The Colas c30: Chapter XXII. Industry and Trade

The Cōḷas c30

Language: English

Chapter XXII. Industry and Trade

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In most of the common industries the rule was production for the local market. The existence of a brisk internal trade in several articles is indicated by the evidence of the movements of individual merchants and the highly organised state of the mercantile corporations in various parts of the country. A merchant from the *malai-nāḍu* (Malabar) is seen trading in Tiruvaḍandai in the Chingleput district,¹ and one from Mylapore is found in Tanjore;² and a man from Ceylon endows a lamp in the temple at Śucīndram (South Travancore).³ These are not isolated instances, but representative of a large class of similar facts recorded in the inscriptions which show that there was a free and active business intercourse between the different parts of the empire. The expansion of Cōḷa rule was followed by the organisation of a strong centralised administration under a single political power. Except for a few local risings leading to punitive expeditions from time to time, peace was maintained for successive generations over a wide area, which had been cut up till then into a number of independent warring states. In the more settled conditions of the new era, the industrial arts obtained greater encouragement and the opportunities for trade increased.

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The metal industries and the jewellers' art had reached a high state of perfection. Household utensils made of metal were apparently confined to the rich, earthenware being often mentioned in connection with cooking and eating in *śālas*, charitable feeding halls. The detailed descriptions of the images and utensils of the Tanjore temple recorded in the inscriptions, and the bronzes of the period that have survived to this day give proof of the mastery attained by the braziers of the time in the art of manipulating alloys of metals and casting them into the most elaborate and graceful forms. Copper, bronze and brass were employed in such work, besides gold and silver.

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The variety of jewels and ornaments of gold and precious stones, and the careful record of the numbers and classes of the stones and pearls mounted on each of these would be enough to enable a modern jeweller to reproduce most of them if only he knew their general formation; many of the ornaments mentioned have long since gone out of use, and no really old ornament has survived the ravages of invasion and war; the Tanjore inscriptions however enable one to see that the jeweller's art reached its high-water mark under the Cōḷas, and that the Tanjore jewellers produced the most pleasing results by studying the dispositions of precious stones and pearls with a view to their colour effects. If it is remembered that temples were only glorified palaces, that gods received all the honours due to kings (*rājōpacāra*), that kings were the models for their subjects to follow, and if, further, it is realised that the Tanjore temple differs from the hundreds of other temples only in its greater size and in the accuracy and completeness of its surviving inscriptions, it will be seen that it is not easy to exaggerate the importance of the amount of wealth held in the form of jewels or of the flourishing state of the goldsmith's trade. Neither the depredation of invading hosts nor the security of established government has succeeded in weaning the people from the hoarding habit. *Pax Britannica* was hardly more potent in this respect than Malik Kafur and Hyder Ali.

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The inscriptions contain only a limited number of references to the daily occupations and arts of the population, and we have to eke out this scanty information from literature and sculpture. The manufacture of sea-salt was carried on under government supervision and control, and subject to considerable imposts in kind and money, local and central. The salt-pans of Mar-kāṇam, Kanyākumkāri, Variyūr, and Āytuṟai were among the more important centres of salt manufacture, which was a widespread industry all along the sea coast.⁴ Some of the salt pans at Bāpaṭla were lost in 1112⁵ owing to encroachment by the sea.

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A conspicuous example of particular industries obtaining special recognition in court or in a big temple is furnished by the weavers of Kāñcīpuram. There were four wards (*pāḍis*) of the city inhabited by the class of weavers known as Paṭṭaśālins; they had the distinction of being appointed weavers of royal garments, and Uttama Cōḷa appointed them to the management of the financial affairs of the temple of Ūragam in Kāñcīpuram. The poor residents of Śōḷāniyamam were exempt from the payment of all royal dues in return for their undertaking to maintain the temple accounts properly and submit them to monthly audit by the weavers who had the management of the temple, an arrangement ratified by the *nagaram* of Kāñcīpuram as well.⁶

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Of the conditions of transport in internal trade it is not possible to give a detailed account. In South India there was very little scope for the use of natural water-ways for the carriage of merchandise in the interior, and there is no evidence that canals were made for any purpose other than the irrigation of agricultural lands. Roads are mentioned in several inscriptions from all parts of the country, when the boundaries of lands and villages are described. To maintain these roads, great and small, in good repair was part of the duty of local authorities and the villagers were often expected to give freely the labour (*veṭṭi*, *amañji*) required for it. Two classes of roads may be distinguished; the *vadis* were only slightly better than footpaths and apparently not suited to wheeled traffic. One such *vadi* in Uttaramērūr was washed away by the floods and the path became unfit for use even by cattle; in remaking the path, the *sabhā* decided to widen it and purchased the adjoining lands from the ryots to whom they belonged.⁷ The better class of roads is called *peru-vaḷi*, the great road, in the inscriptions. These were the trunk roads leading from one large division of the country to another, as is seen from their names like the Āndhra road, *Vaḍugapperuvaḷi* or *Āndhra-patha*,⁸ the great road to Kongu (*Kongapperuvaḷi*),⁹ the big road to Peṇṇāḍam,¹⁰ the *Tañjavūrp-peruvaḷi* mentioned in an inscription from Āḍuturai,¹¹ and, most significant of all, the great road leading to Kalyāṇapuram mentioned in an inscription from the Tanjore district.¹² The breadth of one of these roads is stated to have been two rods (*kōl*), about twenty-four feet.¹³

