Component-I (A) – Personal details:

Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy

Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati.

Dr. Krishnendu Ray

Dept. of AIHC, University of Calcutta.

Dr. Swati Biswas

Dept. of IHC, University of Calcutta.

Prof. Bhaskar Reddy

Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati.

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Component-I (B) – Description of module:

Subject Name Indian Culture

Economic History of India (from the Earliest Time

Paper Name
to 1707 AD)

Module Name/Title Bahamani Kingdom : Economy

Module Id IC / EHI / 28

Pre requisites

How the polity of the Bahamani kingdom

facilitated the economy
The overseas economy of south India during the
period and the role of the Bahamani kingdom in
Objectives that trade
The role of the adjoining ports
The agricultural pattern and the role of agriculture
in the political growth of the kingdom

Bahamani / Goa / Gulbarga / Bidar / Agriculture /

Keywords
Trade

E-Text (Quadrant-I):

1. Importance of polity in understanding the economy:

Once Mohammad bin Tughluq abandoned Daulatabad and decided to shift his capital back
to Delhi. Daulatabad was conquered by Zafar Khan in 1345. Zafar Khan was also known as
Bahaman Shah, became the founder of an important dynasty which ruled the Deccan for
nearly two centuries. The new kingdom comprised initially the entire region of the Deccan.

To understand the economy the political phases of the Bahamani kingdom is important to
mention. The political development of the Bahamani kingdom can be divided into two
phases: In the first phase (1347-1422), the centre of activities was Gulbarga while in the
second phase (1422-1538) the capital shifted to Bidar which was more centrally located and
was more fertile in terms of land productivity.

Bahaman Shah’s successor, Mohammad Shah (1358-73), killed about half a million people
in his campaigns against his enemies. Despite their many wars, Sultan Mohammad Shah
and his successors could not expand the sultanate very much: they just about managed to
maintain status quo. Around 1400 the rulers of Vijaynagara, in a bid to check the Sultans
expansionist policy in good old Rajamandala style, even established an alliance with the
sultans of Gujarat and Malwa. In 1425 the Bahamani Sultan laid siege to Warangal and thus
reached the east coast. However, only a few years later the new Suryavamsa dynasty of
Orissa challenged the sultanate and contributed to its downfall.

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In fifteenth century, the capital of the Bahamani sultanate was moved from Gulbarga to
Bidar. The new capital, Bidar, was located at a much higher level than Gulbarga was and
had much better weather conditions. However, it was also nearly 100 miles further to the
north east and thus much closer to Warangal. Bidar soon was as impressive a capital as
Gulbarga had been. Nikitin, a Russian traveller who spent four years in the sultanate, from
1470 to about 1474, has left us with a report which is now considered to be one of the most
important European accounts of life in medieval India. He highlighted the great contrast
between the enormous wealth of the nobility and the grinding poverty of the rural population.
Thus this is also a factor in economic life that needs to be understood. The distribution of
wealth was dismal and thus the subjects could change loyalty anytime. The exploitation of
the rich or the ruling class like any medieval phenomenon was also a reality of Bahmani
kingdom.

2. Mahmud Gawan and his reforms that impacted the economy:

The most important personality of the Bahamani Sultanate was Mahmud Gawan, who
served several sultans as prime minister and then as general from 1461-81 with Bidar as the
capital. It is mainly under Alauddin Humayun Shah’s reign (1458-61) that Mahmud Gawan
rose to prominence and power. He conquered Goa, which had been captured by the rulers
of Vijaynagara. The Sultanate then extended from coast to coast. Gawan also introduced
remarkable administrative reforms and controlled many district directly. State finance was
much improved. The tax structure was well laid out. The process of measurement and tax
calculation enhanced the central revenue.

All this ended with his execution on false charges of court intrigue. With his death the
heydays of the Bahamani Kingdom was numbered.

The reforms of Mahmud Gawan were aimed at curbing the power of the Tarafdars. They
were in charge of the military administration of the province and entrusted with the task of
mobilizing troops and appointing able commanders under the direct scrutiny of the central
government. In this task they economically looted the people and caused much misery.

Mahmud Gawan was also responsible for adopting revenue assignment on the basis of
measurement of land. The policy of accommodation and equilibrium is reflected in Mahmud
Gawan’s efforts to induct an equal number of old comer Abyssinians and Dakhnis. The new
comers included- Iranian, Circasians and the Central Asian immigrants. Sarlashkar,
administrative heads, was appointed from amongst both groups i.e. Dakhinis and Afaqis. He
made Fathullah Imdaul Mulk and Hasan NizamulMulk the sarlashkars of Mahur and
Gulbarga respectively. Yusuf Adil Khan was made the sarlashkar of Daulatabad and Prince
Azam Khan was made the sarlashkar of Warangal and Fakhrul Mulk Gilani was made
sarlashkar of Junnar. These kinds of reforms also affected the economic reforms as revenue
collection was made more organised.

