Born to Trade: Indian Business Communities in Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia [1 ed.] 9781138280298, 9781315272207, 1138280291

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BORN TO TRADE

BORN TO TRADE Indian Business Communities in Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia

SURENDRA GOPAL

First published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Surendra Gopal and Manohar Publishers & Distributors The right of Surendra Gopal to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Bhutan) British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-28029-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-27220-7 (ebk) Typeset in MinionPro by Ravi Shanker, Delhi 110 055

To the sacred memory of my younger brother NARENDRA GOPAL (29 October 1940–15 July 2011)

Contents

Preface 1. The Indian Diaspora in West Asia in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 2. Competition and Cooperation: Indian Traders in the Yemen in the Seventeenth Century 3. Trade between India and Iran in the Fifteenth Century 4. Indian Traders in Persia in the Seventeenth Century 5. Indian Traders in Iran in the Early Eighteenth Century 6. Indians in Iran in the Later Eighteenth Century 7. Indian Traders in Russia in the Seventeenth Century 8. Trading Activities of Indians in Russia in the Eighteenth Century 9. A Note on the Business Organization of Indian Merchants in Russia in the Seventeenth Century 10. Marwari Barayev: A Marwari Trader in Russia in the Eighteenth Century 11. The Indian Diaspora in Southeast Asia in the Seventeenth Century 12. Indians around the Pamirs, c. ad 1800

9 13 27 49 63 86 101 119 130 139 151 161 195

Bibliography

213

Index

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Preface

As a school student in the 1940s, I liked reading biographies and autobiographies. Some of these, referred to Hindus being ostracized from their caste on their return from a visit to European countries. The excuse was that religion debarred Hindus from crossing the seas. Orthodox Hindus refused company to the ‘returnees’ during ceremonial feasts. Traditionalists even at times refused to marry their daughters to the ‘ostracized’ Hindus. With the passage of time, however, attitudes began to change. Crossing the seas stopped being a taboo for tradition-bound Hindus. Yet, this ritual associated with the Hindu religion remained fresh in my memory. When I wrote about the commerce and crafts of Gujarat in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, I found Hindu Gujarati traders along with their compatriots visiting Saudi Arabian countries such as Yemen and Oman and the ports around the Persian Gulf. Eastward, Hindus went to Burma, Indonesia, and other Southeast Asian countries. They even visited China. I was surprised. I decided to find out more about Hindu visitors to these places. From time to time I published papers on Hindu traders outside India, and the present volume consists of some of these papers. The task was difficult. None of the emigrant Hindu traders left written accounts of their activities in foreign countries. This is strange. Hindu traders were found in foreign countries throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Some of them were not occasional visitors for brief periods.They quit when the countries were devastated by famines and other natural problems or political and military upheavals. Whatever information is available in these books is written by non-Indians. The foreigners were excited because of the ‘peculiarities’ they discovered about Hindu traders who did

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not ‘eat’ with non-Indian traders. They were told that Hindu traders were basically ‘vegetarian’. The Hindus were idol worshippers. To Muslims this was strange. They were totally opposed to image worship in any form. Some of the customs followed by Hindus made Muslims and Europeans more curious. Hindus did not bury the dead but cremated them. Though very small in number, Hindus could not be ignored. Some were efficient and successful traders. They had capital, which they could lend or invest, and it was not unusual for European businessmen to enter into agreement with Hindus in these countries. Hindu marchants and agents of European trading companies thus supported each other. However, Hindus are not known to attempt to learn the language or culture of European colleagues. We find hardly a Hindu trader speaking a European language: They ignored European society and culture. Instead, Persian or Arabic was the language of international commerce, and Hindus were familiar with these languages. I have used Russian language sources in writing these papers. Four papers are on Indians in Russia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Indian traders went to Russia for the first time in the seventeenth century. The Russian government supported them, and settled them in Astrakhan. Once established, they remained there for more than a century. In and around Astrakhan, they built temples with idols and even brought a priest from India. One of these traders, Marwari Barayev was the richest. He was said to know Russian, and the Russian government utilized his services in their attempt to establish a direct trade route to India. His success excited the jealously of some Russian bureaucrats who resented the royal favours showered on him. He was arrested though later released, the days of his prosperity were over. He became a Christian and quietly faded away from history. Indian traders realized that political and royal support,



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were essential for success in those days. The European trading companies in the East flourished for centuries because the state administration extended them all possible support, political, economic and military. Viewed from this angle, the achievements of Hindu traders were praiseworthy. On the Asian continent, Indian traders remained active all over Iran. Geography was responsible for this: Indians could go to Iran both by land and sea routes. From Iran they could cross the Caspian Sea and settle in places along the western Caspian coast. The local authorities co-operated. Indians were allowed to build temples both in Iran and towns around the Caspian Sea. They were allowed to follow their rituals. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, with the advent of the industrial revolution, things changed. Steam engines radically altered the transport system. Indian traders were forced to look for new opportunities and adjust to the changed economic and political systems. A chapter in the history of emigrant Hindu traders was over. I record my thanks to people who have helped me in preparation of this manuscript. I remember late Prof. K.A. Antonova, whose example continued to guide my historical researches. Prof. L.N. Ram encouraged me to continue studies after retirement. Sri Ghufran Ahmad, Dr. Shailendra Kumar and Dr. (Mrs) Namita Kumar helped me when the typescript was prepared and assisted me in a variety of ways. My friends Prof. Hetukar Jha and Dr. Sudhir Kumar Jha, I.P.S. (Retd.), and Prof. Ashok Gupta have been sources of inspiration, whereas my Russian friends Prof. Alayev and Drs Eugenia Vanina and T. Zagorodnikova inspired me to continue my researches. Finally, I am grateful to Sri Ramesh Jain, of Manohar Publishers for publishing this volume. I am alone responsible for errors that the readers may find. Surendra Gopal

Map 1: Arabia and Persia

•  1  •

The Indian Diaspora in West Asia in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

The emergence of Islam as a transcontinental ideology and political power in the seventh century put an end to Indian missionary activities in Central Asia, but Indian emigration to the Indian Ocean countries continued as Oceanic trade flourished; its major participants being Muslim Arabs, Chinese, and Indians. The Fatimid Caliphs in the tenth century ensured that ports on the western coast of India were regularly visited by ships sailing from the Red Sea region. Arab geographers and historians of the period speak of Indians living abroad. Indian Muslims went on pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina as was their custom, but no Indian has left any record of a foreign trip. We have no Marco Polo or Ibn Battuta or Ma Huan to tell us about his travels abroad. Some information about Indians residing outside the country is gained from European sources after the Crusades. Vasco da Gama’s opening up of the searoute from Europe to India was followed by the establishment of three empires, the Safavid in Iran, the Ottoman in Turkey, and the Mughal in India. The landmass extending from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean to the Bay of Bengal, coupled with the commonality of the religion of the ruling elites, and other factors created conditions which made travel and trade in the region attractive despite Portuguese surveillance over the Indian Ocean sealanes. Outsiders continued to pour into India in increasingly greater numbers; Indians did not give up foreign travels but their number was small. In the sixteenth

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century their presence is noted on the eastern coast of Africa, in the Arabian Peninsula, the Persian Gulf region, Central Asia and eastern Asia.1 Journeys to the Red Sea area were regular because for devout Muslims, pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, at least once in a lifetime was a highly-cherished dream. Many of the Muslim rulers on the Indian subcontinent supplied ships, money, and escorts to ensure that their Muslim subjects participated in the annual pilgrimage. When the Portuguese tried to hinder these ships, the Indian rulers used both diplomacy and force to ensure that Indian Muslims continued to perform the Haj regularly. The vessels sailing from the ports of Gujarat and Sindh carried pilgrims from the north-western India and sometimes even from Central Asia. The Shia Muslims also journeyed to places revered by them, such as Kerbala in Iraq and Mashhad in Iran. Occasionally, an intrepid soul would cross into Iran from India by the land route and then go to Mecca and Medina, either by taking a ship from a port on the Persian Gulf or by crossing the desert.2 After the arrival of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean some Indians began taking passage in ships owned by Europeans since they were considered ‘safer’ and better equipped to face the ‘pirates’. Some Indians were taken by the Portuguese to Madagascar, Mozambique and the neighbouring areas, either as slaves or as a part of the crew on their ships or as merchants. The Portuguese sent some Indians to Brazil. Braudel mentions the presence of Indian merchants (Banias) in Istanbul. At the moment our knowledge about the presence of Indian merchants in Turkey is meagre, but it would not have been a problem for Indians to move to Turkey either from the Caucasus or Basra. The documents of the European East India Companies and travel accounts of Europeans speak of the presence of Indian traders in the Arabian peninsula in the port towns of Mocha



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(Mokha) and Aden as well as in the inland cities such as Taif and Sana, etc. A report of 1621 describes the goods brought by Indians to the port town of Mocha. In that year, two ships arrived from Dabhol in India, one with 200, the other with 150 passengers, all travelling merchants intent on selling small quantities of precious goods: ‘pepper, gum lac, benzoin, cotton cloth (woven with gold thread or painted by hand), tobacco, indigo, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, mace, camphor, porcelain , musk, diamonds, drugs . . . the perfumes and gums of southern Arabia.’ Important commodities carried back by the Indians were coral, coffee, horses, frankincense, etc. Even after investing in these items much gold remained with the Indians, which they had received for the goods they had sold. Indian Trade in Mocha is described in another report. ‘In 1626/27 trade was still normal in Mocha; the Indian merchants sold their wares to merchants from Cairo, but lived in constant fear of an Arab attack, and buried their money every time a forthcoming offensive was rumoured.’3 Indians lived on the eastern side of the Arabian peninsula as well. Their presence in Muscat, the principal port of Oman’ was noted by the Europeans.4 The Portuguese developed Muscat as their base when they were driven away from Ormuz in 1622 by the Iranians and the English. Then they were expelled from Muscat by a local power in 1650. The new regime unleashed a reign of terror; the Muscat navy off and on ravaged the Gujarat coast. But Indians continued to come to Muscat. The Muscat ships were built either in Gujarat or in Sindh, since local timber was available there. In 1672 a Sindhi envoy visited Muscat. It is highly likely that when the rulers of Muscat extended their power to the eastern coast of Africa, capturing ports and islands under Portuguese occupation, some Indians accompanied them. After all, in the sixteenth century, the Portuguese had found

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Indians in the port towns below the Horn of Africa. The Portuguese had been regularly sailing to Mozambique from Goa and some Indians accompanied them.

II In Iran, the Indian presence was much more formidable than anywhere else. A number of factors explain this. The Portuguese with their hold over the island of Ormuz kept a close surveillance on ships going to or leaving the Persian ports. But collaboration between the Portuguese and Gujaratis ensured that some Indians did manage to go to the Gulf for trade.5 Let it not be forgotten that according to Linschoten, the Gujaratis had a whole street to themselves in the Portuguese capital of Goa towards the end of the sixteenth century. 6 On the Island of Ormuz there were many Indians including Hindus, who practised idolatry as narrated by the sixteenthcentury traveller Ralph Fitch. 7 These Indians were described as Banias, many of them from Gujarat. The Safavids and the Mughals had close and cordial relations throughout the seventeenth century with only occasional setbacks. There was a mutual exchange of embassies, scholars, and artists. Many Indians went to Iran by the land route principally via Qandahar. Indians who did not come back generally settled down in cities such as Yezd, Shiraz, Isfahan, Tehran, Resht, Gilan, etc. Sometimes, the Kabul-Herat route was taken to the cities of Khorasan (north-eastern Iran) such as Mashad. 8 Indians who resided in cities in the interior of Iran were generally known as Multanis, after the border city of Multan in the Punjab. As in Ormuz, there were a good number of Hindus and Jains, easily identifiable by their religious practices such as sandal-paste marks on the forehead, and cremation of the dead. The liberation of Ormuz from Portuguese control in 1622 by



indian diaspora in west asia

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the joint Anglo-Iranian forces made the searoute to Iran freely accessible. European trading companies and Indians took full advantage of this event and intensified their activities. While many Indians arrived in Iran on their own, several others were invited by the European trading companies to assist them as brokers, interpreters, etc. After 1622 there was a spurt in the number of Indians visiting Iran. Since peace prevailed between the Mughals and the Safavids, both land and searoutes could be used unhindered. Besides, the Europeans permitted Indian passengers and goods to be carried on their ships to the Gulf. Muslim and non-Muslim Indians, came from Sindh, Gujarat, from the Sultanate of Bijapur on the west coast of India, from the Sultanate of Golkunda on the Coromandel coast, and from Bengal. As the century advanced, Parsis too visited Iran from where their forefathers had emigrated to India. To cater to the increased passenger and goods traffic, the Shah of Persia established a new port, Gombroon or Bandar Abbas on the mainland opposite the Island of Ormuz which thereafter lapsed into insignificance. From now on to 1760 when Persians abandoned Bandar Abbas in favour of Abu Shehr, a group of Indians almost continuously resided there, their number rising and declining, depending upon the business environment. The non-Muslim Indians in Bandar Abbas continued to be designated by the term Bania, the majority of them hailing from Gujarat. They were generally vegetarians and teetotallers. Several European travellers write about these Indians. Fryer,9 the noted English visitor to Iran, found that Banias had built a temple served by a priest; there they worshipped their idols and celebrated their festivals. The Iranian rulers had granted them religious toleration. They could publicly conduct their religious rituals and ceremonies. There was a strong presence of Indians in the

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capital city of Isfahan in the seventeenth century. Estimates of their numbers vary between one thousand and twelve thousand.

III Having established a strong base in Iranian towns, Indians entered some of the neighbouring countries. They went to the Caucasus region and from thence, in early 1630s, to the Tsarist kingdom of Russia.10 In the Caucasus region, they selected Baku, a port on the western Caspian coast as their principal seat of residence. Shemakha and Derbent were other cities where Indians resided. At Baku, the Hindus built a temple where a perpetual fire burnt. A priest was always in attendance. Many Hindus in India considered this temple as a place of pilgrimage. The port town of Astrakhan, situated on the northern banks of the Caspian where the river Volga falls into sea, remained their base in Russia until the beginning of the nineteenth century. They lived there for more than a century and a half because business was profitable and the Tsars followed a policy of religious toleration. The non-Muslim Indians here were generally called Multanis since the majority hailed from the town of Multan and its neighbourhood in the Punjab. They brought their own priests and were permitted to cremate the remains of their compatriots.11 Some Indians married local women, their offsprings being called ‘Agrizhanets’. Many were eventually assimilated into the local society; some accepted Islam and others became Christians. The Tsars recognized the pivotal position of the Indians in the Russo-Persian trade. When the situation demanded, the Russian rulers extended to the Indians various concessions as well as protection. From Astrakhan Indians spread to other cities of Russia such as Saratov, Kazan, Nizhni Novgorod, and Yaroslavl and reached the capital Moscow where they constituted an important group among oriental merchants.



indian diaspora in west asia

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An Indian mendicant turned trader also showed up. Among the Indian traders, one named ‘Lahori Bania’ had earned considerable wealth. Obviously, he hailed from Lahore in the Punjab.12 Indians had close connection with the Armenians; both had known each other in India and Iran. The Armenians had extensive trade interest in several countries of Europe and Asia including India. Indians residing in Iran and Russia also explored the Central Asian markets. They especially visited Bukhara and Samarkand since these cities carried trade with Iranians as well as Russian trade centres.13 It may be noted that the overwhelming number of Indians in Central Asia had arrived directly from India by the well-trodden land-routes emanating from Lahore, Multan, or Peshawar and converged on Kabul and then to the Oxus River. After crossing the river, Indians reached Samarkand, Bukhara, and Tashkent in the upper Syr Darya basin. A section of Indians in Central Asia went via Ladakh, the Pamir plateau and the Yarkand-Kashgar route. From Kashgar they turned west and entered Central Asian steppe land, the Ferghana Valley and its cities, Andijan and Kokand. In Central Asia there was another group of Indians who had been carried there as slaves.14 Some of them had been purchased while others had been taken prisoner during the Mughal campaign in Central Asia. They performed menial jobs at the bidding of their masters.

IV When we step into the eighteenth century, we find the political environment within our country and the surrounding regions changed. Of the three great empires of the seventeenth century, the Safavid empire in Persia disappears; and the remaining two, the Ottoman and the Mughal enter into various stages of decay. India is gradually taken over by the British, who outmanoeuvred their European rivals, the Dutch and the French.

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The Englishmen succeeded in establishing their political and economic dominance over the country. While the emergence of British rule did not put an end to the wanderings of Indians, certain changes in the number of emigrants and the countries visited by them can be noted. The Indians could no longer assert their right to trade in the Red Sea area, since the decrepit Mughal empire was in no position to back their claims or to curb the menace of piracy—Arab, Indian and European—which was increasingly hampering shipping in the Arabian Sea. The Indian dependence on European shipping equipped with fire-power to deter the marauders became considerable. The Europeans were not averse to rendering this service because they needed Indian expertise, finance, assistance, and support for carrying on their business. They also earned revenues from freight charges. In the Red Sea region, Mocha continued to be the major centre of the Indian traders who, as in the previous century, dominated its economy. The majority of these traders, both Hindus and Muslims, came from the ports and cities of Gujarat, such as Surat, Diu, Porbandar, and Ahmedabad. The economic ties of Mocha and Surat were very close in spite of disturbances caused by Muscat pirates and the occasional blockades of the Europeans. Mocha remained the chief supplier of coffee to the Europeans, who were becoming its principal buyers because of its increased sale on their continent and their inability to finance its purchase in Mocha. For accounting purposes the Gujaratis had devised a Yemeni dollar which was valued 21 per cent lower than the Spanish dollar. Gujarati merchants, principally Banias from Kathiawad, were settled at all the Yemeni towns and could also be found in the capital Sana, in Beit-al-Faqui (the principal market for coffee), in the ports of Hodeida and Lohaya, and in inland towns such as Tais and Zabid. In the Gulf area, Indians faced a different dilemma. Iran, their major trading area, was rocked by political instability.



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First, Afghans occupied Iran, which showed the utter incompetence of the Safavids to defend the integrity of their country against foreign aggression. When in the 1730s Nadir Shah as leader of the Iranian resistance drove out the Afghans and then created an empire extending from the shores of the Black Sea to the river Yamuna, economic activities were revived. But he was assassinated in 1747, and political turmoil followed. The Zands and then the Qajars became the ruling dynasties in Iran. Indians tried their best to cope with the uncertain political situation in Iran. In 1718 the Shahbandar of Bandar Abbas was Kishendas Khatri.15 When the safety of life and property became uncertain during Nadir Shah’s regime, many Indians shifted to Russia. The Tsar, well aware of the economic contribution of Indians to Russia’s oriental commerce, extended them his protection. Some Indians were granted Russian citizenship. When the Russian ruler established Orenburg in 1735 and wanted to make it the focus of their trade with India, it is said that 300 Gujarati families came there to live. Indians kept coming to Iran as businessmen. When Bandar Abbas was abandoned by the Persian authorities in 1760, Indians shifted to the neighbouring ports, Bushahr and Abu Shehr or to the interior cities, or even to Basra, the chief port of Iraq. Basra was not a new destination for them. Indians had been going there in the seventeenth century as traders. Some Shia Muslims also passed through on the pilgrimage route to the city of Najaf. Throughout the eighteenth century, Indians continued to enter Iran by land and sea and were to be found in all the major cities, Shiraz, Isfahan, Tabriz, Yezd, Teheran, and Gilan. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, a sarai exclusively meant for Indians was still functioning in Shiraz.16 As in the seventeenth century, from Iran Indians also travelled to Central Asia, to the Tsarist empire and the Caucasus region. In fact, Indians were as much active in Baku

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and other commercial centres of Azerbaijan as they were in Astrakhan. Indians had their own caravanserai in Baku. They were found in other towns of Azerbaijan as well. They had another temple consecrated to the sacred fire in Surkhan.17 Indians also visited the commercial cities of Shirvan, Derbent, Shemakha, and Aresha in order to purchase the famed silk. In 1670s, Ya. Ya. Stris found on the outskirts of Shemakha, not less than one hundred Banias, the majority of whom were Hindus. A little later, a French traveller counted 200 resident Indians around Shemkha and described them as ‘the richest traders’. They were traders, bankers, money-changers, and moneylenders. In 1666, an Indian trader exchanged Persian coins worth 7,860 roubles. An Indian takeover of the Iranian and Azerbaijani economy had begun in the second half of the seventeenth century. In 1637 the Indians of Shemakha built a caravanserai on the road from Shemakha to Ardebil. Of the twenty caravanserai in Shemakha in 1703, Bruyn noted that the Indian one, 23 or 24 ft high was made of stone, and was the ‘most beautiful’. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, however, the importance of Indian traders in Russia was reduced to insignificance; their number in Astrakhan considerably dwindled. They no longer played a significant role in the PersoRussian trade, although the importance of Indians in Iran remained undiminished. The English East India Company concluded a commercial treaty with the Shah of Iran in 1800. This stipulated, that English and Indian traders and merchants should be permitted to settle, free from taxes, in any Persian seaport, and were to be protected in the Shah’s dominions. The composition of Indians going to Iran now changed. So far the non-Muslims among Indians were generally known as Banias or Multanis but a new category ‘Shikarpuris’ appeared. The new entrants hailed from the small town of Shikarpur in the Sukkur district of Sindh. Soon the newcomers, mostly Hindus, made their presence felt; they acquired so much



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prominence that their name became a synonym for Indians. The ‘Shikarpuris’ soon spread from Iran to Central Asian cities; in the next century they were even to be found around the Pamir mountains. It appears that the Shikarpuris were primarily moneylenders and bankers. The name ‘Marwari’ is also met. 18 Two Marwaris, Marwari Barayav and Rajaram Marwari went to Iran and then journeyed to Russia. The former earned a fortune and was consulted by the Russian authorities when they were trying to establish direct trade with India. He moved to Orenburg when the Russians tried to develop it in the eighteenth century as a centre of trade with India. He fell foul of the Russian authorities and was imprisoned. After he was freed, he accepted Christianity. As for Rajaram Marwari, he was active in Russo-Persian trade, but we do not know what his eventual destiny was. Russian language sources mention an Indian mendicant who was going to Siberia in the late seventeenth century.19 In this category, we can also put the Bengal wanderer Swami Pran Puri or Giri who had earlier visited Tibet in the service of the English East India Company, had also gone to the Chinese capital, Peking, and then proceeded on a journey towards Russia. In a nutshell, Iran attracted the largest number of Indian immigrants during the period under review. The Indian community in Astrakhan on Russian soil remained fairly stable during the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, but disappeared at the turn of the nineteenth century. Indians in the Caucasus region met the same fate until a little later. The territory was annexed by Russia after the PersoRussian war of 1826-8. It should be noted that many Hindus went to Baku and Sukhan on a pilgrimage to pay their homage to the ‘perpetual flame — the Jwala Ji’. Apparently, the tradition continued even in the twentieth century . The famous scholar Rahul Sankrityayan met a mendicant in India who claimed to have paid a visit to ‘Jwala Ji’ in Baku. The Caucasus was

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the only foreign country other than Nepal and Tibet to which Hindu pilgrims travelled. In the Arabian peninsula, Mocha, the port of Yemen, was the most frequented place by the Indians throughout our period. On the soil of Oman, Muscat emerged as the major point of Indian activity. Indian presence in Central Asia (from the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea to the Pamir plateau) continued despite significant political change in both the regions. Bukhara was the ultimate destination through several Indians lived in towns such as Samarkand, Tashkent, and Kokand. Towards the end of our period, Shikarpuris, hailing from Sindh emerged as the most important group among the Indians. Indians visited the trade marts of the Pamir plateau, Yarkand, Kashgar and Khotan. The latter was a gateway to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, but Indians flocked to Lhasa via Nepal and via Bhutan as well. Many Hindus going to Tibet were sannyasis and combined the discharge of religious obligation with that of commercial entrepreneurship. The obstacles put forward by the Europeans, first the Portuguese and then the English and Dutch East India Companies, could not prevent Indians from visiting the countries of Southeast Asia, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, the Indonesian Archipelago, and the Philippines, though in this region their influence and significance over the period considerably declined. The wanderlust of the Indians never withered away. NOTES 1. Surendra Gopal, ‘Indians in Central Asia in 16th and 17th Centuries’, Proceedings of Indian History Congress, 52nd Session, New Delhi, 1992, pp. 219-31. For Indians in Central Asia, see also N.B. Baikova, Rol Srednei Azii v Russko-Indiiskikh Torgovykh Svyazakh, Tashkent, 1964. 2. N.R. Farooqi, Mughal–Ottoman Relations, Delhi, 1989, pp. 144-72; Ashin Das Gupta noted that ‘about twenty Gujarati ships sailed every year from Surat to Mocha and Jedda carrying pilgrims for the Haj as



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well as annual trade of much of northern and western India.’ Ashin Das Gupta, ‘Gujarati Merchants and the Red Sea Trade, 1700-25’, in Blair B. Kling and M.N. Pearson (eds.), The Age of Partnership, Honolulu, 1979, p. 124. 3. Ferdinand Braudel, Civilisation and Capitalism 15th-18th Century, vol. II, London, 1982, pp. 127, 153. 4. Ashin Das Gupta, ‘Gujarati Merchants and the Red Sea Trade 17001725, pp. 123-58. 5. Even in 1549, Ormuz had a colony of Hindus and Jains, described ‘as complete vegetarians and worshippers of cows’. M. Donald Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. I, Book I, Chicago, 1965. 6. John Huygen van Linschoten, The Voyage of Johan Huygen van Linschoten to the East Indies, vol. I, London, 1885, p. 228. The Gujaratis were so well entrenched in Goa that on one occasion the Portuguese delayed the departure of a Cambay fleet on their request. 7. William Foster (ed.), Early Travels in India 1583-1619, New Delhi, 1985, p. 11. 8. See Surendra Gopal, ‘Indians in Iran in the Seventeenth and the Eighteenth Centuries’, Journal of Historical Studies, no. 2, 1996, pp. 1436. 9. John Fryer, An Account of East India and Persia: Being Nine Years Travels (1672-81), vol. II, London, 1912, pp. 167-325, 336-8. 10. M.N. Goldberg, K.A. Antonova and T.D. Lavrentshova (eds.), RusskoIndiiskiya Otnosheniya v XVII v (hereafter cited as R-I O v XVII v). Moskva, 1958, doc. no. 12. 11. Ibid., doc. nos. 76, 141/X, 141/1, 203, 223. For details see Surendra Gopal, ‘A Brief Note on Business Organisation of Indian Merchants in the 17th Century’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, vol. XXXIX, pp. 205-12. 12. R-I O v XVII v, no. 103. He reached Moscow in 1672 and was accompanied by an agent of the Shah of Persia. See also doc. no. 44. The Indians continued to visit the Caucasian cities throughout the eighteenth century. See Surendra Gopal, ‘Trading Activities’, Social History Review, no. 8 pp. 141-8. 13. Surendra Gopal, ‘Indians in Central Asia in 16th and 17th Centuries’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 52nd Session, 1992, pp. 21931. 14. Ibid., pp. 225-7; see also D.H.A. Kolf, Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy: The Ethnography of the Military Labour Market in Hindustan, 14501850, Cambridge, 1990, pp. 10-15. The exports of slaves from Bengal in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is mentioned by Tapan Raychaudhuri, Bengal under Akbar and Jahangir, Calcutta, 1953.