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Trade was carried on by merchants banded together in powerful guilds and corporations. The *maṇigrāmam* of Koḍumbāḷūr endowing a charitable trust in Salem,¹⁴ the Vaḷañjiyar of Tiruppuṟambiyam,¹⁵ are examples of such associations. There were also the Teliki of Bezwada mentioned in the inscriptions of Rājarāja II;¹⁶ the *satyavācakas* (truth-tellers), also called *dhanmavāṇiyar* (the just merchants) who maintained a *maṭha* called after themselves and supplied the *tiruk-koḍi* (the holy flag) at the three annual festivals at Tiruvaṇṇāmalai;¹⁷ the *sūcakar karuṇākara vīrar* or the *vaḷañjiyar* of Tennilangai who paid contributions from 1189 for the maintenance of a Vaiṣṇava *maṭha* at Tirukaṇṇapuram;¹⁸ and the *vaḷañjiyar* of Tinnevelly who had the *kārāṇmai* of the lands of the local temple, on condition that they provided for certain specified requirements for the services in the temple.¹⁹ About A.D. 1207 the merchant communities of Nellūr, Nārāyaṇapuram, Ārkāḍu, Mayilāppūr, Tiruvoṟṟiyūr, Pūndamali, Neḍumpirai, Damanakaccēri, Perungalūr and Tirunīṟu co-operated together in acquiring a whole village and giving it as *dēvadāna* to the temple of Tiruppāśūr, for constructing a *madil*, an enclosing wall; the village was left by the merchants in charge of Tammu Siddhi.²⁰ Again, an inscription of 1235 from Anbil mentions an assemblage of the *Cittira-mēḻipperiya nāṭṭār*, the *tiśai-āyirattu aiññūṟṟuvar*, the *Śeṭṭis* of the *nāḍus* in many *maṇḍalas*, *davanac-ceṭṭis*, Jayapālas, *munai-vīra-koḍiyar*, the excellent *śilpis*, and the *mudar-paḍai-kalanaiyār*; the assembly described themselves by the phrase *Rājarājap-perunīrāviyōm*; the object of the meeting is unfortunately not clear, for the inscription is damaged.²¹ Lastly, the *vaḷañjiyar* and the *nānādēśiyat-tiśai-āyirattaiññūṟṟuvar* built a part of the temple at Tiruvilakkuḍi.²²

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Nānādēśa-Tiśaiyāyirattu Aiññūṟṟuvar formed the most celebrated of these guilds. This long name is susceptible of two interpretations; the Five Hundred of the thousand directions in all countries, or the One Thousand and Five Hundred from all countries and directions. Seeing, however, that the guild is described sometimes by the terms *nānādēśīs* or *aiññūṟṟuvar*, the first interpretation seems to be the correct one. This guild had a long and notable record of achievement. Its importance may be taken to antedate the rise of the Imperial Cōḷas of the Vijayālaya line; for two short inscriptions from Muniśandai in the Pudukkōṭṭah state, most probably of the time of Vijayālaya and Parāntaka I, show that this corporation was already well established, the tank at Muniśandai being called after it; the inscriptions record endowments for the periodical repair of the tank. Members of this corporation obtained some houses assigned to them about A.D. 1015 by the *sabhā* of Nigarili-śōḷa-caturvēdimangalam for being used as residences or warehouses.²³ In A.D. 1033 is recorded a gift of land for a service in a Śiva temple at Ambāsamudram for the benefit (*śiṟappu*) of the same guild.²⁴

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The fragmentary Tamil inscription from Loboe Toewa, in Sumatra, mentions this body of merchants and bears the date Śaka 1010 (A.D. 1088), clear proof of the active share of the guild in the extensive over-seas trade of the time. Some inscriptions from the Mysore area²⁵ furnish important and interesting details of the myths relating to the origin and organisation of the guild, the articles of merchandise in which its members carried on trade, the countries with which they traded, and the means of transport employed by them. Born of the race of Vāsudēva, Kandaḷi and Mūlabhadra, they were favoured by the goddess Bhagavati, and comprised many sub-divisions, born to wanderers over many countries. They visited 'the Cēra, Cōḷa, Pāṇḍya, Maleya, Magadha, Kausala, Saurāṣṭra, Dhānuṣṭra, Kurumba, Kāmbhoja, Lāḷa, Baruvara, Nēpāḷa, Ēkapada, Lambakarṇa, Strī-Rājya, Ghōḷa-mukha, and many other countries,' and by land routes and water routes they penetrated into the regions of the six continents. Their trade was in superior elephants, well-bred horses, precious stones of all sorts, spices, perfumes and drugs. They sold them wholesale or hawked them about on their shoulders. They often carried their merchandise on the backs of asses and buffaloes 'adorned with red trappings.' They were famous for their 'five Hundred *vīra-śāsanas*.' One such *vīra-śāsana* is found recorded in an inscription²⁶ of the reign of Rājādhirāja I, dated in his thirty-second year c. A.D. 1050. By a resolution of their body, the *nānādēśis* and their followers resolved to convert the village of Śīrāvaḷḷi into a *nānādēśīyadaśamaḍi-erivīrapaṭṭina* and to confer certain privileges on its residents. The record also describes the merchant guild as a *samaya* and states that it was served by (*samayattu tiruvaḍikkup-paṇi-śeyyum*) regiments of foot-soldiers and swordsmen. There was another meeting at Mylapore of the same body of merchants which decided to convert Kāṭṭūr, originally an Ayyapuḷal, into a *vīrapaṭṭina*, a status which implied a privileged position in the country's trade.²⁷ Again in 1199 a meeting of the *nāḍu* and *nagaram* of Ūṭṭattūr (Trichinopoly district) granted the village of Veṇmaṇip-pāḍi, converting it into a mercantile town called Tāyilu-nalla-puram.²⁸