Mahud Gawan’s reform did not find favour with the nobility and after his death conflicts
amongst nobles acquired a new dimension and was no longer based on racial
considerations. The conflict was now purely based on the desire to seize power by whatever
means came to hand. The various factions at the Sultan’s court started a struggle for power
and ended with the dynasty itself. Indigenous Muslim courtiers and generals were ranged

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against the alien Arabs, and the Turks and Persians. Mahmud Shah, the last sultan (1482-
1518), could do little to save this once powerful but now staggering Sultanate.

3. Economy :

In the Bahamani kingdom, trade and commerce was in a flourishing state in the initial years.

Nikitin, the Russian traveller, provides us with ample information regarding the commercial
activities of Bidar. He says that horses, cloth, silk and pepper were the chief merchandise.

3.1 Industries : Textile and others

The industries catered mostly to the local markets. Interestingly the movement of individual
merchants from one part of the country to another, and the highly developed organisation of
mercantile corporations in different parts, provided adequate opportunity of a brisk internal
trade in certain sort of goods.

Spinning and weaving formed a major industry which occupied considerable numbers of
people, and guilds of weavers were generally in a flourishing condition and took a active part
in many local concerns.

The export of the finer varieties of cloth from various parts of the country is proved by the
records during the entire period.

Warangal specialised in manufacture for carpets which were much sought after. The metal
industry and jewellery had reached a high state of perfection. Iron was used for making
arms.

3.2 Transport :

It is not possible to give a detailed account of the conditions of internal transport. There was
little scope then as now for the use of natural waterways for the carriage of merchandise in
the interior, and there is no evidence that canals were made for any purpose other than
irrigating agricultural lands.

Roads :

Roads are mentioned in the inscriptions from all parts of the country, the villagers being
expected to give labour free. The main thoroughfare would be twenty four feet. There were
also tracks added to these roads which only slightly better than foot-paths, which were
apparently impossible for wheeled traffic.

There was regular coastal shipping. Inland, merchandise was carried in carts, on the heads
or shoulders of men, and on the back of animals. The roads were not always safe and
brigandage increased in unsettled times.

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3.3 Guilds :

Merchants generally organised in powerful guilds and corporations which often transcended
political divisions. This gave an impetus to the economy. Political chaos affected economy
time to time

3.4 Foreign Power :

Information on conditions of industry, trade and travel of south India becomes more copious
and precise after the foundation of the Bahamani and Vijaynagar kingdoms, thanks to the
many interested foreigners who visited these famous kingdoms and left records of what they
saw.

And the establishment of the Portuguese power followed by the advent of the trading
companies of other European nations, whose factors gained intimate knowledge of the
industries of the country, and resulted in the collection and recording of much valuable
information on the economic conditions of South India in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.

3.5 Importance of Calicut :

Calicut had regular contact with the economic activity of the Bahamani kingdom as it did with
the Vijayanagar Empire. The port was never controlled directly for long by these two powers
but remained a key source of income as the merchants earned directly and the ruler
indirectly.

Calicut, where Abdur Razzaq (1443) landed on his arrival, was a secure harbour for ships
from Africa and Arabia, considerable number of Muslims were permanent residents there
and had built two mosques. Security and justice were firmly established. Officers of the
customs house looked after the merchandise, and levy duty of 1/40 on sales, no charge was
being made on unsold articles.

There was a flourishing trade of pepper with Mecca and straying vessels were not plundered
in this port as elsewhere.

3.6 More information :

More than seventy years later, Durate Barbosa found that the trade of Calicut was very
large, and on that account native of diverse lands-Arabs, Persians, Guzerates,
Khorassanians and Daquanis- settled there. The Moors had governors of their own who
ruled and punished them without interference from the king.

Shipping building particularly flourished, kneeled ships of 1000 to 1200 Bahares burden
were built, without decks and without any nails, the whole hull being sewn with thread. Here
they loaded goods from every place, and in monsoon ten to fifteen ships sailed for the Red
Sea, Aden and Mecca, whence the goods went through intermediaries up to Venice. The
principle exports were pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, tamarind, precious stones,
seed pearls, musk ambergris, rhubarb, aloes, cotton cloth and porcelain.

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The chief imports into Calicut, which were loaded at Juda, were copper, quick silver,
vermilion, coral, saffron, coloured velvets, rose water, knives and coloured camlets, gold and
silver. As early as 1510 A.D.

3.7 The Portuguese :

The Portuguese had at this time settled in Cochin where they repaired their ships and built
new ones in as great perfection as on the Lisbon strand.

The Italian Verthema (1505) noted that an immense quantity of cotton was produced near
Cambay so that every year forty or fifty vessels were laden with cotton silk to be carried to
different countries. Carnelians and diamond also came to Cambay from mountains at six and
nine days journey from there.

4. Significant economic activities :

At Cannnanore another fine large city – the king of Portugal had a strong castle and there
horses from Persia disembarked. On everyone, customs duty of 25 ducats had to be paid
before they could on the fifteen day journey to Bahamani Kingdom.