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15. Surendra Gopal, p. 83, n. 3. 16. Franklin, who visited Shiraz in 1787 found a caravanserai exclusively for the resident Indians, William Franklin, Observations Made on a Tour from Bengal to Persia, Calcutta, 1788, p. 59. 17. Sara Ashurdelli, Ekonomicheskiya Svyazi Azerbaijana s Indiyei v Sredniye Veke, Baku, 1990, p. 35. Most of the Indians here hailed from Multan. 18. K.A. Antonova and N.M. Goldberg (eds.), Russko-Indiiskiye Otnoshenia v XVIII v., Moskova, 1965, doc. nos. 72, 74, 75. 19. I.A. Lapteva and M.P. Lukichev, ‘Documents of the USSR State Archive of Ancient Acts Pertaining to the History of Russian-Indian Relations’, in Proceedings, Indian Historical Records Commission, Srinagar, 1988, p. 53. His name was Pandu and he was permitted to visit the cities of Toblosk, Yeniseisk, Yeniseisk and Irkutsk during 1681-3.

•  2  •

Competition and Cooperation: Indian Traders in the Yemen in the Seventeenth Century

Trade in the Red Sea Region Peninsular India, endowed with a long coastline, indented at frequent intervals by the mouths of several small and big rivers, and dotted with numerous natural harbours, has been carrying on maritime trade with its western and eastern neighbours across the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal since recorded history. India’s partners in this extensive sea-trade were ports situated on both sides of the Red Sea as well as on the southern and eastern littorals of peninsular Arabia. The Red Sea served as the artery of the Indo-Roman trade when the first millennium began. Indian exports to the Mediterranean countries flowed primarily through the Red Sea and supplemented the oriental articles received by Europe through the Great Silk Route. Political upheavals on the Indian subcontinent and the littoral countries of the Red Sea only temporarily affected the flow of goods. The rise of Islam in Arabia and its spread from Maghreb to Central Asia within a century of its birth reaffirmed the position of the Red Sea as the vital link between the East and the Mediterranean world. Trade with the Red Sea thrived after the Fatimids (ad 9691171) came to power in Egypt; the major participants were Indians and Arabs from North African countries and Arabia (irrespective of their religious beliefs and ethnic identities).1

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The Jewish Raddaniya had access to the Red Sea trade;2 the Geniza documents of the twelfth century reveal that they became carriers of Indian goods to Cairo. Goitein found in Cairo Geniza documents (many written in India and the Yemen)3 records of a court session held between November 1097 and August 1098 regarding the business trips to India of a merchant, Joseph Lebdi of Tripoli (Libya), to India.4 In course of further researches, Goitein discovered that most of the Geniza documents relating to India were letters and ‘Many were sent from Aden or another town in Southern Arabia, from a Red Sea port, or from India to the capital of Egypt, or vice-versa, or even from one place in India to another, still others were exchanged between Arabia and the ports of the Red Sea.’5 The number of Geniza documents concerning Indian trade increases in the twelfth century; Goitein has been able to discover that the commercial activities of the Lebdi family continued for two centuries. He was also able to bring to light several more names of merchant families such as Madmun ben Hasan ben Bundar (d. 1151), Abraham ben Yiju of al-Mahdiyya of Tunisia (resident in India between 1132 and 1149), Halfon ben Nathaniel Dimyati who had business contacts in Egypt, India, and the Yemen and who was described as ‘the man who is the centre of all the leading personalities of his time’ (documents 1125-46), Abu Zikri Kohen Sijilmasi (who ‘made prolonged journeys to India' (documents 1125-46).6 The merchants were Muslims, Indian Christians, and also Hindus.7 It is clear that the pivot round which India trade with Cairo revolved was Aden, which served as the transshipment point of goods going from India to Cairo and the vice versa. Goitein tabulated a list of seventy-seven items going to the West and one hundred and three items going to the East. Of course, not all Westward bound goods emanated from India and not all goods destined for the East were consumed in



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India. He found the names of over twenty ports on the west coast of India where ships from Aden halted.8 He concludes, ‘Partnerships and close business relationships between Jews and Muslims, or Hindus or Christians were commonplace and members of other religious communities are referred to with the same honoring and amicable epithets as the “writer’s own brethren” ’.9 He emphasizes the ‘spirit of all-embracing brotherhood which pervades the India papers of Cairo Geniza’.10

The Karimi Merchants From the twelfth century almost to the end of the fifteenth century the trade contacts between India and Egypt via the Yemen were nurtured by traders called Karimi merchants. Their headquarters was in Egypt and they had made Aden their base for distributing eastern Indian commodities to the adjoining countries.11 Mahruz al-Adani was a merchant as well as a shipowner. He sometimes sailed in his own ship or one owned by Madmun running between Aden and Mangalore. In one of his letters written from Aden, just when he was embarking on a voyage to India he refers to Karim:12 ‘By the beginning of the twelfth century al-Karim had become a household word in Cairo. . . .’13 though ‘up to 1150 approximately, the Karim by no means monopolized that [Indian] trade’.14 Indian merchants in the twelfth century were also participating in voyages on their own. Madmun in his letter of about 1140 mentions four Indian traders, Sus, Kimbati, Isha and Ishaq who were equipping their personal ship to proceed from Mangalore to Diu and thence to Aden with coir, fine aloe wood, and coconuts.15 Madmun was himself interested in participating in this voyage. A letter of 1139 written by Khalef b. Isaac b. Bundar to Abraham Yishu in Mangalore informs him that two ships owned by one ‘Fatanswami’ were bound for Aden. While the

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smaller of the two reached Aden, the bigger one was wrecked and some of its cargo was salvaged by professional divers of Aden.16 Obviously, ‘Fatanswami’ was a Hindu.17 Other Hindu shippers called Fadiyar and Nambiyar are also mentioned. Their ships too sailed between Aden and Mangalore.18 In fact, Indians, Arabs and Jews were sending ships not only to Aden but also to the port of Adhyab, situated on the African coast of the Red Sea.19 Adhyab was an important halt en route to Jeddah or for discharging cargoes bound for Egypt as it was connected to the Nile River. The rule of the Fatimids brought Saladin to power in Egypt. He excluded Europeans from the Red Sea trade because the experience of the Crusades had convinced him that a European presence would destroy the prosperity of the Arab world and would threaten pilgrim routes to Mecca and Medina. This policy helped the rise of the Karimi merchants in the Yemen who now replaced the earlier favourites, Jews and Copts.20 As time progressed, the role of Karimi merchants became more and more important. Their funduqs (storehouses) were to be found in Alexandria, Qus, Aden, Taizz, Zabid, Ghalifiqa, Bir al-Rubahiyya, Mecca, Medina and Jeddah.21 Under the Ayyubids in the thirteenth century special care was taken to ensure suitable environment to protect Yemen’s trade. Tughatakin who came as the Governor of Yemen after the death of al-Zinjli in 1194 built a block of shops; he also ordered the Aden galleys to protect merchants from pirates. He constructed samsarahs (caravanserais) and several khans (inns) for merchants coming overland.22 Rich merchants based in India visited the port of Aden. AlKharaji reports that ‘Abd al-‘Aziz bin Mansur al-Kulami (from Quilon in India) earned great wealth by trading with China. In 1303-4 he went to Aden where the local governor confiscated a part of his property, and he complained to the authorities in Cairo about this.23 The Karimi merchants specialized in sending pepper to Cairo, which was then re-exported to Europe. According



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to one calculation, on an average, Cairo received 1,150,000 pounds of pepper.24 Other imports from India included spices, drugs, precious stones, pearls, ivory, porcelain, dyestuffs, rare woods, muslin, and cotton textiles.25 It may be added that teak wood and iron were also imported from India. In return India received gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, coral, rose water, linen, silk, camlets, taffetas and other wares.26 Horses constituted another valuable item of export to India as noted by the author of Mulakhas al-fitan, compiled in 1413-14.27 The above account stresses the strategic position occupied by the Yemen in India’s maritime trade links with the Red Sea. Occasionally navigational conditions forced ships coming from India to bypass Yemeni ports in favour of Adhyab, yet the position of Yemeni ports as transshipment points for Indian goods continued.28 The flourishing condition of the IndoYemeni trade is further attested by the presence of an Indian colony (Hafat al-Baniyan) in Aden in 1384.29 Likewise, there were numerous Arab merchants in the port of Calicut on the western coast of India. In 1374-5, a group of Arab merchants from Calicut wrote a letter to the ruler of the Yemen pledging their allegiance to him.30 It needs to be said that Indo-Yemeni maritime trade was not confined to the west coast of India; it also involved Bengal. Gifts were sent from there to the Sultan of the Yemen in 1381 and 1391.31 Among the Yemeni ports, Aden had the closest relation with India and it was also the most prosperous in the country. An Arab historian noted that the bulk of the wealth of Aden was derived from the commerce with India, Egypt and Abyssinia.32 In 1411 Aden earned 1,470,000 dinars as port dues.33 This was an enormous sum and the Rasulids appreciated this reality of economic life. Their policy was to extend all protection and support to mercantile groups who lived in Aden and in the Yemen. They increased their stakes in their earnings from port dues when they captured other ports on the Hadrammawt coast such as al-Shihr, Zafar and al-Mukall.34All these ports also had trade relations with India

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and the new political situation intensified maritime commerce between the two countries. The fact is that in the fifteenth century the Karimis faded away from this trade. Egyptian state policy was largely responsible for this. In 1429 the Egyptian ruler Barsbay declared the pepper trade a state monopoly.35 The Karimis now lost the most profitable segment of their commerce. By the end of the century they became history.

The Coming of the Portuguese The disappearance of the Karimis did not affect the IndoYemeni trade as such. It simply meant other agencies took over. Indians and the Yemenis continued to bring pepper to the Yemen from where it was transshipped to Egypt, thence to Europe. In 1433, Nakhudah Kirwah of Calicut accompanied the khazanah (treasure) to the Sultan in Taizz, which clearly points to the importance of merchants engaged in the IndoYemeni trade. As a reward he was exempted from the payment of several taxes.36 The pattern of trade underwent significant changes when in 1498 Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and anchored at Calicut and sought to divert India’s Red Sea trade to Portugal via the Cape of Good Hope. The Indian and Arab merchants and the political authorities in India and the Arab countries were quick to grasp the fact that the Portuguese move was fraught with grave consequences for their traditional trade. Besides affecting their prosperity, it would also endanger the annual pilgrim traffic to Mecca and Medina. Hence from the beginning the Portuguese penetration into the Red Sea was resolutely opposed by Indian and Arab powers. The joint navies of Indian and Arab powers fought a series of battles with the Portuguese throughout the sixteenth century. In 1508, the combined Gujarati and Egyptian flotillas



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defeated the Portuguese at Chaul (near Bombay).38 The Portuguese, however, had their revenge the following year when the joint Gujarati and Egyptian navy lost to the Europeans at Diu off the Gujarat coast.39 The Portuguese in 1510 captured Goa on the west coast of India and converted it into their chief naval base in the Indian Ocean. The conquest of Goa signalled the Portuguese determination to stay in the Orient.40 Sixteenth-century records indicate repeated Portuguese efforts to achieve their objective; but in case of the Red Sea they failed before the resolute defiance by Indians and Arabs. In 1514 Pedro de Albuquerque blockaded Cape Guardafui, but his fleet was successfully evaded by a convoy of forty copper-laden boats which reached the Gujarati port of Diu from Aden.41 The Ottomans, who occupied Egypt after the Mamluks, deployed their navy in the Red Sea to repulse the Portuguese, sometimes alone and sometimes in collaboration with Indian powers. In 1535, the Portuguese occupied the strategic island of Diu, from where they could keep a vigil on the non-Portuguese inward and outward shipping. To foil Portuguese designs, the Ottomans in 1538 occupied the Yemen and ensured that their maritime contacts with India remained intact. Stiff resistance forced the Portuguese to reconsider their policies with respect to the shipping bound for and emanating from the Red Sea. They gave up the policy of conquering the Red Sea ports and also of shutting it off for non-Portuguese craft and instead formulated a policy of regulating entry. Asian ships were allowed to visit the Red Sea ports unmolested if they obtained prior Portuguese permission or cartaz by paying a stipulated sum and abstaining from trade in pepper and horses.42 The fee for the cartaz was heavy. A ship carrying pilgrims to Mecca starting from Surat had to pay two thousand rupees. Ships with Portuguese cartaz had to touch the Portugueseheld port of Diu, both on the outward as well as inward journeys.43 Despite these constraints and occasional clashes

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with the Portuguese and Ottomans, sultans of Gujarat and Bijapur and the Mughals sent pilgrim ships and commercial voyages continued. The Venetian Cesare Fredrici reported in 1563 that Gujarati ships were regularly going to Mecca.44 They were loaded at Diu with goods brought from Cambay in small ships.45 Diu, Daman (under Portuguese occupation), Surat, and Cambay were chiefly involved in this trade with Yemeni ports. Surat was fast emerging as the premier Gujarat port trading with the Red Sea harbours. A Portuguese account notes that in 1556, letters from the Portuguese agent Joao de Lisboa in the Middle East was brought to Goa in the ship that returned to Surat from the Red Sea.46 Other ports on the western Indian coast such as Chaul, Dabul (on the Konkan coast), Goa, Mangalore and Bhatkal (on the Canara coast) and Calicut and Cochin (Malabar) also carried on a brisk trade with the Red Sea ports. If nothing untoward happened, the journey from Daman (in India) to Aden, could be accomplished in fourteen days. Bayazid Bayat, a Mughal official, sailed from Surat to Jeddah in the Muhammadi, which belonged to Mughal nobles Qilij Khan and Qutubudin Khan. From Daman he reached Aden in fourteen days.47 Thus the commercial links between India and the Yemen had survived Portuguese military, diplomatic and commercial onslaughts.

The Seventeenth Century The dawn of the seventeenth century opened a new chapter in Indo-Yemeni trade. The Protestant Christian countries of north-western Europe had long envied the Portugese monopoly of the Eastern Trade. The defeat inflicted upon the Spanish Armada in 1588 by England buried the myth of Spanish invincibility and emboldened England and the Netherlands to challenge



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Portuguese monopoly and to participate in the highly lucrative spice trade. Both countries formed Joint Stock Companies which received royal charters conferring upon them the exclusive right to trade with the East and also the power to conduct war and peace with sovereign nations. Armed with these privileges both England and the Netherlands sent out convoys with explicit instruction to declare war on those who obstructed them, be they Portuguese or Afro-Asian powers. In the course of their early voyages both the English and the Dutch found Indian merchants carrying on trade on both coasts of the Red Sea and also on the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula. Early in their career the English decided to concentrate on the Afro-Asian littoral of the Arabian Sea while the Dutch concentrated on Southeast Asia. As in the preceding century with the Portuguese, the Indians and Yemenis stoutly opposed the English and the Dutch entry in the Red Sea. When the English in 1610 approached the Governor of Mocha for permission to set up a factory, their request was turned down and Middleton (chief English trader) along with his other colleagues was arrested.48 The Shahbandar of Mocha disagreed with the course adopted by the Governor. Probably he felt that the English presence could not be wished away, as the Portuguese navy had done in the previous century, the English too could do harm. He therefore pleaded for a compromise. On his persuasion the Englishmen were released.49 Middleton did not take kindly to the behaviour meted out to him by the Governor. He deployed his navy at the mouth of the Red Sea and held up a number of Indian ships: the Rahimi (1500 T) belonging to the mother of Emperor Jahangir, the Mahmudi (150 T), the Hasani (600 T), the Salamati (450 T), the Kadiri (200 T), and the Adamkhan (208 T). The Shahbandar of Mocha had to plead on behalf of the Indian captains with Middleton.The ships were allowed to proceed to

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their destination after they had paid huge fines imposed by Middleton according to the following schedule: The Rahimi The Hasani The Kadiri The Mahmudi

15,000 rials 8,000 rials 5,000 rials 2,000 rials

Middleton also took away goods from these ships and paid for them at prices far below the market price.50 Indian traders in Mocha also realized that the English were determined to force their entry into the Red Sea trade, that they enjoyed military superiority over open seas, and that a compromise would be the best solution. The English also felt that if after a century the Portuguese were unable to impose their will, probably a negotiated settlement would better serve their business interests. Both sides therefore started exploring areas where their interests would coalesce.51 The coming of the English, however, frightened the Portuguese; they felt that their monopoly in the carrying trade to Europe was at stake. They started a campaign among the Afro-Asian powers aimed at denying commercial privilege to the English. To show that their opposition to the English was serious and that non-compliance with their request would invite armed retaliation, they began attacking Indian ships even when they possessed Portuguese cartaz. In one case they carried off so much booty that there was a financial crisis in Surat;52 even the English were unable to sell their goods there.53 The English now sided with the Indians, offering naval support and inflicting on the Portuguese navy a crushing defeat off the Gujarat coast in 1612.54 This brought the English and the Indian merchants together. The latter were convinced that in the future the English would be their main rivals in the Red Sea trade. Accordingly while closing the Red Sea market to the English, they took measures on the Indian mainland to



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show that here the English were dependent on them and if they wished to continue trading on the mainland they would have to respect Indian interests in the Red Sea markets. To counterbalance this opposition the English started wooing the Mughal nobility. In 1618 the English permitted Asaf Khan, the brother of Queen Nur Jahan to send his ship to the Red Sea.55 The Yemeni authorities had in the meanwhile come to a similar conclusion. They permitted the Dutch trader Broecke to carry on trade in Mocha in 1615-16 after initially denying such a request from him.56 The experience of English and Dutch belligerence and the lack of success in armed confrontation forced Indians and Yemenis to permit the European newcomers to start trading in Mocha. The English opened their Factory in Mocha in 1618.57 This policy prevented an outbreak of lawlessness in the Bay of Aden and allowed Indo-Yemeni trade, of which the English and the Dutch became an integral part, to flourish. As a result of this policy the English and the Dutch no longer attempted to exclude Indians from their traditional trade in the Yemen. The Europeans had agreed to this proposition because Indians and Yemenis controlled the hinterland trade of all the ports and could always deny them entry in these markets. Second, both the English and the Dutch had discovered a segment of this trade which brought them good profit. They offered to carry passengers and small time traders along with their goods to the Red Sea ports and charged them for this. Like the Portuguese they also sold passes to Indian ships offering security to their vessels on the high-seas.58 Yet this did not prevent the Dutch and English from molesting Indian ships even if they carried valid passes. In 1621 the Dutch captured two ships from Diu and one from Mandvi in the Red Sea.59 The Mughal Queen Nur Jahan and her brother Asaf Khan sought English and Dutch protection for their ships going to the Red Sea.60 In the 1620s it seems that Indo-Yemeni trade was flourishing despite competition from the English and the Dutch.

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The Indian merchant community, Hindus and Muslims, participated actively. Tapi Das, a Hindu merchant, sent two ships to Hodeidah.61 He carried goods on behalf of Jafar Khan, the Governor of Surat. The role of Indian merchants in Yemen became more important when the Dutch and the English realized that keeping a special establishment in Mocha was too expensive. Their commercial interest could be better served through those Indians with whom they had over the years acquired a good understanding. Indian agents of the European trading companies thus became a feature of the economic life of the Yemen. However, this transition was not a smooth affair. During 1622-3, Prince Khurram revolted against his father, Emperor Jahangir. The Mughal state machinery concentrated all its efforts to crush the revolt. Taking advantage of this situation, the English and the Dutch started grabbing Indian ships in the Red Sea. In September 1623, they stopped Prince Khurram’s ship, ships belonging to Gujarati traders Shivaji Baniya and Tabakkul Ali, a vessel coming from Diu, and one other ship. In October, the English caught the Ganjbar with 100 Gujarati traders on board.62 Complaints to the Surat authorities went unheeded. Ultimately, the Gujarati traders took matters into their own hands and adopted a two-pronged policy; they assembled at the house of ‘Cojah Jelladines’ and decided to request the English to refrain from such acts. Simultaneously they asked merchants in Gujarat to refrain from entering into any commercial transactions with the English.63 The English refused to budge and harassment of Indian ships in the Red Sea continued. The disruption in IndoYemeni trade affected state revenues at Surat and this angered the Mughal authorities. They arrested Englishmen in Surat in February 1624.64 Better sense now prevailed upon the English. Negotiations between the Mughal authorities, the English Company and the Surat traders began. A tripartite agreement was reached in September 1624; among the Surat merchants who signed it were Jalaluddin Mahmud, Mahmud Saleh



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Tabrezi, Mahmud Ali Ispahani, Ali Mashadi, Saadat Yar, Mutwalli Mahmud, Mahmudi Ibrahim, Haji Abdul-nabi, Hari Vaisya and Virji Vora. The English undertook not to harm any ship coming from Mughal ports in the Red Sea region. As a gesture of goodwill they asked the Discovery to protect the vessel of the Governor of Surat bound for the Red Sea.65 The treaty marked a new phase in Indo-Yemeni trade relations. Peace in the Red Sea region contributed to the prosperity of trade and brought to light the fact that the Gujaratis had emerged as the most important trading group in the Red Sea area. Gujaratis expanded their activities and were to be found in all the principal ports on both the sides of the Red Sea, such as Perimm or Burun at the mouth of the Red Sea, Sahar, Kishin, and Socotra.66 At Sahar there were fifty houses of the Baniyas and their head was one Ramji.67 Gujaratis imported from the Yemen mostly gold and silver. When, in 1628 two ships arrived from Jeddah in Surat with gold and silver, the prices of these metals fell in Surat.68 The visit of Indian ships to the Yemen was reciprocated by the coming of Yemeni ships to India as well. Unfortunately quantitative evidence is lacking and we are not in a position to say much about their numbers or about their frequency. We have only stray references. In 1628 a ship owned by the ruler of Catsini arrived in Surat.69 In the late 1620s, the Arabs of the Yemen revolted against their Ottoman rulers. After a spell of anarchy, the Ottomans were forced to leave Yemen in 1635. The Yemenis now became master of their own house, which spurred an expansion of their economy; Indo-Yemeni co-operation played a positive role in this. This was an achievement as the end of the Ottoman rule snapped Mocha’s connection with Cairo. However, this problem was soon overcome. The Imam of the Yemen tried to attract more and more trade to Yemeni ports. To this end he reduced customs duties on all foreign goods in the Yemen from 20 to 2.5 per cent. In 1636 eight ships reached Mocha and six arrived at Aden.70

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Tobacco was among Indian commodities brought to Mocha. From then onwards two developments can be seen in the Indo-Yemeni trade: the appearance of European pirates in the Red Sea, and the emergence of coffee as a very important Yemeni export. The European pirates endangered Indian shipping in the Red Sea. In 1635 pirates commanding the Roebuk seized the Taufiqui belonging to Mirza Mahmud of Surat. They also held another ship, the Mahmudi, coming from Diu.71 Mughal officials held the English Company responsible for this outrage and took retaliatory measures. They arrested all the English residents of Surat. Yet, the mercantile community of Surat had other ideas. They felt that the English Company could not be held responsible for this piracy. They pleaded to the authorities to take a lenient view and the bureaucrats relented. The English were let off after they paid a sum of Rs.1,25,000 as compensation for the Taufiqui.72 This intervention in favour of the English was dictated by practical considerations. The trade interests of both the English and the Indians coincided in the Red Sea region. In case of a rupture the English would not hesitate to use force, and English support prevented harassment from local powers and many other pirates. The common Indian trader appreciated these advantages and preferred English shipping for going to the Red Sea or for sending his goods there. Rich Indian traders, on the other hand, continued to send ships to the Red Sea. They also felt that business alliances with the Dutch and English ensured the safety of their vessels from European pirates. Hence, they too associated with ordinary traders in asking for a favourable view of the English Company. Despite the emergence of European pirates Indians continued sending ships to the Red Sea. Zahid Beg’s Salamati sailed for Mocha in 1644. Somaji Parak, a Hindu or Jain was a passenger.73He had an interesting career: English sources disclose that he shifted to Suakin, on the African side of the Red Sea during 1646-50.



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Indian traders used Mocha for passage to Suakin where they were seen in 1647 as well.74 The Dutch abandoned their factory at Mocha in the late 1630s and employed Indian agents or brokers to work on their behalf.