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The *nānādēśis* then were a powerful autonomous corporation of merchants whose activities apparently took little or no account of political boundaries. They visited all countries in the course of their trade, and everywhere they enjoyed a respected and privileged position. In the Cōḷa kingdom they received recognition alike from the central government and from local agencies like the village *sabhās*. They had their own mercenary army, doubtless for the protection of the merchandise in their warehouses and in transit. They also concerned themselves in the details of local administration in the places where they were settled. In Maḷūrpaṭṇa they undertook to cooperate with the Śrī-Vaiṣṇavas in enforcing the regular collection of the interest due to the temple on a perpetual loan from the members of the *sabhā* of Vaṇḍūr, also called Śōḷa-mādēvi-caturvēdimangalam. This was early in the reign of Rājēndra I.²⁹ Their success and prosperity were to some extent independent of the vicissitudes of war and peace among the states in which they carried on trade. In the thirteenth century, there was at Pagan in Burma a Viṣṇu temple built by the *nānādēśis* and gifts were made to it by a merchant from one of the port towns on the Malabar coast.³⁰

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A recent writer has pointed out the differences between mercantile organisations in Europe and in the East.³¹ Speaking of European trade with China, he contrasts the radical weakness of the Chinese commercial class as compared with the European. 'The great chartered companies of Europe had monopoly rights and state backing; they sinned against the light of free trade no less than the Chinese guilds, but they stood for the self-organisation and autonomy of the merchant class, not the mere rapacity of government officials. In China the merchant was powerless against officialdom; politically he was nothing; there was no tradition of city-state commercialism to teach him his potential strength. In Europe the bourgeois was rising to be master of the state; in China he was but the servile agent of the mandarins.’ In South India, the merchants had certainly more freedom and scope for initiative, and a better capacity for voluntary organisation than in China; they were less at the mercy of government officials, and exercised a great deal of autonomy in the regulation of their own affairs. The state was not eager to interfere in their transactions, and would not do so except on invitation. On the other hand, the state did not, it could not, give the strong backing to its merchants engaged in foreign trade that the European state provided. Neither the merchants nor the state in South India had any idea of the possibilities of economic imperialism. Trade to them was an end in itself; they were willing to carry on trade if conditions were favourable; it never occurred to them that foreign lands may be compelled to buy and sell at the point of the bayonet.

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There were also local organisations of merchants called *nagaram* in big centres of trade like Kāñcīpuram and Māmallapuram.³² What the relation was between these local bodies of traders and the more general groups like the Maṇigrāmam and the Nānādēśis or Vaḷañjīyar cannot be determined with precision. That Brahmins also occasionally engaged in trade becomes clear from a direct mention of the Brahmins who engaged in trade along with the Vaḷañjīyar in the South bazaar of Eṇṇāyiram,³³ a large centre of Vaiṣṇavism and education in South Arcot. The *nagarams* used to raise voluntary contributions from their members for specific purposes. To give just one example: in a.d. 1037, the *nagaram* of the town of Vaḷaiyūr³⁴ resolved that the lamps to be maintained by them in the local temple and the interest due from them on moneys borrowed from the temple were to be met from the proceeds of a regular payment in future of certain dues laid on their commercial transactions in accordance with a schedule,—the buyer and seller each giving a *kāl-alavupāṭṭam* of one *nāḷi* per *kalam* (on grains), a *kōl-kūli* (weighment-cess) of one *palam* per *nirai*, ten betel-nuts for every thousand exchanged and so on. Many other instances can be traced in the inscriptions of a similar exercise of the privileges of autonomy in the regulation of the internal affairs of the groups.

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On customs and octroi duties in this period we have little direct evidence. Kulōttunga I is celebrated in contemporary literature and epigraphy for abolishing the *śungam*. We seem to have no detailed account of this most important transaction of the reign, and there is no means of knowing how this was managed, and what steps, if any, were taken to fill the gap in the revenues of the government caused by the remission. The word *śungam* is explained generally as including all the imposts on articles of merchandise imported in ships and carts, that is to say, from across the seas or the interior.³⁵

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The ‘I.O.U.’ as an instrument of borrowing was apparently in common use. It is mentioned quite casually in an inscription from Tiruvāḍutuṟai of the reign of Rājarāja I.³⁶ The *sabhā* of that place owed some money to a Kaikkōḷa which they had borrowed from him on a promissory note (*kaiyeḻuttōlai*). For some reasons not recorded, the entire property of the Kaikkōḷan became *rājasvam*, that is, it was confiscated by the king who naturally sought thereupon to realise the money due from the *sabhā*. These facts are recorded in explanation of the assignment to the temple of some of the village lands in lieu of the money then borrowed by the *sabhā* for paying off the king. Another instance of borrowing on a promissory note is the loan of 100 *kāśus* from a temple in Puñjai to the *mūla-paruḍai* of Talaiccangāḍu mentioned in an inscription of the reign of Rājēndra I.³⁷

