records in an archive, open it upand see it, without discovering the significance of the source. The

source may mean nothing to you unless you have relevant questions

in mind. You have to track the source, read the text, follow the clues,

and make the inter-connections before you can reconstruct the past.

The physical discovery of a record does not simply open up the

past. When Alexander Cunningham first saw a Harappan seal, he

could make no sense of it. Only much later was the significance of

the seals discovered.

In fact when historians begin to ask new questions, explore new

themes, they have to often search for new types of sources. If we

wish to know about revolutionaries and rebels, official sources can

reveal only a partial picture, one that will be shaped by official

censure and prejudice. We need to look for other sources diaries

of rebels, their personal letters, their writings and pronouncements.

And these are not always easy to come by. If we have to understand

experiences of people who suffered the trauma of partition, then

oral sources might reveal more than written sources.

As the vision of history broadens, historians begin tracking new

sources, searching for new clues to understand the past. And when

that happens, the conception of what constitutes a source itself

changes. There was a time when only written records wereacknowledged as authentic. What was written could be verified,

cited, and cross-checked. Oral evidence was never considered a valid

source: who was to guarantee its authenticity and verifiability? This

mistrust of oral sources has not yet disappeared, but oral evidence

has been innovatively used to uncover experiences that no other

record could reveal.

Through the book this year, you will enter the world of historians,

accompany them in their search for new clues, and see how they

carry on their dialogues with the past. You will witness the way they

tease out meaning out of records, read inscriptions, excavate

archaeological sites, make sense of beads and bones, interpret theepics, look at the stupas and buildings, examine paintings and

photographs, interpret police reports and revenue records, and listen

to the voices of the past. Each theme will explore the peculiarities

and possibilities of one particular type of source. It will discuss what

a source can tell and what it cannot.

This is Part II, ofThemes in Ind ian His tory . Part III will follow.

NEELADRI BHATTACHARYA

Chief Advisor, History


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TEXTBOOK DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

CHAIRPERSON, ADVISORY COMMITTEEHari Vasudevan, Professor, Department of History, University of Calcutta, Kolkata

CHIEF ADVISORNeeladri Bhattacharya, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies,

J awaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

ADVISORSKumkum Roy, Ass ociate Professor, Centre for Historical Studies,

J awaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Monica J uneja, Guest Professor, Institut Furgeschichte, Viennna, Austria

TEAM MEMBERS

J aya Menon, Reader , Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University,Aligarh, UP (Theme 1)

Kumkum Roy (Theme 2)

Kunal Chakrabarti, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies,

J awaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Theme 3)

Uma Chakravarti, Former ly Reader in H istory, Miranda House,

University of Delhi, Delhi (Theme 4)

Farhat Hassan, Reader, Department of History,

Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, UP (Theme 5)

Meenakshi Khanna, Reader in His to ry , Indraprastha College,

University of Delhi, Delhi (Theme 6)

Vijaya Ramaswamy, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies,

J awaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Theme 7)Rajat Datta, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies,

J awaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Theme 8)

Najaf Haider, Associate Professor, Centre for Historical Studies,

J awaharlal Nehru University New Delhi (Theme 9)

Neeladri Bhattacharya (Theme 10)

Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Execut ive Edi tor ,The Telegrap h, Kolkata (Theme 11)

Partho Dutta, Reader, Department of History, Zakir Hussain College

(Evening Classes), University of Delhi, Delhi (Theme 12)

Ramachandra Guha, f reelance w r i ter , anthropologist and historian,

Bangalore (Theme 13)

Anil Sethi (Theme 14)

Sumit Sarkar, Formerly Professor of H istory , University of Delhi, Delhi (Theme 15)

Muzaffar Alam, Professor of South Asia n History,

University of Chicago, Chicago, USA

C.N. Subramaniam, Ek lavya , Kothi Bazar, Hoshangabad

Rashmi Paliwal, Ek lavya , Kothi Bazar, Hoshangabad

Prabha Singh, P.G.T. Hi story , Kendriya Vidyalaya, Old Cantt.,

Telliarganj, Allahabad, UP

Smita Sahay Bhattacharya, P.G.T. H istory , Blue Bells School,

Kailash Colony, New Delhi

Beeba Sobti, P.G.T. H istory , Modern School, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi

MEMBER-COORDINATORSAnil Sethi, Professor, DESSH, NCERT, New Delhi

Seema Shukla Ojha, Lecturer, DESSH, NCERT, New Delhi


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Themes in Ind ian H is tory, Par t IIhas, likePart I, benefited from theenthusiastic participation and help of many people and institutions,

whom it is a pleasure to thank.

For valuable and extensive comments on draft chapters we are

immensely grateful to J ohn Fritz, Sunil Kumar and Supriya Varma.

We would also like to thank Meena Bhargava, Ranabir Chakravarti,

Ranjeeta Datta, Bharati J agannathan and Nandita Prasad Sahai

for their prompt help in clarifying issues. The suggestions made by

the members of the Monitoring Committee, Prof. J . S. Grewal and

Shobha Bajpai have been very useful.

Visual material for the book was provided by different individuals

and institutions. Above all we wish to thank George Michell andJ ohn Fritz for their generosity in allowing us to draw upon their

rich pool of resources on Vijayanagara.

For careful copy-editing and reading of proofs we gratefully

acknowledge the efforts of Shyama Warner. Thanks are equally due

to Ritu Topa and Animesh Roy of Arrt Creations, New Delhi, who

designed the book with patience and skill. K. Varghese of J awaharlal

Nehru University provided the maps. Albinus Tirkey and Manoj

Haldar offered technical support. Samira Varma has been a help in

many valuable ways, not least by remaining cheerful throughout.

Finally, we look forward to feedback from the users of the book,

which will help us improve it in subsequent editions.


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PART II

THEME FIVETHROUGH THE EYES OF TRAVELLERS 115Perceptions of Society

(c. tenth to seventeenth century)

THEME SIXBHAKTI-SUFI TRADITIONS 140Changes in Religious Beliefsand Devotional Texts(c. eighth to eighteenth century)

THEME SEVENAN IMPERIAL CAPITAL: VIJ AYANAGARA 170(c. fourteenth to sixteenth century)

THEME EIGHTPEASANTS, ZAMINDARS AND THE STATE 196Agrarian Society and the Mughal Empire(c. sixteenth-seventeenth centuries)

THEME NINEKINGS AND CHRONICLES 224The Mughal Courts(c. sixteenth-seventeenth centuries)

* Part II I will follow

PART III*

THEME TENCOLONIALISM AND THE COUNTRYSIDEExploring Official Archives

THEME ELEVEN

REBELS AND THE RAJ1857 Revolt and Its Representations

CONTENTSCONTENTS


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THEME TWELVE

COLONIAL CITIESUrbanisation, Planningand Architecture

THEME THIRTEEN

MAHATMA GANDHI AND THENATIONALIST MOVEMENTCivil Disobedience and Beyond

THEME FOURTEEN

UNDERSTANDING PARTITIONPolitics, Memories, Experiences

THEME FIFTEEN

FRAMING THE CONSTITUTIONThe Beginning of a New Era

PART I

(Pages 1-114)

THEME ONE

BRICKS, BEADS AND BONESThe Harappan Civilisation

THEME TWO

KINGS, FARMERS AND TOWNSEarly States and Economies(c. 600 BCE - 600CE)

THEME THREE

KINSHIP, CASTE AND CLASSEarly Societies(c. 600 BCE -600 CE)

THEME FOUR

THINKERS, BELIEFS AND BUILDINGSCultural Developments(c. 600 BCE -600 CE)

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How to use this book

This is Part II ofThemes in Ind ian History . Part III will follow.

55555 Each chapter is divided into numbered sections and

subsections to facilitate learning.

55555 You will also find other material enclosed in boxes.

55555 Each chapter ends with a set oft i m e l i n e s . This is to be treated as

background information, and n o t f o r ev a l u a t i o n .55555 There are f i g u r es , ma p s and sou r cesnumbered sequentially through

each chapter.

