Towns and Cities of Medieval India

A Brief Survey

Aniruddha Ray

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138234888
• eBook ISBN: 9781351997300
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This much anticipated volume looks at the historical evolution of towns and cities in medieval India from the early thirteenth to the late eighteenth century. The selection is based on the availability of documents. These include the narratives of European travellers in English, French, Italian, Dutch, and German with the exception of Ibn Battuta in mid-fourteenth century and also Middle Bengali literature in case of towns in Bengal. While the coastal towns and cities have been looked at, the interior ones are also described on the basis of the writings of later historians and archaeologists.

Care has been taken to explain the rise, growth and the decline of some towns and cities in which the changing courses of rivers had played a crucial role. Attempts have been made to search other factors responsible for such eventualities. The delineation of physical features within the city has been given due emphasis including the different quarters of the city and the manners and customs of the local population with reference to craft production and commercial links. The morphological differences between the cities of eastern and those of the western or northern India have also been described. This is clear from the observations of port towns described here. All these would show that India was one of the most urbanized area in the medieval period before advent of the British.

Part I

CHAPTER 1
Introduction

1.1 Urban Studies in the past

Various kinds of towns and cities have sprung up in the Indian subcontinent since the earliest times. But the history of urban Settlement in India is not continuous, leaving gaps in chronology. The mid-seventeenth-century French traveller Francois Bernier had termed the Indian cities as nothing but military outposts that was partly repeated by Max Weber in later years although he had conceded that there were administrative towns in pre-British India. The Indian historians today hold a different opinion but proper analysis of such towns of medieval India is yet to be seen. In this monograph an attempt is made to survey the important towns and cities in different parts of the Indian subcontinent in both the Sultanate and the Mughal periods, starting from approximately AD 1200 till AD 1765 when the English got the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa from the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. At one point of time in recent past it has been asserted, obviously to show the superiority of the Western European civilization, that India was an agglomeration of villages. This is obviously an inaccurate estimate. In recent years India has more than twelve thousand urban settlements each containing more than five thousand people. From that point of view the Indian civilization is the largest civilization dependent on urban settlements. The number of people living in urban settlements in India is far more than the people living in the towns of America. In 1981 the number of small and big towns in India was more than three thousand. Unfortunately there has been very little work on the urban settlements in India despite its glorious past. There had been some publications earlier on urban settlements at the initiative of the Urban Association of India; it has practically stopped working in recent years.

In 1915 Patrick Cedes of Bombay University started working on urban settlements from the point of view of sociology. Some geographers and sociologists started working after 1920. Some studies on urban settlements came out during the decade of 1930 from the Madras Geographical Association in their journal. After 1947 work started with new energy and often with new perspective. The geographers and the sociologists mainly spearheaded this new effort. By 1970 geographers had published more than forty books on Indian towns in which history occupies an insignificant part. These writings, particularly those of the earlier years, were on individual towns or cities. Some English officials had already written a bit of history of those towns and cities but these were principally narratives and on the political history of urban settlements. However, history of some pilgrimage-towns was written to show the social formation, or on port-towns for the economic condition of the area. But these are rare exceptions. Either history of provincial headquarters or that of the capital was written from dynastic history. On the other hand, the geographers gave emphasis to the geograpliical features of the area in which the city was situated and that too near their times. These are necessary to understand the changing features of the city but unfortunately very few studies have been done on the changing courses of the rivers on which the towns were situated. The Gazetteers, generally written by the English officials in the early twentieth century, had marked the courses of the rivers but their narration of historical events was based on limited information available then. As a result the history of the cities and towns of India, particularly in the medieval period, has remained still unwritten. Furthermore, the Gazetteers written by the English officials have a tendency of looking at the history from a bi-polar point of view - the Hindu-Muslim conflict in the medieval period, a trait that was noticeable even among some archaeologists of those days. This was the effect of the Mutiny on the minds of the English officials and the historians of late nineteenth century.