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Wide divergences are traceable in the rate of interest on loans, and also in the manner in which the rate is expressed and calculated. The rate of 12½% per annum, of ⅛ *kaḻañju* per *kaḻañju* of gold, was for long the standard rate on the investment of religious endowments,³⁸ though 15 per cent or 3 *mañjāḍis* per *kaḻañju*³⁹ also obtained in many instances. The lowest rate met with is 5 per cent or one *mañjāḍi* per *kaḻañju*, though this rate is coupled with the reign of Vijaya Kamapavarman, and not a Cōḷa king.⁴⁰ Higher rates of money interest are also found though not so frequently as the normal 12½ or 15 per cent. Thus we have rates like 12½ per cent per half-year (*pū*) working to 25 per cent per annum;⁴¹ four hundred *kaḻañjus* yielding one hundred and fifty per annum, 37½ per cent;⁴² or even a 50 per cent rate expressed as half *kāśu* per annum per *kāśu*.⁴³ These rates cannot be explained easily at present; it is certain, however, that they are not due to differences either in the purpose of the loan or investment or in the political conditions affecting social security. The Rāṣṭrakūṭa invasion made little difference in the prevailing rate of interest as can be seen from inscriptions quoting Kṛṣṇa's regnal years;⁴⁴ the higher and the lower rates of interest alike prevail in the reign of Rājēndra I, when there was little or no disturbance to internal security. Very often the rate of interest is expressed in terms of commodities and sometimes even the principal of the loan is also a given quantity of some commodity, usually grain. The divergences in the commodity-rates are quite as wide and as unaccountable as in money-rates. The lowest grain-rate of interest per *kaḻañju* of gold is one *kalam* per annum;⁴⁵ the highest rate goes up to 3 *kalams*,⁴⁶ and even four;⁴⁷ the more common rate is in the neighbourhood of a *kalam*, or a *kalam* and third. In one and the same region and at the same time, two village assemblies are seen borrowing from one creditor, a temple, at the different rates of ⅔ *kalam* and one *kalam* per *kaḻañju* per annum.⁴⁸ Generally high rates of interest, seldom less than 25 per cent, are quoted when the principal is expressed in terms of grain,⁴⁹ and in one case there occurs the impossibly high rate of 75 per cent per annum.⁵⁰ Another way in which different rates of interest find expression is by means of the adoption of different rates of capitalisation for purposes of endowments of the same service; thus the supply of a quarter measure of oil every day is provided for by the endowment of 18 *kaḻañjus* 3 *mañjāḍis* and 1 *kunri* of gold in one instance, and by that of just 10 *kaḻañjus* in another.⁵¹

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That there must have been a great amount of borrowing and lending among traders and merchants in the normal course of their business we may take for granted; but of such transactions no record seems to have survived. Almost all the investments recorded in the inscriptions are of charitable funds generally ear-marked for specific purposes, and sometimes a certain stability is imparted to these purposes by the investments and the terms governing them being made irrevocable. Thus a merchant from Malai-nāḍu invested 16⅛ *kalañjus* of gold in a *vāḍākkaḍan*, permanent loan, from the interest whereof twelve Brahmins were to be fed for one month (Kumbha) every year in the temple of Varāhadēva at Tiruvadandai (Chingleput).⁵² Again the *ūr* of Kōnēri accepted a loan of five *kalañjus* from a temple in Kañcīpuram subject to the conditions that they should pay interest at 1⅜ *kalam* per *kalañju* per annum and that they should at no time offer to return the principal of the loan.⁵³ An inscription from Maḷūrpaṭna (Bangalore) of the reign of Rājēndra I provides another example which is of great interest for the sanctions it lays down to enforce conformity to the terms of the loan.⁵⁴ The grain-principal (*nellu-mudal*) of the perpetual loan was 320 *kalams* and the rate of interest 3¾ *kuruṇis* per *kalam* per annum yielding in all 100 *kalams* in a year, to be remitted in two instalments, 50 *kalams* at each of the two harvests. The borrowers were the members of the *sabhā* of Vaṇḍūr who agreed to give two meals a day to the persons delegated to collect this grain-interest; these persons might resort, if necessary, to processes of distraint such as stopping the supply of water and fire, surrounding the habitation, and impounding cattle. Nothing is stated in explanation of these rather drastic sanctions and we cannot say if they ever were actually enforced. The problem of modern finance is to fund public debts in order to secure stable interest charges; the problem that the temples of South India had to face once was that of securing a fixed income as interest on their investments, of funding their loans as it were.

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⁵² 261 of 1910.

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⁵³ 16 of 1921.

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⁵⁴ *Ep. Carn.* ix, Cp. 129.

