Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s4.t2: B. Historical Notices in the Pre-Vijayanagara times

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s4.t2

Language: English

B. Historical Notices in the Pre-Vijayanagara times

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The existence of such guilds was of vital importance for the material prosperity of the people. This may account for the previleges enjoyed by these corporate bodies both during and before the Vijayanagara times. In the Karṇāṭaka as well as in the south they formed an indispensable part of the socio-economic structure of the land. We have had some occasions of referring to the power wielded by these organizations in matters which may be called political; we shall now proceed to give some more details about the different kinds of guilds, the features which distinguished them, and their leaders who must have been in no small measure responsible for the greatness of the corporations. But the source of their influence lies in their tradition; and, therefore, in order to understand the position which the guilds occupied in the society of Vijayanagara, we have to survey briefly the history of these associations in pre-Vijayanagara days.

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The account of guilds, especially in the Karṇāṭaka and the adjoining regions, centres round the name Vira-Baṇaja. Dr. Fleet remarked thus on the name: "Baḷañja is another form of 'baṇaṅju' or 'baṇañja', the modern 'baṇañjiga', 'baṇajiga' or 'baṇijiga', which must be the original of, or a corruption of, the Sanskrit 'bāṇija, bāṇijika' merchant, trader. 'Baṇajiga' is a division of the Liṅgāyats; and 'Virabaṇajiga', or in old Canarese 'Viravaṇiga', means a strict Baṇajiga."[¹] One of their most powerful strongholds was Baḷḷigrāme. An inscription dated A.D. 1093-4 of the times of the Western Chāḷukya Vikramāditya the Great, gives us the following interesting details about a guild of Baḷḷigrāme:

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¹ Fleet, *I. A. V*, p. 344, n. Cf. Dr. Oppert. "The word Banij denotes in both cases (i.e., of Manu and Yājñavalkya) a merchant, from it is derived the modern expression Banyan". *The Ancient Commerce of India*, p. 14. Dr. Barnett has the following to remark on the same term: "... But there was a vast organisation of associated traders which about the twelfth and thirteenth centuries had spead a network over the greater part of Southern India and Ceylon, and perhaps even further, and which, beginning with simple commerce and thence developing an elaborate social and semi-military system, strikingly recalls our East India Company. These were the Vira-banajus, as they were called in Kanarese, or Vira-Valañjigar, as they were styled in Tamil. The name signifies 'valiant merchants', and is therefore similar to our 'Gentlemen Adventurers'. Baṇaṅju is connected with the Sanskrit Vaṇij, and Valañju is a Tamil development, whence comes also the Sinhalese veṇanda or velanda. They claimed to have come originally from Ahicchatra, but their central body was at Ayyavōle, the modern Aihole, which was the seat of their Board of Directors, consisting of a council of 500 members". *The Ancient Tamil Township and Village*, p. 42 (Ms.).

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"Hail! The entire guild of the Nagaramummuri,[²] which was possessed of all the glory of the names commencing with 'That which......'[³] and has for its pure origin the perfect (lineage of) Khaṇḍali, which is adorned with the pure banner (bearing the device) of a hill (acquired) by preserving the Virabaḷañja laws, which embrace truth and pure conduct and brilliant achievements and morality and modesty, and are adorned with innumerable good qualities acquired by five hundred strict edicts celebrated throughout the whole world ; that which has eighteen cities ; that which has the boon of the sixty-four yōgas ; that which is the locality of the sixty-four ghaṭikās ; the supreme lords of the city of Ayyāvoḷe ; those who are a very cage of thunderbolts to (protect) those who take refuge with them ; those who bestow largely and afford a shelter ; those who give shelter, and protect; those who behave like brothers to the wives of other men ; those who are like the tree of paradise to (grant all the desires of) people who apply to them. . . . . . . . . "1

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² For a meaning of this expression Fleet *I.A.*, V., p. 343, n; J. Bom. R. A. S. X., p. 283, n. (40); *Ep. Ind.* XIII, p. 26. "Whether the title mummuridanda and bhallunki-danda-hasta borne by some of their officials refer to this semi-military character is uncertain". Barnett, *Ancient Tamil Township and Village*, p. 43 n. (Ms.)

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³ "Dvatrimśadvēḷāmaramum,—meaning unknown". Fleet *I.A.* V, p. 343, n.