Imams, Indians, Europeans and Coffee In the 1630s and 1640s a feature of the Indo-Yemeni maritime trade was close co-operation between Yemenites, Europeans and Indians, which helped in the promotion of coffee exports, especially to Islamic countries. Coffee was fast becoming a major item of export. Turkish merchants and trading caravans from Aleppo and Damascus would gather annually at Beit-al Faqih to purchase coffee with gold and silver. Coffee had also become popular in Iran and other littoral countries of the Gulf. Indian, Iranian and Arab merchants supplied coffee to Iran and the adjoining countries. Soon the English and Dutch joined this group. The coffee trade brought to Yemen considerable quantities of gold and silver with which the Yemenites purchased Indian cotton textiles and spices. A part of the spices and Indian textiles were inevitably sold to traders who carried it to the Mediterranean countries for further transmission. The new pattern of Yemenite trade spurred Indian interest in coffee exports since it provided purchasing power to Yemenites to invest in Indian articles. Indians started taking keen interest in coffee export. They purchased coffee in wholesale markets such as Mocha, Beit-al Faqih, Hodeida (from where Turkish merchants generally obtained their supplies), Lubiya, Zabid, and Taizz.75 They explored markets on the coast as well as in the interior of the country. Indian merchants operating in the Yemen came from almost all over the west coast: Gujarat, Konkan (Maharashtra),

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Canara (Karnataka), and Malabar (Kerala). In 1644 the ruler of Bhatkal sent pepper to be sold in Mocha, Basra, Iran and Muscat in a fleet of twenty vessels.76 The income thus generated was used to buy coffee for sale in India and the Gulf. The English had taken note, in 1621, of the potential of the coffee trade as a generator of cash. Kerridge, an Englishman, had sent 100 mans (an Indian measure of weight) of coffee to Surat77 since coffee, obtained both from Mocha and Surat could be profitably sold in Iran.78 A little later the Dutch also made a similar discovery. In 1628 they purchased 15,000 pounds of coffee and sold it in Iran at a profit of 70 per cent.79 Coffee was not yet a popular drink in Europe and no attempt was made to send it there either by the English or the Dutch Company. It was only in the second half of the seventeenth century that Europeans started sending coffee to Europe for sale in the market. In 1657, the directors of the English East India Company in London asked the Surat factors to send ‘ten tons of coho seede’.80 In 1661 Amsterdam received its first consignment of 22,102 pounds of coffee.81From the mid-1660s Surat emerged as a centre of re-export of coffee to Europe.82 The English East India Company found in 1671 and 1676 that purchasing coffee at Surat was more convenient and cheaper than buying it direct from the Red Sea market.83 Likewise, in 1695 the Dutch were purchasing between 30,000-40,000 pounds of coffee.84 The close alliance between Indians and Europeans facilitated heavy purchases of coffee by the latter at Mocha since Indians engaged in coffee exports from the Yemen had all the necessary expertise. It is correctly said, ‘Although the English and the Dutch moved quickly to invest in the coffee trade, it was clear that they did this through the agency of Indian coffee merchants, brokers and by the end of the century Banian capital was dominant in Arabia and the Red Sea.’85 The domination of the coffee trade in the Yemen by Indians is clear from the fact that they had devised their own dollar, which was 2 per cent less than the Spanish dollar or real of



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eight (coin), in which all transactions concerning coffee trade were conducted in Yemeni towns and markets.86 Indians adopted a special system of deferred payment for the coffee trade. If the purchases were made after the departure of the Indian fleet, payment was put off until the next year, i.e. after 100, 200 or 300 nowroz (i.e. after the Indian new year which commenced after the festival of lights (Deepavali), held in late October or anytime in November). This meant that the payment would actually be made in January/April/July.87 The maritime trade was mutually profitable to both sides and so the Imams of the Yemen and the Mughal rulers of India regularly participated in it. Indians regarded a 60 per cent profit on gross as satisfactory.88 The Imam ‘sent two ships every year to Surat’. Amir Razzak ‘the Arab land magnate’ was in its supreme command at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries.89 Some of the richest Indian merchants in Mocha owned houses they lived in. Mulla Muhammad Ali, son of Mulla Abdul Ghafur of Surat had a warehouse in Mocha.90Another Hindu trader from Diu, Vira Chand at Mocha acted as the broker of all the European companies. His house was rented by Ketelaar. This building eventually became the lodge of the Dutch at Mocha.91 Ketelaar and an English merchant had earlier lived at his house as guests.92 After his death, his son Ramji took over the business and continued to serve the Europeans. He knew Arabic and Portuguese and also worked as an interpreter.93 Such close cooperation between the Indians, Europeans and Yemenis ensured that business continued despite occasional difference of opinion or unforeseen difficulties. The spirit of co-operation is seen in the following case. By the mid1690s, piracy became rampant at the mouth of the Red Sea. The merchants, Mughal officials, and the Dutch joined hands against it so that the maritime trade continued. Between 1696 and 1701, the Dutch escorted the Surat flotilla to the Red Sea. They also used this opportunity to freight goods on behalf of

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the Indian merchants and they thus combined business with duty.94

Difficulties In spite of the congenial atmosphere for trade, cases of bureaucratic oppression were occasionally reported. In 1700 the Dutch observers speak of increased taxation, which had begun twelve years earlier by the Imam.95 Non-Muslims for their part faced religious discrimination. The Hindu traders were required to pay jizya at the rate of one qirsh per month.96 Sometimes Hindus faced religious persecution also. In 1649 someone pointed out that Hindus practised idol-worship. The Imam asked the individual to leave the country but at the same time arrested the person who levied this accusation.97 In 1655-6 people complained against Indians to the Imam. The Imam asked the Indians to confine their business to a particular spot in Sana.98 The worst violence the Indians faced was in 1699-1700 when a number of them, together with Jews, were massacred.99 On all the occasions the government firmly dealt with those out to create trouble. As a result the faith of the Hindus in the impartiality of the ruling power was restored and Hindus continued to trade as a part of the Indian community residing in the Yemen.100 The role of Indians is best summed up in Al-Jarmuzi’s account of 1655-6. He says, … the Banian sect of the Barahimah of India had grown numerous in the Yemen because of the security (aman) they perceived for themselves and their property as, too, the justice accorded them and others. A town or market on land, sea, mountain and plain, without them was rare, to the extent that they had settled down in the shaharah market and people turned to them so as to buy from them, to seek to borrow (istaan) and to ‘give property on the condition that the gain shall be divided between them’.101

Why were the Indians so successful? Even the Dutch,



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the long-time collaborators with them, found it difficult to identify the reason. Pieter Ketting in 1698 reported, ‘It is impossible for us to make out the accounts of the Muslim and Bania merchants in their trade to Mocha as we do not know whether they buy cheaper than us or sell dearer’, he felt the former was more likely.102 He wrote, ‘Besides they are more expert at smuggling, they spent less on their vessels, they bought little ammunition, and their employees, who were given no diet money, earned less than their counterparts in the Dutch service.’103 The Dutch said, ‘Even though the Gujaratis paid 9 per cent customs, which was 6 per cent higher than the rate allowed to the English, they bought their goods at 15 per cent cheaper.’104 The Europeans had to concede that as businessmen, Indians were in no way inferior to them at the opening of the eighteenth century. NOTES 1. Subhi Labib, ‘Egyptian Commercial Policy in the Middle Ages’, in M.A. Cook (ed.), Studies in the Economic History of the Middle East, p. 65; K.M. Mohamed, ‘Arab Relations with Malabar Coast’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Calcutta, 1999, pp. 226-34. 2. Labib, p. 66. 3. S.D. Goitein, Studies in Islamic History and Institutions, Leiden, 1968, p. 282. 4. Ibid., p. 330. 5. Ibid., p. 332. 6. Ibid., p. 337. 7. Ibid., pp. 338-9. 8. Ibid., p. 349. 9. Ibib., p. 350. 10. Ibid. 11. Ibid., p. 353; Earlier it was thought that Karim originated in 1181. Ibid., p. 351. 12. Ibid., pp. 353-4 13. Ibid., p. 358. 14. Ibid. 15. Quoted in Ranabir Chakravarti, ‘Ship-owning Merchants in the West

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Coast of India’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (hereafter cited as JESHO), vol. 43, February 2000, p. 44 fn. 30. 16. Ibid., p. 46. 17. Ibid. 18. Ibid., p. 48. 19. Ibid., p. 50. 20. Labib, pp. 66-7. 21. Ibid., p. 73. 22. R.B. Serjeant, ‘Yemeni Merchants and Trade in Yemen: Thirteenth and Sixteenth Centuries’, in Denys Lombard and Jean Aubin (eds.), Asian Merchants and Businessmen in the Indian Ocean and the China Sea, New Delhi, 2000, pp. 55-6. 23. Ibid., p. 62. 24. Labib, p. 73. 25. Ibid. 26. Ibid. 27. Serjeant, ‘Yemeni Merchants . . . ’, pp. 58, 63. 28. Labib, p. 76. 29. R.B. Serjeant, ‘The Hindu, Baniyan, Merchants and Traders’, in R.B. Serjeant and Lewcock (eds.), Sana: An Islamic City, London, 1983, p. 432 30. Serjeant, ‘Yemeni Merchants . . . ’, p. 67. 31. Ibid. 32. Ibid., p. 57. 33. Ibid., p. 54. 34. Ibid. 35. Labib, p. 77. 36. Serjeant, ‘Yemeni Merchants . . . ’, p. 67. 37. Ibid. 38. F.C. Danvers, The Portuguese in India, vol. I, London, 1894, p. 7; C.G.F. Simkin, The Traditional Trade of Asia, London, 1968, p. 176. 39. The Portuguese in India, I, p. 9. 40. Ibid., pp. 312-15. 41. Jean Aubin, 'Albuquerque et les Negociations de Cambaye’, Mare LusoIndicum, Geneve-Paris, 1971, p. 60. 42. M.N. Pearson, ‘Cafilas and Cartazes’, in Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 1968, p. 202. 43. Simkin, p. 177 says, ‘The system took time to develop and did not become really effective on India’s west coast until Portugal had acquired ports in Gujarat.’ 44. Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes, Glasgow, 1905, vol. X, p. 89. 45. Ibid., p. 90.



competition and cooperation

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46. Sanjay Subrahmanyam, ‘A Note on the Rise of Surat in the Sixteenth Century’, JESHO, vol. 43, February 2000, p. 29 fn.19. 47. Ibid., p. 30. 48. Purchas, vol. III, p. 131. 49. Ibid., p. 142. 50. F.C. Danvers (ed.), Letters Received by the East India Company from its Servants in the East, vol. I, London, 1896, pp. 186-7. 51. Ibid., p. 235. 52. Ibid., p. 305. 53. Ibid., p. 2. 54. Ibid., pp. 236-7. 55. William Foster (ed.), English Factories in India (1618-21) (hereafter cited as EFI), Oxford, 1906, p. 2. 56. C.G. Brouwer, Al-Mukha, Amsterdam, 1977, pp. 245-6. 57. Ibid., p. 245. 58. EFI (1618-21), p. 324. 59. Ibid., pp. 324-5. 60. EFI (1622-23), Oxford, 1908, p. 204. 61. Ibid., p. 161. 62. Ibid., pp. 264, 267. 63. Ibid., p. xxix. 64. EFI (1624-29), Oxford, 1909, p. vi. 65. Ibid., pp. 30, 76, 166. 66. Ibid., pp. 63, 70-2. 67. Ibid., pp. 70-2. 68. EFI (1624-9), p. 235. 69. Surendra Gopal, Commerce and Crafts in Gujarat, 16th and 17th Centuries, New Delhi, 1975, p. 33. 70. EFI (1634-36), Oxford, 1911, p. 300. 71. Ibid., pp. xxi-xxii. 72. Ibid., p. xxiii. 73. EFI (1642-44), p. 161. 74. EFI (1646-50), Oxford, 1914, pp. 17, 288. The presence of Hindu traders on the African side of the Red Sea is also reported in 1699 by the Dutch Theodore Zas. He states that thirty to forty Banias lived in Massowa and dominated the Abyssinian trade. Ashin Das Gupta, The World of the Indian Ocean Merchant 1500-1800, New Delhi, 2001, p. 390 fn.12. 75. Surendra Gopal, ‘Coffee Trade of Western India in the Seventeenth Century’, in Michel Tuchscherer (ed.), Le Commerce du Café, Cairo, 2001, pp. 300-1. 76. EFI (1661-64), Oxford, 1923, p. 358. 77. EFI (1618-21), p. 83.

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78. R.W. Ferier, ‘An English View of Persian Trade in 1618’, JESHO, vol. XIX, 1976, p. 208. 79. R. Matthee, ‘Coffee in Safavid Iran: Commerce and Consumption’, JESHO, vol. XXXVII, 1994, p. 7. 80. EFI (1655-60), Oxford, 1921, p. 240. 81. Matthee, JESHO, 1994, p. 13. 82. ‘Coffee Trade of Western India’, p. 310. 83. Ibid., p. 311. 84. Ibid., p. 313. 85. Ashin Das Gupta and M.N.Pearson (eds.), India and the Indian Ocean 1500-1800, Calcutta, 1987, pp. 216-17. 86. Ashin Das Gupta, Indian Merchants and the Decline of Surat, 17001750, Wiesbaden, 1975, p. 69. 87. The World of the Indian Ocean Merchant, p. 377. 88. Ibid., p. 389 89. Ibid., p. 393 fn. 40 & 46. 90. M.P. Singh, Studies in Mughal Economy, Jaipur, 2000, p. 172. 91. The World of Indian Ocean Merchants, p. 390 fn. 20. 92. Ibid. 93. Ibid., fn. 21. 94. Ibid., pp. 370, 398 fns. 56 and 57. 95. Ibid., p. 393 fn. 33. 96. Sarjeant, ‘The Hindu, Baniyan, Merchants and Traders’, p. 434. 97. Ibid. 98. Ibid., p. 432. 99. Ibid., p. 434. 100. Ibid. 101. Ibid. 102. The World of Indian Ocean Merchant, pp. 386-7. 103. Ibid., p. 387. 104. Ibid.

•  3  •

Trade between India and Iran in the Fifteenth Century

Geography has made Iran and India neighbours accessible to each other both by sea as well as land routes. In view of this it is hardly surprising that over two millennia, the two countries developed intimate cultural, diplomatic and economic contacts. Sasanian Iran carried on maritime trade with India1 and trade relations did not wither away when the Arabs captured Sindh in ad 711. V.K. Jain quoting Abu Said (ad 916) writes, ‘Hindu merchants visited Siraf in large numbers and maintained cordial relations with Muslim merchants’. 2 He also asserts on the basis of the writings of sea captain Buzurg (tenth century) that Hindu traders travelled to the Persian Gulf.3 A Jain merchant Jagdu of Gujarat had agents at Hormuz.4 His ships carried his goods to Iran.5 In the twelfth century, the presence of Indian traders in the island of Kish was marked by Benjamin of Tudela who visited the region during 1165-73.6 Towards the end of the thirteenth century, the famed Italian traveller Marco Polo who sailed from China to the Persian Gulf and touched Indian ports, noted Indian vessels sailing to Hormuz.7 The famous Arab traveller Ibn Battuta speaks of the presence of Iranian traders in India. He also noted close contacts between Calicut and Hormuz. The conquests of Amir Timur who defeated the Turks near Ankara in 14028 included Iran and a large part of the northern Indian plains. He created a single political authority whose writ ran from the Black Sea to the borders of China and the Gangetic plain. It promoted conditions favouring the growth

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of overland trade to China. Samarkand, the Timurid capital became an entrepôt for the whole of Central Asia. Iran looked to its market where traders flocked from distant countries including India. The Spanish envoy Clavijo, who travelled across northern Iran on the way to Samarkand at the beginning of the fifteenth century observed Indian presence in Sultaniyya, residence of Prince Miran Shah, the ruler of western Iran. (Sultaniyya was situated in the north-west of the country. 9) Indians brought with them ‘all kinds of spiceries’ which were re-exported to the markets of Syria.10 Herat, in the north-east corner of Iran, which had served as an entrepôt of overland trade between the Golden Horde, Khwarizm and India since the fourteenth century, was another centre for procuring Indian commodities. Sultaniyya and Herat served in Iran as markets for Indian goods. Indian commodities were re-exported to neighbouring countries. Trade patterns changed following the death of Timur. Iran remained in the possession of a son of Timur, who made Herat his capital; Sultaniyya began to decline. However, even when Iran was divided between the Qura-qoyulus and the Aqqoyunlus, its trade, internal, external and transit, did not suffer much.11 The political unification of a vast landmass by Timur had accelerated the growth of trade with Sultanniyya and Herat in Iran and Samarkand in Central Asia serving as nodal points. The data at our disposal do not enable us either to quantify it or to identify the primary Indian groups engaged in this trade, but Indians did avail of this opportunity. The growth of overland trade did not eclipse the maritime trade between the two countries. Hormuz was an important link in its continuity. The reasons were both geographical and economic. There were areas in India whose access to Iran was primarily by the sea route. This was true especially of peninsular India. The land route from China to Iran was long and hazardous.



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Under the Ilkhans, Chinese ships had visited the Persian Gulf. In order to outflank the Timurids and to ensure uninterrupted and unhindered access, the new Chinese Emperor Yung-lo in the first decade of the fifteenth century restarted sending ships to the Indian Ocean under the stewardship of Cheng Ho. The Chinese expeditions emphasized the unity of the Indian Ocean trade zone and its intimate links with the port towns of South China. The Chinese naval expeditions were abruptly withdrawn in ad 143412 but the momentum imparted to Indian Ocean trade did not die; it revitalized the maritime trade of the Persian Gulf of which sea-borne trade with India was a vital ingredient. One reason why the Persian Gulf became a preferred region for re-export of Eastern goods to Europe in comparison to the Red Sea was the economic crisis that engulfed Egypt from 1403 onwards. A small example will show this. In 1434, in Alexandria, there were 800 looms whereas in 1395 there had been 14,000. Also, in the fifteenth century, Egypt was suffering a shortage of silver; copper currency had become the predominant medium of exchange. Merchants exporting spices and luxury goods destined for Europe thus tried to bypass the Red Sea and chose the alternative Persian Gulf route.13 In 1420 after Shahbuddin Ahmad I (1422-36) became the ruler of Bidar, Persian influence increased at the Bidar court. Iranians flocked to his kingdom.14 In the reign of Sultan Muhammad II (1463-82), Mahmud Gawan who had come from Gilan as a trader and had been honoured by the title of ‘Malik-ut-Tujjar’ was made the Prime Minister. He extended the boundaries of the kingdom up to Goa. This gave further fillip to Iranian traders to visit Bidar.15 The war against the Vijayanagara Empire necessitated the regular import of horses, which expanded the trade with Iran. Another factor that contributed to the intensification of the Indo-Persian sea trade in the fifteenth century was the emergence of the empire of Vijayanagara as a powerful rival to

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the Bahmanids, the Muslim Sultanate that had risen over the remnants of Tughlaq rule. Vijayanagara and the Bahmanids were locked in repeated wars for the overlordship of the region. They needed horses for perfecting their war-machines. Burton Stein writes, ‘The importation of war-horses, known from the time of Marco Polo in the late thirteenth century, increased in volume during the Vijayanagara period, and so did imported canon and hand guns.’16 Horses were principally imported from countries around the Persian Gulf, especially Persia.17 Ships loaded with horses sailed to India. Many Iranian merchants accompanied their cargo. It is important to note that merchants with a single horse would also arrive because its sale was sufficient to meet their expenses of the trip. The famous instance is of the Russian ambassador Afanisi Nikitin who arrived from Ormuz (Hormuz) with a single horse.18 A little earlier, Abd-er-Razzak who had sailed from Ormuz to India, paints a similar picture.19 There were several ports on the west coast where ships from Ormuz loaded with horses arrived and unloaded their cargo. On the Canara coast, ships from Honavar regularly sailed for Ormuz. Abd-er-Razzak boarded a ship here and reached Ormuz after a voyage of 65 days.20 On the Malabar coast, Cannur and Calicut were two such points. The former primarily owed its prosperity to distributorship of horses in the hinterland, especially in the kingdom of Vijayanagara. The importance attached to the import of horses by Vijayanagara can be inferred from the fact that merchants were now entitled to bring in other commodities as well and were permitted to buy local goods without paying taxes.21 Other imports from Ormuz were pearls, dates, and salt.22 Another factor contributed to Ormuz’s emergence as the principal link between Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. In the second half of the fifteenth century, the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt especially Khusqudam (1461-7) and Qait Baig (1468-96) forbade the supply of pepper to Europeans



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on several occasions.23 The traders who had used the Red Sea route turned to the alternative Persian route. This increased the importance of Ormuz as the principal link of Europe’s eastern trade and served as a prime motive to look for an alternative route to India, independent of the whims and caprices of the Islamic rulers of Egypt. Goods meant for the countries on the eastern Mediterranean coast were transshipped at Ormuz in smaller boats and sent to Basra or al-Ubulla.24 Calicut had emerged as an important entrepôt of the Indian Ocean trade; the Iranians brought horses and other commodities and carried Indian and Southeast Asian spices and Chinese porcelain to their homeland. When Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut in 1498 he met a number of Persian traders. As the century advanced the Indo-Persian trade developed; more and more ports on the western littoral, the Konkan and Canara coasts, emerged where ships from Hormuz and the Gulf unloaded their cargoes. These were Chaul (on the Konkan coast) and Bhatkal and Honavar (on the Canara coast). Bhatkal was annexed by the Vijayanagara Empire in ad 1480. The Vijayanagara rulers converted it into their main port for receiving shipments of horses from the Persian Gulf. Cannur suffered because her prosperity had been based on supplying horses to Vijayanagara. In the sea-borne trade from Persia to India, Ormuz occupied the key position. Her prosperity was mainly accounted for by its ability to distribute Indian, Southeast Asian and Chinese goods to the Persian mainland as well as to Iraq, from where cargo was also sent to Syria and the Ottoman Empire. Of course, commodities sent to Persia were also taken to the Ottoman Empire and to countries located on the shores of the Black Sea from where they were sent to Europe.26 As a result traders from different countries visited Ormuz. Subrahmanyam notes, ‘Hormuz like Melaka and Aden was organized in terms of quarters, where members of different communities resided. These included the Gujarati Baniyas,

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Iranian merchants, and also a substantial community of Jewish traders in the fifteenth century.’27 Ormuz’s economic prosperity was based on customs dues collected at the rate of 10 per cent on goods brought to the island. A part of it was sent to the Persian ruler as a token of recognition of his overlordship. Also, the island was dependent for fuel, fodder, food and water on the mainland. In the fifteenth century, Persia was herself divided and disturbed. After the death of Ilkhan Abu Said in ad 1336, Italian trade with Persia declined. As Subrahmanyam notes, ‘the Shahs of Hurmuz appear to have run a semi-tributary and semi-trade based state’.28 The Persian rulers failed to impose their rule over Ormuz. This status provided Ormuz with every opportunity to develop her economy. Bereft of all the essentials of life, Ormuz had to import every item of daily use. Merchants were encouraged to bring to the island essential commodities. They had to pay duties on imports. The traders wielded clout and the ruler had to respect the advice of the council of local merchants.29 Indian traders were in a position to supply a variety of goods; they brought in food, especially rice,30 and spices which were then distributed to the mainland and Basra from where a part was sent to the Ottoman Empire, the eastern Mediterranean seaboard, and Europe; Indians also sold cotton textiles, in great demand throughout the region. Ships sailing from India to the Persian Gulf also carried logs of wood since timber was not available in the region. Beams of teak from the forests on the Malabar coast were especially valued for the construction of houses and boats. 31 Indians brought back to their country horses, pearls and gold and silver; these items were also brought by Iranian and other foreign merchants. The volume of trade was so large that no merchant was consciously excluded either by Indians or Iranians. In the port



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of Calicut on the Malabar coast in India, traders from ‘Bahrin, Baghdad, Kazerun and Shiraz could be found’. 32 It may also be mentioned that sometimes the Maldive islands served as points of exchange between Indians and Iranians. For the latter it was a convenient halt on the way to Southeast Asia. For Indians, the Maldives islands were a major source of cowries and tortoise shell. It is not surprising, thus, that the rulers of Malabar dominated this archipelago. On the Maldives, the Indians and Iranians would exchange their goods. Sometimes, Iranians bound for the Malabar coast of India would prefer to travel via the Maldive islands. Some travellers who passed through Ormuz on way to India during the fifteenth century testified to the strong Indian presence in the island. Nicolo Conti, the Italian who sailed from Basra to Hormuz between 1420 and 142533 and who was in India for almost two decades before returning to Venice in 1444, arrived at Cambay on board a Persian ship from Ormuz after a journey of about one month.34 In 1440 he found Calicut ‘a very noble emporium of the Persians’.35 Abd-er-Razzak travelled via Ormuz. Seeing its commercial prosperity he noted ‘Ormuz, has not its equal on the surface of the globe’.36 He found among the merchant community, Indians from, ‘Bengal’, the countries of Malabar, ‘the ports of Bijayanagar’ and ‘Gudzarat’. ‘Persons of all religions, and even idolaters, are found in great number in this city, and no injustice is permitted towards any person whatever.’37 The ship had several merchants who carried their goods including horses for sale in Calicut.38 In Vijayanagara he found several ‘inhabitants of Ormuz’ well established.39 They had access to the king.40 Nikitin travelled with merchants from Ormuz who carried horses and arrived at Chaul via Gujarat and Cambay in 1469.41 He speaks of a number of Khorasanis in Bidar where they served in administration as well as in the army.42 Like Razzaq he speaks of the commercial prosperity of Ormuz. He noted,