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The transfer of immovable property by sale or gift was generally attended with more formalities than that of movables. The ordinary transactions among individual owners are seldom represented in the records before us. Only those of public interest are found recorded in inscriptions, and an analysis of the sales of land so recorded reveals that at least four types were distinguished among them. They are: (1) *ājñākrayam*, (2) the *peruvilai* (great sale) of some king (named), (3) the *peruvilai* of Caṇḍēśvara and, (4) *sabhaivilai* or *ūr-vilai*. The first of these was sale by *ājñā* or royal order of the properties of persons found guilty of treason against the king or his family. The leading example of this class is the sale recorded in the Uḍaiyārguḍi inscription⁵⁵ of the properties of persons involved in the murder of Āditya II. The *peruvilai* of the kings was the sale of the lands of cultivators in the processes of revenue-collection when other means of collection had failed. The Caṇḍēśvara-peruvilai was the sale of land by Śiva temples, Caṇḍēśvara representing Śiva as his *ādi-dāsa*, first devotee, in such transactions. The corresponding term, if any, for describing sales by Viṣṇu temples was *sēnāpati-vilai*. The *sabhai-* or *ūr-vilai* was, as the name implies, the sale of land from the common land of the commune effected by the local assembly of the village. A careful study of the prices mentioned in these different classes of sales points to the conclusion that they were often governed by extra-economic considerations, and this may be the reason why the nature of the sale was specifically mentioned in each such case. The rates specified had apparently little or no relation to the market value of land in the neighbourhood. It is probable that in the *peruvilai* (lit. great sale) something like a public auction was the method of sale followed, the usual procedure being to cry out the upset price in a public place at a time fixed in advance, and await the response of those present at the sale. It is doubtful if it was a real auction where bidding against one another on the part of the buyers was allowed; the formula in the inscriptions suggests only the announcement of a fixed price together with the other terms, if any, on which the property was offered, and the acceptance by the buyer.⁵⁶

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The main features of the formulae adopted in documents, sale or gift deeds, conveying property in land may be briefly noted. The minute care with which the boundaries were described in each case may be seen from the copper-plate grants like those of Anbil, Ānaimaṅgalam, Tiruvālaṅgāḍu and Karandai (Tanjore). The same feature marks the stone inscriptions as well, though the description is often more summary in form and therefore much shorter than in the copper-plates. Then the phrase ‘*mikudik-kuṟai-uḷḷaḍaṅga*,’ ‘including excess or shortage,’ is invariably employed, and this implies that the boundaries rather than the measurements stated formed the decisive factors. Then there occurred phrases which excluded other properties like old *dēvadānas*, canals, roads etc., which were not meant to be conveyed. Like gift-deeds, sale-deeds also often contained details of the rights inherent in the property conveyed. These included the ownership of the subsoil, trees, hills, wells etc., irrigation-rights, easement rights and so on. The document usually concluded with a declaration that the price agreed upon had been fully paid and the land duly conveyed, and that the document concerned was to serve as the acquittance for the sale price⁵⁷ and that no other receipt or acquittance was to be demanded in the future. One sale deed from Ārpākkam⁵⁸ dated a.d. 1232 contains the following provisions: a declaration that the land sold was subject to no encumbrance and that if, in future, the existence of any encumbrance was discovered, the vendor would release the land from it; the usual clause about acquittance for the sale price; a declaration that the purchaser acquired all the rights over the land including the rights to sell, mortgage and give away; that the vendor was not to raise objections at a later stage and plead that the document was void on the score of imperfect wording, illegibility of letters and so on. An inscription from Tiruvaṇṇamalai (1204)⁵⁹ records a resolution of the *māhēśvaras* that houses built on sites in the *Tirumaḍai-viḷāgam* (temple area) were to be sold at a price to be fixed by a superintendent (*kaṇkāṇi*) from the temple treasury, and that half the sale proceeds must be remitted to the temples, the owner of the house being entitled only to the balance. Very often a payment is made in addition to the price of land to cover the future taxes and dues on the land so that it may be conveyed tax-free; in these cases this further payment is also mentioned in the documents and the taxes intended to be remitted specified in detail. Sometimes the *irai-kāval* was a separate document, that is when the taxes were commuted some time after the purchase of the land.

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From very early times Southern India carried on a flourishing commerce with the nations across the seas on either side of the peninsula. From the fourth century a.d. or thereafter, the Persians, rather than the Arabs, were the most venturesome mariners of the Indian Ocean. In the Chinese annals of the fifth, sixth and early seventh centuries, all the products of Ceylon and India, with others from Arabia and Africa, are classed as 'products of Persia.'⁶⁰ The direct sea-route between China and India is, however, known to have come into common use by the close of the seventh century, and I-tsing mentions no fewer than thirty-seven Chinese pilgrims who took this route to India in his time.⁶¹ At no time had Indian merchantmen ever ceased to frequent the shores of the Malay peninsula and the islands of the archipelago, even Indo-China and China. Mahābalipuram, Kāvirippūmpaṭṭinam, Śāliyūr and Koṟkai on the east coast, and Quilon on the west were great emporiums frequented by the traders of other countries; Ceylon and the Nicobars in the East, the Laccadives and the Maldives in the West furnished good halting places for ships bound on long voyages.