(a) Figures include illustrations of artefacts such as tools, pottery, seals,coins, ornaments etc. as well as of inscriptions, sculptures, paintings,

buildings, archaeological sites, plans and photographs of people and

places; visual material that historians use as sources.

(b) Some chapters havemaps.

(c) Sourcesare enclosed within separate boxes: these contain

excerpts from a wide variety of texts and inscriptions. Bothvisual and textual sources will help you acquire a feel for the

clues that historians use. You will also see how historiansanalyse these clues. The final examination can include

excerpts from and/ or illustrations of identical/ similarmaterial, providing you with an opportunity to handle

these.

Shortmeanings

Additional

information More elaboratedefinitions

Sources

These are meant to assist and enrich the learning process,but are n o t i n t en d e d f o r ev a l u a t i o n .

These contain:


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55555 There are tw ocategories ofi n t ex t q u es t i o n s:

(a) those within a yellow box, which may be used for practice fore v a l u a t i o n .

(b) those with the captionDiscuss... which areno t f o r eva l u a t i o n

55555 There are f o u r t y p es of assignments at the end of each chapter:

These include:

projects

short questions

These are meant to provide practice for the final assessment and evaluation.

short essays

map work

Hope y ou enjoy u sing this book.

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115

Women and men have travelled in search of work, to escapefrom natural disasters, as traders, merchants, soldiers,priests, pilgrims, or driven by a sense of adventure.

Those who visit or come to stay in a new landinvariably encounter a world that is different:in terms of the landscape or physicalenvironment as well as customs, languages,

beliefs and practices of people. Many of themtry to adapt to these differences; others,somewhat exceptional, note them carefully inaccounts, generally recording what they findunusual or remarkable. Unfortunately, we havepractically no accounts of travel left by women, though

we know that they travelled.

The accounts that survive are often varied in terms oftheir subject matter. Some deal with affairs of the court,

while others are mainly focused on religious issues, orarchitectural features and monuments. For example, oneof the most important descriptions of the city of

Vijayanagara (Chapter 7) in the fifteenth century comesfrom Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi, a diplomat who came

visiting from Herat.In a few cases, travellers did not go to distant lands. For

example, in the Mughal Empire (Chapters 8 and 9),administrators sometimes travelled within the

empire and recorded their observations. Someof them were interested in looking at popularcustoms and the folklore and traditions oftheir own land.

In this chapter we shall see how ourknowledge of the past can be enrichedthrough a consideration of descriptions ofsocial life provided by travellers who visitedthe subcontinent, focusing on the accounts of threemen: Al-Biruni who came from Uzbekistan (eleventhcentury), Ibn Battuta who came from Morocco, innorthwestern Africa (fourteenth century) and theFrenchman Franois Bernier (seventeenth century).

Through the Eyes of TravellersPerceptions of SocietyPerceptions of SocietyPerceptions of SocietyPerceptions of SocietyPerceptions of Society

(((((ccccc. tenth to seventeenth century). tenth to seventeenth century). tenth to seventeenth century). tenth to seventeenth century). tenth to seventeenth century)

THEME

FIVE

Fig. 5.1bA coconutThe coconut and the paanwere things that struck many

travellers as unusual.

Fig. 5.1aPaan leaves


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THEMESIN INDIAN HISTORY PARTII116

As these authors came from vastly differentsocial and cultural environments, they were oftenmore attentive to everyday activities and practices

which were taken for granted by indigenouswriters, for whom these were routine matters, notworthy of being recorded. It is this difference inperspective that makes the accounts of travellersinteresting. Who did these travellers write for? As

we will see, the answers vary from one instanceto the next.

1. Al-Biruni and theKitab-ul-Hind

1.1 From Khwarizm to the PunjabAl-Biruni was born in 973, in Khwarizm in present-day Uzbekistan. Khwarizm was an important centreof learning, and Al-Biruni received the besteducation available at the time. He was well versedin several languages: Syriac, Arabic, Persian,Hebrew and Sanskrit. Although he did not knowGreek, he was familiar with the works of Plato

and other Greek philosophers, having readthem in Arabic translations. In 1017, when SultanMahmud invaded Khwarizm, he took severalscholars and poets back to his capital, Ghazni;

Al-Biruni was one of them. He arrived in Ghazni asa hostage, but gradually developed a liking for thecity, where he spent the rest of his life until hisdeath at the age of 70.

It was in Ghazni that Al-Biruni developed aninterest in India. This was not unusual. Sanskrit

works on astronomy, mathematics and medicine had

been translated into Arabic from the eighth centuryonwards. When the Punjab became a part of theGhaznavid empire, contacts with the local populationhelped create an environment of mutual trust andunderstanding. Al-Biruni spent years in the companyof Brahmana priests and scholars, learning Sanskrit,and studying religious and philosophical texts. Whilehis itinerary is not clear, it is likely that he travelled

widely in the Punjab and parts of northern India.Travel literature was already an accepted part of

Arabic literature by the time he wrote. This literature

dealt with lands as far apart as the Sahara desertin the west to the River Volga in the north. So, while

Translating texts,sharing ideas

Al-Birunis expertise in severallanguages al lowed him tocompare languages andtranslate texts. He translatedseveral Sanskrit works, includingPatanjalis work on grammar,into Arabic. For his Brahmana

friends, he translated theworks of Euclid (a Greekmathematician) into Sanskrit.

Al-Birunis objectives

Al-Biruni described his work as:

a help to those who want todiscuss religious questions

with them (the Hindus), andas a repertory of informationto those who want toassociate with them.

Source 1

Read the excerpt fromAl-Biruni (Source 5) anddiscuss whether his workmet these objectives.


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few people in India would have read Al-Biruni before1500, many others outside India may have done so.

1.2 The Kitab-ul-HindAl-Birunis Kitab-ul-Hind, written in Arabic, is simpleand lucid. It is a voluminous text, divided into80 chapters on subjects such as religion andphilosophy, festivals, astronomy, alchemy, mannersand customs, social life, weights and measures,iconography, laws and metrology.

Generally (though not always), Al-Biruni adopteda distinctive structure in each chapter, beginning

with a question, following this up with a descriptionbased on Sanskrit ic tradit ions, and concludingwith a comparison with other cultures. Somepresent-day scholars have argued that this almostgeometric structure, remarkable for its precision andpredictability, owed much to his mathematicalorientation.

Al-Biruni, who wrote in Arabic, probably intendedhis work for peoples living along the frontiers of thesubcontinent. He was familiar with translationsand adaptations of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit textsinto Arabic these ranged from fables to works onastronomy and medicine. However, he was alsocritical about the ways in which these texts were

written, and clearly wanted to improve on them.

THROUGHTHE EYESOF TRAVELLERS

Metrology is the science ofmeasurement.

Hindu

The term Hindu was derivedfrom an Old Persian word,used c. sixth-fifth centuriesBCE, to refer to the region eastof the river Sindhu (Indus).The Arabs continued the

Persian usage and called thisregion al-Hind and itspeople Hindi. Later theTurks referred to the peopleeast of the Indus as Hindu,their land as Hindustan, andtheir language as Hindavi.None of these expressionsindicated the religious identityof the people. It was muchlater that the term developedreligious connotations.

Discuss...If Al-Biruni lived in thetwenty-first century, whichare the areas of the world

where he could have beeneasily understood, if he stillknew the same languages?

Fig. 5.2An illustration from a thirteenth-century Arabic manuscriptshowing the Athenianstatesman and poet Solon, wholived in the sixth centuryBCE,addressing his studentsNotice the clothes they areshown in.

Are these clothes Greek

or Arabian?


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2. Ibn BattutasRihla

2.1 An early globe-trotterIbn Battutas book of travels, called Rihla, written in

Arabic, provides extremely rich and interest ingdetails about the social and cultural life in thesubcontinent in the fourteenth century. ThisMoroccan traveller was born in Tangier into one ofthe most respectable and educated families knownfor their expertise in Islamic religious law or sharia.