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‘Hormuz is a vast emporium of all the world; you found there people and goods.’ The Russian traveller also mentions Dabul, another seaport which was ruled by a Muslim and which imported horses for supplying to the kingdom of Gulberga.43 Towards the end of the fifteenth century Santo Stefano proceeded from Cambay with goods on behalf of a merchant of Damascus to Ormuz.44 He described Armenians residing on the island as ‘merchants that travel either out of India into Persia or out of Persia into India, for the more parte do all arrive in this island’.45 Pedro de Covilha, who preceded Vasco da Gama and was the first Portuguese to reach India via the Red Sea route went back from India to Hormuz.46 Therefore the distinct impression is that the maritime trade of Persia with India in particular and the east in general ‘reached a high level of activity in the last decade of the 15th century in both variety and volume’.47 This observation is buttressed by descriptions left by European visitors to Ormuz in the first decade of the sixteenth century. Vartema, the Italian who came here in 1506 called it a ‘noble city’. 48 In Iran, Vartema made friends with a Persian merchant, who remained with him throughout his travels in India and beyond.49 He found in Calicut merchants from Ormuz and Persia.50 He noted rice being shipped to Persia from the port of Mangalore, just north of Cannanore. The port sent fifty to sixty ships annually with cargoes of rice.51 Cannanore received horses from Persia, which were sent to the kingdom of Vijayanagara. 52 According to him 200 ships came here every year.53 The Portuguese traveller Barbosa followed Vartema. The former spent all his life on the western coast of India and was therefore in a very good position to assess and describe the relative importance of different ports in the Indian Ocean. He noted, ‘In this city [Ormuz] are many merchants of substance and many very great ships. It has a right good harbour where



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many sorts of goods are handled which came hither from many lands, and from here they barter them with many parts of India.’ He then went on to list the goods brought to Ormuz from India. Spices, textiles and rice headed the list. Among spices he mentions pepper, cloves, ginger, cardamoms, eaglewood, sandalwood, brasil wood, myrobalans, tamarinds, saffron, etc. Other imported goods included indigo, wax, iron, sugar, rice (a great store), coconuts, ‘a great abundance of precious’, porcelain and benzoin. In this list, some items such as cloves, precious stones and porcelain had been imported into India from Southeast Asia. About textiles brought from India, Barbosa says, ‘They have also great plenty of Combaya, Chaul and Dabul cloths and from Bengala they bring many synbafis, which are a sort of very thin cotton cloth, greatly prized among them and highly valued for turbans and shirts, for which they use them’. Barbosa confirms his predecessors about commodities imported into India from Persia. Horses constituted the most valuable item of Persian export. Most of them were meant for the Vijayanagara Empire. Ships, which carried horses, were also loaded with ‘abundance of dates, raisins, salt and sulphur, also coarse seed pearls in which Moors of Narsingha take great delight’. In short, the overwhelming evidence points to a steady and flourishing maritime trade between India and Iran in the fifteenth century. Indian goods brought to Persia were re-exported to the neighbouring Arabian countries, to states located on the eastern and northern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Ottoman Empire. Traders of many other nationalities such as Syrians, Armenians, Ottomans, and Italians also participated. The coming of the Portuguese in 1498 to the Indian Ocean had a profound effect on Indo-Persian maritime trade. The Portuguese failed to stop ships plying between India and the Red Sea and could not prevent supplies of Indian spices going

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to Egypt and from thence to Europe. The Portuguese hence sought to control India’s maritime trade with the Persian Gulf. Portuguese ships mounted attacks on Asian shipping between Red Sea, Persian Gulf and India.55 Their superior firepower enabled them to pillage, burn and sink these ships. An era of indiscriminate warfare began. The Portuguese established their hold over Ormuz. Their domination over Indo-Persian maritime trade began. The Portuguese could keep a tab over the trade in luxury goods (from Iran, India, Far East and China), which re-entered Europe via the eastern Mediterranean coast, although in this century Venetian merchants began to prefer the markets of Egypt.56 In ad 1515 Albuquerque captured Ormuz; he reduced the local ruler Turan Shah to a state of vassalage.57 He had established diplomatic relationship with Shah Ismail in ad 1514 and ensured that Portuguese interests were protected and well-served. By this time Krishnadeva Raya, of Vijayanagara, conscious of the Portuguese might and their role in hindering or helping the supplies of horses from the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf, initiated an alliance with the Europeans.58 This further fortified Portuguese position on the western coast of India and enhanced their role in Indo-Persian maritime trade. The sixteenth century saw the emergence of new patterns of trade in the area. ‘The Portuguese promised to exclusively supply Vijayanagara with horses. For their part, Vijayanagara would supply Goa (the Portuguese headquarters in the East) via their ports of Ankola and Honavar, with other goods such as saltpeter, iron and textiles.’ 59 As stated earlier, regular overland trade too was a feature of the trade between the two countries. The conquests of Timur, by creating a single political authority over a vast landmass stretching between the Black Sea and the Gangetic plain of India further stimulated overland movement. Major items sent from India were cotton textiles, indigo dye, saffron, spices



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of different varieties, medicinal herbs, etc. Meanwhile, Indian imports consisted of horses, asafoetida, dried fruits, etc. Besides all these, India was a major source of supply of slaves to Iran. Amir Timur had carried away 100,000 Hindu slaves. Indian slaves purchased at low prices in the markets of Delhi were sold in Ghazni, Khorasan, and Bukhara. Indo-Iranian trade, both by the overland and sea routes survived political and technological changes. The latter only affected the volume, variety and frequency of trade. NOTES 1. David Whitehose and Andrew Williamson, ‘Sasanian Maritime Trade’, Iran, p. 43. It is said that Bahram V (421-38) married an Indian princess and received as dowry the port of Daibu (Debal) in the Indus delta, together with adjacent ports of Sindh and Makran, ibid. 2. V.K. Jain, Trade and Traders in Western India, New Delhi, 1990, p. 81. 3. Ibid. 4. The port of Hormuz became important after Siraf was devastated by an earthquake in ad 978. T.A. Shumovsky, Triniizvestnie lotsii Ibn Majida, Leningrad, 1957, p. 107. 5. Jain, p. 81. 6. Elkan Nathan Adler (ed.), Jewish Travellers, Delhi, 1995, p. 57. According to our traveller, Indians mainly brought here spices. 7. Jain, p. 82. 8. Peter Jackson and Lawrence Lockhart (ed.), Cambridge History of Iran, vol. VI (hereafter CHI, VI), 1986, p. 375. 9. CHI, VI, p. 414. 10. Ibid. 11. Jean Aubin, ‘Etudes Safavides I’, Journal of the Social and Economic History of Orient (JESHO), January 1959, p. 39. 12. Irfan Habib and Tapan Raychaudhuri (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of India, vol. I, Delhi, 1982, p. 138; Satish Chandra (ed.), The Indian Ocean Explorations in History, Commerce and Politics, Delhi, 1987. The Chinese established the first contact with Ormuz during the fourth expedition. Ibid., p. 117. 13. J.L. Bacharach, ‘Circassian Monetary Policy’, JESHO, vol. XIX, I, pp. 32-47. 14. Sadiq Naqavi, The Iran-Deccan Relations, Hyderabad, 1994, p. 9. 15. Ibid., pp. 12, 16, 17

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16. Burton Stein, Vijayanagra, Cambridge, n.d., p. 74. 17. Ibid. 18. R.H. Major, India in the Fifteenth Century, New York, n.d. See chapters, ‘Narratives of the Journey of Abd-er-Razzak’ and ‘The Travels of Athanasius Nikitin’. 19. Major, ‘Narrative of the Journey of Abd-Er-Razzaq’, p. 49. 20. Genevieve Bouchan, Regent of the Sea, Delhi, 1998, p. 20. 21. Ibid., p. 21. 22. Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama, Cambridge, 1997, p. 99. 23. Cambridge Economic History of India I (hereafter CHI, I), p. 146. 24. The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama, p. 100. 25. R.B. Serjeant, Portuguese Off the South Arabian Coast, Oxford, 1963, p. 11: ‘[Ormuz] was the centre of sea-borne traffic from India, and also the overland traffic from Aleppo via Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf.’ 26. The Career and Legend of Vasco Da Gama, pp. 102-3. 27. Ibid., p. 103 28. Serjeant, p. 11. 29. Bouchon, p. 20. The Cannanur merchants shipped ordinary rice to Ormuz. 30. CHI, I, p. 147. 31. The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama, p. 103. 32. CHI, VI, p. 376. 33. India in the Fifteenth Century, ‘The Travels of Nicolo Conti’, p. 123. 34. CHI, VI, p. 123. 35. India in the Fifteenth Century, ‘The Journey of Abd-er-Razzaq’, p. 5. 36. Ibid., p. 7. 37. Ibid., p. 18 38. Ibid., p. 39. 39. Ibid., pp. 39, 41. 40. India in the Fifteenth Century, ‘Travel of Nikitin’, p. 8. 41. Ibid., p. 14. 42. Ibid., p. 20. 43. Ibid., ‘Journey of Hieronimo Disanto Stefano’, p. 9. 44. CHI, VI, p. 423. 45. Ibid., p. 378. 46. Ibid., p. 123. 47. John Winter Jones (tr.), The Itinerary of Lludivco Di Varthema of Bologna From 1502 to 1508, New Delhi, 1997, p. 38. 48. Ibid., p. li. 49. Ibid., p. 61.

50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55.

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Ibid., p. 50. Ibid. Ibid., p. 51. The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama, p. 184. Ibid., pp. 229-30. James D. Tracy (ed.), The Rise of Merchant Empires, Cambridge, 1990, pp. 24, 26. 56. The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama, p. 287. 57. Sanjay Subrahmanyam (ed.), Sinners and Saints: The Successors of Vasco da Gama, Delhi, 1998, pp. 20-3. 58. Ibid., p. 26. 59. Shadab Bano, ‘India’s Overland Slave-Trade in the Medieval Period’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 58th Session, 1997, pp. 31516.

Map 2: Central Asia

• 4 •

Indian Traders in Persia in the Seventeenth Century

In the thirteenth century after the establishment of the TurkoAfghan rule, north India’s contacts with Iran had undergone a qualitative change as the new rulers, who were ethnically and linguistically Turks, adopted Persian as the language of administration, diplomacy and culture. The study and spread of Persian in India helped to bridge linguistic and cultural gulf between the populace of the two countries. The Mughal rulers developed contacts with Iran on this cultural base as well. From Babur to Aurangzeb, Afghanistan remained a part of the Mughal Empire except for Qandahar which changed hands between the two contending powers, Safavids and Mughals. The Mughals also kept Afghanistan, the Indian corridor to Iran, comparatively peaceful by suppressing inter-tribal warfare and local challenges to the Mughal rule, which were serious under Aurangzeb. As a result, roads from India to Iran passing through Afghanistan remained largely secure. The Indian trader and the traveller on road to Iran, because of the stable Mughal control over Afghanistan, did not have to worry about numerous customs barriers or changing currencies or political dispensations. To step into Iran was to enter into the neighbour’s territory. The four great Asian powers of the period, the Ottomans in Turkey, the Shaibanids and their successors in the transOxus region, the Safavids in Iran and the Mughals in India forged alliances and counter-alliances in order to ensure that

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no single entity should become so powerful as to dominate the others. In such an international scenario, the Safavids opted for good relations with the Mughals to protect their rear when they had to wage wars with the Ottomans and/or the trans-Oxus powers, with whom they frequently fought. As a Shiite state, the Safavids had to face the religious animosity of the Sunni Ottomans and the Bukharans. Hence, the Safavids in spite of their differences, conflicts and clashes over Qandahar with the Mughals, viewed them as their most dependable ally and never allowed a complete breakdown in their relationship. The disruptions, whenever they occurred, were always temporary. In the sixteenth century, Indo-Iran relations were cemented by diplomatic understanding reached between the Mughal emperors of India and Safavid rulers of Iran. The Mughal hold over Afghanistan made India Iran’s next-door neighbour on its eastern flanks. The cordial political relationship was reinforced by strong cultural and economic ties, which neither power wanted to destroy.

Shahi Tajir Jahangir, the Mughal, a great lover of art and an Iranophile, commenced the exchange of royal envoys as a prince; these became more frequent when he ascended the throne in spite of a quarrel over the fort of Qandahar. These diplomatic missions besides carrying messages from one prince or ruler to the other were inevitably entrusted with the task of making purchases of ‘specialities and rarities’ with the assistance of the host ruler. The members of these missions may be termed Shahi tajir or ‘Royal merchants’ who carried royal letters and also bought goods for their patrons. In 1603, Zubdat ut-Tujjar Khwaja Burj Ali Nakhchiwani with a firman from the Mughal Prince Salim (the future



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Emperor Jahangir) arrived in Iran with instructions ‘to procure specialities’. The Safavid king, however, expressed his ‘unhappiness’ that the ‘goods had not been asked directly from him’.1 After Jahangir ascended the throne the number of missions sent to Iran increased. In 1607, Jahangir asked Kamran Beg to bring horses and high quality merchandise from Iran. He was given the option to travel to Iran either via Lari Bandar (by the sea route) or via Qandahar. He was to be provided with full protection by imperial officials en route.2 In the eighth year of his reign, Jahangir sent Muhammad Hussain Chelabi, an expert on gemstones, to Constantinople via Iran to procure ‘rarities’. In Iran he met the Safavid ruler who sent to Jahangir, ‘six bags of turquoise earth holding about 30 seers, with 14 tolas of mamiya (bitumen) from the mine of Ispahan and four Iraqi horses’.3 Jahangir was so much interested in such missions that he called Khan Alam Khan from the Deccan to accompany Yadgar Beg, the returning Iranian envoy, to bring back rarities.4 In 1615 he sent Tujjar Khwaja Karim to bring a lasbih of agate (i.e. a rosary of agate).5 The Iranian Shah also sent a cup of Venetian workmanship as present.6 In 1616 Jahangir again dispatched Muhammad Hussain Chelabi on a purchasing mission to Iran. He brought back a ruby inscribed with the names of his Timurid ancestors which belonged to the holy shrine at Nazaf.7 Then in 1617 Safavid Shah sent Jahangir five rubies originally meant for the holy shrine of Mashhad. The price charged from Jahangir was fixed by the ulema.8 These procurements from Iran were possible as an official system of payment had been devised between the two powers.9 The arrangement was on a reciprocal basis. In 1611 the Iranian Shah had asked for some Indian goods from Jahangir.10 When the Shah founded the city of Farahabad in Mazandran, he asked Jahangir for, among other things: amla (myrabalan) tree, resha-i zanjabil (ginger root), tukhm-i-brinch-i-Bengal

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(Bengal rice seed), indigo dye maker, gao-behal (a wagon drawn by an ox), etc.11 In 1613 the Shah of Iran showed keen interest in enamel work (meenakari) and sent some vessels for the purpose to Jahangir. The Mughal ruler had them enamelled and returned. Two vessels of pure gold, however, could not be enamelled.12 These happy relations suffered a temporary setback when Shah Abbas I captured Qandahar from the Mughals in 1622.13 However, the situation soon returned to normal and visits of shahi tajirs of both the kingdoms continued. In 1661 we find the Iranian Shah expressing great pleasure at the continuous supply of pan (betel leaf) wrapped in barjama-i-lahauri (or Lahore cloth) which kept the pan ‘fresh and green’.14 The Shah also expressed his happiness at Aurangzeb’s orders that an uninterrupted supply of fresh pan for him should be maintained.15 It seems that pan was being regularly imported in Persia even during the early years of the reign of Shah Jahan as Herbert also mentions it.16 The exchange of these envoys-cum-merchants or shahi tajir between the Mughal and the Safavid rulers distinctly helped promote trade and visits of traders between the two countries. Fresh fruits from Iran, for the first time, became available in India. Jahangir noted this new dimension in his memoirs. The increased overland and overseas trade between the two empires enabled Indians as well as Iranians to visit each other in larger numbers.

Multanis Indian visitors to Iran could take a land route. They generally hailed from Kashmir, the North-West Frontier Province, Afghanistan, Punjab, Sindh, and Rajasthan. Indians from virtually all over the country went to Iran by sea. Those from the north-west region intending to go to Iran by the sea-route took a boat at Lahore for Lari Bandar where



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they changed to a sea-going vessel; otherwise they congregated mid-way at Multan and then sailed down the Indus to Lari Bandar. Sir Thomas Roe, the envoy of the English ruler James I to the court of Jahangir in 1617, found this route in regular and extensive use by the merchants of Lahore. This trade had brought them unprecedented economic prosperity. He regretted that the local merchants were unwilling to change to any alternative route suggested by the English.18 Before the coming of the English and Dutch East India Companies to Surat at the turn of the seventeenth century, Lari Bandar and Thatta in Sindh were important transit points for ships sailing to Ormuz, the chief port in the Gulf, which was in Portuguese control. The ships carried white and black sugar, butter, olive oil, cocoa and many kinds of cloth and Kachchhi horses.19 Indian traders lived on the Island of Ormuz and traded with ports in the Persian Gulf area. Ralph Fitch who arrived in Ormuz in September 1583, wrote, ‘In this town are merchants of all nations, and many Moores and Gentiles’.20 The ‘Gentiles’ were Hindus from India. Obviously, the Portuguese intervention in the sixteenth century had failed to stop the maritime connections of Indian commerce with Iran. Towards the end of the first quarter of the seventeenth century, the Portuguese hold over Ormuz was successfully destroyed by the joint forces of the Iranians, English, and Dutch. The Indian migrants took full advantage of rather free access to the ports of Iran. In fact, a spurt was registered in the migration of Indians to Iran by the sea route after the Persians succeeded in driving out the Portuguese from Ormuz in 1622 with the help of the English East India Company.21 The English at Surat unloaded the ship Herat, bound for Persia and took some Indian merchants,22 signifying that it was more profitable to carry Indian passengers than goods.

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Bandar Abbas After occupying Ormuz the Iranians made Gombroon the chief port of Iran on the Gulf. Gombroon was re-christened Bandar Abbas in honour of the Persian monarch and continued to enjoy this status till 1760 when it was abandoned in favour of Abu Seher. As a part of this deal, the Persians agreed to allow the English East India Company to bring in goods customs free. The Company was also authorized to receive half of the customs duties annually levied in Bandar Abbas.23 Surat, not Lari Bandar, was now the chief exit point for Indians going overseas to Iran. The newly-established port of Gombroon became their destination. After the Gulf was freed from the Portuguese stranglehold, trade developed rapidly because the English, Dutch and Indians could actively participate in it. Gombroon became a flourishing port in no time. Herbert’s description testifies to this.24 An idea of the extent of ships arriving at Gombroon from India can be had from the following example. The English vessels Mary and Exchange on the way to Iran took on board between 400 and 500 parcels of goods and about 130 passengers. Each of the latter paid 20 rials of eight, while for the former freight was charged at 15 per cent of the customs house valuation. In all a sum of 6,000 rials was collected. The venture appeared so profitable that the English factors suggested that the local merchants should be given a year’s notice so as to enable them to purchase and collect goods for transportation to Iran.25 While the English ship Discovery earned 676 pagodas for transporting goods and passengers from Masulipatam to Persia,26 the Dutch too profited from the lucrative practice of carrying passengers (both Indians and non-Indians) and their merchandise on their ships.27 The immense profits thus reaped inspired Europeans to forge an ever-broadening



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and stable trade link with Persia (which continued with ups and downs for more than a century). They tried to engross as much as possible the export of silk from Iran — a much coveted commodity in Europe. Let us consider the circumstances that contributed to make Bandar Abbas an assembling point for Indians.

Religious Toleration The Iranian authorities in Bandar Abbas realized the importance of Indians, who besides acting as agents of the European trading companies, were traders, both big and small in their own right. The Iranian authorities treated them well and allowed them to openly practice their social and religious customs. Indians even built a temple in the port town. European visitors to the place repeatedly speak of such an environment of religious pluralism, toleration and specifically mention the case of Banias, the Hindu and Jain traders in Bandar Abbas, who were allowed to construct a temple. Thomas Herbert who was in Bandar Abbas in 1628 visited a temple under a big banyan tree which had three idols.28 He commented that the Banias were vegetarian by religious belief and that they did not eat or drink with the Europeans for the same reason.29 It should be remembered that Herbert was visiting Bandar Abbas only five years after it was made the chief Persian port on the Gulf. Hence, the inference is clear that the Persian authorities were from the beginning keen to attract the Hindu and Jain traders. They showed a keen understanding of their religious susceptibilities and put no constraints on the right to profess and pursue religious beliefs publicly. The situation had not changed when almost four decades later, another traveller, Fryer, depicted the same situation and also testified to the economic prosperity attained by this group. Fryer, an Englishman, who was well acquainted with Indians as he had stayed in Surat and on the west coast of India for a

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number of years, arrived at Bandar Abbas in February 1676. He found, ‘a Pharseng’ east of Bandar Abbas, two temples where a Devotee had . . . drawn a great concourse, at the Report of his fasting of nine Days; which being ended, the rich made a Feast and Presented him with Gifts; for which he returned them an Ear of Grain spiked, in that time sown before the Mammon, or God, with a Silver Head, which they bore away as a thing Sacred.30

Once when the Indians were involved in a dispute with the Governor of Bandar Abbas, they left the port en masse for a neighbouring town where the Governor’s writ did not run. When the Governor left Bandar Abbas, they returned and went back to work as usual.31 It is to be noted that the Indians did not leave Iran for they considered the behaviour of this Governor as an aberration and did not reflect the royal policy. Thus, the right to practise their religion was an important factor which enabled Hindus, Jains, and Christians and other non-Muslims to stay in Bandar Abbas and conduct their commercial activities.32 They could cope with the occasional arbitrariness and tyrannical behaviour of the officers of the Shah since this was not the general rule. Indians continued to enjoy the right to practise their religion. This is evident from the account given by Lockyer who visited this place in the first decade of the eighteenth century. Indians paid a certain amount to Governor annually to prevent the slaughter of cows and other similar animals.33 Lockyer thus corroborates what Fryer had earlier mentioned. Fryer noted that these Banias were invited to a reception hosted by the local government; they came but did not eat anything as their caste rules forbade dining with members of other religions.34 They also did not eat meat.35 On the other hand, Indians hailing from lower Sindh ate fish and meat but completely refrained from partaking beef.36 The Indians now paid 350 tomans to the Governor who had banned slaughter of cows with the result that beef was not available and could be



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obtained only occasionally and that too through clandestine means.37 Incidentally, Fryer noted the close ties existing between the English and the Banias. When Fryer left Bandar Abbas on way to Isfahan, the local Banias accompanied him till the first stage of the journey.38 When he returned from a visit to Isfahan, he found that the brother of the agent of the English East India Company, a Bania, was imprisoned by the Persian Governor, who even prevented the English Agent from embarking upon his ship for the voyage. The Governor extracted 500 tomans from the Bania39 and the other Banias protested. They left the place en bloc and went to the nearby Persian port of Congo, 100 miles west of Bandar Abbas which was not under his jurisdiction.40 They did not return even when invited back by the Governor.41 So long as he remained Governor, the Banias avoided staying42 or transacting any business in Bandar Abbas.

Indian Affluence The affluence of the Indian agents of the European trading companies is attested to by the fact that at a place, Kuh-i Ginso, two miles from Bandar Abbas where there were hot sulphur springs, the Dutch broker ‘Nokada Byram’ and English broker ‘Tockersey’ had built baths.43 They had also constructed a stone repository for the collection of rain water.44 In another suburb, he found that the Dutch broker had an ‘aqueduct’ to bring water from the mountains through a channel to the Dutch Garden. This was a work of public utility as it helped to irrigate fields.45 In view of the fact that Indians from coastal areas were regularly visiting Iran, it is not suprising that the carriage of Indian passengers and their goods became very lucrative. Charles Lockyer, who visited Gombroon in the first decade of the eighteenth century and reported extensively on the business activities of the English East India Company wrote:

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Freighting (of passengers)… is a main Branch of the Company’s Profit; for they rarely dispatch a ship hence for Surat, but she is deep loaded as they can swim, full of Passengers and has vast Quantitys of Pearl; and Treasure on Board; some has to the value of two or three hundred thousand pounds; so that I look upon English ships from Persia to Surat in the latter end of October and November, to be the richest Vessels on that side of the World. The Dutch have a great deal of freight; but they send so many ships together, that they are seldom above half full.46

One may note here that among the Indians who went to Iran, not all were free men; some of the migrants left the shores of their motherland as slaves, purchased by Iranians. Herbert left Surat in December 1627 in a fleet of three ships, the William, the Exchange and the Herat. They had on board above three hundred slaves, ‘whom the Persians had bought in India, ‘Parsees, Jentaus (Hindus), Bannaras and others’.47 The existence of regular and steady commerce between Indian ports and Bandar Abbas resulted in a large concentration of Indian traders throughout the seventeenth and the major part of the eighteenth enturies. Many of them were Hindus and Jains and undoubtedly, their stay was facilitated by the liberal outlook of the Safavid and other rulers who permitted them to practise their religion publicly and observe their social and religious customs.

Multan Along with the sea-route, the Indians used a number of landroutes to go to Iran and to carry merchandise there. It seems that the most popular exit point from India was Multan in the Punjab (now a part of Pakistan). The geographical location of Multan was such that it served as a meeting point for traders from several regions of India intending to go to Iran. Merchants of the Punjab coming from Lahore could use the river Ravi. Those from upper Sindh could cover the



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distance to Multan with ease. Even merchants from Jaisalmer and Bikaner, had direct access to Multan. Businessmen from the southern parts of the North-Western Frontier Province also reached Multan after a short and rather comfortable journey. Multan thus emerged as a meeting point of Indian traders hailing from Upper Sindh, the Punjab, the North-Western Province and Rajasthan. From Multan they travelled to Qandahar and thence Central Iran. Those intending to go to north-eastern Iran or Khorasan (as the region was then popularly known) could take the Qandahar–Gazni–Herat route. Thus an Indian in Qandahar was well placed to travel to either central or north-eastern Iran from where other Iranian cities could then be reached.48 Traders from Sindh, especially Bukkur, who were also joined by Rajasthani merchants of Jaisalmer, according to Manrique, sent each year a caravan to Iran, carrying cloth and other things.49 From Bikaner (in Rajasthan) the road ran to Multan and from Jaisalmer (in Rajasthan) to the vicinity of Bukkur in Sind. The other available route from Kashmir, north-western Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province was via Kabul, Gazni and Herat. Indians from the above mentioned areas had to cross the Indus, reach Peshawar and then go to Kabul before taking the road to north-eastern Iran. Since Afghanistan remained a part of the Mughal empire virtually throughout the seventeenth century, Indians did not face any insurmountable problem while crossing it. When the Mughals and the Iranians fought for the possession of Qandahar during the first six decades of the seventeenth century, the Kabul–Herat road remained free and was widely used. Hence, even when hostilities had broken out between the two powers over the possession of Qandahar, at least one road to Iran remained open and in use. The routes described above brought Indian traders to central and north-

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east Iran. Since southern Iran was reached easily by the sea route and central and north-eastern Iran by the landroute, it is no wonder that in the seventeenth century, Indians could be found in southern, central and north-eastern Iran as well as in north Iran along the southern and western shores of the Caspian Sea.