The work of the geographers would have been of inestimable value in finding the physical features of the towns of bygone days and their social and economic formations. In the beginning the geographers started looking at individual towns, but soon they were influenced by the works of the American geographers to look for the centre of the town - the downtown - the business area, along with statistical tabulations of the population and other features of their times. There was an effort to find the pattern of towns of a particular area. Whether such methodology can be applied to the towns of medieval India with their multicultural traits and population is a debatable point. But in these efforts certain questions crop up which were not there in works of earlier times. For example, one can now try to find out the relation between the town and the hinterland, the centre of the town, its physical features, etc., which in certain cases help us to understand the reason of the decline of certain towns. Therefore one would need a collective effort of geographers, historians and sociologists, for example, to determine the history of towns in detail and from a comprehencive perspective. The availability of maps from different sources has certainly helped but there are really very few applications of geographical methods in writing the history of towns in recent years although Fernand Braudel had advocated its use long back. Actually the scholars of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were tar more aware of the influence of geography on history than those of recent days. The works of Jadunath Sarkar and Nihar Ranjan Ray are the fine examples of such understanding. But even then all questions could not be answered at the present state of our knowledge.

1.2 Urban Settlements in Pre-Medieval India

The process of the establishment of the first urban settlement in India is not yet absolutely clear. The establishment of the first urban settlement in the Indian subcontinent in about 2500 BC could be termed as the Harappan civilization. These urban settlements continued till c. 1700 BC or for nearly 800 years. After this there was a gap in the construction of the towns except perhaps in some areas of northern and southern India. After that one gets contemporary history of towns in India. There we see that the towns had existed with some amount of prosperity between 300 BC and AD 600. It is also certain that many towns began to decline after the rule of the Guptas. It has been assumed that after AD 1200 there was a spurt in the rise of towns. Since the second half of the eighteenth century some towns declined and some new towns began to come up as shown by C.A. Bayley. These new towns were connected with the English East India Company.

More or less all the eminent scholars have agreed that the first 'Urban Revolution' started in the Indus Valley in which one may add a portion of Rajasthan, portions of the Punjab and western United Provinces. Later during the second 'Urban Revolution' towns began to emerge in the middle Gangetic Valley and parts of south India. But this does not mean that constructions of towns throughout north and south India have continued unabated. In some areas there were huge gaps between two towns which was an usual picture of the times.

Scholars are still writing on the Indus Valley civilization and its birth. At one time it had been postulated that it had started in Baluchisthan and gradually spread to the Indus Valley. But this view has not satisfactorily been accepted since it has been found that Baluchistan civilization was far more embedded in agricultural orientation that failed to transform into an urban culture.

The noted archaeologist Gordon Child had given some reasons to explain the rise of the Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations which could be seen in case of the Harappan civilization. According to him the extraction of metal from iron ore and the enormous production of agricultural products created international commerce. This situation coul not be applied to the situation in post-Harappan age. One reason could be that the limited use of the metal in Indus Valley civilization prevented it from going the Egyptian way. As a result the rise of towns could not be seen in the post-Harappan age.

Some towns in north India began during the first period of Historical Age and their history is not unknown. By that time the Rigvedic age had been succeeded by the Vedic age. From the northwestern frontier the focus had shifted to the east of Indus River and was moving towards the north of the Gangetic Valley. This movement gradually moved further east and the south. The spread to the plains of northern India brought before the visitors golden opportunities to expand. The formation of kingdoms and the features of kingship also became clearer while the people were becoming far more dependent on political and geographical entities. The earlier inhabitants of these areas had some particular spaces in these areas. But their positions were far lower both socially and politically from those of the visitors. These colonizers are called Aryans for their different language and culture although there is controversy over the use of the term. In the south of India the new language and culture did not receive much importance and in the east it took some time to arrive. Obviously there interactions between the colonizers and the earlier inhabitants resulted in many areas in the creation of a mixed culture including language and perhaps religious ceremonies.

Perhaps there was a change in technology in north India at this time which helped the expansion of the newly-settled kingdoms and their new culture. This was the invention of extracting iron from iron ore. N.R. Bannerjee in his classic work on the Iron Age in India could not determine the origin of this new technology. He suggested that perhaps this came from the mines of Rajasthan. Irfan Habib in his brief review of technology in India suggested that the use of metal in craft production in India apparently began from 800 BC 'after the process of steeling the edges by impregnating it with carbon came to be understood. It is possible that the production of steel itself was established by the second century BC.'