True to the tradit ion of his family, Ibn Battutareceived literary and scholastic education when he

was quite young.Unlike most other members of his class, Ibn

Battuta considered experience gained through travelsto be a more important source of knowledge than

books. He just loved travelling, and went to far-offplaces, exploring new worlds and peoples. Before heset off for India in 1332-33, he had made pilgrimagetrips to Mecca, and had already travelled extensivelyin Syria, Iraq, Persia, Yemen, Oman and a fewtrading ports on the coast of East Africa.

Travelling overland through Central Asia, Ibn

Battuta reached Sind in 1333. He had heardabout Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the Sultan of Delhi,and lured by his reputation as a generous patronof arts and letters, set off for Delhi, passing throughMultan and Uch. The Sultan was impressed byhis scholarship, and appointed him the qazi or judgeof Delhi. He remained in that position for several

years, until he fell out of favour and was throwninto prison. Once the misunderstanding between

him and the Sultan was cleared, he wasrestored to imperial service, and wasordered in 1342 to proceed to China as theSultans envoy to the Mongol ruler.

With the new assignment, Ibn Battutaproceeded to the Malabar coast throughcentral India. From Malabar he went tothe Maldives, where he stayed for eighteenmonths as the qazi, but eventually decidedto proceed to Sri Lanka. He then went backonce more to the Malabar coast and theMaldives, and before resuming his missionto China, visited Bengal and Assam as well.He took a ship to Sumatra, and from there

another ship for the Chinese port town of

Source 2

Fig. 5.3Robbers attacking travellers, asixteenth-century Mughal painting

How can you distinguish the

travellers from the robbers?

The bird leaves its nest

This is an excerpt from the Rihla:

My departure from Tangier,my birthplace, took place onThursday ... I set out alone,having neither fel low-traveller ... nor caravan

whose party I might join, butswayed by an overmastering

impulse within me and adesire long-cherished in mybosom to vis i t theseillustrious sanctuaries. So Ibraced my resolution to quitall my dear ones, female andmale, and forsook my homeas birds forsake their nests ...My age at that time wastwenty-two years.

Ibn Battuta returned home in1354, about 30 years after he

had set out.


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Zaytun (now known as Quanzhou). He travelledextensively in China, going as far as Beijing, but didnot stay for long, deciding to return home in 1347.His account is often compared with that of MarcoPolo, who visited China (and also India) from hishome base in Venice in the late thirteenth century.

Ibn Battuta meticulously recorded his observations

about new cultures, peoples, beliefs, values, etc.We need to bear in mind that this globe-trotter wastravelling in the fourteenth century, when it wasmuch more arduous and hazardous to travel than itis today. According to Ibn Battuta, it took forty daysto travel from Multan to Delhi and about fifty daysfrom Sind to Delhi. The distance from Daulatabadto Delhi was covered in forty days, while that fromGwalior to Delhi took ten days.

Fig. 5.4A boat carrying passengers,a terracotta sculpture froma temple in Bengal(c. seventeenth-eighteenth centuries)

Why do you think some of

the passengers are carryingarms?


The lonely traveller

Robbers were not the only hazard on long journeys: the traveller could feel homesick,or fall ill. Here is an excerpt from the Rihla:

I was attacked by the fever, and I actually tied myself on the saddle with a turban-cloth in case I should fall off by reason of my weakness ... So at last we reachedthe town of Tunis, and the townsfolk came out to welcome the shaikh ... and ...the son of the qazi... On all sides they came forward with greetings and questionsto one another, but not a soul said a word of greeting to me, since there was noneof them I knew. I felt so sad at heart on account of my loneliness that I could notrestrain the tears that started to my eyes, and wept bitterly. But one of the pilgrims,

realising the cause of my distress, came up to me with a greeting ...


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Travelling was also more insecure: Ibn Battutawas attacked by bands of robbers several times.In fact he preferred travelling in a caravan along

with companions, but this did not deter highwayrobbers. While travelling from Multan to Delhi,

for instance, his caravan was attacked and manyof his fellow travellers lost their lives; thosetravellers who survived, including Ibn Battuta,

were severely wounded.

2.2 The enjoyment of curiositiesAs we have seen, Ibn Battuta was an inveteratetraveller who spent several years travelling throughnorth Africa, West Asia and parts of Central Asia(he may even have visited Russia), the Indiansubcontinent and China, before returning to hisnative land, Morocco. When he returned, the local

ruler issued instructions that his stories be recorded.

Map 1Places visited byIbn Battuta inAfghanistan,Sind and PunjabMany of theplace-nameshave been spelt asIbn Battuta wouldhave known them.

Sketch map not to scale

ARABIAN SEA

Andkhoy

Tirmidh

Balkh

Qunduz

Parwan

Kabul

Ghazna

Qandahar

Ajudahan

Multan

UjaHansi Dehli

Sarasati

Abuha r

Ind

us

Lahari

Sutlej

Use the scale on the map to

calculate the distance in milesbetween Multan and Delhi.

0 100 200 300


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Education and entertainment

This is what Ibn Juzayy, who was deputed to write whatIbn Battuta dictated, said in his introduction:

A gracious di rect ion was t ransmitted (by the ruler)that he (Ibn Battuta) should dictate an account ofthe cities which he had seen in his travel, and ofthe interesting events which had clung to hismemory, and that he should speak of those whomhe had met of the rulers of countries, of their

distinguished men of learning, and their pious saints.Accordingl y, he di ct ated upon these subj ec ts anarrative which gave entertainment to the mindand delight to the ears and eyes, with a variety ofcurious particulars by the exposition of which hegave edification and of marvellous things, byreferring to which he aroused interest.

In the footsteps of Ibn BattutaIn the centuries between 1400 and 1800 visitors to India

wrote a number of travelogues in Persian. At the sametime, Indian visitors to Central Asia, Iran and the Ottomanempire also sometimes wrote about their experiences.These writers followed in the footsteps of Al-Biruni andIbn Battuta, and had sometimes read these earlier authors.

Among the best known of these writers were AbdurRazzaq Samarqandi, who visited south India in the 1440s,Mahmud Wali Balkhi, who travelled very widely in the1620s, and Shaikh Ali Hazin, who came to north India inthe 1740s. Some of these authors were fascinated by India,

and one of them Mahmud Balkhi even became a sortof sanyasi for a time. Others such as Hazin weredisappointed and even disgusted with India, where theyexpected to receive a red carpet treatment. Most of themsaw India as a land of wonders.

Source 3


Fig. 5.5An eighteenth-century paintingdepicting travellers gatheredaround a campfire

Discuss...Compare the objectives of Al-Biruni and

Ibn Battuta in writing their accounts.


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3. Franois BernierA Doctor with a DifferenceOnce the Portuguese arrived in India in about 1500,a number of them wrote detailed accounts regardingIndian social customs and religious practices. A fewof them, such as the Jesuit Roberto Nobili, eventranslated Indian texts into European languages.

Among the best known of the Portuguese writersis Duarte Barbosa, who wrote a detailed account oftrade and society in south India. Later, after 1600,

we find growing numbers of Dutch, English and

French travellers coming to India. One of the mostfamous was the French jeweller Jean-Baptiste

Tavernier, who travelled to India at least six times.He was particularly fascinated with the tradingconditions in India, and compared India to Iran andthe Ottoman empire. Some of these travellers, likethe Italian doctor Manucci, never returned to Europe,and settled down in India.

Franois Bernier, a Frenchman, was a doctor,political philosopher and historian. Like manyothers, he came to the Mughal Empire in search of

opportunities. He was in India for twelve years, from1656 to 1668, and was closely associated with theMughal court, as a physician to Prince Dara Shukoh,the eldest son of Emperor Shah Jahan, and later asan intellectual and scientist, with DanishmandKhan, an Armenian noble at the Mughal court.

3.1 Comparing East and WestBernier travelled to several parts of the country, and

wrote accounts of what he saw, frequently comparingwhat he saw in India with the situation in Europe.He dedicated his major writing to Louis XIV, the

king of France, and many of his other works werewritten in the form of letters to influential officialsand ministers. In virtually every instance Bernierdescribed what he saw in India as a bleak situationin comparison to developments in Europe. As we

will see, this assessment was not always accurate.However, when his works were published, Berniers

writings became extremely popular.