Another excellent shipbuilding centre, owing to the timber in the neighbourhood, was
Dharmapatnam, 12 miles from Cannanore.

Barbosa noted that wheat rice, millet, ginger, fine muslins, calicoes produced in the
Bahamani kingdom, were exported to Chaul. A few miles inland from Chaul was a big
market where they brought their goods.

Caesar Frederick (1567) found much silk imported into Cochin from China, and sugar from
Bengal. According to Ralph Fitch (1583), the Moors could not pass except they had a
passport from Portugal.

In Chaul there was great traffic in all sorts of spices and drugs, silk and silk cloth, sandals,
elephants’ teeth and much china work. Fitch calls the palm tree the profitable tree in the
world and notices the existence in Cambay hospitals to keep lame dogs and cats and birds.

The accounts of the one English and two Dutch Factors, who spent some years in
Masulipatam and its neighbourhood, give an unusually vivid picture of the state of industry
and trade on the east coast, particularly in the Golconda region.

The country was mainly agricultural, in the lowlands the staple crops were rice, millet, pulses
while the dye crops indigo and chay roots were also produced for the weaving industry.
Tobacco was produced mainly for export.

Cotton was not grown extensively but was brought from the interior.

The chief minerals were iron and steel of high quality, manufactured some distance inland
and exported from Masulipatam.

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 Diamond mining had developed in Kollur. Among industries cotton weaving stood at itself.
The weavers worked in their own houses, but as they depended on advances of capital from
buyers they had to produce the quality and quantity prescribed by their customers.

There were two main classes of cotton goods, plain goods like calico and muslin, brown,
bleached or dyed and patterned goods of the type now called “prints’’ made of either calico
muslin, with coloured patterns produced by the indigenous process.

This work was carried out mainly on the coasts and carefully adopted to the needs of
markets in java and the Far East, each with its own peculiar tastes and requirements.

The export trade for plain goods was localised on the Golconda coast, while Pulicat
specialised in the patterned variety.

The main export of Golconda was cotton goods, iron and steel. Indigo was transported to the
west coast and thence to Persia, cotton yarn went to Burma, and other minor items
contributed to what was for the time large export trade.

The volume of import was smaller, spices, dye-woods, metals other than iron, camphor,
porcelain, silk and other goods, mainly luxuries, were brought for sale on the coast, and the
excess of exports was paid for in gold and silver. There was also a large coasting trade,
northward to Bengal and southward to Ceylon.

5. Agriculture :

Apart from trade and commerce agriculture was also an important sector of the Bahamani
economy. The vast majority of population lived in the villages and agriculture was their main
occupation.

Besides landowners, there was a fairly large class of landless labourers, an agrarian
proletariat, who assisted in the operations and shared the proceeds of agriculture, some of
them were in a condition of serfdom, and all of them had less to do with the management of
local affairs than the land owners.

The artisans had the shares from the common land of the village which were of the nature of
the retainers.

The distinction between garden land, both flower garden and orchards, in the neighbourhood
of capital cities, land under wet cultivation and that under dry cultivation, and forest land was
carefully maintained for taxation and other purposes, wet land being further divided into
various categories according to their naturally fertility.

Besides cultivating food grains, intensive flower and vegetable growing and the raising of
commercial crops like cotton and sugarcane were also widely practised. The garden
produced chief items like betel leaves, areca nuts, ginger, turmeric, fresh flowers and fruits.

Abdur Razzaq noticed the number of rose merchants in the kingdom. The importance of
irrigation was understood from the early times. Dams were erected across streams and
channels. Large tanks were made to serve areas where there were no natural streams and
the proper maintenance of these tanks was regularly provided.

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Bahamani Sultans knew that the prosperity of the state lies in flourishing agriculture. The
practice of the forming of the revenue under the local officials existed in the Bahamani
kingdom as in the other states of the Deccan. S. K. Sinha writes that in the Deccan during
the regime of the Bahamanis the rate of assessment was 1/6th of total. The land revenue
was the main source of income of the state. In parganas administration the havaldar, the
desai and the desmukh collected agricultural and other taxes.

Desai and deshmukh assessed revenue of each village in collaboration with patil and
kulkarni and reported the assessed amount to the government.

Government after verification fixed the amount to be collected. Desai collected the fixed sum
from the villages through patils and remitted them in the royal treasury. In crown land the
tahsildar collected taxes so on and so forth.

6. Summary :

The economy of the Bahamanis excelled at one point with the increase of their political
prowess. The fluctuation of income was the main drawback for the political progress. This
was again due to the internal political squabble that the kingdom always had to face.

The kingdom survived at time when the peninsula flourished in international trade. This was
also the time when the subcontinent saw the advent of the European powers and the
importance of the Portuguese among them who introduced violence in the overseas trade.
The kingdom at least for a century or so could survive the stiff competition and was able to
control the commercial areas and ports.

The decline was due to the internal strife and it was rapid.