Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

A History of Agriculture in India v2.c59: Chapter 7. Urban Life Under the Sultanate

A History of Agriculture in India v2.c59

Language
English

Contents

Chapter 7. Urban Life Under the Sultanate

v2.c59.1

CITY OF DELHI, URBAN SOCIAL REVOLUTION

v2.c59.2

SOCIETY, FOOD, DRESS, RIVER TRANSPORT, MARITIME TRADE AND CULTURE

v2.c59.3

THE CITY of Delhi, which was of vast extent and population, was made up of four contiguous towns, viz. (i) Delhi, the old Hindu city, which included the present township of Mehrauli and adjoining villages, (ii) Tughlakabad, founded by Ghias-ud-din Tughlak, (iii) Siri, which had the residence of Ala-ud-din Khalji and his son Qutb-ud-din, and (iv) Jahan Panah, which had the palace of Muhammad-bin-Tughlak. The last two are now covered by modern housing colonies of South Delhi. The site was well-chosen, as it was on high ground and safe from the floods of the Jumna. Muhammad-bin-Tughlak wanted to unite the four towns within a single wall, but after building a part of it he gave up the rest because of the great expense entailed in its construction.

v2.c59.4

The city of Delhi was surrounded by a high wall, which had twenty-eight gates. The gates were guarded by police officers, who were supervised by the city Kotwal. In the centre of the city was the cathedral mosque which accommodated large number of people. Two main roads running at right-angles intersected in the middle of the city and were connected with the main gates of the outer wall. On both sides of these roads were the four wings of the city bazar with rows of shops facing each other. These wings of the bazar were occupied by special classes of tradesmen and guilds of craftsmen. Outside Delhi was a large reservoir, called Shamsi Talab, from which the inhabitants drew their drinking water. It was two miles (3.2 km) in length and one mile (1.6 km) broad. Ibn Battuta states that when the water dried up at the sides of the reservoir, farmers planted sugarcane, gherkins, cucumbers, green melons and musk-melons. The musk-melons were very sweet but of small size.

v2.c59.5

The city of Delhi, as it was known in Turkish rule, was founded by Iltutmish (A.D. 1211-1236). Here the Sultan lived in his palace. The entire life of the city revolved around the Sultan and his employees. Mohammad Habib states, "The city had a large number of inns, some of them being charity concerns, for all kinds of merchants and travellers. Some 10,000 to 20,000 load-cattle were used by the Hindu Naiks to supply provisions to the city. There were general markets for things of common use and specialized markets for grain, cloth, horses, and slaves of all nationalities. The markets were overrun by brokers (dallals), who helped people to buy and sell. Industries grew up along with commerce—industries of all types from the manufacture of armament to the training of prostitutes and dancing girls. Delhi was also the centre of banking. All sorts of people wanted loans, including the high Turkish officers, some of whom were always in the debt of Hindu money-lenders.

v2.c59.6

'The houses of the amirs were three- or four-storey buildings with a winding staircase on one side. The houses of the rich merchants were of the same style, but they were in the heart of the crowded city-quarters; the lower storey was used for sales and business transactions and the upper storeys for the residence of the family. The average inn was like present-day college hostels, i.e. rooms in a rectangle with a verandah running in front of them and a gate that could be locked up.

v2.c59.7

'The bazārs were congested; but the congestion was bearable due to the absence of wheeled traffic. The mode of locomotion for those who could afford it was by horses and litters. The majority of the people lived in mud-houses with thatched roofs. Some lived under a chappar (straw-roof) supported by a mud-wall on one side and rough sticks on the other, getting some protection from the sun and rain but none from the wind and dust.

v2.c59.8

'Dehli owing to the combination of learning and action is like Bokhara,' Amir Khusrau declares. 'For all its faults, its citizens loved it. They never called it merely by its name, but in prose and verse they referred to it as 'Hazrat-i Dehli' (Revered Dehli) or the shahr (the city).'¹

v2.c59.9

¹ Mohammad Habib. *Introduction to Elliot and Dawson's History of India*, Vol. II, pp. 63-68