Fig. 5.6A seventeenth-century paintingdepicting Bernier in Europeanclothes

Fig. 5.7A painting depicting Tavernier in Indian clothes


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Travelling with the Mughal army

Bernier often travelled with the army. This is an excerptfrom his description of the armys march to Kashmir:

I am expected to keep two good Turkoman horses, andI also take with me a powerful Persian camel and driver,a groom for my horses, a cook and a servant to gobefore my horse with a flask of water in his hand,according to the custom of the country. I am alsoprovided with every useful article, such as a tent of

moderate size, a carpet, a portable bed made of fourvery strong but light canes, a pillow, a mattress, roundleather table-cloths used at meals, some few napkins ofdyed cloth, three small bags with culinary utensils whichare all placed in a large bag, and this bag is again carriedin a very capacious and strong double sack or net madeof leather thongs. This double sack likewise containsthe provisions, linen and wearing apparel, both ofmaster and servants. I have taken care to lay in a stockof excellent rice for five or six days consumption, ofsweet biscuits flavoured with anise (a herb), of limesand sugar. Nor have I forgotten a linen bag with its

small iron hook for the purpose of suspending anddraining dahior curds; nothing being considered sorefreshing in this country as lemonade and dahi.

Berniers works were published in France in1670-71 and translated into English, Dutch, German

and Italian within the next five years. Between 1670and 1725 his account was reprinted eight times inFrench, and by 1684 it had been reprinted threetimes in English. This was in marked contrast tothe accounts in Arabic and Persian, which circulatedas manuscripts and were generally not published

before 1800.

The creation andcirculation of ideas

about IndiaThe writ ings of Europeantravellers helped produce animage of India for Europeansthrough the pr int ing andcirculat ion of their books.Later, after 1750, when Indianslike Shaikh Itisamuddin andMirza Abu Talib visited Europeand confronted this imagethat Europeans had of their

society, they tried to influencei t by producing the ir ownversion of matters.

Discuss...There is a very rich travelliterature in Indianlanguages. Find out abouttravel writers in the language

you use at home. Read onesuch account and describethe areas visited by thetraveller, what s/he saw, and

why s/he wrote the account.

Source 4


What are the things from Berniers list

that you would take on a journey today?


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4.Making Sense of an Alien WorldAl-Biruni and the SanskriticTradition

4.1 Overcoming barriers to understandingAs we have seen, travellers often compared whatthey saw in the subcontinent with practices

with which they were familiar. Each travelleradopted distinct strategies to understand what theyobserved. Al-Biruni, for instance, was aware of theproblems inherent in the task he had set himself.

He discussed several barriers that he feltobstructed understanding. The first amongst thesewas language. According to him, Sanskrit was sodifferent from Arabic and Persian that ideas andconcepts could not be easily translated from onelanguage into another.

The second barrier he identified was the differencein religious beliefs and practices. The self-absorptionand consequent insularity of the local populationaccording to him, constituted the third barrier.

What is interesting is that even though he was awareof these problems, Al-Biruni depended almostexclusively on the works of Brahmanas, often citingpassages from the Vedas, the Puranas, the BhagavadGita, the works of Patanjali, the Manusmriti, etc., toprovide an understanding of Indian society.

4.2 Al-Birunis description of the caste systemAl-Biruni tried to explain the caste system by lookingfor parallels in other societies. He noted that inancient Persia, four social categories wererecognised: those of knights and princes; monks,fire-priests and lawyers; physicians, astronomers

and other scientists; and finally, peasants andartisans. In other words, he attempted to suggestthat social divisions were not unique to India. Atthe same time he pointed out that within Islam allmen were considered equal, differing only in theirobservance of piety.

In spite of his acceptance of the Brahmanicaldescription of the caste system, Al-Biruni disapprovedof the notion of pollution. He remarked thateverything which falls into a state of impurity strivesand succeeds in regaining its original condition ofpurity. The sun cleanses the air, and the salt in the

sea prevents the water from becoming polluted. If it

A language with an

enormous range

Al-Biruni described Sanskrit asfollows:

If you want to conquer thisdif f iculty (i .e. to learnSanskrit), you will not findit easy, because thelanguage is of an enormousrange, both in words and

inflections, something likethe Arabic, calling one andthe same thing by variousnames, both original andderivative, and using oneand the same word for avariety of subjects, which,in order to be properlyunderstood, must bedistinguished from eachother by various qualifyingepithets.

God knows best!

Travellers did not always believewhat they we re told . Whenfaced with the story of a woodenidol that supposedly lasted for216,432 years, Al-Biruni asks:

How, then, could woodhave lasted such a length oftime, and particularly in aplace where the air and thesoil are rather wet? Godknows best!


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125

were not so, insisted Al-Biruni, life on earth wouldhave been impossible. The conception of socialpollution, intrinsic to the caste system, wasaccording to him, contrary to the laws of nature.

The system of varnas

This is Al-Birunis account of the system of varnas:

The highest caste are the Brahmana, of whom thebooks of the Hindus tell us that they were created fromthe head of Brahman. And as the Brahman is onlyanother name for the force called nature, and the headis the highest part of the body, the Brahmana are thechoice part of the whole genus. Therefore the Hindusconsider them as the very best of mankind.

The next caste are the Kshatriya, who were created,as they say, from the shoulders and hands of Brahman.Their degree is not much below that of the Brahmana.

After them follow the Vaishya, who were created fromthe thigh of Brahman.

The Shudra, who were created from his feet . . .

Between the latter two classes there is no verygreat distance. Much, however, as these classesdiffer from each other, they live together in thesame towns and villages, mixed together in the samehouses and lodgings.

As we have seen, Al-Birunis description of thecaste system was deeply influenced by his study

of normative Sanskrit texts which laid down the rulesgoverning the system from the point of view ofthe Brahmanas. However, in real life the system

was not quite as rigid. For instance, the categoriesdefined as antyaja(literally, born outside the system)

were often expected to provide inexpensive labour toboth peasants and zamindars (see also Chapter 8).In other words, while they were often subjected tosocial oppression, they were included withineconomic networks.

Discuss...How important is knowledgeof the language of the area fora traveller from a differentregion?

Source 5

Compare what Al-Biruni

wrote with Source 6, Chapter 3.Do you notice any similaritiesand differences? Do you think

Al-Biruni depended only onSanskrit texts for hisinformation and understandingof Indian society?



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5. Ibn Battuta and the Excitementof the UnfamiliarBy the time Ibn Battuta arrived in Delhi in thefourteenth century, the subcontinent was part of aglobal network of communication that stretched fromChina in the east to north-west Africa and Europein the west. As we have seen, Ibn Battuta himselftravelled extensively through these lands, visitingsacred shrines, spending time with learned men andrulers, often officiating as qazi, and enjoying thecosmopolitan culture of urban centres where people

who spoke Arabic, Pers ian, Turkish and otherlanguages, shared ideas, information and anecdotes.

These included stories about men noted for theirpiety, kings who could be both cruel and generous,and about the lives of ordinary men and women;anything that was unfamiliar was particularlyhighlighted in order to ensure that the listener orthe reader was suitably impressed by accounts ofdistant yet accessible worlds.

5.1 The coconut and the paanSome of the best examples of Ibn Battutas strategies

of representation are evident in the ways in whichhe described the coconut and thepaan, two kinds ofplant produce that were completely unfamiliar tohis audience.

The paan

Read Ibn Battutas description of thepaan:

The betel is a tree which is cultivated in the samemanner as the grape-vine; The betel has no fruitand is grown only for the sake of its leaves Themanner of its use is that before eating it one takesareca nut; this is like a nutmeg but is broken up until itis reduced to small pellets, and one places these in hismouth and chews them. Then he takes the leaves ofbetel, puts a little chalk on them, and masticates themalong with the betel.

