Medieval merchant guilds and their various dimensions

The 10th -12th century recovery of Europe coincided with the rise of certain empires in asia which also an increase in maritime and regional trade in the Indian subcontinent.

Until 1980 SD Goitein was able to identify and analyse about 400 documents from the Cairo Geniza pertaining to Indian trade and traders out of which about 245 deal with trade proper, whereas the rest pertains to various personal and communal activities of the persons involved in this trade. They all illustrate the existence of a flourishing trade network of Jewish, Arab and Indian traders operating between the Mediterranean world, the Arab Penin- sula and India.

The tenth century AD witnessed the revival of long distance trade in South India which was itself a part of the increase in the south Asian trade which involved distant regions like Egypt, West Asia, South East Asia and China. This trading network has been referred by Meera Abraham as the ‘Medieval Maritime Trading Arc’. The significance of the medieval long distance trade is borne out from the fact that commodities of trade were transported over surprisingly long distances by both overland and by sea. e.g. there is evidence to show that goods of Chinese origin were transported as far back as Europe and also to closer places like southeast and South Asia. Similarly some South Asian Aromatics were marketed in North Africa. Manufactured goods from South Asia as well as raw materials were sold both in the east as well as in the west.

Ayyavole and Manigramam, the two medieval merchant guilds of south India originated independently of each other. However from the mid thirteenth century onwards the Ayyavole association became so powerful that the Manigramam functioned as a subordinate group to Ayyavole. They operated in the region comprising modern day Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Coromandel strip of Andhra Pradesh and west coast of Kerala and Sri Lanka during the period ranging from ninth to mid-fourteenth century. During this period, two dynasties cola and Pandya doiminated Tamil Nadu while Rastrakutas, the western Chalukyas of Kalyan and the Hoysalas and to a lesser extent the Yadavas and the Kakatiyas were the important ruling dynasties in Karnataka.

The chief source of our information on Ayyavole and Manigramam is the corpus of Tamil and Kannada inscriptions. They are generally stone and occasionally copper plate inscription. They are often located in or near temple and record various kinds of taxes e.g. taxes in cash or kind levied for the benefit of temple on merchant groups and townspeople, taxes on commodities produced in the area or on goods in transit. Sometime they also record agreement between ruler and merchants, granting certain rights to these traders.

  1. Champakalakshmi argues that our information of South Indian involvement in Overseas trade mainly centers around the Five hundred and to a lesser extent on the Manigramam and Anjuvannam. Before going into a discussion over the origin of Ayyavole, it will be useful to distinguish between the Five Hundred and other organizations like Manigramam, Anjuvannam and Nagaram etc.
  2. Karashima argues that the five Hundred was a large organization of itinerant merchant of a supra regional character. Manigramam was a localized merchant body operating within specific regions like Kongu and pudukkotai region of Tamilnadu. Their localized character also reflects from their designations like Kodambalur Manigramam. However they interacted with the Five Hundred and had inter – regional and long distance trade links.

On the basis of Kollam and other inscriptions scholars have interpreted Anjuvannam as the organization of foreign marchents. It seems that they began their commercial activities on the west coast, particularly Kerala in the 8th and 9th centuries and later spread to other coastal areas of South India, interacting with both local merchants as well as the Five Hundred. Initially, Anjuvannam seems to have referred to Jewish traders who came to the west coast and acquired settlements. Later, it was also used for Arab Muslim Traders. The Nagaram appears to be a much more specific organization of merchants found in every market centre, collection and distribution centre, where local and itinerant merchants exchanged their items of trade.

The Ainnurruvar originated in the 8th century AD in Aihole of the Bijapur district of Karnataka. Meera Abraham argues that the founding of the Ayyavole can be seen as the result of a decision of a group of Mahajanas or Brahmanas (also called the Five hundred swamis of the Mahaagrahara of the Aihole) to institutionalize the control of the existing commerce of the region. Kenneth hall explains the origin of ayyavole in a different manner. Hall traces the origin of the itinerant merchant organization to small groups of expeditionary merchants who catered to the need of less wealthy and isolated communities of the hinterland and found it profitable to band together for mutual interests like protection etc. These groups later grew into quite powerful commercial association.

Champakalakshmi criticizes Hall’s explanation on the origin of Ayyavole as M. Abraham’s explanation is based on inscriptional evidence and thus seems more convincing. It has been argued that the Five Hundred cannot be treated as a single unified body of Merchants throughout its history, nor did it function as one cohesive whole except the early days of the organization. The growing development of regional kingdoms and regional interests affected the course of the Five Hundred in the two broad divisions of Kannada and Tamil Speaking areas.