The Road by Land Foreigners who came to India from Iran in the first, second and third decades of the seventeenth century by the land route spoke about its regular use. John Mildenhall, who departed from London in 1600 travelled overland from the cities of Persia such as Qazvin, Kum, Kahan, Yazd, Kerman, and Qandahar, to India.50 Another Englishman, Thomas Coryat, left London in 1612 for Constantinople and Aleppo and thence, the Iranian cities of Tabriz, Qazvin, Isfahan and Qandahar. He then entered India.51 On the Indian frontiers, he met Sir Robert and Lady Sherley who were coming from the Mughal Court and were carrying two elephants as a gift for the Persian Shah.52 Coryat spent about four months on the road to India and the caravan which he accompanied from Isfahan consisted of ‘200 camels, 1,500 horses, 1,000 and odd mules, 800 asses, and six thousand people’.53 Lahore was a transit point for Indian traders going to Iran by the land route. Pelsaert, the Dutch trader in his commercial report on India in 1626 commented upon the importance of Lahore in Indo-Persian overland trade and how the destruction of the Portuguese monopoly over the Persian Gulf trade had reduced its role.54 It is therefore clear that the overland routes to Iran were well frequented and as a result, the Indian presence in most of the important trade centres in the heart of Iran was noted by contemporary observers.



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Indians in the Interior A Russian traveller-cum-trader-cum-diplomat Fedor Alekseivich Kotov, who visited Iran at the behest of the Tsar in 1623 writes about Indians and their trade. Speaking of Kum, in the north, he noted that traders from this place went to the kingdom of Multan.55 In common perception Multan was synonymous with India. Thomas Herbert, five years later found ‘Banians and Indians in the city of Amul, the capital of Tabistan along with other mercantile groups’. He noted that the Banias observed ‘sabbath’ on thursdays.56 In the city of Qazvin, Herbert saw forty camels with tobacco from India. Since the Persian Shah had banned smoking, the tobacco was seized and publicly burnt. The city of Kashan, which produced the best silk, had regular trade with India.57 Kotov’s description of the capital city, Isfahan, again shows that Indian traders were doing business in the heart of the town. Among the commodities sold was mitkal (a variety of striped cotton) used for upholstery and a type of painted chintz imported from India.58 The crowd which welcomed the Shah on 25 June 1623 in Isfahan after his victory over the Turks, consisted of the entire population of Isfahan including a group of Indians.59 The Shah was received with dancing and cheering and the Indians danced in the manner of their countrymen.60 Kotov also remarks that the Multanis practised two faiths— Islam and Hinduism. The Hindu worshipped the rising sun and recited their prayers then. They rubbed yellow colour (probably sandalpaste) on their forehead.61 Whenever a Hindu Multani died, his dead body was taken outside the city and cremated. The ashes were then sprinkled in the air.62 The Multanis put on garments of white muslin and wore a white cap. They were lean and did not have a healthy look. They were all dark skinned.63 The goods were transported on oxen as well as camel.64

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From Kum a two days’ journey brought people to Vairom. From Vairom to Tehran was a day’s march. From Tehran it took eight days to arrive at Farahbad. From Farahbad one marched for fifteen days to reach Mashhad. From Mashhad the journey to Qandahar on the Indian frontier required a march of forty days. From Qandahar to India it was an overnight journey.65 A road also ran from Isfahan to Farahbad and then onwards to Mashhad and Qandahar.66 Herbert for his part also speaks of the strong presence of Indian merchants (Bania) in the capital city of Isfahan. He noted the existence of close ties between the Indians and the English East India Company. The entourage in which Herbert was travelling was welcomed two miles off Isfahan by a huge crowd which included ‘Banians in great numbers’.67 It is a measure of intensive contacts between Isfahan and India that one of the dozen gates of the city led towards Qandahar and India.68 Hence, it is understandable that whenever trade by the sea route between India and Iran was disrupted, the overland trade was capable of absorbing the shock and compensating the shortfall in imports and exports to a large extent. This was another factor which helped Indians sustain their business activities in Iran. Niels Steensgarrd calculated that in 1639 between 25,000 and 30,000 camel loads of cotton material were annually imported into Iran from India.69 The strong presence of Indians in Isfahan was noted by Russian envoys, Phillip Guzius and Otto Orugmann, who reached there in 1635. They noted that they had been given quarters near the Indian embassy.70 They also reported a fight which took place between Indians and members of the Holstein embassy. In this description we find for the first time, the numerical strength of Indians residing in Isfahan, which was certainly over one thousand. The Secretary of the Holstein embassy, Olearious put the number of Indians in Iran at 12,000.71 We do not know the basis on which he based his estimate.



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Indians and Russians We have no idea of the nature of interaction between the Indians and the Russians in Iran at this stage. But there must have been some, since Russian records mention that Russians going to Iran in 1635 had been instructed to purchase Indian goods.72 In the same year the Russian royal treasury advanced a sum of 2, 000 roubles to them and asked them to bring Indian velvet and coloured silk of the variety of kamkab (brocade with coloured patterns) along with precious stones such as rubies, sapphires and turquoise.73 It was advantageous for Russians to make these purchases directly from Indians. The foundation was thus laid for economic interactions between Indians residing in Iran and Russians, which continued to develop in the coming years. It is against this background that some Indian merchants decided to move into Russia and explore the markets there. Russian documents report the presence of two Indian merchants, Mollacheka Sedukov and Kishnyachka Molteav, in August 1638, on Russian soil. They had the company of Persian merchants for the first time.74 This started the flow of Indian merchants to the Caucasus and the, trans-Caucasus regions and also Russia, and continued uninterrupted for the next two centuries. Iran had become the spring-board for Indian merchants willing to take their trade further north. In March 1639, Indian residents in Astrakhan in Russia travelled to Iran in a government boat. They were forbidden to disembark at any intermediate port on the west coast of the Caspian Sea such as Derbent and Shemakha.75 By mid-1640s, an Indian named Sutur, had made his mark on the business scene in Russia. He had obviously come from Iran because he reported in 1647 to the Russian government that Indians were emigrating to Russia from Iran because they were feeling insecure.76 This was the period when rebellions had started against the Iranian Shah. Sutur asserted that Indians in Iran numbered 10,000.77 He was sending goods to Iran from

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Astrakhan,78 and complained to the Russian authorities that his goods had been looted in Derbent.79 He had commercial contacts with Persian cities, such as Qazvin, Isfahan and Tabriz as well as Derbent. Having won the confidence of the Russian authorities, Sutur acted as the agent of the Russian government in Iran. He was given 4,000 roubles to make purchases in Iran on behalf of the Russian government.80 Russian documents of 1665 testify Indians visiting Russian cities with goods from Tabriz, Gilan, and Kashan in Persia.81 Shemakha and Derbent had emerged as two intermediate points on way to Russia where Persian and other goods were exchanged for Russian goods by Indians. The presence of a large number of Indian traders in Iran was explained by Chardin, a keen observer of the Iranian scene in 1670s in the following words: However, the mahometans are not the greatest traders in Asia, tho’ they be dispersed almost in every part of it; and tho’ their religion bears away in the larger part of it. Some of them are too Effeminate, and some too severe to apply themselves to trade, especially foreign trading, wherefore in Tirks, the Christians and Jews carry on the main foreign trade; and in Persia the Christians and Indian Gentiles. As to the Persians they Trade with their own countrymen, one province with another, and most of them Trade with the Indians.82

The Indian Dispersal By the 1660s one finds Indian merchants trading in a number of important cities and towns of Persia such as Bandar Abbas on the coast,83 Lar84 in the south-east bordering Baluchistan and Kirman, Tehran, Isfahan (the capital), Shiraz, Qazvin in the Gilan province on the Caspian Sea, Tabriz, Baku and Derbent in the Caucasus, in Mashhad and Nishapur in north-east Iran, Herat and Yezd in east central Iran, etc. Indian traders were to be found virtually all over the country except for western Iran. Such a wide dispersal of Indian traders



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in one country outside India in the middle ages is not to be found elsewhere. In the Arabian peninsula or in the Southeast Asia they were confined only to a few trade centres. It should be noted that the Indian merchants in Iran dealt with a wide range of commodities both Indian and nonIndian. Indian goods handled by them were primarily indigo, cotton textiles, sugar, spices, and Golconda steel.85 It may also be mentioned that though trade remained the basic activity of the Indians, they also acted as moneylenders, both big and small. As has been shown elswhere, they lent money to the European trading companies.

Moneylenders The small-time Indian moneylenders charged excessive rates of interest—between 2 and 2.5 per cent per month. They expected the interest to be paid every month. They were very rigorous in recovering the interest and were, therefore, intensely disliked by borrowers. Tavernier noted, ‘As far as the Banians are concerned who practised great usury, they often caused great misery, by their cruelty on the common people’. Tavernier recounts an incident in which an attempt was made in Isfahan in 1672 to murder an Indian moneylender in the house of a debtor. Fortunately, he escaped when the borrower was mistakenly murdered by his own mother in place of the Indian.86 Apart from trade and moneylending the Banias in Iran performed another economic function. They discounted Bills of Exchange in Iran, issued in India, Russia and other cities of Iran. The significance of this role lay in the fact that it ensured the continuity of the Indo-Persian trade, which in value, volume, and variety exceeded India’s trade with any other Afro-Asian country in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

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A New Turn The available account shows that after 1665 Indians in Persia increased their trade with Russia and the Caucasus and trans-Caucasus regions. After displacing Shah Jahan, the new Mughal emperor Aurangzeb did not fight with the Persian Shah for the possession of Qandahar: in return, the Shah allowed the Mughal a free hand in his dealings with the Deccanese Shia kingdoms of Bijapur and Golconda. Mughal–Safavid relations were on an even keel once more and political disturbances did not affect the going and coming of traders from India to Iran by the land route. The stable political relationship resulted in increased flow of Indians to Iran. This was again reflected in more Indians going to the Caucasus, the trans-Caucasus regions and Russia to trade. That Persia served a transit point for Indians going to Russia can also be inferred from the journey plan of Jukhi, who reached Moscow in 1675. He had travelled to Astrakhan via Bukhara, Persia and the Caucasus.87 In course of their trade in Iran, some Indians forged links with the Iranians that turned sour. Two instances confirm this. In 1676 in Iran a Persian citizen Haji Mulla borrowed money from an Indian, Muhammad Mumin, for six months. When Haji could not repay the amount, he fled to Astrakhan. Mumin followed him there and lodged a complaint against him with the Russian authorities.88 In another instance, in 1676, Alla Yar Khan, the nephew of Persian ambassador in Moscow complained to Russian authorities against an Indian named Lekhi and requested them to deport him to Iran as he was an Iranian citizen.89 On interrogation, Lekhi accepted that he had stayed in Isfahan for eight years before coming over to Russia.90 Eventually Lekhi was asked to leave Russia.91



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Conclusion In conclusion it be said that the Indians in Iran in the seventeenth century had extended their area of operations to the hitherto unexplored markets in the northern regions, all the way to Russia, while the centre of their activities remained Iran. From Iran and Astrakhan they carried on trade with the Khivan and Bukharan kingdoms, although this enterprise was usually undertaken by Indians who travelled via Kabul–Balkh or Kashmir–Badakshan or Kashmir–Yarkand or Kashmir– Yarkand–Khotan routes. The largest concentration of Indians in Iran was probably in the capital Isfahan92 as Indians travelling both by land and searoutes converged here at one time or other. Fryer noticed a number of caravanserais which were specifically used by traders belonging to different countries. These were large enough to house many traders and their goods and animals. Among them was one where Indian goods were sold.93 Fryer found in Shiraz Banias along with merchants of other nations.94 In 1705 when Bruyn visited the city, he spoke of the presence of 1,000 Indians.95 The presence of Indian traders in the inland cities of Iran is also attested by Lac, an agent of the English East India Company, who was stationed in Mashhad in 1696. He wrote: . . . ye trade of this place most relies on India from when comes all’sorts of Cloth, Chintzs, Shawls, Indigo, etc., as ye Mogull’s Dominion is but a month’s travell from Ys. Place. . . . The road to India at present is Spoilt, soe that no Chaphila has come or gone from hence. . . .96

In view of such intensive activity it is not surprising that there was always a sizeable number of Hindu Indians in Iran. Estimates of their number in 1630s and 1640s put it around ten thousand. Tavernier in the 1660s stated that there were between 10,000 and 12,000 of them in the neighbourhood of Isfahan alone.97 Another visitor to Iran in the 1690s put the

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figure at 10,000.98 This number increases if we remember that Parsi and Muslim merchants from India also traded in Iran during this period. It is doubtful if so many Hindu Indians were present in any other country outside India in the seventeenth century. NOTES 1. Riazul Islam, A Calendar of Documents on Indo-Persian Relations (1500-1750), vol. I, Tehran, 1979, p. 144, doc. no. J 47. 2. Ibid., pp. 152-3, doc. no. J 51. 3. Alexander Rogers (tr), Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, vol. I, New Delhi, 1969, p. 237. 4. Ibid., p. 213. 5. A Calendar . . . , p. 179, doc. no. J 69. 6. Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, vol. I, p. 310. 7. A Calendar . . . , p. 178, doc. no. J 71. 8. Ibid., p. 179, doc. no. J 71. 9. Ibid., p. 188, doc. no. J 77. 10. Ibid., p. 159, doc. no. J 56. 11. Ibid., p. 159, doc. no. J 60-1. 12. Ibid., p. 166, doc. no. J 62. 13. Ibid., p. 188, doc. no. J 77. 14. Ibid., p. 443, doc. no. Ab 239. 15. Ibid. 16. Thomas Herbert, Travels in Persia 1627-29, London, 1928, p. 262. 17. Tuzuk . . . 1, p. 270. 18. William Foster, The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe, London, 1926, p. 446. 19. Ansar Zahid Khan, History and Culture of Sindh, Karachi, 1980, p. 167, it is doubtful that olive oil was exported from India. 20. William Foster (ed.), Early Travels in India 1583-1619, New Delhi, 1985, p. 11. 21. Surendra Gopal, Commerce and Crafts in Gujarat 16th and 17th Centuries, New Delhi, 1975, p. 41. 22. William Foster (ed.), English Factories in India (1624-29), Oxford, 1909, p. 306. 23. Niels Steensgaard, The Asian Trade Revolution of the Seventeenth Century, Chicago, 1973, p. 342. 24. Herbert, p. 43. 25. William Foster (ed.), English Factories in India (1630-33), Oxford, 1910, pp. 236-7.



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26. William Foster (ed.), English Factories in India (1634-36), Oxford, 1911, p. 139. 27. Steensgaard, pp. 398-409 and Ch. IX. 28. Herbert, p. 49; Shah Abbas I, who had brought and settled Armenians in New Julfa, a suburb of Isfahan, the state capital, was extremely solicitous about their well-being. He not only allowed them to build churches but also built churches for them (emphasis added). He also permitted them to follow all their rituals publicly and no Persian could interfere with them. Arakel Darizhetshi, Kniga Istorii, Moscow, 1973, pp. 79-80. 29. Herbert’s description reads, ‘The Banians are here pursuing trade in infinite number . . . seeing, they were so unsociable that with us they would neither eat flesh, eggs, radish, or other roots that had a red colour, nor drink wine, for that if resembled what is called the blood of the grape . . .’; idem., p. 48; Sir John Malcolm, The History of Persia, vol. I, London, 1825, p. 559, ‘the preference which this ruler (Shah Abbas I) showed for his own faith, did not prevent his tolerating others’. 30. John Fryer, An Account of East India and Persia: Being Nine Years Travel (1672-81), vol. II, London, 1912, pp. 336-7. 31. Ibid., p. 338. 32. J. Malcolm I, p. 583 ‘Shah Abbas II was tolerant to all religions as his great ancestor whose name he had taken. . . .’ Shah Abbas II used to say, ‘it is for God, not for me, to judge of man’s conscience; and I will never interfere with what belongs to the tribunal of the great creator and Lord of the Universe’. 33. Charles Lockhart, An Account of the Trade in India, London, 1711, pp. 237-8; Lockyer noted that ‘though the killing of cow was prohibited, yet (it) is not strictly obser’d, but one may get heifers and calves by stealth of others, who make no conscience of killing them’, ibid., p. 238. 34. Fryer II, p. 167. 35. Ibid. 36. Ibid. 37. Ibid. 38. Ibid. 39. Ibid., pp. 324-5. 40. Ibid., p. 325 41. Ibid. 42. Ibid., p. 326 43. Ibid., p. 329. According to Fryer, these were massive structures. ‘Tockersey’ was mentioned in the letters of the English Factors in

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Bandar Abbas even in 1661-2 and again in 1684, it is not certain that all the ‘Tockersys’ were the one and the same person. Ibid., p. 329 fn. 2. 44. Ibid., the rain water thus collected was used for drinking as the water was unhealthy. 45. Ibid., p. 336. 46. Lockhart, p. 251. 47. Herbert, p. 38. 48. Humaira Dasti, ‘Multan as a Centre of Trade and Commerce during the Mughal Period’, Journal of Pakistan Historical Society, July 1990. 49. Ansar Zahid Khan, History and Culture of Sindh, Karachi, 1980, pp. 146, 187, 261. 50. Early Travels . . . , pp. 53-4. 51. Ibid., pp. 235-6. 52. Ibid., pp. 236, 243. 53. Ibid., pp. 242, 260. 54. Pelsaert quoted in Baqar, Lahore Past and Present, Lahore, 1984, p. 336. 55. Feodor Aleksaivich Kotov, Khozheniya Kuptsa Feodora Kotova v Persiyu, Moskva, 1958, p. 40. 56. Herbert, pp. 178-9. 57. Ibid., p. 244. 58. Kotov, p. 42. 59. Ibid., p. 45. 60. Ibid. 61. Ibid. 62. Ibid. 63. Ibid. 64. Ibid. p. 58. 65. Ibid. 66. Ibid. 67. Herbert., p. 121. 68. Ibid., p. 131. 69. Steensgaard, p. 410. 70. N.M. Goldberg, K.A. Antonova and T.D. Lavrentshova (eds.), RusskoIndiiskiye Otnosheniya v XVII v (hereafter cited as R-I.O.V XVII v) Moskva, 1958, doc. no. 11. 71. Riazul Islam, Indo-Persians, Tehran, 1970, p. 172. 72. R-I.O. v XVII v., doc. no. 9. 73. Ibid., doc. no. 10. 74. Ibid., doc. no. 12. 75. Ibid., doc. no. 15. 76. Ibid., doc. no. 33. 77. Ibid.

78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83.

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Ibid., doc. no. 36. Ibid. Ibid., doc. no. 48. Ibid., doc. no. 75. Sir John Chardin, Travels in Persia 1671-77, New York, 1988, pp. 280-1. Niccolao Manucci, Mogul India or Storia Do Mogor, vol. I, Delhi, 1990, p. 55; Manucci in Lar in 1650s reported the place, was, ‘. . . inhabited by many Hindus, who brought there the goods, brought from Isfahan and other places, and then exported them to countries, principally from the ports of Congo and Bandar Abbas.’ 84. Ibid. 85. Ruquia Hussain, ‘Indian Trade and the Indian Merchants in Persia in the Middle of the Seventeenth Century’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congrass, 53rd Session, Warangal, 1992, pp. 286-7. 86. Ibid., pp. 284-5. 87. R-I.O.v XVII v., p. 240. 88. Ibid., doc. no. 166. 89. Ibid., doc. no. 168. 90. Ibid., doc. no. 166. 91. Ibid. 92. Fryer II., p. 248. 93. Ibid., 250. ‘. . . every country has a separate one (Caravanserai), where they lodge whole Caphalaes for sale of Indian cloth, Turkish, Arabian, European and all manner of goods from the Quarters of the Universe’. 94. Fryer II, p. 216. 95. Nadir Shah, p. 46 fn. 2. 96. Lockhart, p. 389. 97. Hussain, loc. cit., p. 284. 98. Ibid.

• 5 •

Indian Traders in Iran in the Early Eighteenth Century

The commerce-friendly policies of the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals in their respective territories contributed to the growth of lively exchange of commodities and traders. The Portuguese intervention did not put an end to this commerce. The subsequent influx of trading companies from England, the Netherlands, etc., also failed to halt the commerce, and Asian traders remained the most significant entity of these commercial worlds. Indian traders, Hindu, Jain, and Muslim, were significant participants in the economic activities of the Arabian peninsula, Iraq, Iran and Central Asia. As shown in the previous chapter, a large number of Indians resided in Iran in the seventeenth century. They numbered around ten thousand and steadfastly adhered to their Hindu faith. The spirit of entrepreneurship helped them to prosper in their profession. This tenacity of purpose enabled them to survive and flourish even in the eighteenth century after the collapse of the Safavids and the decline of the Mughals. The capture of Qandahar by the Afghans did not halt the flow of commodities or merchants between the two countries.1 Contemporary European visitors to Iran testify to the presence of Indian merchants in Isfahan, the Safavid capital. A French source mentions that in 1712 English merchants, required to pay hefty sums to the Shah and his officers, borrowed money from Indian traders.2 When the Afghans besieged Isfahan in 1722, a French clergyman tried to escape in the company of Banias. They were



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arrested; the Afghans set free the Frenchman but executed the Indians.3 A few years later, in 1729, Indians residing in Shiraz suffered a far worse fate. The Afghan occupants of the city, in revenge for an attack on them by the local ruffians, killed ‘practically all the Indian banias . . .’ . 4 This action of Afghan soldiers was an aberration rather than a well thought out strategy since the Afghans had brought with them a large number of Multanis (as the Indians were then called) to manage their financial affairs. The Multanis were accorded high priority by the new rulers as is evident from an edict issued by them, in which announcement the Afghans divided the local population into seven categories, wherein the Multanis were assigned the fourth place after Ghilzais (an Afghan tribe), Armenians, and Darzezins (another Afghan tribe).5 The Multanis were placed above Zoroastrians, Jews and Persians.6 The Afghan rulers deeply trusted the Multani people. This is attested to by the fact that Mahmood, the head of the Afghans had brought with him his Indian teacher Mianji, who exercised considerable influence over him. When he interceded on behalf of Dutch merchants being held and forced to pay money, the Afghan ruler released the Dutch.7 After Mahmud’s death Mianji fell from grace; the new ruler had him arrested on charges of amassing wealth. Ashraf was unable to get any money out of Mianji, who was eventually released. Mianji went back to India but ultimately came back to Iran. 8 The Russian government was keen to use the services of Indian merchants, an important component of Russia’s oriental trade. Indian exports to Persia and imports from India and Europe contributed a handsome amount to the imperial treasury as customs charges. The Russian government was keen that the Indians should continue to enrich the treasury by paying customs charges. The Russian government was desirous that the Indians continued with trade as in the past and political chaos engulfing Iran should not be allowed to

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affect Indian merchants. Hence, in 1729 it announced Russian protection to Indian traders in Iran.9 For the first time the Indians received state patronage, from a foreign country. Russia reiterated its resolve to extend its protection to Indians in Iran again in 1735.10 It also decided to confer upon Indians Russian citizenship.11 Undoubtedly Indians stood to gain by such policies. The Afghan occupation of Iran was ended by Nadir Shah who drove out the Afghan occupants. He declared himself as the new Shah of Iran. He quelled internal rebellions, established peace and his undisputed supremacy. He wanted to be a world conqueror and created an empire which incorporated a large chunk of Caucasian territory captured from local satraps as well as the Ottoman Sultan. The Tsar recognized his prowess and accepted his sovereignty over lands, west of the Caspian Sea. Moving eastward Nadir Shah captured Qandahar after a prolonged siege. Thereafter he proceeded towards India and occupied the Mughal capital of Delhi in 1739. This was the first time since 1555 (when Humayun won Delhi from the Sur king) that Delhi fell to a foreign conqueror. Nadir Shah took back immense booty by way of precious stones, gold, silver and gold and silver coins. This wealth enabled him to, temporarily, remit all taxes on Iranian citizens, although in 1743, he had to withdraw this order. But the creation of a single political authority over a vast area extending from the Black Sea, the upper reaches of the Oxus River to Yamuna River and upper Sindh helped inter-regional trade to flourish. This is evident from a description of the city of Mashhad in north-eastern part of Iran given in 1741 by an Englishman, George Thompson. He writes, ‘it is a place of great trade, caravans are employed daily from Bokhara, Balkh, Baddakhshan, Kandahar, and India: as well as from all parts of Persia. The bazars or market places, are large and well built. They are filled with rich merchandise, and frequented by great numbers of people of different nations.