Granaries in City Wall

v2.c59.s1.1

'The wall which surrounds the city of Dehli is unparalleled,' states Ibn Battuta. 'The breadth of the wall itself is eleven cubits, and inside it are rooms where night-watchmen and keepers of the gates are lodged. The wall contains also stores for provisions, which they call 'granaries', as well as stores for war equipment and for mangonels and stone-throwing machines (ra'adāt). Grain keeps in it for a very long time without going bad or becoming damaged. I have seen rice brought out of one of these stores, and although it had gone black in colour it was still good to the taste. I have also seen kudhrū millet taken out of them. All these stores had been laid up by the Sultan Balban ninety years before. There is room inside the wall for horsemen and infantry to march from one end of the town to the other, and it has window openings pierced on the town side, through which light enters. The lower courses of this wall are constructed with stone and the upper courses with baked brick, and its towers are numerous and set at short intervals. The city has twenty-eight gates. Their name for gate is darwāza.'²

v2.c59.s1.2

² Gibb, H.A.R., *The Travels of Ibn Battuta*, p. 621

Urban Social Revolution

v2.c59.s2.1

According to Mohammad Habib, though Islam was not planned as a city-creed throughout its history it has found it easier to operate in urban areas. The Arabs inherited the concept of city-state from the Greeks and Romans. Culture flourished only in the cities of Arabia and not in the peripheral desert. The Arabic language has the same root word for city and civilization, viz. madina, tamaddan. Besides, the leaders of early Islam were merchants and traders.

v2.c59.s2.2

India of the eleventh century was a country of fortified cities and towns, and fortified villages (mawas). The caste groups, the Brahmans, the Kshatriyas, and the Vaishyas lived within the city-walls and the fortified villages, while the Shudras and non-caste groups, e.g. weavers, cobblers, oil-men, butchers, dyers, jugglers, basket-makers, sailors, elephant drivers and the hunters of wild animals and birds, all lived outside the city-wall. It was these castes, the under-privileged and despised, who welcomed Islam. As Mohammad Habib observes, ‘Face to face with the social and economic provision of the Shariat and the Hindu Smritis as practical alternatives, the Indian city-worker preferred the Shariat.’³ The Ghorian Turkish officers permitted them to live inside city-walls. They got converted to Islam en masse. They helped to stabilize the new regime and were its main supporters. The cities developed into thriving centres of cottage industries and commerce. By the middle of the thirteenth century there were large number of Moslem workers of Indian origin in every city and town of northern India. Even now there is a large concentration of Moslem workers in the towns of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

v2.c59.s2.3

³ Mohammad Habib, *Introduction to Elliot and Dowson’s History of India*, Vol. II, pp. 4, 52

v2.c59.s2.4

The urban working classes were given various monetary incentives by the rulers. Apart from the fact that they were not liable to pay jizya, there were tax remissions on some of their trades and products. ‘Firoz Shah in his Futuhat says that he had remitted taxes on the following: vegetables; brokerage; butchers; amusements; flowers, betel-leaves; octroi on grain and cereals; scribes; indigo; fish; cotton-carding; soap-making; sale of ropes; oil-making; parched grain; taxes from shopkeepers for the use of public lands; cloth-printing; gambling-houses; suits and petitions; police dues; qassabi (slaughtering animals); butter-making; grazing-tax; fines of various kinds; danganah (an impost in addition to the octroi); ground-rent of houses and shops; duri (forced requisition of cattle); roasted mince-meat; fruits; marriages; and brick-kilns.’ This list also indicates the variety of professions in the cities.

v2.c59.s2.5

It is often stated that large number of Hindus were converted to Islam by Moslem Sufis and Saints. ‘No document proving any organized religious propaganda by the Mussalmans during this period has yet been unearthed,’ states Mohammad Habib. ‘The wholesale conversions attributed to the Muslim mystics of this period are found in later-day fabrications only and these works must be totally discarded.’⁴

v2.c59.s2.6

⁴ Mohammad Habib. *Introduction to Elliot and Dowson's History of India*, Vol. II, pp. 56, 57

Society, Ruling Class and Slaves

v2.c59.s3.1

Turks were the ruling class. The officers of the highest rank were called *khans*, then the *maliks*, then the *amirs*, then the *isfahsalars* (generals), and lastly the officers (*jand*). Then there were *kazis*, and learned men, *shaikhs* and *fakirs*. There were also merchants who also carried on diverse trades.

v2.c59.s3.2

The ruling class was served by male and female slaves. They were of two types, viz. those imported from Turkistan, and those who belonged to India. Male slaves kept in the harems were castrated at an early age. Brisk trade in eunuchs, as they are called, was carried on in Bengal. Female slaves were of two types, viz. those kept for domestic work and those for the pleasure of their company as concubines.

