Towns, Traders and Craftsperson

• the communities of hindu Banyas and Muslim Bohras from Gujarat traded excessively withthe red sea, persian gulf, East Africa, souteast asia and China.

• Italian traders bought indian spices and clothing and thats how indian things reached europe

• the silk route and horse trade route passed through Kabul and Qandahar.

• in the 17 C Jean Baptiste Tavernier, Diamond merchant wrote about Kabul

• The craftspersons in Bidar made things out of Silver and copper called Bidri

• the Panchalas and Vishwakarma were all types of smiths, masons, carpenters

• Saliyar/Kaikkolars emerged as prosperous comunities they were weavers

• Ahmedabad in gujarat became very famous and got a lot of trade and money.

• Thanjavur lost importance over he centuries.

• Murshidabad in gujarat was located near a river called Bhagirathi. it was an important place for trading of silk. It become the capital of bengal in 1704. it lost popularity and wealth as they faced competition with cheap cloth

• Small towns emerged from large villages (in 8th C)

• Mandapika was a place where people from other villages sold goods.

• they also had market streets called HATTA. They were lined with shops.

• zamindars built fortified buildings and leveid taxes on traders.

• they "donated" the "right" to the temples to collect taxes.

• horse traders formed associations, with headmen to discuss on behalf of the traders with the warriors and to sell the horses

• the trades formed guilds to protect themselves

• in the south from 8th C onwards there were famous guilds called- manigramam and nanadesi which traded in india and southeast asia and china

• Most important trading groups of the country were the chettiars and marwari oswal.

• Hampi is located in the krishna-tunghabhadra basin

• Its was the capital of vijayanagara empire founded in 1336

• Temple dancers were called devadasis they danced infront of the virupaksha.

• The mahanavami festival was the most important festival of Hampi.

• Hampi fell into ruin in 1565 by Dccani Sultans

• Surat is emporiam of western trade along with Cambay

• Surat is the gateway to Mecca cuz many pilgrims ships set sail from here

• English Chronicler Ovington wrote an account that says an average 100 ships will be anchored, ready to set sail at any time, in 1689

• Kathiawad seths or mahajans had big banking house for Hundis

• Textile of Surat were famous for its gold lace borders called zari

• The English East India Company shifted its HQ to BOmbay in 1668

• Masulipatnam lay in the delta of Krishna river

• Masulipatnam was the most important port in Andhra coast

• Description of Masulipatnam was done by Williams Methwold

• the Qutb shahi rulers made sure to have most of the control over trades of textiles spices and other items and not let it get completely controlled by The East india companies.

• Mir Jumla was a governot who was also a merchant, appointed by the mughals to make fights between the dutch and english so that aurangazeb annexed golconda in 1686-1687.

• The east india companies thought that it was not enough if a port had connections to a hinterland. they wanted to have administrative roles in the town.

• Masulipatrnam lost its importance as the east india companies moved out.

• Great indian traders like mulla Abdul Ghafur and Virji Vora fought with European companies over the trade. they forced indian traders to work as their agents.

• The European company forced the craftpersons to make readymade designs. which took away the freedom and creativity of the craftpersons.

• The Europeans or "whites" lived in forts like Fort St.George in madras or Fort St.william in calcutta. while the indian craftpersons were forced to live in the black towns.