Nuts like a mans head

The following is how Ibn Battutadescribed the coconut:

These trees are among themost peculiar trees in kindand most astonishing inhabit. They look exactlyl ike date-palms, withoutany dif ference betweenthem except that the oneproduces nuts as its fruitsand the other producesdates. The nut of a coconuttree resembles a manshead, for in it are what looklike two eyes and a mouth,and the inside of it when it isgreen looks like the brain,and attached to it is a fibre

which looks like hair. Theymake from this cords with

wh ich they sew up sh ipsinstead of (using) iron nails,and they (also) make from itcables for vessels.

Source 6

What are the

comparisons that IbnBattuta makes to give hisreaders an idea about

what coconuts lookedlike? Do you think theseare appropriate? Howdoes he convey a sensethat this fruit is unusual?How accurate is hisdescription?

Source 7

Why do you think this attracted Ibn

Battutas attention? Is there anything youwould like to add to this description?


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127

5.2 Ibn Battuta and Indian citiesIbn Battuta found cities in the subcontinent full ofexciting opportunities for those who had thenecessary drive, resources and skills. They weredensely populated and prosperous, except for theoccasional disruptions caused by wars andinvasions. It appears from Ibn Battutas account thatmost cities had crowded streets and bright andcolourful markets that were stacked with a wide

variety of goods. Ibn Battuta described Delhi as avast city, with a great population, the largest in India.Daulatabad (in Maharashtra) was no less, and easily

rivalled Delhi in size.

Source 8

Dehli

Here is an excerpt from Ibn Battutas account of Delhi, often spelt as Dehli in textsof the period:

The city of Dehli covers a wide area and has a large population ...The rampart round the city is without parallel. The breadth of its wallis eleven cubits; and inside it are houses for the night sentry and gate-keepers. Inside the ramparts, there are store-houses for storing edibles,magazines, ammunition, ballistas and siege machines. The grains thatare stored (in these ramparts) can last for a long time, without rotting... In the interior of the rampart, horsemen as well as infantrymenmove from one end of the city to another. The rampart is piercedthrough by windows which open on the side of the city, and it isthrough these windows that light enters inside. The lower part of therampart is built of stone; the upper part of bricks. It has many towersclose to one another. There are twenty eight gates of this city whichare called darwaza, and of these, the Budaun darwaza is the greatest;inside the Mandwi darwaza there is a grain market; adjacent to theGul darwaza there is an orchard ... It (the city of Dehli) has a fine cemetery in which graves havedomes over them, and those that do not have a dome, have an arch, for sure. In the cemetery

they sow flowers suchas tuberose, jasmine,

wild ro se, etc.; andflowers blossom therein all seasons.

What were the architectural

features that Ibn Battutanoted?

Compare this description withthe illustrations of the cityshown in Figs. 5.8 and 5.9.


Fig. 5.8 (top)An arch in Tughlakabad,Delhi

Fig. 5.9 (left)Part of the fortification

wall of the settlement


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The bazaars were not only places of economictransactions, but also the hub of social and culturalactivities. Most bazaars had a mosque and a temple,and in some of them at least, spaces were marked forpublic performances by dancers, musicians and singers.

While Ibn Battuta was not particularly concernedwith explaining the prosperity of towns, historians haveused his account to suggest that towns derived asignificant portion of their wealth through theappropriation of surplus from villages. Ibn Battutafound Indian agriculture very productive because ofthe fertility of the soil, which allowed farmers to

cultivate two crops a year. He also noted that thesubcontinent was well integrated with inter-Asiannetworks of trade and commerce, with Indianmanufactures being in great demand in both West Asiaand Southeast Asia, fetching huge profits for artisansand merchants. Indian textiles, particularly cottoncloth, fine muslins, silks, brocade and satin, were ingreat demand. Ibn Battuta informs us that certain

varieties of fine muslin were so expensive that theycould be worn only by the nobles and the very rich.

Music in the market

Read Ibn Battutas description of Daulatabad:

In Daulatabad there is a market place for male andfemale singers, which is known as Tarababad. It is oneof the greatest and most beautiful bazaars. It hasnumerous shops and every shop has a door whichleads into the house of the owner ... The shops aredecorated with carpets and at the centre of a shop

there is a swing on which sits the female singer. She isdecked with all kinds of finery and her female attendantsswing her. In the middle of the market place there standsa large cupola, which is carpeted and decorated andin which the chief of the musicians takes his place everyThursday after the dawn prayers, accompanied by hisservants and slaves. The female singers come insuccessive crowds, sing before him and dance untildusk after which he withdraws. In this bazaar there aremosques for offering prayers ... One of the Hindu rulers... alighted at the cupola every time he passed by thismarket place, and the female singers would sing beforehim. Even some Muslim rulers did the same.

Source 9

Fig. 5.10Ikatweaving patterns such as thiswere adopted and modified atseveral coastal production centresin the subcontinent and inSoutheast Asia.

Why do you think Ibn

Battuta highlighted these

activities in his description?


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5.3 A unique system of communicationThe state evidently took special measures toencourage merchants. Almost all trade routes were

well supplied with inns and guest houses. IbnBattuta was also amazed by the efficiency of thepostal system which allowed merchants to not onlysend information and remit credit across longdistances, but also to dispatch goods required atshort notice. The postal system was so efficient that

while it took fifty days to reach Delhi from Sind,the news reports of spies would reach the Sultanthrough the postal system in just five days.

On horse and on foot

This is how Ibn Battuta describes the postal system:

In India the postal system is of two kinds. The horse-post, called uluq, is run by royal horses stationed at adistance of every four miles. The foot-post has threestations per mile; it is called dawa, that is one-third of a

mile ... Now, at every third of a mile there is a well-populated village, outside which are three pavilions in

which sit men with girded loins ready to start. Each ofthem carries a rod, two cubits in length, with copperbells at the top. When the courier starts from the cityhe holds the letter in one hand and the rod with itsbells on the other; and he runs as fast as he can. Whenthe men in the pavilion hear the ringing of the bell theyget ready. As soon as the courier reaches them, one ofthem takes the letter from his hand and runs at topspeed shaking the rod all the while until he reachesthe next dawa. And the same process continues till theletter reaches its destination. This foot-post is quickerthan the horse-post; and often it is used to transportthe fruits of Khurasan which are much desired in India.

Discuss...How did Ibn Battuta handle the problem of

describing things or situations to people whohad not seen or experienced them?

A strange nation?

The travelogue of Abdur Razzaqwritten in the 1440s is aninteresting mixture of emotionsand perceptions. On the onehand, he did not appreciate

what he saw in the port ofCalicut (present-day Kozhikode)in Kerala, which was populatedby a people the likes of whom I

had never imagined, describingthem as a strange nation.Later in his visit to India, he

arrived in Mangalore, andcrossed the Western Ghats. Herehe saw a temple that filled him

with admiration:Within three leagues (aboutnine miles of Mangalore, Isaw an idol-house the likesof which is not to be foundin all the world. It was a

square, approximately tenyards a side, five yards inheight, all covered with castbronze, with four porticos.In the entrance portico wasa statue in the likeness of ahuman being, full stature,made of gold. It had twored rubies for eyes, socunningly made that you

would say it could see .What craft and artisanship!

Source 10

Do you think the foot-post system could

have operated throughout the subcontinent?



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6. Bernier and the DegenerateEastIf Ibn Battuta chose to describe everything thatimpressed and excited him because of its novelty,Franois Bernier belonged to a different intellectualtradition. He was far more preoccupied withcomparing and contrasting what he saw in India

with the situation in Europe in general and Francein particular, focusing on situations which heconsidered depressing. His idea seems to have beento influence policy-makers and the intelligentsia to

ensure that they made what he considered to be theright decisions.

Berniers Travels in the Mughal Empire is markedby detailed observations, criti cal insights andreflection. His account contains discussions tryingto place the history of the Mughals within some sortof a universal framework. He constantly comparedMughal India with contemporary Europe, generallyemphasising the superiority of the latter. Hisrepresentation of India works on the model of

binary opposition, where India is presented as the

inverse of Europe. He also ordered the perceiveddifferences hierarchically, so that India appeared tobe inferior to the Western world.