v2.c59.s3.3

War against the Hindus was the chief source of slaves. Those who escaped being killed in the war were captured and sold as slaves. Shahabuddin (1297-1348 A.D.), an Arab scholar, states, ‘The Sultan never ceases to show the greatest zeal in making war upon the infidels. Every day thousands of slaves are sold at a very low price, so great is the number of prisoners. According to the unanimous statements of the travellers I have cited, the value, at Dehli, of a young slave girl, for domestic service, does not exceed eight *tankas*. Those who are deemed fit to fill the parts of domestic and concubine sell for about fifteen *tankas*. In other cities the prices are still lower. Abu-s-Safa Umar bin Is’hak Shabali assured me that he bought a young slave in the flower of his youth for four *dirhams*. The rest may be understood from this. But still, in spite of the low price of slaves, 20,000 *tankas*, and even more, are paid for young Indian girls. I inquired the reason—and was told that these young girls are remarkable for their beauty, and the grace of their manners.’⁵

v2.c59.s3.4

⁵ Shahab-ud-Din Abu-l'Abbas Ahmad. *Masaliku-l Absar fi Mamaliku-l Amsar*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India...*, Vol. III, 580, 581

Food

v2.c59.s4.1

The usual rule was two meals a day. Their usual drink was cool and fresh water. Betel-leaves and areca-nuts were chewed by urban people. On festivals, toddy or some cheap country spirit was drunk by the peasants. The members of the family, especially the females, slept in a single room during cold weather, or in the open courtyard during summer. There were no bathrooms in the house. People went to wells or rivers for bathing.

v2.c59.s4.2

On an average three meals were taken among the well-to-do classes, namely, the morning breakfast, the mid-day meals, and the early evening dinner. For breakfast in the morning, the Hindus usually took khichri or boiled rice and pulses. The Muslims preferred to eat fried bread and kabābs. The ordinary Muslim meal consisted of wheat bread, fried bread, and chicken. Hindus as a rule were vegetarians.

Social Parties

v2.c59.s5.1

The popular term for social parties and entertainments was jashn. The rooms where the guests assembled were decorated with rich carpets. Aloe-wood and incense were burnt to deodorize the stale air. Rose-water was sprinkled over the party. Fruits were served in silver and golden trays. Wine was served by handsome cup-bearers, the sākīs. Wine was, however, consumed secretly. Ibn Battuta states, ‘Neither do the Hindus drink wine, for this in their eyes is the greatest of vices. The Muslims in India take the same view, and any Muslim who drinks it is punished with eighty stripes, and shut up in a matamore for three months, which is opened only at the hours of meals.’

Dress

v2.c59.s6.1

For their head-dress, the Sultans of Delhi usually wore a kulāh or the tall Tartar cap. Jalāl-ud-dīn is reported to have worn a turban. For coating they used tight-fitting tunics or qaba, made of muslin or fine wool. In cold weather, the Sultan wore an overcoat over the tunic, called the dagla, which was like a dressing gown stuffed with carded cotton. The upper-country Brahman put a caste-mark (tilaka) on his forehead and a dhoti. In Gujarat, some people used a red handkerchief as head-dress. Some of the Gujarati Banias wore long shirts of silk or cotton and short coats of silk. The Brahmans of Gujarat wore a dhoti and usually went bare above the waist.

v2.c59.s6.2

Woman’s garments were of two varieties. One consisted of a long chadar or fine sheet of muslin like the modern sari, and a bodice with short sleeves, going down the back to the waist, with an angiya or brassière of a dark colour. The other variety, which was more popular in the doab, consisted of a lahanga or a long and very loose skirt, a chola and an angiya with a dopatta or a long scarf which was used to cover the head. Ladies of Gujarat wore leather shoes with gold trimmings. For toilet women used antimony for the eyes, vermilion for marking the parting of the hair, musk for the breast, and a black powder for the eye-brows; henna (Lawsonia inermis) was used for dyeing hands and feet in summer.

Purdah

v2.c59.s7.1

Moslem women were kept in seclusion. Hindus also adopted purdah for their women. This was mainly to protect them from the attention of the rulers.

Amusements

v2.c59.s8.1

For amusement, a variety of indoor games was played. Chess, *chaupar*, *nard* (Persian backgammon) and cards were popular.

v2.c59.s8.2

Chess was considered to be the aristocrat of all indoor games. Amir Khusrau and Malik Muhammad Jaisi refer to the game of chess in their works which indicates its popularity among all classes. Amir Khusrau confirms the Indian origin of chess.

v2.c59.s8.3

*Chaupar* is an ancient game which is played even nowadays under three different names—*pachisi*, *chausar*, and *chaupar*. The playing of *chaupar* was especially popular among the Hindus.

v2.c59.s8.4

Mention may be made of the game of *nard* or the Persian backgammon, which was introduced into Hindustan very early in the Muslim period. *Nard* was played on a wooden board, square in shape.

v2.c59.s8.5

Among other minor amusements were pigeon-flying and cock-fighting.

