The Colas c30.11

c30.11

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