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There are computed about ninety caravanserais, all in good repair. . . .’12 It may be noted that the areas occupied by Nadir Shah included territories where Indians had been trading for centuries. They renewed their activities with great vigour. After Nadir’s conquest of India, a new group of Indians, artisans, stone-cutters, masons, carpenters, and goldsmiths, arrived in Iran as the Shah wanted to build a mini-Delhi in Iran. This town was built at Chasman-ya-Khelanjan (15 miles due south of Abiyard) and was later named Khiyaqabad. He resettled here 12,000 Khorasanee slaves, whom, he had freed after capturing Khiva.13 These Indian craftsmen also built buildings for him at Kalat, where he kept the treasures brought from India.14 Some buildings were also constructed at Mashhad, a city he loved and wanted to transform it into a beautiful place. The hospitality accorded to Indians by the Russian Tsar helped them to continue their trading activities. The Tsar valued Indian merchants since he was keen to find a direct trade route to India and to identify the commodities in which the Indians and Persians traded.15 Peter the Great asked Kozin in 1716 to visit India as his representative and requested the Shah of Persia to grant him safe passage through his kingdom.16 The desire to have direct access to India impelled the Russian authorities to cultivate Indian traders residing in Astrakhan and trading with Iran. This helped Indians to play an ever increasing role in Russo-Iranian trade, especially after the Afghan occupation of Persia. A Russian report concerning Indians in Astrakhan in 1721 speaks of several men who had been to Iran and had brought dry fruits, especially kishmish for sale.17 Indians residing in Persia were anxious to move to Russia to escape political anarchy in the post-Afghan occupation period. A report submitted by S. Abramov, the Russian Consul in Iran in 1723, reveals this. In Gilan, Armenian and Indian merchants wanted to know from him whether they would

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be allowed to take their goods on board a ship due to sail to Astrakhan. He accorded his permission but the captain of the ship prevented the marchants from boarding. At this juncture they again requested Abramov to intervene in this matter, but the Captain refused to budge. Eventually the traders left. They threatened to go to Turkey and also to recount their experiences to others.18 Nagi Shafiev, a trader from Derbent borrowed 130 roubles from an Indian trader Natu Dermuev. He promised to return the money to an Indian, Bagari Zheseev residing in Derbent. Nagi was to purchase goods in Astrakhan out of this money and sell them in Derbent. Out of the profit he would take onethird and the rest of the amount would be divided between Natu and Bagari.19 Then in spite of the Russian support the commercial activities of Indians in Iran were hampered to some extent because of the uncertain political condition in 1720s. The Afghans had begun to attack different parts of the country. In 1721 Mahmud entered Kerman.20 The Baluchis attacked the south-eastern part of Iran and the premier port of Bandar Abbas and the adjoining areas in 1722, and looted the area in 1724.21 The Safavids failed to check Afghan aggressors, who besieged Isfahan for six months. They lifted their siege only after the city surrendered.22 During the siege the prices of essential commodities touched an all time high. Shiraz suffered the same fate for nine months. It is said that 1,00,000 people perished, due to hunger and disease.23 Several people saved their lives by eating human flesh. A historian commented ‘Never was so much of it (human flesh) eaten in any siege as this’. 24 The influx of Indians in Iran did not stop since the Afghans brought with them Multanis (residents of Multan in the Punjab region of India) to manage their financial administration and to assist them in procuring supplies for the army. The Afghans had emerged as an independent political entity after the Mughal empire had declined. These Afghans were heavily dependent on the Multanis for running the financial



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department and managing their financial affairs throughout the eighteenth century. After occupying Iran, the Afghans preferred to utilize their services for managing their finances. The Afghan rulers of Iran replenished their losses of men and animals by bringing them from Qandahar. The Afghan linkages with their homeland remained not only intact but also became more intense and deep. In 1723 one caravan, in 1724 two caravans arrived from Qandahar, the second led by Ashraf, the future ruler of Iran. The caravan which arrived in 1723 in Isfahan consisted of several thousand camels. Mahmud distributed to the new immigrants deserted houses and lands. When he realized that the city still remained depopulated, he gave to Mohammed Nishan some money for bringing more men from Qandahar to Isfahan.25 An instance of the arrival of Indians and their placement in positions of trust is provided by Mianji, an Indian from Kabul who was also the teacher of Mahmud. ‘The respect which Mahmud paid him, increased his credit; for the prince used to do nothing without his advice, continuing to behave towards him as when he was under his tuition; . . . he always advanced half way to meet him . . . and never attempted to take his place till the Indian was first seated.’26 Of course this did not prevent a heavy taxation of Indian merchants in the vicinity of Isfahan. According to one account the Indians paid 27,000 tomans.27 Afghan rule in Iran, however, proved to be transitory: Nadir Shah soon drove them out and restored indigenous rule in Iran. Eventually the new ruler controlled a territory which extended from Black Sea to the Yamuna in India. The changed political situation helped Indians to participate more actively in the Russo-Persian as well as Indo-Persian trade. Both governments realized the significant role of the community and adopted suitable methods to facilitate their trade operations. The Russian government wanted to conclude a treaty with

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the Persian government which would stipulate that Russians, Armenians, Georgians and Indians residing in Astrakhan would have free and unhampered access to Persia for purposes of trade.28 In 1737, the Russian Consul in Resht in the Iranian province of Gilan laid down that Indians, Armenians and Tatars coming from Astrakhan to Persia and claiming exemption from customs duties on account of being Russian citizens should have their passports verified.29 Indians in Astrakhan went to Iran aboard vessels owned by Loshkarev and Kobyakov. They were interrogated. Among passengers were Indians like Sularam Minimilov, Maram Nanokov, Sanmukht and his brother Bankir and Remgerpur. The latter had with him a servant, Rupa. They denied having travelled to Tabriz or Gilan, affected by the cholera epidemic. They also denied having purchased goods from these places.30 However, the patronage extended by the Russian government did not end the harassment of Indians or their agents visiting Iran from Astrakhan by the Persian authorities. In 1741 the Russian Consul S.Z. Arepov reported to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that in 1740 the Persian authorities had seized the goods of Indian merchants. When he intervened, the Persian administrators dropped their demands. He requested that the Tatar agents of Indians in Astrakhan should not be allowed to proceed to Iran.31 In spite of these difficulties, Indians from Astrakhan continued to visit Iran. In February 1739 the Russian Consul reported that there were eighteen Indians on two ships which had left for Baku. The ships belonged to Russian residents of Astrakhan.32 In April 1741, Arepov informed the Ministry that seventeen Indians bound for Astrakhan were carrying goods on behalf of the Shah of Persia. The Governor of Gilan, Hussein Bek, had forwarded the names of these traders and the list of goods they were carrying.33 Three names have the prefix Marwari and five names have the suffix Multani. This gives us an idea of the place of their origin. Names like Lali, Chilyar, Mirdas,



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Simidas, Dilram show that they were Hindus.34 These traders were carrying varieties of textiles, some of them of Persian origin, manufactured in Kashan, Resht, or Teheran.35 Indians had forged links with the Persian ruling elite and were acting as their agents in Russia. The desire of the Indians in Iran to shift a part of their business operations to the Caucasus and Russia in the 1740s is understandable. They were experiencing the tyrannical behaviour of the monarch Nadir Shah. In 1746 Nadir Shah had exacted heavy amounts from Armenian and Indian merchants residing in the vicinity of Isfahan. The Shah accused them of keeping back some of the pearls from the caparisons of horses sent by Shah Hussein without informing him. The Shah ordered all the accused to be burnt alive.36 Nadir Shah probably had an additional motive in inflicting such a harsh punishment on both the Armenians and Indians. The Armenians were suspected of being in correspondence with the rebel Georgians and the Indians were suspected of reporting on events in Iran to their compatriots in Qandahar.37 Nadir Shah’s tyranny attained such heights that when in 1747 he went to Mashad it was said, ‘All merchants, militarymen, Persian or Armenian, had to lose one eye or both.’38 On the southern coast some fled into Arabia ‘and not a few took every opportunity of transporting themselves by sea into the Moghul’s empire’.39 It is therefore quite possible that many Indian traders left for the Caucasus region and Russia to escape the vexatious and the burdensome taxation of Nadir Shah. Nadir Shah’s taxation policy has been described by a contemporary in these words. Exorbitant taxes exacted with all aggravating circumstances which inhumanity can suggest, drove thousands to despair. Whole villages and towns retired into the mountains to avoid the barbarous treatment shown to them by the Shah’s Collectors. Crowds of people fled into the northern parts of India . . . and great numbers put themselves under the protection of the Turks.

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Despite the uncertain conditions prevailing in the 1730s, the Persian authorities were not oblivious to the importance of the role of Indians in the Russo-Indian trade. They tried to encourage Indians by taking up their case with the Russian government. The Persian authorities requested the Russian Consul to convey to the Commander of Astrakhan that no customs duties should be levied on goods sent in the name of the Persian monarch.40 In other words, if the Russian government claimed special privileges for Indians living in Astrakhan, the Persian government made identical demands on the Russian government in relation to Indian merchants residing in Persia and visiting Russia for purpose of trade. Such support from the two governments certainly helped increased Indian participation in Russo-Persian trade. 41 1730s could certainly be described as a decade marked by the consolidation of the role of Indians in the Russo-Persian trade. Participation in the Russo-Persian trade became a significant part of the activity of Indians, resident in Iran and Russia. For those living in Iran, possibly this was the most important dimension of their trading pursuit. Thus in the 1740s the share of Indians in Russo-Indian trade appeared to have increased. The account given below shows that Indians exported more goods from Persia than they imported from Russia; they were able to carry on the additional business only because they were able to enlist the services and support of other groups already engaged in this trade, such as their compatriots (Indians living on the Russian as well as the Persian soil) Armenians, Persians, and Tatars, etc. Some Indians were officially described as ‘carrying goods on behalf of the Persian Shah’. They could secure exemption from the payment of customs duties charged on goods brought by them to Russia. In a way, the Persians were only following the practice already used by the Russian Tatars, who were off and on sending goods through Russian, Armenian, Indian and



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other merchants to Persia, requesting the Shah to waive the customary duties charged on such commodities. The Russian Consul informed the Foreign Ministry that from Gilan goods on behalf of the Shah were being carried by eight Russian merchants.42 We come across the name of a Marwari amongst the list of Indians. The goods sent by Indians included textiles manufactured in Iran as well. The Russian government viewed with approval the increase in the number of merchants arriving in Astrakhan. In order to encourage this trend the government decided to grant them temporary citizenship so as to enable them to enjoy rights on a par with Russians but only in Astrakhan. A decree of the Russian Senate was issued to this effect in November 1744.43 An idea of the volume of trade carried on by Indians between Astrakhan and Persia can be had from the following data. In 1737 Indians exported to Iran goods worth 25,324 roubles and 36½ kopecks and imported from Iran goods worth 948 roubles and 18¾ kopecks. In both the instances they paid no customs duties.44 In 1738, Indians sent to Persia commodities worth 21,312 roubles and 56⅜ kopecks. They brought from Persia items valued at 57,034 roubles and 12½ kopecks. They paid no customs duties on it.45 In 1739, the Indian traders exported to Persia goods worth 26,774 roubles and 1½ kopecks, and paid 191 roubles and 57½ kopecks as customs duties.46 As can be seen, imports from Persia by Indians far exceeded their imports into the country and hence the Persian ruler valued their services. In the year 1740 Indians dispatched to Persia articles worth 87,404 roubles 24½ kopecks and paid 619 roubles and 51⅝ kopecks as customs duties. They brought from Persia goods worth 1,99,201 roubles and 94 kopecks and paid 6,675 roubles and 11¾ kopecks as customs duties.47 In this case again they were sending out of Persia more goods than they were importing. In 1741 the value of goods sent by Indians to Persia was

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53,800 roubles and 27¾ kopecks and on this they paid to the imperial Russian treasury as duties 2,991 roubles and 27¾ kopecks. In the same year their imports of Persian goods were priced at 72,823 roubles and 16¾ kopecks. On this customs was 4,166 roubles and 11½ kopecks as duties.49 In the year 1742 there was a reversal of the trend; exports to Persia exceeded imports from that country; the export amounted to 22,126 roubles 39 kopecks while the import cost 15,726 roubles and 47½ kopecks. On the export they were charged 1,225 roubles and 47½ kopecks as customs duties and on imports the customs duties amount to 46¾ kopecks.50 Next year in 1743, again, Indian imports from Persia exceeded their exports to their country. While their exports amounted to 53,384 roubles and 14 kopecks their imports came to 64,297 roubles and 88 kopecks. On the export they parted with 2,713 roubles and 57½ kopecks as customs duties and on imports their liability on account of customs duties was 3,337 roubles and 32¾ kopecks. 51 In 1744 imports by Indians into Astrakhan from Persia again surpassed the value of goods sent by them to Persia. The exports were worth 24,739 roubles 66¼ kopecks and the imports were worth 64,173 roubles and 60½ kopecks. On the former they paid 2,618 roubles and 83¾ kopecks as customs duties and on the latter 3,683 roubles and 52¾ kopecks.52 The Russian authorities became alarmed over continuing excess of imports from Iran over exports and sought to check this tendency by putting various curbs on the Indian trade. A proposal was mooted in 1745 to ban Indians and others from writing about the situation in Russia to their agents and friends in Persia. Indians reacted and protested. The Russian government relented and soon allowed them to send letters to their correspondents in Persia.53 One could understand the consternation of Indians when the above move was contemplated since out of a list of fiftytwo odd Indian residents to Astrakhan prepared in 1746, forty were found to be earning their livelihood by trading in goods



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brought from Iran.54 The oldest resident Sukanand Darimdasov (Sukhanand Dharmadas), was staying since 1716, and the second oldest was Kuchirim Piruev, based there since 1721.55 Out of 23 Indians who had come to Astrakhan less than an year ago, seventeen were dealing in Persian goods.56 Of these twenty-three, one Birba Zandramalov had come seven months earlier to meet his brother. 57 The close ties which the Indians residing in Astrakhan had with those living in Persia is evident from another detailed account prepared about them in 1747. Out of forty-five persons, thirty-two were involved in trade with Persia. They obtained Persian goods either by sending their agents out or from their relatives or from Indian friends or from their Indian masters who were staying there.58 Almost all of them came from Multan or its neighbourhood. 59 Indians in Astrakhan also conducted trade with Iran through partnerships with the Armenians. Armenians were more numerous than Indians, both in Persia and Russia and their scale of trade was considerably larger than that of Indians. They were also operating in India and the two were familiar with each other. Hence, it is not surprising that the Indians entered into commercial partnerships with Armenians. A case was instituted by Indian traders Kansiran and Sukanand Bogdasara Astanov. They had given, 2,300 roubles in 1743 to an Armenian for carrying out joint trade in Persia. The person carried goods from Astrakhan and sold them in Gilan. From Gilan he sent goods to Indians in Astrakhan. Indians, however claimed that they had not received full payment, a charge the Armenian denied. The matter dragged on for two years.60 The situation in Iran was deteriorating as a result of the tyrannical rule of Nadir Shah and his officers. The following example will show the adverse conditions in which the Indians were carrying on their commercial activities. In 1744 when the Persian General Muhammad Hussain Khan stationed in Shiraz needed money for paying arrears of

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salaries to his soldiers, he sent his officers to Bandar Abbas with orders to levy taxes on merchants and to bring the amount ‘in three days’. Indian merchants who refused to obey were subjected to extreme cruelties.61 He dispatched officers on a similar mission to Isfahan. The broker of the English East India Company was imprisoned and was forced to give a bond of 3,000 tomans. 62 Towards the end of his regime Nadir became ever more tyrannical. An incident which took place in Isfahan where Nadir Shah reached in December 1746 illustrates this. When the Shah was told that a royal carpet was missing. Nadir ordered the officer-in-charge of the palace to be beaten. After receiving a severe beating, the fellow informed the king that the carpet had been sold by his predecessor to nine merchants, four Jews, four Armenians and one Indian. After he divulged their names, they were seized and brought before the king. Without any semblance of trial, one eye of each was gouged out. Then they were chained and thrown into fire.63 A couple of years before Nadir’s assasination in 1747, revolts broke out in many parts of Iran, especially in the eastern part which impeded the coming of Indians and their goods by the land route. Thus in 1746 rebel Fath Ali Khan captured one of Nadir’s caravans from India.64 The outbreak of anarchy within Iran once again forced the Indians to intensify their trade relations with the trans-Caucasus and trans-Caspian areas in the Tsarist empire as contacts with India became tenuous. NOTES 1. Muhammad Kazim, Pokhod Nadir Shaha v Indiyu, Moskva, 1961, p. 7. 2. Charles Lockhart, The Fall of the Safavi Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia, Cambridge, 1958, p. 401. 3. Ibid., pp. 164–5 4. Charles Lockhart, Nadir Shah, London, 1938, p. 46. On this occasion the Afghans plundered the Dutch and the English establishments. The English assessed their loss at 17,000 tomans, ibid.



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5. Father Krusinski, The History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, vol. II, London, 1834, p. 197. 6. Ibid. 7. Lockhart, The Fall . . . , p. 143. 8. Ibid., p. 277, also fn. on p. 277; Hazin also apeaks of ‘Mianji’ as the ‘spiritual director of Mahmood’. He was made a prisoner by Iranians when Shiraz was liberated from the Afghans. Hazin, p. 199. 9. R.V. Ovchinnikov and M.A. Sidorov (compilers), Russko-Indiiskiye Otnosheniya v XVIII v. (hereafter cited as R.-I.O. v XVIII.v.), Moskva, 1965, p. 170 10. Ibid., p. 108. 11. Ibid. 12. Nadir Shah, p. 197. 13. Ibid. 14. Ibid. p. 193. 15. R.-I.O v XVIII. v., doc. no. 816, ibid., doc. no. 23, May 1716. 16. Ibid. 17. Ibid., doc. no. 35, 1725. 18. Ibid., doc. no. 38, pp. 59-60, 7 June 1723. 19. Ibid., doc. no. 41, pp. 63-4, ad 1725. 20. Merchant Jonas Hanway, The Revolution of Persia, vol. III, London, 1743, vol. III, p. 98. 21. Ibid., p. 189. 22. Lockhart, p. 169. The Afghans began their siege of Isfahan in April 1722 23. Ibid., p. 203. Shiraz was surrounded by Afghans in 1723. 24. Jonas, vol. III, p. 143. 25. Ibid., pp. 203, 205. 26. Ibid., pp. 167-8. 27. Ibid., p. 219; Mahmud was so much under Indian influence that in 1725 he undertook a penance after the fashion of Indian Muslims in Qandahar. Ibid., p. 206 28. Ibid., R.-I.O. v XVIII v., pp. 133-4 and doc. no. 73. 29. Ibid., doc. no. 77. 30. Ibid., doc. no. 73. 31. Ibid., pp. 185-6. 32. Ibid., doc. no. 80. 33. Ibid., doc. no. 95. 34. Ibid., doc. no. 98. 35. Ibid. 36. Ibid. 37. Ibid.

100 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64.

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Jonas, vol. IV, p. 258. Ibid., p. 259. Ibid. Ibid., pp. 229-30. R.-I.O.v XVIII, doc. no. 9. Ibid., doc. nos. 100 and 110. Ibid., doc. no. 108. Ibid., doc. no. 111. Ibid., p. 212. Ibid., p. 214. Ibid., pp. 217-18. Ibid. Ibid., p. 220. Ibid., p. 223. Ibid., p. 228. Ibid., pp. 255-6. Ibid., doc. nos. 125-6. Ibid., doc. no. 131. Ibid., doc. nos. 125-6. Ibid., doc. no. 134. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid., doc. nos. 158-9. Nadir Shah, p. 243. Ibid. Ibid., p. 263.

• 6 •

Indians in Iran in the Later Eighteenth Century

Indian traders had a substantial presence in Iran in the seventeenth century.1 They were able to keep up their numbers in the first half of the eighteenth century despite adverse political situation, both in Iran and India. In Iran the Safavids passed into history after the Afghan invasion. In India after the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, Mughal rule rapidly lost control over the country. The rule of Nadir Shah brought no cheer to Indian traders in Iran but they did not leave the country. After his assassination in 1747, Indians tried to regain their lost position. This chapter explores how far Indians succeeded in their objective. It also sheds light on the business practices of the Indians.

I After the assassination of Nadir Shah in 1747, Iran once again plunged into deep turmoil. The Afghans declared their independence under Ahmad Shah Abdali.2 The Russians decided to nibble at the Caucasian frontier. Yet, on the whole, Iran remained free of internecine wars that had ravaged the country following Afghan occupation in the 1720s. Karim Khan ensured political stability to the country for the next three decades. Hence the languishing trade picked up. Several other factors also enabled Indians to intensify their commercial activities in Iran. The Abdalis who had came to power in Afghanistan established peace within the country. Ahmad Shah Abdali

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founded a new city at Qandahar; he emulated Nadir Shah when he extended the Afghan empire to the vicinity of Delhi in India. Sindh, Punjab and Kashmir formed part of the Afghan empire. Sindhi, Punjabi and Kashmiri traders who formed the majority group among Indian traders in the interior of Afghanistan could now have easy access to central and northern Iranian cities. Moreover, as was the case in the 1720s, the Afghan rulers, Ahmad Shah Abdali, Zaman Shah, and Timur Shah depended heavily on Hindus to manage state finances and also the finances of important members of the nobility. The Hindus occupied high positions in the departments of Finance and Revenue. All over Afghanistan, Hindu traders, moneylenders and bankers, prospered; they became established in several towns and big villages of Afghanistan. The strong and widely dispersed presence of the Hindus in Afghanistan enabled Indians to undertake journeys to both Iran and the trans-Oxus region of Central Asia with greater security and confidence. Their channels of communications back home remained open. After the death of Nadir Shah, the seizure of power by Karim Khan in Iran and the establishment of the Abdali rule in Afghanistan and a spell of political stability in the region from the Yamuna to the Caspian, helped the revival of commercial and allied activities of Indians in both these countries. Another political factor helped the process. After 1750, parts of the Indian subcontinent gradually came under the occupation of the English East India Company, which largely controlled and regulated India’s overseas trade, but was in no position to interfere with the activities of Indians hailing from Kashmir to Sindh as they travelled across the land frontier, not under European control. Indians continued going to Iran and Central Asia unhampered by British interference. Besides the pull factor, a push factor also operated and forced Indians to go to Iran and Central Asia for trade. After the demise of Nadir Shah in 1747, the Afghans in Afghanistan had declared their independence; under their



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leader Ahmad Shah Abdali, they repeatedly raided the Punjab and its neighbourhood and devastated the country. Between 1747 and 1764, Ahmad Shah Abdali attacked the Punjab seven times.3 Even the Marathas and the Rohillas from Delhi made the Punjab a target of their plunder.4 This was an additional factor which prompted Indians in Iran to turn more and more to the Caucasus region and Russia.

