The Colas c30.10

c30.10

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