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Some more details about these Baṇajigas are supplied by an inscription dated about A. D. 1150 which, after narrating their elaborate titles, says: ". . . . visiting the Chēra, Chōḷa, Pāṇḍya, Maleya, Magadha Kauśala, Saurāshṭra, Dhanushṭra, Kurumbha, Kāmbhōja, Gaulla, Lāḷa, Barvvara, Pārasa, Nēpāḷa, Ekapāda, Lambakarnna, Strī-rājya, Ghōḷāmukha, and many other countries ; and the grāmas, nagaras, khēḍas, kharvvaḍas, maḍambas, paṭṭaṇas, drōṇāmukhas, and siṁvahanas,—the cities of the elephants at the cardinal points ; and by land routes and water routes penetrating into the regions of the six continents; with superior elephants, well bred horses, large sapphires, moonstones, pearls, rubies, diamonds, lapis lazuli, onyx, topaz, carbuncles, coral, emeralds, karkkētana, and various such articles ; cardamoms, cloves, bdellium sandal, camphor, musk saffron, malegaja, and other perfumes and drugs by selling which wholesale, or hawking about on their shoulders, preventing the loss by customs duties, they fill up the emperor's treasury of gold, his treasury of jewels, and his armoury of weapons, and from the rest they daily bestow gifts on paṇḍits and munis fully versed in the chatus-samaya-shaḍ-darśana...carriers with asses and buffaloes, adorned with red trappings; the sixteen of the eight nāḍs, gavaregas, gaṭrigas, śeṭṭis, śeṭṭiguṭṭas, aṅkakāras, biras, biravaṇigas, gaṇḍigas, gāvuṇḍas gāvuṇḍasvāmis,—thus with? spear, headed rods in their hands, with an elephant as their bhēri (kettle-drum), the Bhēri (sect) as their maḍḍale (tabor), white umbrellas as their canopy, the mighty ocean as their moat, Indra as their hand-guard, Varuṇa as the standard-bearer, Kubēra as the treasurer, the nine planets as a belt, Rāhu as a tassel, Kētu as a dagger, Kuḷika as the fight, the sun and the moon as the backers, the thirty-three gods are the spectators; they draw forth the sword kshame (patience) and with it piercing the enemy named krōdha (anger), having the ḍava-ruga and para nirghghōshaṇa of the sons of warriors who have fought and won.... In the case of a sack which bursts from the contents collected from the points of the compass, an ass which runs away (laden) with grain, a wounded and fallen body, a cart that has been robbed, a blood load that has been lifted, a bar of gold that has been seized, a tax that has been evaded, a cry of looting, an assembly connected with caste customs, a bargain that has been made,—they are not ones to fail...”.¹

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¹ Fleet, I.A., V.; pp. 343-4.

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¹ E. C., VII, Sk. 118, pp. 86-7; Rice My Ins. pp. 122-3.

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All the Dēśis of Āryyavaḷa, who claimed to be the “followers of the Vira-Baṇañja dharma”, are said to have had the “visuddha-guḍḍa flag” in an inscription dated A. D. 1167². The same epigraph informs us that they united with the Dēśis of other places, and made a grant of dues (specified) along with Tippa Rāja, for the service of the god Ādi-Gummēśvara in the same year. Belgoḷa was also a prominent centre of the Baṇajigas. It appears that the Baṇajiga women too took some part in public affairs. An inscription dated about A.D. 1175 records the provision made for flowers for Gommaṭa Dēva of Belgoḷa by all the merchants of that holy place, including Gummi Seṭṭi's Dasaiya, Lōkeya-sahaṇi's daughter Sōmauve and two others named, after having purchased certain lands (specified) at Gaṅgā-samudra and Gommaṭapura from the assembly.¹

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² E. C., V, P. I, Bl. 177, p. 103. A communal grant of the latter half of the seventeenth century contains some interesting details about the merchant guilds of the same centre. The record belongs to the history of Golkonda. The contents of the grant are as follows: The several members of the leagne (samaya-pekkandra) of the lords of Ayyāvaḷi, indigenous, (svadēśa) foreign (paradēśa), both (ubhaya), and the itinerants (nānā-dēśa) among them, who had the hōmkalikā praśasti, who were the devotees of gods Gavarēśvara and Gautēśvara, the Vaiśyas of the 102 gōtras, with the several śeṭṭis, including Prithvi-Śeṭṭi Rāyani Bhāskaranna who had the grace of the goddess Kamala-Vāsavakanyakā of Vidyāvāsi, who obtained favour from Nagarēśvara-dēva, etc., the several matha-mahats (named) the several śeṭṭis of the fifty-six countries including those of Penugoṇḍa-sthala and other sthalas, the landowners (bhūmi-prabhu) belonging to the four reḍḍi families, the eighteen sects among the Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaiśyas, and Śudras together, viz. vyavahārikas, pañchālas (five sects of smiths), kumbhālikas (potters), tantuvayins (weavers), vastrabhēdakas (cloth dyers?), tila-ghāṭakas (oil millers) kuraṇṭakas (kura-

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¹ E. C., II, No. 242, pp. 103-104, text, p. 103 (2nd ed.) Dasaiya's relationship to Gummi Seṭṭi cannot be made out from the origin which runs thus—Gummi Seṭṭya Dasaiya.

