A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c18.32

c18.32

The Aiññūṛṛuvar, often styled the Five Hundred Svāmis of Ayyavolepura (Aihole), were the most celebrated of the medieval South Indian merchant guilds. Like the great kings of the age, they had a praśasti of their own which recounted their traditions and achievements. They were the protectors of the Vīra-Baṇañju-dharma, i.e., the law of the noble merchants, Baṇañju being obviously derived from Sanskrit Vaṇija, merchant. This dharma was embodied in 500 vīra-śāsanas, edicts of heroes. They had the picture of a bull on their flag and were noted ‘throughout the world’ for their daring and enterprise. They claimed descent from the lines of Vāsudeva, Khaṇḍali and Mūlabhadra, and were followers of the creeds of Vishnu, Maheśvara and Jina. Among the countries they visited were Chera, Chola, Pāṇdya, Maleya, Magadha, Kausala, Saurāṣṭra, Dhānuṣtra, Kurumba, Kāmbhoja, Gaulla, Lāta, Barvvara, Parasa (Persia), and Nepāla. They traversed land-routes and water-routes penetrating all the countries of the six continents. They traded in elephants, bloodstock, sapphires, moonstones, pearls, rubies, diamonds, lapis lazuli, onyx, topaz, carbuncles, emeralds and other precious articles; cardamoms, cloves, bdellium, sandal, camphor, musk, saffron, malegaja and other spices and perfumes. They either sold them wholesale or hawked them about on their shoulders; they paid the śunka regularly and filled the royal treasury with gold and jewels, and replenished the kings' armoury; they bestowed gifts on pandits and sages 'versed in the four samayas and six darśanas'. There were among them the sixteen seṭṭis of the eight nāḍs, who used asses and buffaloes as carriers, and many classes of merchants and soldiers, viz. gavēras, gātrigas, seṭṭis, seṭṭiguttas, ankakāras, biras, biravaṇijas, gaṇḍigas, gāvuṇḍas and gāvuṇḍasvāmis. A fragmentary Tamil inscription from Sumatra (1088) and a temple of Vishnu which they erected at Pagan and which was still flourishing in the thirteenth century attest the truth of their claim to trade with foreign countries beyond the seas. In the Chola country they had their own settlements called vira-paṭṭanas where, with the sanction of the local powers and the central government, they enjoyed special privileges in matters of trade. Historians have generally tended to ignore the effect of trade on the outlook of the people of those comparatively remote times. There is no doubt, for instance, that the continuous meeting and intermingling of people of diverse social backgrounds tended to create a liberal and cosmopolitan, as opposed to an insular, attitude to life.