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Towards the ninth century a.d. the countries of Southern Asia had developed an extensive maritime and commercial activity, and attained a prosperity unequalled in history.⁶² The Tang empire in China, Śrī Vijaya under the powerful line of the Śailēndras, and the Abbasid Khalifat at Baghdad were the chief states outside India that flourished on this trade. The political troubles in China in the latter part of the ninth century interrupted the established trade relations for a time. China became unsafe for the foreign traders who now retired to the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, whither the Chinese ships had to go for the purchase of foreign goods. This was the beginning of the Chinese navigation of the high seas. In the twelfth century, Cantonese sea-going junks went as far west as Quilon on the Malabar Coast.⁶³ Siraf on the eastern coast of the Persian Gulf⁶⁴ was the chief emporium in the West in the period. 'Here', says Ibn Hawqal, a contemporary Arab writer, 'there is not any husbandry or cultivation of the ground; and they bring water from a distance. There are not any trees immediately about Siraf; and the inhabitants devote their whole time to commerce and merchandise.'⁶⁵ Such was the importance of the trade of Siraf, that, despite the disadvantages of its situation and climate, the town was covered with very fine edifices and was very populous. The sailors and merchants of the entire Indian Ocean, Chinese, Javanese, Malay and Indian, came frequently to Siraf for exchanging their products. Siraf then was a cosmopolitan city, and its chief merchants, when they received strangers as guests, took scrupulous care to conform to their manners and customs. After mentioning the existence in India of a caste of which the members never ate off the same plate or at the same table, Abu Zayd tells us: ‘when these sectaries resort to Siraf and one of the principal merchants invites them to a repast in his house, at which about 100 persons assist, it is necessary that the host causes to be placed before each one of these sectaries a plate in which he eats and which is exclusively reserved for him.’⁶⁶ The use of separate plates for eating was, of course, not confined to any single caste or sect, as Abu Zayd thought, but was the universal rule in India. The statement is valuable as evidence of the trade and social relations maintained by Indians with the rest of the world in the ninth and tenth centuries.

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At the end of the tenth century, the political situation in China had become normal again, and the Sung government of the day evinced a great interest in the foreign trade of the country. The trade was made a government monopoly, and strenuous efforts were made to increase its volume. ‘A mission was sent abroad by the emperor with credentials under the imperial seal and provisions of gold and piece-goods to induce “the foreign traders of the South Sea and those who went to foreign lands beyond the sea to trade” to come to China. Special licenses to import goods were promised them.’⁶⁷ How eager the Cōḷas were to take advantage of the extended opportunities thus opened to them is evident from the missions sent to China by Rājarāja and Rājēndra. The great distance between the Cōḷa country and China, and the novelty of the direct connection now started, prevented the proud Chinese government from giving adequate recognition to the position and importance attained by the Cōḷas. Their envoys took with them very valuable presents, but they were only ranked with those of a vassal state in Eastern Turkestan.⁶⁸ The Cōḷa embassy which reached China in 1015 after spending over three years on the way must have left the Cōḷa country towards the close of the rule of Rājarāja, Lo-tsa-lo-tsa of the Chinese chronicles. Chau Ju-Kua says of this embassy:⁶⁹ ‘In former times they did not send tribute to our court, but "in the eighth year of the *ta-chung* and *siang-fu* periods (A.D. 1015), its (of Chu-lien) sovereign sent a mission with pearls and like articles as tribute. The interpreters, in translating their speech, said they wished to evince the respect of a distant nation for (Chinese) civilisation." They were ordered by Imperial Decree to remain in waiting at the side gate of the Palace, and to be entertained at a banquet by the Associates in the College of Court Annalists. By Imperial favour they were ranked with the envoys of K'iu-tz'i. It happened to be the Emperor's birthday, and the envoys had a fine opportunity to witness the congratulations in the Sacred Enclosure.' Fewer details have survived of the other embassy from Shi-(lo)-lo-cha yin-to-lo chu-lo (Śrī rāja Indra Cōḷa) which reached China in A.D. 1033. The trade thus started with China appears to have been carried on without interruption in the eleventh century, and in the language of the Annalists of the Celestial court, the Cōḷa kings continued to send 'tribute' to that court. The naval expedition of Rājēndra against Śrī Vijaya and the success achieved by that expedition rendered communication with the 'Southern seas' and the empire of China more easy and regular than it was ever before. The appeal to Vīrarājēndra for help in the settlement of the political affairs of Kaḍāram confirms our view of the relations between the Cōḷas and the kingdoms of the east. Another Cōḷa embassy to China of the year 1077 is also mentioned and the name of the contemporary Cōḷa king, Kulōttunga I, is given in a corrupt form in the Sung annals.⁷⁰

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The chief articles of merchandise that entered into this long distance trade were necessarily goods that carried great value for small bulk. Of Siraf, the Arab writer, Istakhri (tenth century) says⁷¹: 'The imports are aloes wood (for burning), amber, camphor, precious gems, bamboos, ivory, ebony, paper, sandalwood, and all kinds of Indian perfumes, drugs and condiments. In the town itself excellent napkins are made, also linen veils, and it was a great market for pearls.' From the middle of the eleventh century Siraf began to decline in importance, and the island of Qais or Kish began to take its place as the entrepot of Indian trade. The Jewish traveller from Spain, Benjamin of Tudela, relates that about the middle of the twelfth century a.d., the island of Kish marked the limit of the voyages of Indian merchants trading with Persia and the West. 'Kish,' he says,⁷² 'is a considerable market, being the point to which Indian merchants and those of the islands bring their commodities; while the traders of Mesopotamia, Yemen and Persia import all sorts of silk and purple cloths, flax, cotton, hemp, mash (a kind of pea), wheat, barley, millet, rye and all other sorts of comestibles and pulse, which articles form objects of exchange; those from India import great quantities of spices, and the inhabitants of the island live by what they gain in their capacity of brokers of both parties. The island contains about five hundred Jews.'