6.1 The question of landownershipAccording to Bernier, one of the fundamentaldifferences between Mughal India and Europe wasthe lack of private property in land in the former.He was a firm believer in the virtues of privateproperty, and saw crown ownership of land as

being harmful for both the state and its people. Hethought that in the Mughal Empire the emperor

owned all the land and distributed it among hisnobles, and that this had disastrous consequencesfor the economy and society. This perception wasnot unique to Bernier, but is found in mosttravellers accounts of the sixteenth andseventeenth centuries.

Owing to crown ownership of land, argued Bernier,landholders could not pass on their land to theirchildren. So they were averse to any long-terminvestment in the sustenance and expansion ofproduction. The absence of private property in land

had, therefore, prevented the emergence of the classof improving landlords (as in Western Europe) with

Widespread poverty

Pelsaert, a Dutch traveller, visitedthe subcontinent during the earlydecades of the seventeenthcentury. Like Bernier, he was

shocked to see the widespreadpoverty, poverty so great andmiserable that the life of thepeople can be depicted oraccurately described only as thehome of stark want and thedwelling place of bitter woe.Holding the state responsible,he says: So much is wrung

from the peasants that even drybread is scarcely left to fil ltheir stomachs.


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131

a concern to maintain or improve the land. It hadled to the uniform ruination of agriculture, excessiveoppression of the peasantry and a continuous declinein the living standards of all sections of society, exceptthe ruling aristocracy.

The poor peasant

An excerpt from Berniers description of the peasantry in

the countryside:

Of the vast tracts of country constituting the empire ofHindustan, many are little more than sand, or barrenmountains, badly cultivated, and thinly populated.Even a considerable portion of the good land remainsuntilled for want of labourers; many of whom perish inconsequence of the bad treatment they experience

from Governors. The poor people, when they becomeincapable of discharging the demands of theirrapacious lords, are not only often deprived of themeans of subsistence, but are also made to lose theirchildren, who are carried away as slaves. Thus, it

happens that the peasantry, driven to despair by soexcessive a tyranny, abandon the country.

In this instance, Bernier was participating incontemporary debates in Europe concerning the natureof state and society, and intended that his description ofMughal India would serve as a warning to those who didnot recognise the merits of private property.

As an extension of this, Bernier described Indiansociety as consisting of undifferentiated masses ofimpoverished people, subjugated by a small minorityof a very rich and powerful ruling class. Betweenthe poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich,there was no social group or class worth the name.Bernier confidently asserted: There is no middle

state in India.

Source 11

What, according to Bernier, were the

problems faced by peasants in thesubcontinent? Do you think his description

would have served to strengthen his case?


Fig. 5.11Drawings such as thisnineteenth-century exampleoften reinforced the notion ofan unchanging rural society.


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This, then, is how Bernier saw the Mughal Empire its king was the king of beggars and barbarians;its cities and towns were ruined and contaminated

with ill air; and its fields, overspread with bushesand full of pestilential marishes. And, all this was

because of one reason: crown ownership of land.Curiously, none of the Mughal official documents

suggest that the state was the sole owner of land.For instance, Abul Fazl, the sixteenth-centuryofficial chronicler of Akbars reign, describes the landrevenue as remunerations of sovereignty, a claimmade by the ruler on his subjects for the protection

he provided rather than as rent on land that heowned. It is possible that European travellersregarded such claims as rent because land revenuedemands were often very high. However, this wasactually not a rent or even a land tax, but a tax onthe crop (for more details, see Chapter 8).

Berniers descriptions influenced Westerntheorists from the eighteenth century onwards. TheFrench philosopher Montesquieu, for instance, usedthis account to develop the idea of oriental despotism,according to which rulers in Asia (the Orient or the

East) enjoyed absolute authority over their subjects,who were kept in conditions of subjugation andpoverty, arguing that all land belonged to the kingand that private property was non-existent.

According to this view, everybody, except the emperorand his nobles, barely managed to survive.

This idea was further developed as the concept ofthe Asiatic mode of production by Karl Marx in thenineteenth century. He argued that in India (andother Asian countries), before colonialism, surplus

was appropr iated by the state . This led to the

emergence of a society that was composed of a largenumber of autonomous and (internally) egalitarianvillage communities. The imperial court presidedover these village communities, respecting theirautonomy as long as the flow of surplus wasunimpeded. This was regarded as a stagnant system.

However, as we will see (Chapter 8), this pictureof rural society was far from true. In fact, duringthe sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, ruralsociety was characterised by considerable social andeconomic differentiation. At one end of the spectrum

were the big zamindars, who enjoyed superior rightsin land and, at the other, the untouchable landless

A warning for Europe

Bernier warned that i f European kings followed theMughal model:

Their kingdoms would bevery far from being well-cultivated and peopled,so well built, so rich, sopolite and flourishing as

we see them. Our ki ngsare otherwise r ich andpowerful ; and we mustavow that they are muchbetter and more royallyserved. They would soon bekings of deserts andsolitudes, of beggars andbarbarians, such as thoseare whom I have beenrepresenting (the Mughals) We should find the

great Cities and the greatBurroughs (boroughs)rendered uninhabitablebecause of ill air, and to

fall to ruine (ruin) withoutany bodies (anybody) takingcare of repair ing them;the hi l locks abandond,and the fields overspread

with bushes, or f i l l dwith pest ilential marishes(marshes), as hath been

already intimated.

Source 12

How does Bernier depict

a scenario of doom?Once you have readChapters 8 and 9, returnto this description andanalyse it again.


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labourers. In between was the big peasant, who usedhired labour and engaged in commodity production, andthe smaller peasant who could barely produce for hissubsistence.

6.2 A more complex social realityWhile Berniers preoccupat ion with projecting theMughal state as tyrannical is obvious, his descriptionsoccasionally hint at a more complex social reality. Forinstance, he felt that artisans had no incentive toimprove the quality of their manufactures, since profits

were appropriated by the state. Manufactures were,

consequently, everywhere in decline. At the same time,he conceded that vast quantities of the worlds preciousmetals flowed into India, as manufactures were exportedin exchange for gold and silver. He also noticed theexistence of a prosperous merchant community,engaged in long-distance exchange.

Source 13

A different socio-economic scenario

Read this excerpt from Berniers description of bothagriculture and craft production:

It is important to observe, that of this vast tract of country,a large portion is extremely fertile; the large kingdom ofBengale (Bengal), for instance, surpassing Egypt itself, notonly in the production of rice, corn, and other necessariesof life, but of innumerable articles of commerce which arenot cultivated in Egypt; such as silks, cotton, and indigo.There are also many parts of the Indies, where thepopulation is sufficiently abundant, and the land pretty well

tilled; and where the artisan, although naturally indolent,is yet compelled by necessity or otherwise to employ himselfin manufacturing carpets, brocades, embroideries, goldand silver cloths, and the various sorts of silk and cottongoods, which are used in the country or exported abroad.

It should not escape notice that gold and silver, aftercirculating in every other quarter of the globe, come atlength to be swallowed up, lost in some measure, inHindustan.

In what ways is the description in this excerpt

different from that in Source 11?


Fig. 5.12A gold spoon studded withemeralds and rubies, anexample of the dexterity ofMughal artisans


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In fact, during the seventeenth century about15 per cent of the population lived in towns. This

was, on average, higher than the proportion of urbanpopulation in Western Europe in the same period.In spite of this Bernier described Mughal cities ascamp towns, by which he meant towns that owedtheir existence, and depended for their survival,on the imperial camp. He believed that these cameinto existence when the imperial court moved inand rapidly declined when it moved out. Hesuggested that they did not have viable social andeconomic foundations but were dependent on

imperial patronage.As in the case of the question of landownership,

Bernier was drawing an oversimplified picture.There were all kinds of towns: manufacturingtowns, trading towns, port-towns, sacred centres,pilgrimage towns, etc. Their existence is an indexof the prosperity of merchant communities andprofessional classes.

