THE REGIONAL KINGDOMS OF EARLY MEDIEVAL INDIAThe following passages of a lengthy inscription recorded by the guild of
the Ayyavole merchants in 1055 tells much about that time. This inscription
shows that these merchants had a rather high opinion of themselves and that
the negation of the world and the spirit of introspection which were so
prevalent in the times of the Upanishads and of Gautama Buddha were not of
the same relevance in the Indian Middle Ages.
Famed throughout the world, adorned with many good qualities,
truth, purity, good conduct, policy, condescension, and prudence;
protectors of the vira-Bananju-dharmma [law of the heroic traders]
having thirty-two veloma, eighteen cities, sixty-four yoga-pithas, and
asramas at the four points of the compass; born to be wanderers over
many countries, the earth as their sack, the eight regents at the points
of the compass as the corner tassels, the serpent race as the cords, the
betel pouch as a secret pocket, the horizon as their light;
visiting the Chera, Chola, Pandya, Maleya, Magadha, Kausala
[Bihar], Saurashtra, Kamboja [Northwest India], Gauda [Bengal],
Lala [Gujarat], Parasa [Persia] and Nepala;
and by land routes and water routes penetrating into the regions
of the six continents, with superior elephants, well-bred horses,
large sapphires, moonstones, pearls, rubies, diamonds, lapis lazuli,
onyx, topaz, carbuncles, coral, emeralds and various such articles:
cardamoms, cloves, sandal, camphor, musk, saffron and other
perfumes and drugs; by selling which wholesale, or hawking about
on their shoulders, preventing the loss by customs duties, they fill up
the emperor’s treasury of gold, his treasury of jewels, and his
armoury of weapons; and from the rest they daily bestow gifts on
pandits and munis; white umbrellas [royal paraphernalia] as their
canopy, the mighty ocean as their moat, Indra as the hand-guard,
Varuna as the standard-bearer, Kubera as the treasurer, the nine
planets as a belt, Rahu as a tassel, Ketu as a dagger, the sun and
moon as the backers, the thirty-three gods as the spectators;
like the elephant they attack and kill, like the cow, they stand
and kill, like the serpent, they kill with poison; like the lion they
spring and kill; wise as Brihaspati, fertile in expedients as
Narayana; perfect in disputes as Narada-rishi; raising a fire, they
seize like death, the gone Mari [or epidemic] they make fun of, the
coming Mari they face, the tiger with a collar on they irritate; on
the moving cart they place their feet; clay they set fire to, of sand
they make ropes; the thunderbolt they catch and exhibit; the sun
and moon they draw down to earth;
they converse about the frontal eye and four arms of
Isvarabhattaraka, the loud laughter of Brahma, and the madness of
Bhagavati. In the case of a sack which bursts from the contents