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The rise into importance of the Arab trade in horses which flourished for many centuries on a large scale must be traced to the period of the growth and expansion of Cōḷa dominion in Southern India. The important role of cavalry in the Cōḷa army and the armies of other powers opposed to them is clearly brought out by the inscriptions. There are also frequent references in them to *kudiraic-ceṭṭis*,⁷³ dealers in horses, who no doubt imported horses from abroad, particularly Arabia and perhaps Pegu, and distributed them among the princes and nobles in the land. As these *Ceṭṭis* are often said to come from *malai-nāḍu*,⁷⁴ it is reasonable to infer that Arabia supplied the bulk of the horses imported into South India. The extensive trade described by Marco Polo and Wassaf in the beginning of the fourteenth century could not have sprung up suddenly, and its beginnings must be traced to Cōḷa times if not to an earlier period.

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'The imports into China in this trade,' says Rockhill,⁷⁵ 'consisted of two distinct categories of goods, the one manufactured textile fabrics (mostly of cotton), spices and drugs, and the other, and by far the most valuable intrinsically, jewels and semi-precious substances, such as ivory, rhinoceros' horn, ebony, amber, coral and the like, and various aromatic products and perfumes, used either in the preparation of incense or for perfuming the body.' The high value of the second category of goods and the increasing demand for them led the Chinese government to declare their sale a government monopoly. Trade in these articles was open only to licensed vendors who bought their supplies at government warehouses in quantities and at prices fixed by government. Trade in cotton fabrics, spices and drugs was under no restrictions, and subject only to an import duty payable in kind and varying from one-tenth to two-tenths of the goods imported. Besides this import duty collected at the time of their entering the port, these goods had also to bear a fixed tonnage tax on the ship. This trade was felt on the whole to be beneficial to China and caused no anxiety to the government. In course of time, however, grave abuses developed in connection with the trade in luxuries, and the drain of currency and precious metals resulting from its expansion was such as to cause the government very serious concern. These evils came to light in the twelfth century, and the Chinese government had to embark on legislation calculated to prohibit the exportation of precious metals and coined money and to restrict the volume of trade with Ma'bar and Kulum (i.e., the Coromandel coast and Quilon).

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In the face of strong discouragement from the Chinese government, the commercial relations between China and South India appear to have been sustained, with more or less regularity, to the end of the thirteenth century. The Loboe Toewa (Sumatra) Tamil fragment of Ś. 1010 (A.D. 1088) which mentions the Tiśai-Āyirattaiññūṟṟuvar shows that the merchants of South India had settlements outside India, and it is quite possible that small settlements of these traders were found in all important entrepots of the Persian Gulf and the China Sea. Hindu sculptures of decidedly South Indian origin have been discovered in a Chinese temple in the port-town of Ch'üan-Chou, opposite to Formosa; these sculptures represent Purāṇic themes like the Gajēndra-mōkṣa and Kṛṣṇa tied to a mortar between trees and so on, and are best placed in the twelfth or thirteenth century. It seems possible therefore that a colony of South Indian merchants had settled in the port-town of Ch'üan-chou, which has been identified with the Zayton of the mediaeval travellers.

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The list of the products of the Cōḷa country given by Chau Ju-Kua shows that the list of articles imported by China from there remained practically unchanged at the beginning of the thirteenth century. He says:⁷⁶ 'The native products comprise pearls, elephants' tusks, coral, transparent glass, betelnuts, cardamoms, opaque glass, cotton stuffs with coloured silk threads, and cotton stuffs.' The same author notes also that the taxes and imposts of the Cōḷa kingdom were numerous and heavy and that consequently traders rarely went there; the criticism is obviously based on a general comparison with Chinese customs duties and should not be pressed far; for we have much other evidence on the flourishing condition of the foreign trade of South India and on the presence of small settlements of foreign merchants in port-towns. There are in existence accounts of several exchanges of missions between South India and the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan, all of which followed the sea-route and were partly commercial and partly diplomatic in character, but as these relate almost exclusively to the period of Pāṇḍyan ascendancy and have little direct connection with the Cōḷa kingdom, they need not be detailed here. For the same reason, the account of Ma'bar given by Marco Polo, very interesting and important in itself, deserves only a passing mention in a study of Cōḷa history.

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Benjamin of Tudela states that Chulam was seventeen days by sea from Kish; Chulam may therefore be Quilon or some other port more to the north on the west coast of India and probably subject to Cōḷa rule. Of the people of this place, their government and country, Benjamin observes:⁷⁷ 'They are descendants of Khush, are addicted to astrology and are all black. This nation is very trustworthy in matters of trade, and whenever foreign merchants enter their port, three secretaries of the king immediately repair on board the vessels, write down their names and report them to him; the king thereupon grants them security for their property, which they may even leave in the open fields, without any guard. One of the king's officers sits in the market, and receives goods that may have been found anywhere, and which he returns to those applicants who can minutely describe them. This custom is observed in the whole empire of the king.' Regarding the hours of business, Benjamin also says: 'From Easter to new year (from April to October), during the whole of the summer the heat is extreme. From the third hour of the day (nine o'clock in the morning) people shut themselves up in their houses until the evening at which time everybody goes out. The streets and markets are lighted up and the inhabitants employ all the night upon their business which they are prevented from doing in the day time, in consequence of excessive heat.'

