The people in medieval India pursued diverse range of economic activities to earn their basic livelihood. The sphere of their works varied from agricultural to artisanal production, trade and commerce and associated commercial and financial services. These activities underwent various changes throughout the course of this period. The state mobilized its resources through collection of different types of taxes for its survival and expansion. Main Economic Activities of Medieval India:
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IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science
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Discuss the economy of early modern India in a Global Perspective with special reference to the agrarian, fiscal, and mercantile structures.
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Modern Asian Studies
The review article onEconomic History of Early Modern India(Routledge, London, 2013;Economic Historyfrom now on) by Shami Ghosh is both a review of the book and a series of arguments about how eighteenth-century Indian history should be interpreted. These arguments suggest a few hypotheses about the pattern of economic change in this time (1707–1818), which are presented as an alternative to what the book thinks it is possible to claim, given the current state of knowledge. In pursuing the second objective, which is to seek fresh interpretation, Ghosh recommends reconnecting Indian regions with global economic history more firmly than is in evidence in the book. Overall, the article subjects the book to a close reading, and outlines a research programme that will surely help further the discourse on the eighteenth century.
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states 2600-1599 BC as a period of urbanised growth.The Harappan economy was dependent on agriculture, cattle tearing and animal husbandry. In 1509 BC , the Aryans entered with iron and horses. They started using iron for making tools. The non-Aryans did not practice the art of ploughing in the Aryan Manner. The Aryans knew various operations connected with ploughing, sowing, cutting of the corn with the sickle, threshing and winnowing are found in the first and tenth books of the Rigveda, which suggests that agrarian economy became more stable towards the end of the Rigvedic period. References in the Rigveda also suggest that Aryans used fire for clearing the forests, thus making the land fit for cultivation. The later Vedic period witnessed the expansion of the Aryans from the plains of the Indus and its tributaries to the Indo-Gangetic Divide and the upper Gangetic basin. We have references to the yoking of six, eight, twelve, and even 24 oxen to the plough , indicating deep ploughing which could be possible by the use of the iron ploughshare. An important development in the later Vedic economy was the rise of diverse arts and crafts, which are enumerated in the list of the people meant for the human-sacrifice. This indicates considerable progress in the differentiation of functions but not any qualitative change in economy. 1 RS Sharma has added that the period from c.600-322 BC may be taken as marking a significant change in the economy, which was strengthened by the widespread use of iron, the extensive cultivation of rice, sugar, and cotton , the rise and growth of numerous towns in the middle Gangetic plains, the further diversification of crafts and their organisation into guilds, and the brisk inland and foreign trade, as evidence by the numerous finds of the punch-marked coins.
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Journal of Indian Studies
Trade and industrial activities have been the mainstay of historical studies across various periods of Indian history. This can be traced from ancient periods to colonial times. As Banaras is one of the veritable cities of Indian culture, its society and development continues to attract a great deal of attention from historians cutting across its timeframes since it enjoys a mythological and cosmic popularity for religious and pilgrimage purposes. The history of the city can be traced from as early as the beginning of the Janapada time till today as it has the vibrant culture, society and living tradition. The Islamic religion had reached Banaras as early as the 11th century as per the existing historical sources. In due course of time, this city became a nodal centre for trade and economic activities between eastern and western parts of India paving the way for major activities cutting across culture and society. Many works have been done on Banaras such as "Kashi Ka Itihasa" (1962) by Moti Chandra, a special chapter on Varanasi Silk in "Silk Brocades" (2003) by Yashodhara Agrawal, "Textiles of Banaras: yesterday and today" (2010) by Tarannum Fatma Lari, "Banaras in Transition" (2012) by K. P. Mishra, and "Woven textiles of Varanasi" (2014) by Jaya Jaitly. These works only focus on political history, textile technique and the process of fabric making of present day and trading activities in the eighteenth century; but trading position, textiles and other industrial activities of Banaras during the sultanate and the great Mughal are not placed. So, the present study tries to make an attempt to trace its development from the extension of trade and economic activities to the emergence of Banaras as a major city of culture and social activities. The focus will be mainly on the period between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries which have not yet been adequately covered, and this is an initial attempt through which try to unfold some of the major historical transformation which occurred in medieval Banaras by using various historical evidences. The development of textile activities with its embroidery and production of copper pots, dishes, basins and the exchange of various agrarian goods will invariably become part of the present research. It also sees how Banaras became a central and major entrepot in India. Besides, the emergence of business activities and social networks, the region witnessed a range of multifarious activities covering all walks of life.
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Modern Asian Studies
Tirthankar Roy’s recent synthesis on the economic history of early modern India claims to provide a new, overarching narrative placing this period within the broader sweep of the history of what Roy defines as ‘capitalism’ in India in the very long term. This paper provides a detailed critique of Roy’s monograph, suggesting that it suffers from some serious methodological deficits, arising not least from a future-oriented paradigm that imposes anachronistic concepts on this period, including the very notion of ‘India’. Furthermore, his view of the economy as being fundamentally driven forward by the rise of a coastal polity expanding inwards from Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, sits awkwardly with his repeated claim that colonialism was of little significance for Indian economic history. Finally, the present paper suggests that this period might be more fruitfully approached not only by abandoning the telos of what we know of India’s future, but also by adopting both regionally-focused and comparative approaches, turning away from long-distance trade as the primary lens through which to view the economy, and instead examining endogenous factors in the economies of individual regions and enriching our understanding of them by reference to studies of other world regions with comparable patterns of development in the same period. More nuanced ways of approaching economic change in the very long run, including the importance of developments in modes of consumption and market- and profit-oriented economic behaviour, are suggested as a better means of understanding both the economies of the late pre-colonial centuries in the Indian subcontinent, and the development of capitalism, which should also be understood in a more specific manner than Roy allows.
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Research Today, Vol-XIV, No.1
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Osmund Bopearachchi and Suchandra Ghosh (eds), Early Indian History and Beyond: Essays in Honour of B.D. Chattopadhyaya, Delhi: Primus Books, 2019, pp.155-174.pp.
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