II Political exigencies forced Indian traders in Iran and Astrakhan to continue their mutual trade with greater intensity in the second half of the eighteenth century. Indians in Astrakhan employed or entered into a variety of arrangements with Armenians, Persians and even their compatriots to bring goods on their behalf from Persia. A list of passengers on board the ships Sv. Petr and Selafin which arrived at Astrakhan in April 1755 shows that an Armenian Nikita Martinov, a Persian Musa Hanali Muhammad from Mashhad, and Indians Chesu Dadlaev, Uvna Ramchandov, Chilram Negondaev and Dunichand Pervomaidov carried goods for resident Indians of Astrakhan such as Chuvala Nanuev, Amardas Multaniev, Bulakiev, Lachiram Galabriev, Baliram Fatichandov, Jivan Tolokchandov, Marwari Dulachandov, Chamandini Multaniev, Chantu Nanuiev and Gulab Nanuev.5 Persian goods generally consisted of varieties of silk and cotton textiles, paper, dry fruits, and copper.6 The trade to Persia across the Caspian Sea was fraught with risks. In one instance, the ship on which an Indian trader Magandas was travelling across the Caspian with goods worth 30,000 roubles, sank. He lost his life along with his property.7 Several Indians having stayed for some time in Astrakhan would return to India via Persia. In 1765 a number of Indian traders put in an application for a Russian passport and sought

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permission from the Russian authorities to leave for Persia. They had come to Astrakhan on Persian passport.8 In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, Indians faced a number of difficulties. The Russians, jealous of their prosperity, petitioned their government to adopt measures to curb the trading activities of Indians. Deprived of government patronage both at home and in Russia, Indian merchants had to put up with a number of impositions levied by the Russian government. For example, in 1777, a proposal was mooted to restrict the stay of Indians in Astrakhan for three years only.9 Adverse circumstances did not dampen the spirit of the Indians; they tenaciously continued their work. Dolontri Raganatov, Chekurdas Tularamev, Kishandas Gulabriev, Mengre Multaniev sent goods on various ships and galleons to Persia in 1778.10 The goods were mosly of Russian origin, and included iron nails.11 Twenty years later, we find a request by an Indian trader Magudas to the Governor of Astrakhan to allow him to load his ship St. Anna with goods for sale in Persia.12 Obviously, he had prospered and had become a shipowner. But he was an exception and was the last of the prosperous Indian merchants in Astrakhan. The colony of Indian merchants in Astrakhan was languishing; it no longer played any significant role in the RussoPersian trade as it had done for the past one hundred and seventy years. Indian merchants in Iran lost a stable market in Russia with the winding up of the old Indian merchant colony in Astrakhan in the opening decade of the nineteenth century. By the last decade of the eighteenth century, the international political situation had dramatically changed. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars had transformed the European perception of geo-politics. Persia in the eyes of England, France and Russia had acquired a strategic importance; it was looked upon as the launching pad for a fullfledged invasion of India. Iran had turned into a hotbed of



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European rivalry with England, France and Russia despatching their missions to woo the Shah.13 Simultaneously, the onset of the Industrial Revolution was also transforming the international economic scene. The role of Indian merchants in Russo-Persian trade was reduced to insignificance and within the next few years they faded away from the scene, except as small time retailers and moneylenders.14

III Though Indian participation in Russo-Persian trade had been minimized, yet they remained active in almost all the cities of southern, south-eastern, central, north-eastern and north-western Iran and on the western and southern shores of the Caspian Sea. On the shores of Persian Gulf, Bandar Abbas was abandoned in 1760; the European trading companies shifted their factories to Abu Shehr, which emerged as a new centre of seaborne trade of Persia.15 Basra in Iraq was another port which served as a transit point to Iranian cities. Hence Indians continued coming to Iran by the searoute as in the past though it is difficult to estimate their numerical strength. Of course, Bandar Abbas ceased to be a centre of concentration of Indians. William Francklin, who boarded a ship going from Surat to Iran in 1787, found a large number of Indian passengers bound for different places in the Gulf. He disembarked at Abushehr and then travelled to Shiraz. In Shiraz he found a special caravanserai for the Indian merchants to rent.16 From other accounts, it is clear that Indians continued to be active in the major cities of Iran. We may here note an important shift in the composition of the Indian trading community in Iran. At this point of time Shikarpur in upper Sindh was emerging as an important entrepôt with strong trade links with Iran and Central Asia by overland routes. Writing about Shikarpur

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around 1783 Moulai Sahdai stated: ‘The caravans of Central Asia and Khorasan that come in winter, used to come up to Shikarpur. . . . Shikarpur, Sukkur, Rohri, Larkana, Kandiaro, Nasarpur, Sehwan Thetta and Karachi were the centres of trade.’17 This was facilitated by the policy of religious toleration pursued by the Afghan ruler of Qandahar, Timur Shah, who in 1785 extended his protection to Hindus and encouraged them to settle in the town promising ‘that they should carry on their trade without dread of indefinite extortion’.18 Shikarpur now rivalled Multan as an emporium of Indo-Persian trade. It was definitely the financial capital of the region extending from the Caspian Sea through Iran, Central Asia and Afghanistan to Sindh.19 George Foster found in Herat about one hundred Hindus merchants, chiefly from Multan, residing in two caravanserais.20 On route to Persia, he met a Kashmiri who was going for business to Mazandran.21 Here he found one hundred Hindus chiefly from Multan and Jaisalmer.22 [This statement is the clearest indication that Rajasthanis from the border region of Sindh were a significant part of the Indian diaspora in Iran and Astrakhan.] Foster noted that they (Hindus) occupy a quarter in which no Mahometaum is permitted to reside, and where they conducted business without molestation or insult, and I was not a little surprised to see those of the Brahmin (Brahman) sect, distinguished by the apellation Peerzadah, or title which Mahometans usually bestow on the descendants of their prophet.23

In Baku he found a caravanserai of mostly Multani merchants. While leaving Baku for Astrakhan, Foster was accompanied by five Hindus, ‘two of them were merchants of Multan, three were mendicants, a father, his son, and a Sunyassi [ascetic] (brought to Astrakhan)’.24 The Hindu Multani merchants, he found, had no compunction in ‘drinking the cask water and preparing victuals in the ship-kitchen’.25 When they were told by Foster that



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they were contravening the caste-rules, they replied that they had already become impure by crossing the forbidden river,26 beyond which all discrimination of tribes ceased. The Hindu mendicant was described by Foster as a spirited youngman, who impelled by an equal alertness in mind and body, blended also with a strong tincture of fanaticism, was making, it may be termed the tour of the world, for he did not seem to hold it a matter of much concern whither his course was directed, provided he was in motion.27

The young man received all his requirements from his compatriot Hindus at Baku. Those Hindus had also given him letters of introduction to their agents in Russia.28 The reality of the strong and long-standing presence of Indian merchants in the port as well as inland cities was realized by the English East India Company as well as the high authorities of the Persian government. None of them wanted their removal as these traders were serving the interests of both the powers and contributing to the economy of both the countries. The fact was enshrined in the commercial and political treaty signed by the authorities of the English East India Company and the Prime Minister of Iran in 1800.29 The terms of the Commercial Treaty stipulated that ‘English and Indian Traders and Merchants should be permitted to settle, free from taxes, in any Persian seaport, and should be protected in the exercise of commerce in the Shah’s dominions’. The Persians respected the terms of the commercial treaty in the beginning of the nineteenth century. We have reports on commercial activities in the various cities of Iran such as Isfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz, Yazd, Mashhad, and Kashun. Fazil Khan, the author of Tarikh-i-Manzil-i-Bukhara, Pottinger, Fraser, Vigne, Mohan Lal, etc.,30 who visited Iran in the first two decades of the nineteenth century, met Indians in all the important market towns of Iran.

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IV A word about the caste composition of the migrant Indian (Hindu) traders to Persia. By and large they hailed from the trading castes of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Sindh and the Punjab. The Punjabi traders mostly belonged to the Khatri and Arora castes. Some were members of the Vaishya caste. They were vegetarians. The traders from Rajasthan and Gujarat were Vaishyas and Jains. The latter formed a distinct religious group but they inter-married with the Vaishyas; they were strict vegetarians and refrained from meat-eating. The Hindu traders from Sindh cannot actually be said to come from a trading caste because of the peculiarity of the caste system in that province. In the nineteenth century they were known as Lohanas.31 They were not vegetarians. They were described as ‘businessmen and scribes’ (Qaumi-inavisandah).32 Fryer had in the 1670s found them eating both meat and fish but like other Hindus considered beef taboo. A recent writer has also said, ‘they were so lax in their eating habits that they ate practically every meat, including that of dead animals excepting beef and cats’.33 Economically the traders did not constitute a homogeneous group. Those who acted as agents and collaborators of the European trading companies were rich. Their range of business was vast: they combined long-distance wholesale trade with moneylending, discounting of hundis, issue of letters of credit, etc. They employed agents. Coming next to them were a group of affluent traders who concentrated on wholesale and retail trade and moneylending. The poorest of them managed to eke out a living: they were retailers, acted on behalf of their rich compatriots and engaged in petty moneylending. Moneylending was an integral part of the activities of the Indian traders as was the case with the Armenian, Georgian and Jewish businessmen, since Islam forbade usury to its followers.



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Small moneylenders served the needs of the poor citizens as described by Tavernier.33 The rich moneylenders assisted the traders, the European Companies, the local nobility and in case of need, even the royalty. One is reminded of Father Krusinski’s remarks, ‘. . . the first Indians that dwelt in Persia, came from the city of Multan: they were principal Traders at Isfahan and are great moneylenders.’35 In view of such a sharp economic differentiation within the ranks of Indian traders, one cannot describe them as belonging to the elite. These migrant Indians were distinct from Indians who went abroad during the same period and whose activities have been described by Sanjay Subrahmaniam in ‘Iranians Abroad: Intra-Asian Elite Migration and Early Modern State Formation’.36 We do not come across instances of these Indians occupying high positions in the state administration and influencing state policies. Of course, occasionally they were consulted by the local authorities to elicit certain information and were asked to render specific services. Among these Indians, some prospered and could move into the ‘elite category’. They earned fame and fortune. The instance of Sutur37 illustrates this. The process continued throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries under review. The Indian community always remained a heterogeneous group in terms of religious, regional, linguistic and caste affiliation and in the scale and range of business operations. Their command over capital and their investment capabilities differed. The community never developed a unified aim since the interests of the members never coalesced. They seldom developed joint-stock ventures. Indians did form partnerships but mostly with their own countrymen and relatives and occasionally with others. Such ventures were ad hoc and for specific purposes. Only family business partnerships endured for any length of time. The conclusion is inescapable: an ‘elite class solidarity’ was missing. The migration basically resulted from the desire to earn a living; the quest for wealth was another motive. Of course,

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the exodus also satisfied the restless spirit of adventure. It was never forced or planned from above, except, say when Nadir Shah sent Indian artisans to Persia and Central Asia to construct grandiose buildings for him.

V The presence of the community of Indian traders in Iran could not be described as the result of any diaspora. The Indians had gone to earn a living and better their material prospects. They had not left the soil of India because of persecution, ethnic, religious or political. They were free to stay on or come back subject to their own perceived material interests, inclination or security considerations of the projected journeys. Some of the traders who decided to integrate with the host societies encountered no resistance. Some Hindu traders in Astrakhan became Christians.38 Some married local Tatar women and raised families. The children born out of such marriages were known as Agrizhanets.39 These Indians generally lived with their families away from the place where the Hindu Indians had their collective residence. They continued to carry on business as agents of their compatriots. Numerically the Indians were so small in comparison to the ‘host societies’ that neither their integration nor a desire to retain their identity caused any ripple. The early modern state dealt with them purely in terms of protecting and promoting its economic interest and respecting and ensuring its religiosocial and cultural sensibilities. For example, nothing should be done to undermine Islam, the religion of the region. In the process, one point came out, the early modern state had to accept religious pluralism and refrain from insisting on the practice of one faith and one set of rituals if larger economic interests had to be safeguarded and promoted. The Safavids, their predecessors, and their successors in Iran in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries permitted Christians, Hindu/Jains from India, Parsis (local as well as



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Indians) to worship publicly in buildings constructed for the purpose in accordance with their own customs. These nonMuslims could follow rituals prescribed by their faith in social intercourse among themselves as well as with the outsiders. Religion or race was not a handicap in conducting trade and allied activities as long as the trader conformed to broad state policies. This was the message of the early modern state. It was loud and clear both in India and Iran in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries.

VI Inadequate data prevent us from describing in detail the nature of the credit system run by Indians in Iran. However, something can certainly be said about the system which operated when trade was carried with Persia by Indians in Astrakhan or when Indians in Persia established trade contacts with Indians of Astrakhan. One is emboldened to speculate on this after Ruquia Hussain published her paper ‘Credit Techniques in Armenian Commerce in Mughal India’.40 It cannot be forgotten that the Armenians trading in India had close contacts with their compatriots in Persia. At the same time, the Indians in Persia and Astrakhan repeatedly entered into trade relationships with Armenians. Ruquia Hussain mentions Avak, bottomry, respondentia and commenda, deferred payment, etc., as forms of credit practised by the Armenians in India. Commenda type of credit can be seen in the arrangement made between the Indian Bugari and Nagi Shafied, an inhabitant of Derbent.41 Respondentia type of loan was also resorted to.42 Bottomry was also prevalent.43 A case of deferred payment (avak) was reported when Rajaram Marwari lent money to an Armenian Melkun Bagiev in Persian currency in Tabriz; the amount was to be repaid in Russian currency along with the stipulated interest in Astrakhan.44 We have several other examples of the business arrangements entered by Indians in the course of their ventures in the

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Perso-Russian trade. In 1725 a Georgian Armenian Andrey Egorov was given a loan of 2,600 roubles by an Indian Tavar Balakiev in Astrakhan so as to purchase goods to be sold in the Persian city of Gilan. When he would return after trading, the profits would be equally shared after the capital had been returned.45 In this case the Armenian was acting as a trader on commenda. The Astrakhan Indian traders frequently hired local Tatars to carry their goods to Gilan. In 1727 two Indians, Ramchand Lyachiramov and Bansiram Basanstov engaged four Tatars to carry goods to Derbent and thereafter to Gilan. They were to be paid 20 roubles.46 Borrowings were sometimes of a complicated nature and would give rise to legal wranglings. This is evident from a case filed by an Indian trader Chandyrban Kolichandov (Chanderbhan) in Astrakhan against an Armenian Astur Agasiev from the Georgian capital Tblisi. In the course of proceedings, it came out that Agasiev had borrowed in the Persian city of Tabriz from an Indian Rajaram Marwari a sum of 600 roubles in ‘Persian money’ and promised to repay the amount along with interest in Russian currency to him in Astrakhan.47 Agasiev died before he could repay the loan and his family members sent from Tiflis another Armenian, Asatur to repay him. Asatur went to Gilan where a complaint was filed against him by Chandyrban’s Indian relative Dayal and Asatur returned to Astrakhan but did not pay back the borrowed sum. During interrogation Asatur claimed that he did not have any money with him since he had paid off other claimants. However, the judge justified the claim of Chandyrban and ordered the effects of Asatur to be sold for compensating Chandyrban.48 A law suit instituted in 1729 by an Indian Petr Ivanov (a new convert to Christianity) reveals a new dimension of business relationship subsisting between Indians and Armenians in Iran. Vartan Grigoriev, an Armenian from Julfa (a suburb of Isfahan in Iran) during a visit to Astrakhan



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borrowed a sum of 300 roubles in Persian coin Abbasi from Indians Matu and Abichand and pledged goods belonging to a resident of Astrakhan, Tikhon Loshkarev. These items were kept in an Indian storehouse under a seal. Vartan died without paying customs duties or debts to many others. On Vartan’s death, Andrei Ilyu and Peter Maksimov forcibly removed the pledged goods from the Indian storehouse. Indians Matu and Abichand went to Gilan to press their case. The Persian magistrates ordered that the remaining goods belonging to Vartan be sold and all his creditors be paid.49

VII The question arises, could Indian trade be described, as has been done by as Western scholars from the days of Van Leur and Meilink-Roelofsz, as ‘pedlar’s trade’.50 Niels Steensgaard admits it was carried on in a very sophisticated manner. Personally I am inclined to dub it as ‘trade pure and simple’ with large variations in range and capital deployment depending upon the capability and capacity of the particular trader. The absence of state patronage was a crucial factor in forcing the Indian to act in his individual capacity rather than to form companies. Judged in his individual capacity he was a trader ‘par excellence’ — did he not survive the onslaught of the Europeans and revolutionary political upheavals in Iran, Afghanistan and India for more than two centuries? Steensgaard has explained his survival in terms of a desire to remain content with smaller margins of profits between 10 and 5 per cent as against Europeans who needed at least a gain of 60-70 per cent to break even. He has alluded to the rigid structure of the companies; it denied them flexibility in their operations as against the Indian who could always improvise and who enjoyed greater mobility.51 Of course, these reasons do explain the survival of the Indian traders in Iran. An additional factor must also be taken note of. The internal towns of Iran, especially those situated in

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east, central and north-eastern Iran and also those lying on the rim of the Caspian Sea, were almost equidistant from Indian exit points of Multan and Kabul and from the Gulf ports. As we know, within Iran there were no navigable rivers or wheeled carriages.52 All the goods meant for the internal cities were transported by pack animals. Hence, the largest number of important internal cities of Iran, Yezd, Mashhad, Nishapur, Qazvin, Kum, Kashan, Teheran, and Tabriz, could be reached roughly at the same cost from Multan or Kabul as from the Persian Gulf ports. The economics of transporting merchandise did not militate against the overland route. It should also be remembered that the overland route was well supported by a string of caravanserais, situated at convenient distances. These offered facilities for rest, food, fodder and water and conditions of security of life and property. The Persian rahdar (guard of the roads) saw to it that the travellers were not molested and their person and property remained safe. Also politically till the 1840s the British rulers in India were in no position to interfere with the Indian traders bound for Iran. Only when they conquered Sind in 1843 and the Punjab in 1849 could the British impose a semblance of control over these intrepid traders and influence their operations. By then the railways and steamships had appeared and were being introduced in India. The revolution in the transport system completely tilted the economics of trade against the Indians. But even in these altered situations, Indian traders managed to survive by introducing changes in their mode and scale of operations. NOTES 1. Surendra Gopal, ‘Indian Traders in Iran in the Seventeenth Century’, Journal of Historical Studies, no. 2, Patna, 1996, pp. 18-36. 2. Idem, ‘Indian Traders in Iran in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century,’ in Quddusi et al. (eds.), Pura-Prakasa (Z.A. Desai Commemoration Volume), vol. 2, pp. 434-42.



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3. Charles Lockhart, Nadir Shah, London, 1938, p. 174. 4. N. Baqui, Lahore Past and Present, Lahore, 1984, pp. 197. 5. R.V. Ovchinnikov and M.A. Sidorov (compilers), Russko-Indiiskiye Otnosheniya v XVIII v. (hereafter cited as R-I. O. XVIII v.), Moscow, 1965, doc. no. 161, pp. 317-19. 6. Ibid., pp. 317-20. 7. Ibid., doc. no. 163, p. 320. 8. Ibid., doc. no. 183, pp. 350-1. 9. Ibid., doc. nos. 192 and 193, pp. 364-9. 10. Ibid., doc. no. 194, pp 369-75. 11. Ibid. The consignment also included some goods of German origin. Ibid., p. 373. 12. Ibid., doc. no. 206, p. 395.The owner of the ship Mugundas Teridasov was probably the last great Indian merchant of Astrakhan towards the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. 13. Sir John Malcolm, The History of Persia, vol. II, London, 1825, pp. 31618. 14. R-I.O. v XVIII v., doc. no. 216, ad 1800, p. 417. 15. Malcolm, vol. II, pp. 135, 144; Francklin noted that Indian goods were brought chiefly to Abushehr. William Francklin, Observations Made on a Tour from Bengal to Persia, Calcutta, 1788, p. 59. 16. Francklin, p. 25 17. Iqbal Ahmad Memon, ‘Shikarpur, the Eighteenth Century Commercial Emporium of Asia’, in M. Yaqub Mugul (ed.), Studies on Sindh, Jamshoro, 1988, p. 99. 18. Ibid., p. 7. 19. Claude Markovits, The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947, Cambridge, 2000, p. 138. The author feels that Shikarpur was the ‘financial capital of the Durrani Empire.’ 20. George Foster, A Journey from Bengal to England, vol. II, Patiala, 1970, p. 151. 21. Ibid., p. 184. 22. Ibid., p. 186. 23. Ibid. 24. Ibid., p. 187. 25. Ibid., p. 291. 26. Ibid., p. 292. 27. Ibid. 28. Ibid. 29. Malcolm, vol. II, p. 127. 30. Hafiz Muhammad Fazil Khan, Tarikh-i-Manzil-i-Bukhara, Srinagar, 1981; Pottinger, Travels in Baloochistan and Sind, London, 1816; James

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B. Fraser, Narrative of a Journey into Khorasa in the Years 1821 & 1822, Delhi, 1984; G.T. Vigne, A Personal Narrative of a Visit to Ghuzni, Kabul and Afghanistan, Delhi, 1983; Mohanlal, Travels in the Punjab, Afghanistan and Turkistan, to Bulkh, Bokhara and Heart and to Great Britain and Germany, Calcutta, 1977. 31. Humaira Dasti, ‘Multan as a Centre of Trade and Commerce during the Mughal Period’, Journal of Pakistan Historical Society, July 1990, pp. 251-2. 32. Ansar Zahid Khan, History and Culture of Sindh, Karachi, 1980, p. 246. 33. Ibid. 34. Ruquia Hussain, ‘Indian Trade and the Indian Merchants in Persia in the Middle of the Seventeenth Century’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 53rd Session, Warangal, 1992, pp. 284-7. 35. Father Krusinski, The History of the Late Revolution of Persia, vol. II, London, 1834, p. 197. 36. Sanjay Subrahmanyam, ‘Iranians Abroad: Inter-Asian Elite Migration and Early Modern State Formations’, The Journal of Asian Studies, no. 2, May 1992, pp. 340-63. A minor exception was Afghanistan. 37. N.M. Goldberg, K.A. Antonova and T.D. Lavrentsova (eds.), RusskoIndiiskiye Otnosheniya v XVII v. (herafter cited as R-I.O. v XVII v.), Moskva, 1958, doc. no. 45. Sutur, the Indian merchant was imprisoned on Persian soil but was released on the intervention of the Russian ambassador as he was carrying money of the Russian government for buying silk and other commodities on its behalf in Persia. 38. R-I.O. v XVIII v., p. 80. Marwari Barayev, the most important and the richest Indian trader in Astrakhan, became a Christian and was renamed Petr Fedorov. Ibid., p. 327. Other Indian merchants had accepted Christianity on Russian soil earlier. 39. Ibid., doc. no. 112, pp. 207-8. See also ibid., pp. 64, 70, 583. 40. Ruquia Hussain, ‘Credit Techniques in Armenian Commerce in Mughal India’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 51st Session, Calcutta, 1990, pp. 327-31. 41. R-I.O. v XVIII v., doc. no. 41, pp. 63-4. The document dated 1725 explains that Nagi Shafiev would purchase goods out of the borrowed money and sell them. After sale, he would return the principal amount and the profit would be divided into three parts. The Indians would get two parts and Shafiev would retain one part. 42. 440 roubles. Ibid., doc. no. 44, pp. 69-70. In 1726 Tatar Bamamet borrowed from Marwari Barayev. He was to go to Gilan in Persia and purchase goods there. On return he was to sell these commodities at Astrakhan as desired by Marwari Barayev. The latter retained the option to purchase the entire consignment at prevailing prices in Astrakhan.



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43. Ibid., p. 71. Stepanov too from Gulyab Otomchand 34 puds of sandalwood. He was to transport this overseas on the boat of his master Yakov Petrov. On return the profit was to be divided into three parts, two to Otomchand and one to Stepanov. In case the boat sank and the goods were looted, Stepanov was not required to pay anything to Gulyab Otomchand. 44. Ibid., doc. no. 48, p. 75. 45. Ibid., doc. no. 42, p. 65. 46. Ibid., doc. no. 49, pp. 82-3. 47. Ibid., doc. no. 48, pp. 75-7. 48. Ibid. 49. Ibid., doc. no. 53, pp. 98-100. 50. Niels Steensgaard, The Asian Trade Revolution in the Seventeenth Century, Chicago, 1973, p. 406. 51. Ibid., pp. 410-11. 52. G.L. Strange (tr. and ed.), Don Juan of Persia, London, p. 50. ‘The Persians make use of no wagons, coaches nor litters of any sort; nor indeed are there any ships or galleys, for the more special purposes of navigation, and only a kind of light boat is in common use.’

Map 3: Caspian Sea and Russia

• 7 •

Indian Traders in Russia in the Seventeenth Century

The seventeenth century saw an outburst of trading activities all over the world. Russia, geographically sandwiched between the East and the West, attracted merchants from both directions. Its political union had only recently been consummated and the potentialities of its markets were immense. This significant fact was not lost on the Indian traders in Iran. From the second half of the seventeenth century, they became active in Russia. The Soviet Indologist Goldberg has suggested the following reason for the interest of Indian merchants in the Russian market during the period under review. According to him the control of India’s external sea trade in the sixteenth century by the Portuguese, and by the Dutch and English in the seventeenth century, compelled Indian traders to concentrate on land routes and places which lay beyond the reach of Europeans. These routes ultimately converged in Russia. Goldberg explained that Indian trading activities in Russia were the result of the efflorescence of caravan trade from Multan and Lahore owing to the blockade of the Persian Gulf by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century.1 Data do not favour this theory. In the sixteenth century we do not have any record of intensive trading activities by Indians in Russia. To be exact, Indian traders in Russia became active only in the second half of the seventeenth century, although Russian sources note their presence in Astrakhan in 1615-16.2 The land route to Russia was too long and too dangerous;

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remunerative trade was possible only if valuable but light goods were carried to these places. The first half of the sixteenth century saw political instability in India and on its north-western frontiers, which certainly hampered the spirit of enterprise. Peace returned to northern India after Akbar ascended the throne in 1550s. In the seventeenth century, the Mughals were intermittently at war with Persia and Central Asian chiefs. On one occasion land trade came to a complete halt due to Perso-Mughal feuds.3 Thus Goldberg’s explanation that increased land trade stimulated Indian merchant’s interest in Russian market cannot be accepted. An alternative theory seems more plausible. The Indian trade with Russia began only after the sea route to the Gulf became freely available to Indian merchants; from Persian Gulf ports Indians could go to the shores of Caspian either through Persia or through Iraq. We should remember that the Portuguese monopoly in the Gulf was destroyed by the combined might of the English and the Persian ruler, Shah Abbas, in 1622.4 Indians do not seem to have taken immediate advantage of the changed political situation in the Gulf for establishing trade with Russia, probably because of unsettled internal conditions in the Mughal Empire during this period and the great famine of Gujarat in 1630-3.5 But as soon as normal conditions were restored, merchants appeared in the Russian city of Kazan in the 1638 in the company of Persian traders.6 From then there was a continuous engagement of Indian traders in Russia for the next two centuries, though there are ups and downs. This also contradicts the suggestion of P.M. Kemp that Indians might have kept up trading connections with Russia from olden times to circumvent the Muslim domination of the Gulf.7 When Indian merchants appeared, conditions were favourable. Russians were aware that the West European nations were benefiting immensely by trading with India. West Europeans even brought Indian goods and sold them in Russia. Thus in 1616 and 1619 an Englishman came to Russia



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and sold Indian goods to the local government.9 Until 1643 the Russian government got its requirement of Indian goods from Arkhangelskaya Trade Fair where these were sold by European merchants.10 Russian authorities thought if direct contact could be established with India, it would be advantageous. The government could get its requirements cheap and might also acquire a new avenue of profit either by selling Indian goods to West European merchants who yearly flocked to Russia, or by selling European goods to Indians. The Russian government made a beginning in this direction in 1635 by asking its embassy in Persia to purchase Indian wares.11 In 1638 two Indian merchants appeared in Kazan on the way to Moscow from Astrakhan. They were accompanying a group of thirty-five Persian merchants. Indians brought varieties of Indian textiles as well as highly-prized Persian silk, raw and manufactured.12 The Russian government decided to use Indian and other eastern traders to promote the export of Russian goods specially to Persia.13 The ground was ready for the expansion of commerce by the Indians in Russia in the seventeenth century. In 1641 an Indian was an applicant, along with Persian and Armenian merchants from Persian cities of Isfahan, Gilan and Shemakha, for permission to trade in Moscow.14 The request was granted and the merchants were allotted slots in the marketplace. In 1642 three Indians went to Moscow to sell 47 horses which they had purchased near Astrakhan from Kalmuks. They were accompanied by twenty-three Bukharan merchants who had brought 219 horses for sale in Moscow.15 In 1645 and 1646, Indian merchants sold textiles and some prized traditional Persian goods like jackets made of goat skin. In return they purchased costly Russian furs.16 A measure of the Russian anxiety to establish direct trade with India is shown by the Tsar’s efforts to send an embassy in 1646 to the Mughal court through Persia. The embassy did not reach its destination as the Persian Shah refused permission to journey through his kingdom.17