Merchants often had strong community or kin ties,and were organised into their own caste-cum-occupational bodies. In western India these groups

were called mahajans, and their chief, the sheth. Inurban centres such as Ahmedabad the mahajans

were collectively represented by the chief of themerchant community who was called the nagarsheth.

Other urban groups included professionalclasses such as physicians (hakimorvaid), teachers(pundit or mulla) , lawyers (wakil) , painters,architects, musicians, calligraphers, etc. Whilesome depended on imperial patronage, many madetheir living by serving other patrons, while stillothers served ordinary people in crowded markets

or bazaars.

The imperial karkhanas

Bernier is perhaps the onlyhistorian who provides a detailedaccount of the working ofthe imperial karkhanas or

workshops:

Large hal ls are seenat many places, cal ledkarkhanas or workshops

for the artisans. In one hall,embroiderers are busilyemployed, superintendedby a master. In another,

you see the goldsmiths; in athird, painters; in a fourth,varnishers in lacquer-work;in a fifth, joiners, turners,tailors and shoe-makers; ina sixth, manufacturers of silk,brocade and fine muslins

The artisans come every

morning to their karkhanaswhere they remainemployed the whole day;and in the evening return totheir homes. In this quietregular manner, their timeglides away; no one aspiring

for any improvement in thecondition of life wherein hehappens to be born.

How does Bernier

convey a sense thatalthough there was agreat deal of activity,there was little progress?

Source 14

Discuss...Why do you think scholars like Bernier chose tocompare India with Europe?


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Slave women

Ibn Battuta informs us:

It is the habit of the emperor ... tokeep with every noble, great orsmall, one of his slaves who spieson the nobles. He also appoints

female scavengers who enter thehouses unannounced; and to themthe slave girls communicate all the

information they possess.

Most female slaves were captured inraids and expeditions.

7. WomenSlaves, Satiand LabourersTravellers who left written accounts weregenerally men who were interested in andsometimes intrigued by the condition of

women in the subcontinent. Sometimes theytook social inequities for granted as anatural state of affairs. For instance,slaves were openly sold in markets, like anyother commodity, and were regularlyexchanged as gifts. When Ibn Battuta

reached Sind he purchased horses, camelsand slaves as gifts for Sultan Muhammad

bin Tughlaq. When he reached Multan, hepresented the governor with, a slave andhorse together with raisins and almonds.Muhammad bin Tughlaq, informs IbnBattuta, was so happy with the sermon of apreacher named Nasiruddin that he gave hima hundred thousand tankas (coins) andtwo hundred slaves.

It appears from Ibn Battutas account that

there was considerable differentiation amongslaves. Some female slaves in the service ofthe Sultan were experts in music and dance,and Ibn Battuta enjoyed their performanceat the wedding of the Sultans sister. Femaleslaves were also employed by the Sultan tokeep a watch on his nobles.

Slaves were generally used for domesticlabour, and Ibn Battuta found their servicesparticularly indispensable for carrying

women and men on palanquins ordola. Theprice of slaves, particularly female slavesrequired for domestic labour, was very low,and most families who could afford to do sokept at least one or two of them.

Contemporary European travellers andwriters often highlighted the treatment ofwomen as a crucial marker of differencebetween Western and Eastern societies. Notsurprisingly, Bernier chose the practice ofsati for detailed description. He noted that

while some women seemed to embrace deathcheerfully, others were forced to die.

Source 15


Source 16

The child sati

This is perhaps one of the mostpoignant descriptions by Bernier:

At Lahore I saw a most beauti fulyoung widow sacr i f iced, whocould not, I think, have been morethan twelve years of age. The poorlittle creature appeared more deadthan alive when she approachedthe dreadful pit: the agony of hermind cannot be described; shetrembled and wept bitterly; butthree or four of the Brahmanas,

assisted by an old woman who heldher under the arm, forced theunwilling victim toward the fatalspot, seated her on the wood, tiedher hands and feet, lest she shouldrun away, and in that situation theinnocent creature was burnt alive.I found it difficult to repress my

feel ings and to prevent theirbursting forth into clamorous andunavailing rage


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However, womens lives revolved around much elsebesides the practice of sati.Their labour was crucialin both agricultural and non-agricultural production.

Women from merchant families part ic ipated incommercial activities, sometimes even takingmercantile disputes to the court of law. It thereforeseems unlikely that women were confined to theprivate spaces of their homes.

You may have noticed that travellers accounts

provide us with a tantalising glimpse of the lives ofmen and women during these centuries. However,their observations were often shaped by the contextsfrom which they came. At the same time, there weremany aspects of social life that these travellers didnot notice.

Also relatively unknown are the experiences andobservations of men (and possibly women) from thesubcontinent who crossed seas and mountains and

ventured into lands beyond the subcontinent. Whatdid they see and hear? How were their relations withpeoples of distant lands shaped? What were thelanguages they used? These and other questions willhopefully be systematically addressed by historiansin the years to come.

Discuss...Why do you think the lives ofordinary women workers didnot attract the attention oftravellers such as Ibn Battutaand Bernier?

Fig. 5.13A sculpted panel from Mathuradepicting travellers

What are the various modes

of transport that are shown?


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137

TimelineSome Travellerswho Left Accounts


Tenth-eleventh centuries

973-1048 Muhammad ibn Ahmad Abu Raihan al-Biruni(from Uzbekistan)

Thirteenth century

1254-1323 Marco Polo (from Italy)

Fourteenth century

1304-77 Ibn Battuta (from Morocco)

Fifteenth century

1413-82 Abd al-Razzaq Kamal al-Din ibn Ishaq al-Samarqandi(from Samarqand)

1466-72 Afanasii Nikitich Nikitin(years spent in India) (fifteenth century, from Russia)

Sixteenth century

1518 Duarte Barbosa, d.1521 (from Portugal)(visit to India)

1562 Seydi Ali Reis (from Turkey)(year of death)

1536-1600 Antonio Monserrate (from Spain)

Seventeenth century

1626-31 Mahmud Wali Balkhi (from Balkh)(years spent in India)

1600-67 Peter Mundy (from England)

1605-89 Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (from France)

1620-88 Franois Bernier (from France)

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, the dates mentioned are those of the lifespan of the traveller.


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Answer in100-150 words

1. Write a note on the Kitab-ul-Hind.

2. Compare and contrast the perspectives from which IbnBattuta and Bernier wrote their accounts of their travelsin India.

3. Discuss the picture of urban centres that emerges fromBerniers account.

4. Analyse the evidence for slavery provided by Ibn Battuta.5. What were the elements of the practice of satithat drew

the attention of Bernier?

Write a short essay(about

250-300 words) on the following:

6. Discuss Al-Birunis understanding of the caste system.

7. Do you think Ibn Battutas account is useful inarriving at an understanding of life in contemporaryurban centres? Give reasons for your answer.

8. Discuss the extent to which Berniers account enableshistorians to reconstruct contemporary rural society.

9. Read this excerpt from Bernier:

Numerous are the instances of handsome piecesof workmanship made by persons destitute oftools, and who can scarcely be said to have receivedinstruction from a master. Sometimes they imitate

so perfectly articles of European manufacture thatthe difference between the original and copy canhardly be discerned. Among other things, theIndians make excellent muskets, and fowling-pieces, and such beautiful gold ornaments thatit may be doubted if the exquisite workmanshipof those articles can be exceeded by any Europeangoldsmith. I have often admired the beauty,softness, and delicacy of their paintings.

List the crafts mentioned in the passage. Comparethese with the descriptions of artisanal activity in

the chapter.


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139

Muzaffar Alam andSanjay Subrahmanyam. 2006.Indo-Persian Travels in the Age

of Discoveries, 1400-1800.

Cambridge University Press,Cambridge.

Catherine Asher and CynthiaTalbot. 2006.India Before Europe.

Cambridge University Press,Cambridge.

Franois Bernier. nd.Travels in the Mogul Empire

AD1656-1668.

Low Price Publications,New Delhi.

H.A.R. Gibb (ed.). 1993.

The Travels of Ibn Battuta.Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi.