From the point of view of archaeology, one finds grey painted ware in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab area during the same time. Whether these were brought and used by the visitors could not be properly determined, but during the next period it has been assumed that the visitors had used these wares since these are available from the geographical areas. The carbon dating of these wares fixed the date between 800 and 400 BC which tallies with the dates of the visitors. Therefore during the end of Vedic period, these grey painted wares were in use particularly by the visitors. It may be mentioned that the use of iron had brought significant changes in politics through the military use of Damascend swords and the use of horseshoe in the cavalry, enabling covering a wider area in short time. The clearing of jungles in Ganga-Yamuna Doab was made possible by the use of iron giving in turn the opportunities for the rise of kingdoms. Agricultural production increased due to the use of iron on the tip of the plough, although it has been pointed out that very few peasants could afford the highly-priced iron tips. The cutting down of blocks of solid rocks was made possible by the use of iron under the patronage of the royalty that helped to establish dams serving broad irrigated areas and increasing agricultural production. The union of agriculture and crafts in the urban areas helped commerce. There is no doubt that iron was tar better than copper or bronze which could also be seen in the establishment of greater defensive walls of the cities with solid stone blocks. Whether the use of the new metal had changed the social formation in the urban areas is difficult to say. But we see during these times the rise of new kingdoms with recognized ruling groups. All of these newly-emerging kingdoms had a capital which was different from the small urban settlements estabilished when iron was first used. The archaeological explorations of the earlier small urban settlements showed that those were not in real terms urban areas, but the headquarter of rural areas. There are exceptions in case of Kausambi (c. 1000 BC) and Ujjain (c. 750 BC). The ruins of forts of these two places have been found. One may postulate from the ruins that these were constructed much later than the time assigned so far.

It may be emphasized that sixth century BC was the turning point in the history of north India. Generally this age has been assigned as the pre-historic age when many sources have been found on the dynastic history of the kings or on the history of religious movements and their leaders. It is to be debated whether any particular term should be imposed on this period when technological changes, rule of the well-known kings and new religious movements coincided to create a different milieu than either earlier history or later ones.

The geographical identities and their features are clearly discernible. Out of these some settlements like Abanti, Koshal, Magadha were being transformed. The religious movements of Buddhism and Jainism emerged in the Gangetic Valley during this period and from the writings of the devotees of these two religions we get principal information on these settlements. Among these Magadha established the first empire with the Nanda and Maurya dynasties.

At this stage we notice certain changes, the first of which was the introduction and circulation of coins. There is no controversy over the tact that the introduction of coins helped commercial transactions which in turn would help to improve communications including roads. The introduction of silver coins is significant since silver comes principally from outside India through commercial exchanges. After the fall of Harappan civilization such circulation of silver coins is seen for the first time. We see again the use of iron after the Harappan civilization. From the third century BC we get the polished painted black wares which extended from Gangetic Valley to Taxila in the north-east. Needless to say without the expansion of commerce this would not have been possible.

The emergence of towns in the Indus-Gangetic Valley was from the same cultural milieu. It is of course difficult to trace the transformation of these urban settlements from their pre-urban situation. We get references and sometimes brief descriptions of some small and big towns during the time of Gautama Buddha. Champa, Rajgriha (Rajgir), Sravasti, Kausambi and Varanasi were big cities which were the centres of the urban settlements. There is, however, little doubt that these were of later age.

The people of Harappan civilization were generally cultivators although no reference has been found of the plough. Like the people of Mesopotamia they lived in the fertile plains, but no reference has been found on the construction of canals like those of Mesopotamia. At Harappa the effort was made of utilizing the tidal waves in natural environment. Their principal agricultural productions were barley, wheat, peanuts, oilseeds along with cotton and paddy. There was no mention of iron but copper and bronze were used. The potters used to work on the wheels to manufacture terracotta works. About 250 words were used in their writings which has not been deciphered so far. Weight was arranged by the decimal system. The social structure of the towns is available to suggest that the civilization is focused on urban settlements. There were priests around whom were the nobles. Perhaps the king was the priest since the entire valley had the same culture and it may be presumed that there was an empire. It is generally assumed that Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa were two capitals.

