THE REGIONAL KINGDOMS OF EARLY MEDIEVAL INDIAThe great merchants of South IndiaIndian merchants had participated in international trade since ancient times.
But sources of information about those ancient times are restricted to
archaeological finds and occasional references in literary texts which tell
little about the activities of merchants. For the medieval period there are
many more sources including many inscriptions, some of which were even
recorded by the merchants themselves. In South India a distinction was made
between merchants operating locally (svadeshi) and internationally
(nanadeshi). The merchants had their own urban settlements (nagara) with
autonomous institutions of local government. The great ports (pattana or
pattinam) also had their guilds and autonomous institutions but they were
much more under the control of royal officers who, of course, had to try to
get along with the local people. The great guilds operating in ‘many
countries’ (i.e. nanadeshi) had emerged as an important power factor in the
South Indian polity in the days of the Pallavas. They not only financed local
development projects and the construction of temples, they also lent money
to the kings. Thus, the rulers did their best to accommodate the guilds
because of the benefit which they derived from their trade. Due to their
international connections, the troops they employed and the immunities they
enjoyed, such guilds almost constituted a state within the state.
Among the most powerful guilds were the Ayyavole and the
Manigramam. The Ayyavole, whose name was derived from a former
capital of the Chalukyas, Aihole, dominated the trade of the Deccan
whereas the Manigramam were based in Tamil Nadu. The international
connections of the Ayyavole extended to Western Asia while the
Manigramam concentrated on the trade with Southeast Asia. The
inscription at Takuapa in southern Thailand mentions this latter guild
specifically. The Tamil inscription of 1088 on Sumatra was also produced
by a guild from Tamil Nadu. But there was no strict division of the spheres
of trade between these guilds. Thus, for instance, Nanadeshi traders from
the Malabar coast (Malaimandalam) established a Nanadeshi-Vinnagar
Temple, devoted to Vishnu, at Pagan in Burma in the thirteenth century.
In the trade with Western Asia the traders of the southwest coast
obviously had some advantage. Ethnic connections were helpful in this
respect, too. Arab and Jewish merchants who settled on the Indian
southwest coast corresponded with their colleagues even in far-off Cairo.
Letters and papers found in an old synagogue of Cairo give ample evidence
of the many contacts which the medieval merchants of Cairo had with
those of South India. The respect which the Jewish traders enjoyed in
South India is shown by a royal grant inscribed on copper plates in favour
of one Issuppu Irappan (Joseph Raban). He obtained princely privileges,
exemption from all taxes and the grant of the revenue of a traders’ quarter
of the port of Cranganore on the Malabar coast.