Pets

v2.c59.s9.1

The parrot was a familiar pet. Monkeys were also kept as domestic pets. Dogs of great variety were popular and were trained for the chase.

Conveyances and Mode of Travel

v2.c59.s10.1

People went on horse-back or travelled in *gardun* or wheeled carriages of great variety. In Khambayat, coaches and chariots of great beauty were used. They were like rooms; their windows were adorned with gilded leather or silk hangings; their mattresses were made of silk. Their quilts and cushions were of silk. Women sat in *dolas*, a palanquin-like structure supported on bamboos and carried by porters in batches of eight, who worked in shifts. *Palkis* (palanquins) were used by rich people for long-distance travel. At the halting stages were inns and shops.

River Transport

v2.c59.s11.1

For river transport, large ship-like boats were used. The governor of Sind, states Ibn Battuta, had fifteen ships with which he sailed down the river, carrying his baggage. One of these was a ship called the *ahawrah*. In the centre of it there was a wooden cabin reached by a staircase, and on top of this there was a place prepared for the governor to sit in. His suite sat in front of him and slaves stood to right and left, while the crew of about forty men rowed. Accompanying the *ahawrah* were four ships to the right and left, two of which carried the governor's standards, kettledrums, trumpets and singers.

Maritime Trade—Exports and Imports

v2.c59.s12.1

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Arabs were the masters of the Indian ocean and they completely controlled the maritime trade between India, Middle East and Europe. Indian goods were carried to Alexandria and Damascus by caravans of camels, and from there reached Mediterranean countries through Italian merchants. Some of the countries round the Persian Gulf depended on India for their food supply. The export trade of India was mainly through the ports of Gujarat, Malabar and Bengal. Aden was the port of call for ships arriving there from Cambay, Thāna, Quilon, Calicut, Fandarina, Shaliyat, Mangalore, Fakanor, Hinawr, and Sindabur. A colony of Indian merchants lived in this city. A minor entrepot of the Indian trade was the neighbouring port of Zhafar (Defar), which exported horses to India in return for Indian rice and cotton. On the Indian side Malabar was the clearing house of the merchandise from the East and the West across the Indian Ocean. Merchants of Fārs and Yemen disembarked at the port of Mangalore, and Chinese ships bound for India entered the ports of Ely, Calicut, and Quilon.

Indian Exports

v2.c59.s12.t1.1

Exports from India were pepper, cloves, ginger and cardamoms, tamarinds, sandal-wood and brazil-wood, saffron, indigo, wax, iron, sugar, rice, coconuts, precious stones, benzoin, porcelain, cloth from Cambay, Chaul, and Dabhol, and Bengal muslins.

Imports

v2.c59.s12.t2.1

Imports into India consisted of Arabian horses, dates, raisins, salt, sulphur and coarse seed-pearls, coral, quicksilver, vermilion, lead, gold and silver, alum, madder, rose-water, and saffron, as well as opium of superior quality.

Trade with East Africa

v2.c59.s12.t3.1

Trade with East Africa was fostered by the chain of Arab settlements on the African coast like those of Zeila, Makdashau, Mombasa and Kilwa. Many ships from ‘the kingdom of Cambay’ (Gujarat), visited Makdashau with cloth and spices and returned with cargoes of gold, ivory and wax. Cambay cloths and beads were exported by Gujarati merchants in large ships to the three ports of Melinde, Mombasa, and Kilwa, whence they were carried by the local Muslim merchants to the ports of the Zambesi delta and Sofala, further south, for sale to the inhabitants of a great Bantu kingdom in the interior. The cargoes of gold and ivory were conveyed via Sofala to the three East African ports mentioned above, whence they were carried back home by the Gujarati merchants.