From the 11th century onwards, Ayyavole acquired new bases and established several towns as ‘southern Ayyavole’, both under the patronage of the Western Chalukyas of Kalayani and the Hoysalas of Dwarsamudra. However, most of these towns came up in South Karnataka only after regular interaction between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu was established following cola inroads and a possible movement of the Tamil merchant organization into the link areas and Karnataka. This has lead Champakalakshmi to argue that these towns represent an expansion of the Tamil Five Hundred into Karnataka. In Tamil Nadu, the Ainnurruvar acquired the character of a composite body of itinerant merchants who came from different parts of the Tamil speaking areas.

During this period, the trade routes even in the region of settled agriculture saw the emergence of Erivirapattannas. The participation of local traders and nagaram members in itinerant trade reached such a height that it led to establishment of a series of settlements named after ainnurruvar or Valanjiyar, as semi-permanent or permanent residential quarters in various centers.

In the period of later Colas (12th-13th century), one notices a phenomenal increase in the activities of the Five Hundred, showing a tendency to increase its sphere of influence by relying less on the royal support and patronage. During the period of Pandyas (13th-14th c.), one also notices the institutionalization of coming together of several organizations and exercise of joint authority.

In the late 13th and early fourteenth centuries, the joint presence of weavers with trading guilds like the Five Hundred also suggests a closer link between textile production and trade. Some of these weavers group gradually took to trading in textiles or organized production for a wider market. The largest craft organization which came to be set up by the fourteenth century AD was of the weavers headquartered at Kancipuram, which is considered as the most ancient textile centre of South India.

The twelfth to Sixteenth century inscriptions of the Kongu region, refer to large scale artisan activity and their participation in important civic duties, for which special privileges were granted to them. It seems that the craft production was perhaps more intensive in the Kongu region. The role of Ainnurruvar in the overseas trade is also attested by the long lists of expensive imported commodities which has been mentioned in the Shikarpur inscription ( Shimoga dist, Karnataka) and the Piranmalai inscription ( Ramnathapuram dist, Tamil Nadu). The shikarpur inscription provides a long list of commodities traded e.g. well bred horses, superior elephants, large Sapphires, moonstones, pearls, rubies, diamonds, lapis lazuli, onyx, topaz, carbuncles, bdellium, sandal, camphor, musk, Saffron etc. Champaklakshmi argues that through this trade the royal treasury was filled with gold and the royal family encouraged this trade by being the greatest consumers of luxury items.

The imported item mentioned in the Piranmalai inscription are of a different kind, like aloeswood, sandalwood, silk, rosewater, camphor oil and perfume apart from horses and elephants which are common to most guild inscriptions. As far as the origin of these imported goods is concerned, most of it came from Southeast Asia, except horses which came from Arabia.

Champaklakshmi argues that silk may have come from China and rose water from West Asia. Elephants from Burma and horses from Arabia came into the ports of the western coast and on the Pandayan coast. Spices, Pepper and incense were some of the important items meant for local consumption and onward trade. The temple, mathas or monastries of the Tamil region were next to the royal family in terms of consumption of luxury goods.

Other commodities referred in the Piranmalai and other inscriptions are agricultural products like paddy, sesame, pulses, betel-nuts, leaves, salt and raw materials like cotton. Metals like copper, zinc, lead and iron also figure among the items of trade. There was an ever growing demand for processed iron South Indian textile.

Thus the organized commerce by nagarams, Manigramam and trade guilds like ainnurruvar accelerated the process of urbanization, crafts organization and a threefold social division (brahamna, velala and the right and left hand castes) in the context of temple centered urban spaces. To conclude, one can say that there was a dramatic expansion of local and foreign trade in the thirteenth century. Meera Abraham argues that the range of commodities traded indicates a quality of life which does not support the early views of a ‘stagnant’ society in India. Similarly, the data from inscriptions show that majority of villages were by no means ‘self sufficient isolated units’ rather there was dynamism.

Bibliography:

    1. R. Champakalakshmi – Trade, Ideology and urbanization, South India 300 BC to AD 1300
    2. Meera Abraham – Medieval Merchant guilds of South India
    3. Hermann Kulke – “A Passage to India”: Temples, Merchants and the Ocean