One does not find the same kind of development in other towns of this civilization. Other towns were small and could be assumed to be the centres of particular areas. Lothal was a big town in the Gulf of Cambay. Apart from this, Kalibangan in Rajasthan was a big town.

There are certain similarities in the structures of the towns of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. Both were located on the banks of navigable rivers. One can see a division between the fort which was situated on a hillock while the other part was the town itself where most of the people used to reside. It is not clear why the forts of both the towns were located on the western side. The forts were surrounded by high walls and there were ruins of many houses inside the forts. There were open baths, government warehouses for grain and bigger houses like palaces. This would suggest that there was a ruling class with a number of nobles living in well-constructed houses within the forts.

The town was located in a low land and was constructed on the grid pattern. The streets had been constructed with east-west and north-south orientation. The streets may be divided into three types on the basis of their breadths. The important one was the royal road which was 14 m in breadth while the most ordinary one was 3 m broad. One could see the excellent arrangement of the drainage system through pipes. The drain pipes in the royal road were covered and were connected to different houses through earthen pipes. The waste used to go to the river. There were separate pipes for clearing the rain water. The drinking water for the residents used to come from brick-built wells.

One could notice the difference in size of the houses among the residents. One-roomed tenements in barracks to the higher palaces with many rooms could be seen. These palaces were walled. The houses, whatever the size, were constructed with burnt bricks of uniform size that may lead to the conclusion that many bricks were manufactured at the same time and perhaps at workshops. There were obviously different classes of people. But whether these houses were constructed by the government or these were private properties is difficult to say. The uniform size of most of the houses may suggest that at least there was some sort of municipal establishment to control such housing construction.

Both Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa were approximately of 2 sq km and each had a population of nearly 30,000. Mohenjo-Daro was bigger and during the six hundred years its structure had changed many times but its streets had remained unchanged except at the very last time. Harappa was probably constructed later. It may be presumed that this emerged as the second capital to meet the demands of the empire.

Lothal was the sea-port in the Cambay Gulf on the bank of the Sabarmati River. The contact with Mesopotamia used to be done through this port. It developed into a port city with production of different crafts including weapons, ivory works, different types of cloth some of which have been found here in later excavations. It is assumed to have been destroyed in the terrible flood of 1900 BC. Perhaps to save the city from flooding, a surrounding wall had been constructed here. Although the structure of this city port was like other Harappan towns, it was a bit different from other contemporary towns. This city was also divided into two parts with the palace and other big houses located on the western side, perhaps for the king and other nobles. In the other part on north-western side, the town had houses for ordinary people. On the eastern side was the dockyard with which the river was connected by a canal.

Among the smaller towns in Rajasthan of the period one can name Kalibangan, whose structure was similar to those of other Harappan towns. It was also divided into two parts - the bigger houses were located on the hillock while the plains had the town. The houses were constructed with ordinary material. The streets had the grid system without any drainage. It may be presumed that it was not considered as a town of high standard during the declining days of the empire. Another port on the Makran coast has been found with the same structure.

Although some new towns have been found in the Harappan civilization, yet one may presume that the total population in the Harappan towns did not constitute more than 5 per cent of the total population. The empire extended from Baluchistan to U.P. but the population dependent on the towns was substantially low compared to the number of towns found so far. There has been a lively discussion of the relation between the rural areas and the towns. In the rural areas the principal work was obviously agriculture with its union with the local crafts. Potters for example worked on earthenware vessels and toys, often baked, while there were different types of production of goods based on cloth. Some other crafts were found in the towns whose raw materials used to come from the rural areas in which one can name goods of daily use, luxury goods and even ornaments. The culture of the rural areas and towns did not differ in language, religion or festivities.

Since the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• PART I
• PART II: THE MUGHALS
• Bibliography
• Index