Trade with South-East and East Asia

v2.c59.s12.t4.1

'In the early part of the fourteenth century, regular voyages were made by Chinese ships to the three Malabar ports of Ely, Calicut and Quilon. The Chinese imports into the Indian ports were silks, coloured taffetas and satins, cloves and nutmegs, blue and white porcelain, gold, silver, copper, iron, vermilion, and quicksilver.'⁶

Trade with China and South East Asia

v2.c59.s12.t5.1

Trade between India, East Indies and China was in the hands of Arabs and Chinese. Ibn Battuta states, 'At that time trade was carried on on an extensive scale between China and Malabar.

v2.c59.s12.t5.2

'The Chinese vessels are of three kinds; large ships called *chunks*, middle-sized ones called *zaws* (dhows), and small ones called *kakams*. The large ships have anything from twelve down to three sails, which are made of bamboo rods plaited like mats. They are never lowered, but turned according to the direction of the wind; at anchor they are left floating in the wind. A ship carries a complement of a thousand men, six hundred of whom are sailors and four hundred men-at-arms, including archers, men with shields and arbalists, who throw naphtha. Each large vessel is accompanied by three smaller ones, the "half", the "third", and the "quarter". These vessels are built only in the towns of Zaytun and Sin-Kalan (Canton). The vessel has four docks and contains rooms, cabins, and saloons for merchants; a cabin has chambers and a lavatory, and can be locked by its occupant, who takes along with him slave girls and wives. Often a man will live in his cabin unknown to any of the others on board until they meet on reaching some town. The sailors have their children living on board ship, and they cultivate green stuffs, vegetables and ginger in wooden tanks....Some of the Chinese own large numbers of ships on which their factors are sent to foreign countries. There is no people in the world wealthier than the Chinese.'⁷

Culture

v2.c59.s13.1

Reference has already been made to the development of Hindustani music, and the contribution made by Amir Khusrau; political unity in Northern India, fostered by the Delhi Sultanate, also stimulated the process of evolution of a common langauge. The language of Delhi at that time was *Khari Boli* mixed with Hariyanvi. Amir Khusrau called it *Zaban-i-Dehlavi*, or the speech of Delhi. Khusrau is reckoned as a writer of Urdu. The army of the Sultans consisted of Turks and Indian converts to Islam, who spoke either Persian or Punjabi. A number of Punjabi and Persian words

v2.c59.s13.2

⁶Majumdar, R.C. *History and Culture of the Indian People—the Delhi Sultanate*, pp. 648-650 ⁷Gibb, H.A.R. *Rehla of Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa*, pp. 235, 236 got absorbed in *Zaban-i-Dehlavi*. This ‘speech of Delhi’, also called Hindavi, was carried by the Imperial troops, traders and *faqeers* to the Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Central India, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Deccan. It adapted Persian script and became a respectable medium for poetry. Ultimately in the reign of Shah Jahan it came to be known as Urdu and became the *lingua franca* of northern India. Urdu is a Turkish word, which means ‘camp’. Urdu is a Persianized form of western Hindi.

v2.c59.s13.3

The greatest contribution of the Sultanate to Indian culture was paper. Indians used *bhojapatra* or birch-bark and slips of palm leaves for writing and painting. In the thirteenth century Moslems introduced paper from Central Asia. They had learnt the technique of paper-making from some Chinese whom they had captured in Samarkand. In the fourteenth century paper came into use in India for writing and painting. Jain paintings of the fourteenth century are on paper, but the oblong format of palm-leaf manuscripts persists. Indirectly the Moslems also stimulated the development of Jain painting. Construction of temples was forbidden and as such the rich Jain merchants as an act of merit employed artists who painted their religious texts, the *kalpasutaras*, which were concealed in underground libraries.

v2.c59.s13.4

The large number of plain and illuminated manuscripts and other documents that have come down to us from the period indicate the existence of a paper industry. Mention is even made of a market of booksellers in Delhi. The quantity of the paper however was not sufficient to cope with the demand.

v2.c59.s13.5

Most conspicuous contribution of the Sultans was in the field of architecture. The Hindus had no conception of the device of arch. The Moslems introduced the arch and the dome in Indian architecture. Hindu masons adapted the arch, the dome and minaret for the buildings they constructed for their Turkish rulers. The Sultans constructed their mausoleums during their life-time so that their remains were interred with due dignity. In fact, after meeting the expense on the maintenance of the army, the surplus was spent on building mosques and mausoleums, a number of which can be seen in South Delhi.

References

v2.c59.s14.1

Ashraf, K.M. *Life and Conditions of the People of India*, New Delhi, 1970 Elliot, Sir H.M. and Dowson, J. *The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians*, Vol. III, London, 1867 Gibb, H.A.R. *Rehla of Ibn Battuta : Travels in Asia and Africa*, 1324-1354, London, 1929 Latif, S.A. *An Outline of the Cultural History of India*, Hyderabad, 1958 Majumdar, R.C. *History and Culture of the Indian People, the Delhi Sultanate*, Bombay, 1967

Linked texts (4)