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    Chakravarti, Ranabir. "Between Villages and Cities: Linkages of Trade in India (c.600-1300 AD).” In Georg Berkemer, Tilman Frasch, Hermann Kulke and Jürgen Lütt (eds.), Explorations in the History of South Asia: Essays in Honour of Dietmar Rothermund (Delhi: Manohar, 2001):99-119

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    Chakravarti, Ranabir. "Between Villages and Cities: Linkages of Trade in India (c.600-1300 AD).” In Georg Berkemer, Tilman Frasch, Hermann Kulke and Jürgen Lütt (eds.), Explorations in the History of South Asia: Essays in Honour of Dietmar Rothermund (Delhi: Manohar, 2001):99-119

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    61 views26 pages

    Chakravarti, Between Villages & Cities

    Uploaded by

    kamakarma
    Chakravarti, Ranabir. "Between Villages and Cities: Linkages of Trade in India (c.600-1300 AD).” In Georg Berkemer, Tilman Frasch, Hermann Kulke and Jürgen Lütt (eds.), Explorations in the History of South Asia: Essays in Honour of Dietmar Rothermund (Delhi: Manohar, 2001):99-119

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    Explorations in the History of South Asia Essays in Honour of Dietmar Rothermund Edited by GEORG BERKEMER TILMAN FRASCH HERMANN KULKE JURGEN LUTT DS 426 ea 20ee| ® MANOHAR 2001 First published 2001 © Individual contributors All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the editors and the publisher ISBN 81-7304-377-9 Published by Ajay Kumar Jain for Manohar Publishers & Distributors 4753/23 Ansari Road, Daryaganj New Dethi 110002 Printed at Rajkamal Electric Press B 35/9 GT Kamal Road Indl. Area Delhi 110033 Contents ‘The Man and His Work Georg Berkemer, Tilman Frasch, Hermann Kulke and Jiirgen Liitt ‘A Bibliography of the Works of Dietmar Rothermund Georg Berkemer and Margret Frenz India, Germany and the World German Indology — From Roth to Rothermund ~ as I Observed it ... C.S. Mohanavelu German Expertise in India? Early Forest Management on the Malabar Coast, 1792-1805 Michael Mann India’s Road to Berlin and Bonn ~ From War to Relations... Johannes H. Voigt Wang Dayuan on Kerala ... . Roderich Ptak ‘The Indian Merchant and the Indian Ocean 1500-1800 Ashin Das Gupta India in the Indian Ocean Trading Network on the Eve of the Europeans’ Arrival in the Asian Seas Om Prakash vi State, Court and Religion in Pre-modern Contexts Historiography in Early Medieval India... 1. 02. c++ cos coe cee eee soe ne ne Hermann Kulke The Buddhist Connection: Sinhalese-Burmese Intercourse Tilman Frasch Between Villages and Cities: Linkages of Trade in India (c. AD 600-1300) see obs tee eee Ranabir Chakravarti Political Systems and Political Structure of Medieval South India ... ... Georg Berkemer Religious Dignitaries in the Court Protocol of Jaipur (Mid-Eighteenth to Early Nineteenth Century) Monika Horstmann Iconographic Remarks on some Folios of the Oldest Hlustrated Joachim K. Bautze India’s Colonial Experience Professor Henry Green (1843-1854): Assessment of the Indian Economy of the Mid-Nineteenth Century ... ... 0.0... 6.5 A. R. Kulkarni Land Transfer in the Undivided Panjab 1865-1940: An Overview Mufakharul M. Islam Benoy Kumar Sarkar, 1887-1949: Political Rishi of Twentieth oe Robert E. ‘Frykenberg ise ene 1914-1918 .. te ee een one cee ee one on Kenneth McPherson Contents nA 121 139 157 165 179 197 219 Contents Vii Caste and Entrepreneurship in Colonial Andhra, South India, 1900-1947 oo. ee ee cee ee cee ete eee eee 243 A. Satyanarayana Muslim Societies in British India... 10.0... 66s ee cee cee cee eee ee eee 257 Jamal Malik “The only Hope for fallen India’. The Gurukul Kangri as an Experiment in National Education (1902-1922) ............... 277 Harald Fischer-Tiné : Identity, the Nation and Political Movements Religious Revival, Ethnicity and Nationalism in Southeast Asia... ... 301 Bernhard Dahm Submerging the People? Post-orientalism and the Construction of Communalism ... 2.0... 26. ces cee eee tee ee eee ee ee ee eee eee SUD Michael Roberts Cross-Border Migrations in South Asia and Regional Security . 325 Partha S. Ghosh Security Aspects of the Conflict in Sri Lanka... 60.00. ee eee eee eee eee 337 Dagmar Hellmann-Rajanayagam Nationality Problems and Political Parties of Pakistan: The National Awami Party (NAP) and its Successors... ... ... 355 Inayatullah Baloch Democracy, Party System and Civil Society in India ..........0..0.4 367 Subrata Kumar Mitra The Presidential System as a Mirage or Constitutional Nightmare in South Asia... 0.0. .e cee cee cee ce te cee eee eee 399 Dieter Conrad 419 List of Contributors Between Villages and Cities: Linkages of Trade in India (c. 600-1300 AD) Ranabir Chakravarti Recent perspectives (roughly since the 1950s) of early Indian history give a distinct impression that the period from c. 600 to 1300 AD witnessed significant changes in political, socio-eco- nomic and cultural (including creative activities in literature and art) conditions. The changes are considered so significant that the centuries preceding c. 600 AD are portrayed as having witnessed a different kind of formation(s). There is considerable divergence of scholarly opin- ions on the perceptions of these changes and the causes and impacts these changes brought about. This is indicated by the various