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The same holy place had a guild of jewel merchants who about the year A. D. 1175 pledged themselves to pay annually certain dues (specified) on coral.² Another locality which could boast of wealthy guilds was Mosaḷe. When the Vaḍḍa-byavahāri Basavi Seṭṭi of Mosaḷe caused the images of Chatur-viṁśati (twenty-four) Tīrthaṅkaras to be made in about A.D. 1180³ evidently in Belgoḷa, there naturally arose the necessity of granting an endowment for the worship of the Tīrthaṅkaras. And in about A. D. 1185 the merchants of Mosaḷe pledged themselves to give annually certain specified amounts.⁴ From these instances it is evident that the prominent merchants of Belgoḷa and Mosaḷe, in the early ages, were followers of Jaina faith. This is confirmed by the activities of Nāgadēva, the great minister and Paṭṭaṇasvāmi of the Hoysala king Vira Ballāḷa, who caused in A. D. 1195 a number of buildings to be erected in front of the god Pārśva. Nāgadēva was a disciple of the

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² Ibid., No. 241, p. 103.

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³ Ibid., No. 197, p. 92.

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⁴ Ibid., No. 235, p. 101; No. 252, p. 106.

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ṭaka?; shoe makers), vastra-rakshkas (tailors), dēvāṅgas, parikeliti (pari-kelettēvaru (keepers of pack bullock?); gōrakshakas (cowherds), kiratas (hunters); rajakas (washermen), and kshauras (barbers), being assembled and seated on a diamond throne in the mukha-maṇḍapa made in the form of a moon (chandra-maṇḍala), made a gift of certain specified rates as a charitable endowment. We may note that in this record the eighteen castes are called phaṇas or samayas. Ep. Report for 1918, p. 174.

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Mahāmaṇḍalāchārya Nayakīrti. About the merchants of Belgoḷa it is said : "The merchants who were the protectors of that Jinālaya: born in the eminent line of Khaṇḍali and Mūḷabhadra, devoted to truth and purity, possessed of the lion's valour, skilled in conducting various kinds of trade with many seaports, adorned with the famous three jewels, the merchants residing at the holy place Belgoḷa" acquired celebrity on earth.¹

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¹ E. C. II, No. 335, p. 143.

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About A. D. 1240 the merchants of all the various countries made a grant for the Srī-Vaishṇavas of a place, the name of which is effaced, in the Eighteen-nāḍs, and Paḍi-nāḍ. The name Mudi-koṇḍachōḷapura and the Grantha characters² in which the incription is written suggest that the Nānā-Dēśis were also a powerful factor in the Tamil land.

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² E. C., IV, Y. 61, p. 33 text, p. 83.

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A few details about the organization of the Vira-Baṇajigas can be gathered from an inscription of the reign of the Hoysala king Sōmēśvara Dēva.³ The epigraph tells us that one of their leaders was styled the *senior māṇikya bhaṇḍāri*. Rāma Dēva Nāyāka, the minister of the king Sōmēśvara Dēva was called by that name. The charter which he issued to the merchants of Gommaṭapura, including those who formed the guilds of oil-men, runs thus: "In case the imposts, *nyāya anyāya* and *maḷa-braya* of the palace come to be levied, the *āchārya* of the place shall himself pay and settle the matter : it is no concern of the residents. Those who violate the terms of this charter are the destroyers of the Dharma-sthaḷa. If among the merchants of this holy place one or two, posing as leaders, teach the *āchārya* deceit, and, causing confusion by taking one thing for another, encourage him to covet a *hāga* and a *bēle* and ask for more, they are traitors to the creed, traitors to the king, enemies of the Baṇañjigas".⁴ The same epigraph concludes thus: "If knowing this, merchants are indifferent, they alone are destroyers of this charity and not the *āchārya* and the wicked. If without the consent of the merchants one or two leaders enter into the *āchārya's* house or the palace, they are traitors to the creed. With regard to privileges, former usage shall be followed".¹

Cites (4)

Mānava Dharmaśāstra — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit
Yājñavalkyasmṛti — Yājñavalkya, Sanskrit
Epigraphia Indica
Epigraphia Carnatica