Mushirul Hasan (ed.). 2005.Westward Bound:

Travels of Mirza Abu Talib.

Oxford University Press,New Delhi.

H.K. Kaul (ed.). 1997.Travellers India an Anthology.

Oxford University Press,

New Delhi.

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. 1993.Travels in India.

Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi.

Map work

If you would like to knowmore, read:

For more information,you could visit:www.edumaritime.org


10. On an outline map of the world mark the countriesvisited by Ibn Battuta. What are the seas that hemay have crossed?

Projects (choose one)

11. Interview any one of your older relatives (mother/father/grandparents/uncles/aunts) who hastravelled outside your town or village. Find out(a) where they went, (b) how they travelled,(c) how long did it take, (d) why did they travel(e) and did they face any difficulties. List as manysimilarities and differences that they may havenoticed between their place of residence and theplace they visited, focusing on language, clothes,food, customs, buildings, roads, the lives of menand women. Write a report on your findings.

12. For any one of the travellers mentioned inthe chapter, find out more about his life and

writings. Prepare a report on his travels, notingin particular how he described society, andcomparing these descriptions with the excerptsincluded in the chapter.

Fig. 5.14A painting depicting travellers at rest


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We saw in Chapter 4 that by the mid-firstmillennium CE the landscape of the subcontinent

was dotted with a variety of religious structures

stupas, monasteries, temples. If these typifiedcertain religious beliefs and practices, others have

been reconstructed from textual traditions,including the Puranas, many of which receivedtheir present shape around the same time, and yetothers remain only faintly visible in textual and

visual records.New textual sources available from this period

include compositions attributed to poet-saints,most of whom expressed themselves orally inregional languages used by ordinary people. These

compositions, which were often set to music, werecompiled by disciples or devotees, generally afterthe death of the poet-saint. What is more, thesetraditions were fluid generations of devotees tendedto elaborate on the original message, and occasionallymodified or even abandoned some of the ideas thatappeared problematic or irrelevant in differentpolitical, social or cultural contexts. Using thesesources thus poses a challenge to historians.

Historians also draw on hagiographies orbiographies of saints written by their followers (or

members of their religious sect). These may not beliterally accurate, but allow a glimpse into the waysin which devotees perceived the lives of these path-

breaking women and men.As we will see, these sources provide us with

insights into a scenario characterised by dynamismand diversity. Let us look at some elements of thesemore closely.

Bhakti - Sufi TraditionsChanges in Religious Beliefs andChanges in Religious Beliefs andChanges in Religious Beliefs andChanges in Religious Beliefs andChanges in Religious Beliefs and

DeDeDeDeDevvvvvoooootional Ttional Ttional Ttional Ttional Teeeeextsxtsxtsxtsxts

(((((ccccc. eighth to eighteenth century). eighth to eighteenth century). eighth to eighteenth century). eighth to eighteenth century). eighth to eighteenth century)

Fig. 6.1A twelfth-century bronze sculpture of

Manikkavachakar, a devotee of Shivawho composed beautiful devotional songs in Tamil

THEME

SIX


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141

Great and little

traditions

The terms great and l i t t le

traditions were coined by a

sociologist named Robert

Redfield in the twentieth

century to describe the cultural

practices of peasant societies.

He found that peasants

observed rituals and customs

that emanated from dominantsocial categories, including

priests and rulers. These he

classified as part of a great

tradition. At the same time,

peasants also followed local

pract ices that did not

necessarily correspond with

those of the great tradition.

These he included within the

category of little tradition. He

also noticed that both great

and little traditions changedover time, through a process of

interaction.

While scholars accept the

significance of these categories

and processes, they are

often uncomfortable with the

hierarchy suggested by the

terms great and little. The use

of quotation marks for great

and l i t t le i s one way of

indicating this.

1. A Mosaic of Religious Beliefsand Practices

Perhaps the most striking feature of this phase isthe increasing visibility of a wide range of gods andgoddesses in sculpture as well as in texts. At onelevel, this indicates the continued and even extended

worship of the major deities Vishnu, Shiva andthe goddess each of whom was visualised in a

variety of forms.

1.1 The integration of cultsHistorians who have tried to understand thesedevelopments suggest that there were at least twoprocesses at work. One was a process of disseminatingBrahmanical ideas. This is exemplified by thecomposition, compilation and preservation of Puranictexts in simple Sanskrit verse, explicitly meant to

be accessible to women and Shudras, who weregenerally excluded from Vedic learning. At the sametime, there was a second process at work that ofthe Brahmanas accepting and reworking the beliefsand practices of these and other social categories. Infact, many beliefs and practices were shaped through

a continuous dialogue between what sociologists havedescribed as great Sanskritic Puranic traditionsand little traditions throughout the land.

One of the most striking examples of this processis evident at Puri, Orissa, where the principal deity

was identified, by the twelfth century, as Jagannatha(literally, the lord of the world), a form of Vishnu.

Fig. 6.2Jagannatha (extreme right) with his

sister Subhadra (centre) and hisbrother Balarama (left)

BHAKTI-SUFI TRADITIONS


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If you compare Fig. 6.2 with Fig. 4.26 (Chapter 4)you will notice that the deity is represented in avery different way. In this instance, a local deity,whose image was and continues to be made of woodby local tribal specialists, was recognised as a formof Vishnu. At the same time, Vishnu was visualisedin a way that was very different from that in otherparts of the country.

Such instances of integration are evidentamongst goddess cults as well. Worship of thegoddess, often simply in the form of a stone smeared

with ochre, was evidently widespread. These local

deities were often incorporated within the Puranicframework by providing them with an identity as a

wife of the principal male deities sometimes theywere equated with Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu, inother instances, with Parvati, the wife of Shiva.

1.2 Difference and conflictOften associated with the goddess were formsof worship that were classified as Tantric. Tantricpractices were widespread in several parts of thesubcontinent they were open to women andmen, and practitioners often ignored differencesof caste and class within the ritual context. Manyof these ideas influenced Shaivism as well asBuddhism, especially in the eastern, northern andsouthern parts of the subcontinent.

All of these somewhat divergent and even disparatebeliefs and practices would come to be classified asHindu over the course of the next millennium. Thedivergence is perhaps most stark if we compare Vedicand Puranic traditions. The principal deities of the

Vedic pantheon, Agni, Indra and Soma, becomemarginal figures, rarely visible in textual or visual

representations. And while we can catch a glimpseof Vishnu, Shiva and the goddess in Vedic mantras,these have little in common with the elaboratePuranic mythologies. However, in spite of theseobvious discrepancies, the Vedas continued to berevered as authoritative.

Not surprisingly, there were sometimes conflicts aswell those who valued the Vedic tradition oftencondemned practices that went beyond the closelyregulated contact with the divine through theperformance of sacrifices or precisely chanted mantras.

On the other hand those engaged in Tantric practices

Fig. 6.3Sculpture of a Buddhist goddess,Marichi (c. tenth century, Bihar),an example of the process ofintegration of different religiousbeliefs and practices


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frequently ignored the authority of the Vedas. Also,devotees often tended to project their chosen deity,either Vishnu or Shiva, as supreme. Relations withother traditions, such as Buddhism or Jainism, werealso often fraught with tension if not open conflict.

The traditions of devotion or bhakti need to belocated within this context. Devotional worship hada long history of almost a thousand years beforethe period we are considering. During this time,expressions of devotion ranged from the routine

worship of deities within temples to ecstaticadoration where devotees attained a trance-like

state. The singing and chanting of devotionalcompositions was often a part of such modes of

worship. This was particularly true of the Vaishnavaand Shaiva sects.

2. Poems of Prayer

Early Traditions of Bhakti

In the course of the evolution of these forms ofworship, in many instances, poet-saints emergedas leaders around whom there developed acommunity of devotees. Further, while Brahmanasremained important intermediaries between gods anddevotees in several forms of bhakti, these traditionsalso accommodated and acknowledged women andthe lower castes, categories considered ineligiblefor liberation within the orthodox Brahmanicalframework. What also characte

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