labels by which the seven centuries are designated in different genres of historical researches. The particular chronological segment is variously called post-Gupta, late ancient, late classical, early medieval and proto-medieval. The changes are sought to be located in the emergence and crystallization of regional features and tendencies in dispersed areas of the subcontinent. The rise of many regional powers and the endemic hos- lilities among them caught the imaginations of scholars presenting conventional accounts of dynastic history which is featured by the absence of a paramount political power either in north India, or the Deccan or the far south. In the conventional historiography little emphasis is placed on the issue whether these centuries were associated with appreciable changes in socio- economic and cultural situations. The other genre of historical research — best represented by Marxist historiography — highlights and explains the processes of fragmentation and parcellisa- tion of sovereignty which is linked up with the rise of samantas (vassals), languishing trade, marginal use of coins and widespread urban decay. In other words, this position situates signifi- cant changes outside dynastic shifts; the perceptions of a large number of Marxist historians in this context may be appreciated by what could be termed as ‘decline syndrome”. Departures from these two dominant historiographical standpoints have been attempted by some scholars 100 Ranabir Chakravarti designated as the ‘non-aligned’ historians. The last mentioned ones seek to explain the changes during these crucial seven centuries, neither by the yardstick of the oscillation between central- ization and decentralization of polity, nor by the logic of a crisis or decline. The crystallization of regional features, in the estimation of the third group of scholars, was an outcome of local level formations, a development from within, rather than the breakdown of an earlier socio- , p! economic and political order. An epicentric position is ruled out by these scholars for the ap- pol - Ls "y preciation of these local and regional formations." Local level formations appear to have been generated by an unprecedented expansion of agriculture from AD 600 to 1300 mainly with the practice of creating agraharas (agrahéram- atisrstam), i. e. the grant of land to a brahmana or brahmanas or to religious establishments (Brahmanical temples and mathas, Buddhist vihdras and Jaina monasteries) by the issuance of copper-plate charters under the instruction of the local and/or the apex of politico-administra- tive authority. With this practice of granting land mostly in non-arable tracts were inseparably associated the penetration of the complex jati-varna system into the relatively less differenti- ated tribal society and the gradual absorption of tribal deities within the Brahmanical bhakti cults. These developments from within are suggested to have ushered in monarchical system into areas hitherto experiencing pre-state polities; these were also conducive to the emergence of local and supra-local centres of trade. The spread of agriculture, the formation of local and "Differing and divergent perceptions of the period from AD 600-1300 have resulted in debates which have {indeed enriched Indian historiography. Burton Stein considered these debates as among the “stunning devel ‘opments” of Indian historiography. See Burton Stein, “A Decade of Historical Efflorescence,” South Asia Research 10 (2), 1990, p. 124-38. Niharranjan Ray, “Medieval Factors in Indian History,” Presidential Address, in: Proceedings of Indian History Congress, 1967 (Patiala session), locates significant changes and the beginnings of regional features in Indian society and cultural life from 4" century AD onwards. The Marxist perspectives of these centuries revolve around the concept of Indian feudalism. Vide in this context D.D. Kosambi, An Introduction to the Study of Indian History, Bombay, 1956;R. S. Sharma, Indian Feudal- ism, Delhi, 1980; B. N.S. Yadava, Society and Culture in North India during the Twelfth Century, Alla abad, 1973; D.N. Jha (ed.), Feudal Social Formations in Early India, Delhi, 1987. For a critique of the “de- cline syndrome’ in the historiography of Indian feudalism see B. D. Chattopadhyaya, The Making of Early Medieval India, Delhi, 1994 (Chattopadhyaya bas elaborated on the ‘decline syndrom’ in a recently deliv- ered, but ‘unpublished, lecture in the Department of History, University of Calcutta). Also see R. Champake Takshmi, “The State and Economy in South India: 400-1300,” and B. D. Chattopadhaya, “The State and Economy in North India: Fourth Century to Twelfth Century,” in: Romila Thapar (ed.), Recent Perspectives of Early Indian History, Bombay, 1995, p. 266-307 and 308-46. The discussions on the formation of local and regional powers in different parts of India as an outcome of “integrative polity” are available in Herman Kulke (ed.), The State in India 1000-1700, Delhi, 1993. A recent statement has also been made by Ranabit Ghaksavatt, “Politics and Society in India 300-1000 AD," in: K. Satchidananda Murty (ed), Projector the istory of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture, vol. 2 (to be published). A large number of historians

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