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There is perhaps no better evidence of the partial nature of our Indian sources than our being thrown almost exclusively on Arab and Chinese sources for our knowledge of this most important aspect of national life, viz. the foreign trade of the Cōḷa empire.

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¹ 263 of 1910.

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² 147 of 1895.

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³ 71 of 1896.

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⁴ 23, 24 of 1919; TAS, i, pp. 162-4, 247-8; 239 of 1925.

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⁵ 207 of 1897.

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⁶ Museum plates of Uttama Cōḷa.

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⁷ 9 of 1898.

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⁸ *SII.* iii, 64.

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⁹ 281 of 1911.

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¹⁰ 233 of 1915.

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¹¹ 363 of 1907.

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¹² 203 of 1908.

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¹³ *SII.* iii, 15, l. 2.

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¹⁴ 47 of 1888.

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¹⁵ 71 of 1897.

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¹⁶ 189, 192 of 1897.

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¹⁷ 547 of 1902; 550 of 1902.

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¹⁸ 505 of 1922.

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¹⁹ 28 of 1927.

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²⁰ 120 of 1930.

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²¹ 601 of 1902.

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²² 131 of 1926.

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22a *Tijdschrift voor Ind. Taal—, Land— en Volkenkunde.* Deel; lxxiv, 1934, pp. 614-8.

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²³ 651 of 1916.

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²⁴ 82 of 1907.

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²⁵ *EC.* iv, Hg. 17; vii, Sk. 118.

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²⁶ 342 of 1912. Another *eri-vīra-paṭṭina* was Muttukura in the same neighbourhood (321 of 1912).

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²⁷ 256 of 1912. The part of the inscription recording these privileges is very obscure in its language.

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²⁸ 521 of 1912.

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²⁹ 512 of 1911.

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31. Hudson—*Europe and China*, p. 265.

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32. *SII.* iii, Museum plates of Uttama Cōḷa and 171 of 1894.

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33. 343 of 1917.

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34. 82 of 1906.

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35. Parimēlalagar on *Kuṟaḷ*, 756.

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36. 105 of 1925.

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37. 187 of 1925.

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38. *SII.* ii, Intr. p. 17, 255 of 1921; 8 of 1897—grain rate. 147 of 1906 gives the rate ⅛ *kāśu* per *kāśu*; 1 of 1893 gives ⅛ *tiramam* per *kāśu* per month.

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39. 75 of 1893; 164, 169, 172, 179 of 1912; 176 of 1915; 216 of 1921. 19 of 1907 calls the rate *dharmap-poliśai*.

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40. *SII.* iii, 128—ll. 36-7.

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41. 16 of 1899. 57 of 1928 gives the rate 10 *kāśus* on 40; also 518 of 1920.

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42. 203 of 1925.

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43. 193 of 1925. 281 of 1910 also gives a 50% rate.

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44. 179 of 1912.

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45. 316 of 1903.

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46. 58 of 1897.

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47. 90 of 1928.

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48. Museum Plates, ll. 28-34.

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49. 30 *kalams* per 100 called *dharmap-poliśai* in 506 of 1920.

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50. 232 of 1923.

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51. *SII.* I, 84, and 67 of 1895.

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52. 273 of 1910.

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53. 54 of 1893.

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54. 512 of 1911, (*EC.* ix, Cp. 129).

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55. 577 of 1920; also 379 of 1922.

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55a. *SII.* iv. No. 504; v. No. 885; vi. Nos. 59, 63, etc. (references supplied by S. Deśikavināyakam Piḷḷai).

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56. 458 of 1905.

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57. 219 of 1894; 305 of 1911, 522 of 1922 etc.

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58. 137 of 1923.

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59. 486 of 1902.

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60. Chau Ju-kua, pp. 7-8.

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61. *ibid.*, p. 9, n. 1.

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62. Ferrand—*Voyage*, pp. 14-15.

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63. Chau Ju-kua, p. 18.

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64. The modern Tahiri, 27° 38′. N., 52° 20′ E.

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⁶⁵ Wilson—*The Persian Gulf*, p. 94.

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⁶⁶ Ferrand—*Voyage*, p. 138.

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⁶⁷ Chau Ju-kua, p. 19.

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⁶⁸ Chau Ju-kua, p. 101, *n.* 11.

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⁶⁹ p. 96.

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⁷⁰ Chau Ju-kua, p. 100.

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⁷¹ Wilson—*The Persian Gulf*, p. 94.

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⁷² R. H. Major: *India in the Fifteenth Century*, Intrn. pp. xlv–l. Also Wilson, *op. cit.* pp. 98-9.

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⁷³ 556 of 1904. The import of war-horses may have begun earlier under the Kadambas and the Pallavas. The reference in Pallavāśva-samsthena kalahena of the Tālgunda inscription of Kākusthavarman (*EI.* viii, p. 32 l. 4) and some ancient sculptures may be recalled in this connection. Also *Paṭṭinappālai*, l. 185.

Linked texts (7)

Tirukkuṟaḷ — Tiruvaḷḷuvar, Tamil
Paṭṭiṉappālai — Kaṭiyalūr Uruttiraṅkaṇṇaṉār, Tamil
Epigraphia Indica
Epigraphia Carnatica
Kāvirippūmpaṭṭinam
South Indian Inscriptions
Mahabalipuram