Materials for the reconstruction of medieval Indian economic history before the Turkish conquests of the late 12th century though copious are exceedingly fragmentary and difficult to interpret.
Since the famous historian R. S. Sharma wrote his
pioneering study ‘Indian feudalism’, it has been widely held that the early Middle
Age was a period of general economic decline in Northern India, as was the case
in Western Europe during the same centuries. There are certain global
historical factors that account for the rise of Islam, foreign invasions and the
closure of the route, side by side, there are various internal factors in India.
The History of the 8th to 12th century in Northern India,
has been characterised by the historian A. L. Balsham as ‘the story of endemic
warfare between rival dynasties. Until the 10th century three major
dynasties – the Palas of Bengal, Prathiharas of the North and West and the Rashtraputas
of the Western Deccan – were engaged in a contest for overall sovereignty. During
this period, land holding became the chief basis of social and political
status. There was a rising fragmentation of local power under what has been
termed as Indian Feudalism’.
During this period agriculture was the main occupation of
the people. But an increasing portion of the agricultural product was taken
from the peasantry to maintain military vassals and religious grant holders. By
the 10th century the consolidation of the powers of the smaller
local kingdom or chieftains is observable, with the proliferation of
subordinate ‘feudatory’ tenures and rights.
If the feudal pattern affected agriculture, it also had an
impact on trade and commerce. With the fragmentation of power, the volume of internal
as well as external trade diminished; the highways deteriorated, and the
monetary economy contracted. Gold coins were rarely issued after the fall of
the Guptas and even the silver and copper coinage are scarce and poor. The very
large quantities of precious metals which entered India were either hoarded or
used in the adornment of religious establishments or palaces or turned into jewelry
for the dominant classes. The trade guilds which were such a prominent feature
of ancient Indian system declined and, in some cases, vanished from history.
Urban life during this period was affected by the
interference of ‘Jati’ or caste groups and the increasing rigidity of the hold
of Brahmanical Hinduism. It is during this period also that prejudices against
foreign trade involving travel overseas were incorporated in Brahmanical legal
literature. Nevertheless, the decline of trade was not absolute. Urban life was
maintained unbroken in such towns as Ujjain and Varanasi. The princely courts
existed in great splendor as did the great religious establishments. Considerable
labor was employed in the construction of the great temples of medieval India and
in some areas, vast tanks were constructed as well as irrigation works, wells
and canals. Certain foreign commodities, especially Chinese sild, appears to
have circulated to remote areas of Northern India, and it is likely that better
varieties of cotton cloth were also bought from very distant areas to other
regional markets. Foodstuffs particularly grains, were transported over great
distance. The prejudice against participation in overseas trade was of an equal
operation. Under the Pallava and early Chola dynasties fo the South and the Palas
of Bengal, overseas trade was responsible for a great expansion of Indian
cultural influences in South East Asia and Indonesia.
Some modern Indian historians have seen a turn of the tide
around 1000 A.D. for gold coinage from such dynasties as the Chedas of Eastern
Madhya Pradesh and the Gahadwalas of Kanauj survives.
In general, although this age was, when compared with the earlier
and later ages, not prosperous, yet there was great hoarded wealth in the
country, which attracted the attention of foreign invaders.
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