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Meanwhile, Indians in Russia had prospered. The career of Sutur, an Indian merchant, reflects the condition of the Indian traders. Sutur came from India in 1647. Twenty-five Indian merchants followed him with their goods.18 Sutur claimed that he had spoken highly of the Russian administration to his countrymen. He had pointed out that the Russian ruler provided all possible encouragement for the development of trade. Encouraged by such praise Indians had arrived in Russia. If the government treated them well, the Russian authorities could hope to profit by one lakh roubles per year as customs dues from them.19 The Tsar was favourably impressed by Sutur, who received a credit of 4,000 roubles20 from the government. He acted as the purchasing agent of the Tsar in Persia.21 The local government issued orders in 1647 for fair treatment of the Indians at Astrakhan. This convinced Indians of the royal support. Tsar’s concern for the sentiments of the Indians is revealed in the following; a Russian interpreter against whom the Indians had lodged serious complaints was removed.22 Indians welcomed the order of the Tsar. Soon about fifty Indian traders arrived in Astrakhan.23 Sutur had trading connections with many Persian cities, Kasbin, Isfahan, Tabriz, etc.24 During one of his journeys Sutur was jailed by Persian authorities in Tabriz for nine months. He was released at the intervention of Russian diplomatic mission.25 Indian traders were happy about Tsar’s concern for their well-being. Sutur even traded in Urgench and Khiva in Central Asia,26 Derbent and Sherevan in the Caucasus.27 In one of the expeditions, he was accompanied by an Armenian, against whom he subsequently proceeded at the court of the Tsar.28 Within Russia, Sutur traded in many cities. Once he went to Yaroslavl with his goods in order to avoid competition of the Persians who had preceded him to Moscow.29 He was detected there carrying unauthorized tobacco but was let off at the intervention of the Tsar.30 Sutur was an important merchant and his activities embraced the Caspian coast of Persia and Russia, cities in Central Asia, and the interior of



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Russia. Undoubtedly in the seventeenth century Sutur was the most prominent and the most powerful Indian merchant in Russia. He dealt with, Indian, Russian, Persian, and Armenian merchants. While Sutur was importing Persian, Indian and other goods into Russia and exporting Russian articles, other Indians in Russia were moderate traders. In 1645 and 1651 some of them went to Moscow to sell horses.31 Similarly, Indian merchants, Leki and Solak Nath carried Gilan and Isfahan goods to Moscow for sale.32 The question here arises, whether the Indian merchants were organized into companies like the European companies of the seventeenth century, or in groups, or whether they carried their trade single-handed with the help of their relations, friends and servants. The answer seems to be that the trade was based on the enterprise of individuals. Sutur, the most powerful Indian merchant, was helped by his son-in-law.33 Sutur appreciated the significance of political support for the conduct of trade. He was always anxious to seek protection in the name of the Russian government while trading beyond the boundaries of Russia. Moreover, these merchants did not seem to have maintained steady links with India. Although Sutur claimed to have gone to India once, yet because of geographical reasons the connection was always fitful.34 This is also indirectly supported by the fact that Indians mostly carried Persian goods to Russia and from Russia sent goods mainly to Persia. Maybe from Persia these goods sometimes found their way to India, but most of the articles were sold in Safavid Persia. The growing prosperity of Eastern traders began to cause concern among the Russian protagonists of the theory of mercantilism. In 1665 the Tsar issued an order forbidding all retail trade in Moscow35 by Eastern traders. In pursuance of this order Eastern merchants including Indians, were rendered idle; they were sent out of Moscow to Astrakhan.36 As a further measure, foreigners were prohibited from taking

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out of the country any gold or silver. Eastern traders were debarred from visiting any other city in Russia; they were not to sell any foreign goods in retail, nor were they allowed to participate in any fair in the country.37 This step was obviously meant to preserve the country’s reserves of wealth. This is also supported by the fact that an attempt was to be made to send a diplomatic mission to India to procure as much silver as possible. To ensure better observance of the order, the Eastern traders in Moscow were asked to move to a new place.38 But the order of 1665 does not seem to have been enforced strictly. We find in 1680 Indian merchants visiting Russian cities in the interior and also attending the Makarovskaya fair near Novgorod with goods from Tabriz, Gilan, Kashan, etc. Besides textiles, Indians traded in gold, silver, and precious stones.39 However, as a result of the order of 1665, the Indian merchants came to congregate more and more in Astrakhan and intensify their export of Russian goods to Persia. Their favourite route seemed to be through Derbent.40 The goods exported by Indians were mostly different varieties of costly furs, skins, feathers, copper-sulphate, and textiles.41 In 1676 eleven Indian merchants sent consignments of goods to Derbent. Ram Chand sent three parties. Some of the merchants employed local men to carry their goods.42 The varieties of articles meant for export had considerably increased. Apart from traditional Russian items, exports now consisted of amber sent to them from Moscow by their country men, teeth of fish, cloves, iron, needles, different types of mirrors, sugar, and suitcases.43 The remarkable thing here is the export of manufactured goods. These, however, represented simply re-export of goods imported into Russia by West European merchants. Cloves might have been brought to Russia or they might have been received through Central Asia. Indians were prospering. The next year they maintained the tempo of their export to Derbent and Persia. It appears that many of them owned boats in which they transported their goods.44 Subsequently in their exports to Persia from



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Astrakhan, Indians added new items like paper, sandalwood, pillows filled with feathers, German locks, German copper tubes, and butter.45 Some merchants like Mal Chand sent goods to two places at the same time.46 1681 was possibly the most prosperous year for Indian trade in Russia. That year twenty-two packets of goods were sent out to Persian cities by fourteen persons. Out of these, five persons sent eleven packs—a fact which reveals a tendency towards concentration of wealth in few hands. Among these Indian merchants there were four who had accepted Persian citizenship.47 Further proof of Indian prosperity is also available. An Indian merchant pleaded with the Tsar for permission to trade in Moscow on the ground that in one year the Indian traders had paid 18,000 roubles as customs duties on goods imported by them.48 In those times it was an impressive sum and Russian Indologists agree that Indian traders played an important role in the economic life of Russia in the seventeenth century.49 The success of the Indian merchants excited the the jealousy of all. The Armenians who were leading competitors started complaining to the Tsar against Indians. They claimed that since they paid more taxes to the exchequer, they were entitled to better facilities. They wanted Indians to be removed from the marketplace and their shops and storehouses allotted to them. Although they did not succeed in driving out Indians, they did obtain shops and storehouses in the neighbourhood of Indians.50 Russians were also raising their voice against Indian traders. In 1684 a big group representing all sections, petitioned the Tsar against eastern traders. They were particularly against Indians, wanting that Indians not be allowed to operate in Russian cities. Indians were accused of indulging in malpractices, charging high rates of interest, and purchasing goods from Western merchants. All these, the petition claimed, had led to the economic ruin of the local population. They prayed that the law should not allow Indians to trade outside Astrakhan.

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They should not deal with foreigners or trade in imported stuffs.51 Indians for their part denied the allegations and claimed that they could not be accused of working against the economic interest of the Russians. All this was not in vain. In 1684, the Eastern traders, except Armenians, were asked to settle down in Astrakhan.52 The government provided them with a new marketplace.53 As a result of this order Indians stopped trading in cities of Russia except Astrakhan. However, they continued to export to Derbent and other places in Persia purely Russian goods and traditional items like skins, furs, textiles, paper, iron, copper, sugar, and fur caps.54 A new item of export seems to be ‘Russian Paper’. Probably the Russians purchased it from West European or Central Asian merchants and sold it to Indians who re-exported it to Persia.55 Consequently Indians and other Eastern traders (except Armenians) ceased to visit Russian towns. Merchants of different Russian cities came down to Astrakhan to get their requirements.56 To enforce this order the government in 1693 constructed a new marketplace in Astrakhan where all Eastern merchants were asked to live. Indian traders in Russia collaborated with merchants of other nationalities. Close links were forged with Persian merchants. Once a Persian sued an Indian for 5,000 roubles and wanted his extradition to Persia in order to realize the money. A Persian merchant in 1676 successfully established a financial claim against an Indian merchant in Moscow and proved that he was actually a Persian citizen. The Indian merchant was ordered to be deported to Persia.57 Sometimes Indian and Russian merchants undertook joint ventures.58 In 1672 an Indian succeeded in getting a decision in his favour for 300 roubles against a Russian.59 However, the policy of confining the Indians to one particular place ultimately affected their pattern of activities. So far the Indian merchants had exclusively concentrated on trade. We rarely hear of them as moneylenders and even in



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those cases, the possibility is that they were business credits or merely postponements of payment by the customer. That they were not moneylenders is surprising because in India in the second half of the seventeenth century, owing to the control of external sea trade by the Europeans, the local merchant community had been gradually transformed into a moneylender class. In the next century, however, the Indian traders in Russia, in view of increasing restraints on their trading activities, diverted their energies to moneylending. In the second half of the seventeenth century the Indian merchants had been able to extend their activities to a new land, disproving the theory that the Indian mercantile class lacked enterprise and the ability to penetrate fresh markets. This was a remarkable achievement; the Indian traders were not backed by the might of any Empire. Success was purely the result of individual enterprise and initiative. This began to decline when the Russian government, in the interest of local merchants, began imposing restrictions. NOTES 1. P.M. Kemp, Bharat-Rus, Delhi, 1958, p. 99. 2. Ibid., p. 71. 3. William Foster (ed.), The English Factories in India (1622-23), Oxford, 1908, p. 180. 4. Ibid., p. XI. 5. Peter Mundy, The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, vol. I, Cambridge, 1907. 6. Russko-Indiskiye Otnisheniya v XVII v (henceforth, R.-I.O.), Moscow; 1958, doc. no. 12. 7. Bharat-Rus, p. 101. 8. The number of Indians in Persia according to contemporary French, German and Russian sources, ranged between ten and twelve thousand, R.-I.O., p. II. 9. R.-I.O., doc. nos. 2, 3. 10. Ibid., doc. nos. 4, 6, 7, 14, 20. 11. R.-I.O., doc. no. 10. 12. Ibid., doc. nos. 12, 13. 13. Ibid., doc. no. 15.

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14. Ibid., doc. no. 17. 15. Ibid., doc. no. 18. 16. Ibid., doc. nos. 21, 22, 23. 17. Ibid., doc. nos. 24, 30. 18. Ibid., doc. no. 33. 19. Ibid. 20. Ibid., doc. no. 34. 21. Ibid., doc. no. 57. 22. Ibid., doc. no. 35. 23. Ibid., doc. no. 38. 24. Ibid., doc. no. 57. 25. Ibid. 26. Ibid., doc. no. 59. 27. Ibid., doc. nos. 36, 37. 28. Ibid., doc. no. 58. 29. Ibid., doc. no. 44. 30. Ibid. 31. Ibid., doc. nos. 41, 56. 32. Ibid., doc. nos. 42, 43, 57. 33. Ibid., doc. no. 36. 34. Our documents refer to only one instance of Indian goods being brought directly from India to Russia. In 1660s some Armenians brought Indian goods to Russia from India. They had come via Persia and carried gifts for the Tsar from the Armenian merchant community in India. The Tsar allowed them to sell some of these goods which included herbs and medicines in Moscow. Apart from this, the documents do not speak of direct import of Indian goods in Russia during this period (R.-I.O., doc. nos. 66, 68, 71, 73, 72). 35. R.-I.O, doc. no. 75. 36. Ibid., doc. no. 76. 37. Ibid., doc. no. 82. 38. Ibid., doc., no. 104. From now onwards the fortunes of Indian merchant community in Moscow were definitely on the wane. Occasionally they did continue to visit Moscow from Astrakhan (R.-I.O., doc. no. 90). An accident in 1675 brought a change for the better for some time. It happened like this: An Indian merchant at Astrakhan was robbed of everything. He petitioned to the Tsar for permission to proceed to Moscow to trade so that he could somewhat recoup his fortunes, and the Tsar allowed it (R.-I.O., doc. no. 139). Along with him some more Indians went to Moscow and soon they flourished. One of them soon fell out with his countrymen and complained to the Tsar that an Indian had brought contraband goods worth 6,000 roubles without the



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knowledge of the government and had not paid customs on it. (This complainant eventually embraced Christianity­—R.-I.O., doc. no. 142). The Indians were also accused of moneylending. Thus the tide was running against the Indian merchant community in Moscow. 39. R.-I.O., doc. nos. 184, 185. 40. Ibid., doc. nos. 96, 97. 41. Ibid., doc. nos. 97, 100, 101. 42. Ibid., doc. nos. 149, 150, 152, 153, 155. 43. Ibid., doc. no. 141 and pp. 258-68. 44. Ibid., doc. nos. 87, 177, 178. 45. Ibid., pp. 289-96. 46. Ibid. 47. Ibid., doc. nos. 204, 205, 206, 207. One merchant sent 80,000 needles in a single consignment. 48. R.-I.O., p. 316. 49. Ibid., p. 12. 50. Ibid., doc. nos. 146, 147, 148. 51. Ibid., doc. no. 225. 52. Ibid., doc. no. 226. 53. Ibid., doc. no. 249. 54. Ibid., pp. 339-11. 55. Ibid. 56. Ibid., doc. nos. 238, 239, 240, 241, 243, 244, 247, 248. 57. Ibid., doc. no. 186 58. Ibid., doc. no. 186. 59. Ibid., doc. no. 183.

• 8 • Trading Activities of Indians in Russia in the Eighteenth Century

At the turn of the eighteenth century a flourishing Indian trading community existed in Astrakhan, the city at the mouth of Volga where the river falls into the Caspian Sea. Indian traders there specialized in importing Indian goods. They also brought Eastern goods from Persia and Central Asia into Russia. They exported to Persia Russian marchandise and also western European commodities bought from Russian and European merchants. However, Russians protested against what they called ‘excessive profits’ earned by Indians. The Russian government eventually asked all the Eastern traders (excluding the Armenians) not to take up retail business and to confine their operations within the city of Astrakhan. When the eighteenth century dawned, the Indian trading community in Russia was concentrated in the city of Astrakhan.1 During the eighteenth century, although the above policy was not formally repudiated, we find loosening of restrictions imposed on Indians. Contemporary Russian documents describe Indians going to different Russian cities. They sold Eastern goods mainly of Persian origin within the territory extending from Astrakhan to Moscow.2 They purchased European goods in Moscow and sent them to Astrakhan.3 The Indian merchants living in Moscow stood guarantee for incoming Indian traders too, undertaking to pay any dues and debts contracted during their stay in Moscow.4 Indian merchants residing in Astrakhan went to the cities of Derbent,5



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Krasnoyar,6 Kizilyar,7 Tsaritsini8 and other cities for business. In the cities of Derbent and Kizilyar some Indian merchants lived more or less on a permanent basis. They had acquired landed property.9 Occasionally they had relations among resident Indian merchants in Astrakhan.10 Some of these Indians were merely agents or servants of Astrakhan Indian merchants. Documents refer to Indian merchants attending the important Makarevsky fair to make purchases.11 Indian share in exports to the cities of the interior was considerable as the following figures show. In 1724 Indians exported goods worth 97.7 thousand roubles while the Russian merchants sent goods worth 43.3 thousand roubles. The next year the Russians surpassed the Indians. The share of the Indians slumped to 38.6 thousand roubles while that of the Russians went up to 63.3 thousand roubles. Other foreign merchants of Astrakhan too suffered this decline. They could send out goods worth only 17.6 thousand roubles.12 The participation of Indian traders in the internal trade of Russia appears to have been result of Peter the Great’s policy of encouraging commerce and crafts within his empire. However, as the Russians gathered experience, eastern merchants lost this trade. Thus in 1750 the Indian merchants of Astrakhan applied to the Tsar for permission to trade in the cities of Russia.13 The demand was occasioned by the loss of their Persian trade which had so far been the mainstay of their profits.14 Apparently this request was not considered favourably for we find them adopting expedients to circumvent the restrictions in order to keep their trade going. Indians started employing Russians , Tatars15 and Kalmuks,16 Agrizhanets17 and Armenians who were not forbidden by the Tsar to sell goods in Russian cities. They could carry Indian merchandise on their behalf. Sometimes individuals carried goods merely as servants of the Indian merchants. On other occasions the profit was to be shared in certain proportions. In some cases it was stipulated that in the case of loss, the carrier of the goods would not be held responsible.

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Indian merchants also advanced loans to men who purchased goods out of this sum for sale in the cities of the Russian empire. After the goods had been sold, either interest or a share in profits was to be paid to the lender. The money advanced by the Indian merchants was also used by the agents to purchase goods in Russian cities. When such persons returned, the lenders reserved the option to purchase from them outright at prevailing market prices, or to purchase a part of the goods and direct how the rest was to be disposed of in the Astrakhan market.18 This practice bypassed the ban imposed by the authorities and shows the flexibility of the Indian mercantile community and their capacity to adjust to changing situation. As in the previous century, the trade with Persia was an essential ingredient of the activities of the Indian trading community in Astrakhan but in this century the nature of this trade underwent certain modifications. Russians stimulated by the policies of Peter the Great wanted to control as much as possible the import and export trade of Persia. On the one hand they tried to encourage indigenous commerce by making various alliances with the Persians. On other occasions they utilized their success in wars with Persia to extort trading concessions.19 They started employing extramercantile methods to eliminate their rivals. In 1745 Indians in Astrakhan were forbidden to write to Persia uncensored letters, a step which drew instant protests.20 The Russian authorities asked their Consul in Resht to be careful about the nationalities of traders coming from Persia to Astrakhan. Indians should not be allowed to come in garb of Tatars or Persians.21 Other objective conditions in Persia also hampered the trade of Indians. After the fall of the Safavid dynasty anarchy overtook Persia. She faced a series of foreign invasions, mounted by her two neighbours Russia and Turkey.22 From the north-east, Uzbegs and from the east, Afghan tribes began to hammer at Persian frontiers.23 When Isfahan fell into the hands of the invaders



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133

in 1722, the rule of the Safavids came to an end.24 Even when Nadir Shah succeeded in establishing his authority over the whole of the country, it was so devastated that it appeared as if some invader had run over the territory.25 Thus economic activities in the country were dislocated. The land route from India had become completely unsafe.26 The searoute was seething with pirates. The Imam of Muscat had declared war against Persia. His navy kept on attacking the Persian mainland and intercepted ships visiting Persian ports. As a result the sea trade from India had considerably declined.27 And Indian traders in Astrakhan, who drew supplies of Indian goods from their Persia-based countrymen, no longer had this facility. They concentrated their attention on Russian and Persian goods. Indian traders were successful in adapting to new conditions. However, Table 1 shows that after Armenians (who had always enjoyed a privileged position both in Russia and Persia), Indians commanded the second place. They closely competed with Russians, whose trade with Persia surpassed that of the Astrakhan Indians only in certain years. Indians also fared better in trade than the Persians. To keep up their trade with Persia, Indians in Astrakhan took recourse to several expedients. They employed agents of Bukharan,28 Persian, Armenian29 and Tatar30 extraction, who carried the goods into Persia, on the basis of a share in the expected profit or sometimes as mere servants.31 Armenians were the most important agents employed by the Indians of Astrakhan to prosecute their Persian trade. Indian trade with and in Persia was suffering because of local chaotic conditions. In 1740 the Russian Consul at Gilan reported that a Tatar agent of Indian traders in Astrakhan was arrested and his goods seized by the local Persian authorities. He was not beaten only because of the timely intervention of the Russian Consul, who now advised the governor of Astrakhan that in future Indians should not be sent to Persia, for there was no trade.32

53,384

24,739

1743

1744

4,64,315

4,33,564

2,61,044

3,62,655

2,54,379

2,41,220

3,32,700

24,807

Armenians

61,856

25,331

47,685

45,108

55,100

52,686

14,707

22,202

Russians

Exports to Persia in Roubles

22,002

13,024

11,665

19,359

40,854

42,198

23,912

–

Persians

64,173

64,297

15,726

72,823

1,09,201

1,86,878

57,034

90,948

Indians

4,67,192

3,56,281

18,632

2,01,194

2,21,212

1,79,190

54,892

92,387

Armenians

1,75,004

17,095

69,889

43,489

53,864

94,007

42,597

76,670

Russians

65,689

40,118

7,574

30,054

1,36,411

1,31,291

49,257

–

Persians

Imports from Persia in Roubles

Note: The table has been compiled on the basis of R-IO. v XVIII v, doc. no. 114.

53,800

87,404

1740

20,935

24,834

1739

1741

21,312

1738

1742

25,324

Indians

1737

Year

Table 1: Investment



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It is in the above context that we find Indian traders migrating from Persia to Russia. In 1741 eighteen Indian merchants from Persia arrived in Baku33 and in the same year seventeen Indians from Gilan arrived in Astrakhan.34 These men were of Multani, Lahori, and Marwari origin.35 This loss of trade in Persia compelled Indians to seek imperial permission to trade freely in the cities of the interior of Russia.36 Indians contended that after the death of Nadir Shah they were being killed in Persia and all sorts of restrictions were imposed on them.37 Indeed we have to marvel at the ingenuity of these traders who despite tremendous odds continued to carry on their business without political support from any quarter. When the Russian authorities became concerned at the disruption of the Persian trade because it cut-off the supplies of Indian goods, they started making determined efforts to find an alternative route to India from Russia via Central Asia, i.e. via Khiva and Bukhara. Russian rulers and bureaucrats repeatedly sent embassies and missions to establish a new route, that could be safer and dependable.38 The Russian task was facilitated because by 1735 the Kazakh steppe, which bordered on the central Asian Khanates was annexed.39 To give concrete shape to Russian ambitions Orenburg (town) was established in 1735 to act as a forward post on the road to India via Central Asia.40 The Russian authorities adopted measures to lure traders to Orenburg in the hope that this would help in the establishment of direct trade between Russia and India. An Indian trader of Astrakhan named Marwari Baraev in Russian documents was initially consulted in this connection by the Empress.41 He testified to the fact that disturbed conditions in Persia had adversely affected the coming of Indian merchants to Astrakhan from Persia. In Bukhara the Indians had numbered about 300 persons but they had left for Kabul and other places owing to attacks by the Khan of Kokand. Marwari Baraev promised to bring back Indians if the security of their person and property was guaranteed.42

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Marwari Baraev was granted 1,000 roubles by the Russian authorities for establishing a Company in Orenburg to trade with India.43 The Russians were serious about this project. The tax returns show that the value of goods coming from or going to Orenburg was mentioned both in rupees and roubles.44 Presumably on this basis Kemp states that Orenburg replaced Astrakhan as a focal point for the activities of Indian merchants in Russia.45 Mrs. Kemp’s contention that conditions in north and north-western India were not favourable for expansion of land trade and the long route through Khiva and Bukhara too was not safe because of strife between the Khanates and the constant incursion of nomad tribesmen seems to be doubtful. Astrakhan continued to be the chief centre of the activities of Indian merchants in Russia although henceforth it was less trade than usury that was the prime occupation of the Indians. Yet the establishment of Orenburg marks a definite progress in Russian attempts towards finding a direct trade route to the central Asian markets and India and is the culmination of a century of sustained effort in this direction. NOTES 1. For details regarding the activities of Indian traders in Russia in the seventeenth century see my paper, ‘Indian Traders in Russia in the 17th Century’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Mysore, 1996. 2. Russko-Indiiskye Otnoheniya v XVIIIv (R.-I.O), Moskva, 1965, doc. nos. 1, 2, 29, 35, 87, 102. 3. Ibid., nos. 27, 87. 4. Ibid., nos. 6, 32, 43 5. Ibid., nos. 41, 49 6. Ibid., no. 73 7. Ibid., nos. 84, 103, 133, 140. 8. Ibid., no. 144. 9. Ibid., nos. 55, 84, 96, 140, 192-3. This contradicts Kemp’s contention that Indians did not invest in land. Quoted in Baikova, Rol Sredney Azii v Russko-Indiiskikh Torgovykh Svyazakh, Tashkent, 1964, p. 167. 10. Ibid., no. 133.

11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38.

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Ibid., no. 56. Ibid., no. 194. Ibid., no. 134. Ibid. Ibid., nos. 133, 191. Ibid., no. 191. Ibid., no. 44 [Agrizhanets were those persons who were born out of wedlock between an Indian father and a Tatar mother, Baikova, p. 4. Ibid., no. 41. Ibid., no. 54, 60. Ibid., no. 126. Ibid., no. 77. Percy Sykes, A History of Persia, vol. II, pp. 233, 237, 238, 239, 2513. In 1796 an Englishman from Mashad reported that there had been no caravans either to or from India due to disturbed conditions. Charles Lockhart, The Fall of the Safavi Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia, Cambridge, 1958 p. 289. In 1751 reports said that between Balkh, Afghanistan, and eastern Persia there was terrible anarchy: R.-I.O. v. XVIII v., doc. no. 180. In 1739 Tabriz reported complete absence of any business: R.-I.O. v. XVIII v. doc. no. 80. In 1792 Indian merchants in Astrakhan could not obtain any supply of Indian goods from Indian merchants in Persia as the trade of Bandar Abbas and Basra with India had been dislocated. R.-I.O., doc. no. 199. In 1800 again, Orenburg reported that it had no goods from India as Bukhara which supplied the Indian goods did not have any. R.-I.O. v. XIII v., doc. no. 213. Sykes, vol. II, p. 229. R.-I.O. v. XVIII v., doc. no. 134. Ibid., 180. Lockhart, pp. 391-2, 398, 403, 446. R.-I.O. v. XVIII v., doc. no. 191. Ibid., nos. 42, 53. Ibid., nos. 44, 49, 94. Ibid., no. 44. Ibid., no. 94. Ibid., no. 95. Ibid., no. 98. Ibid. Ibid., no. 134. Ibid. Ibid., nos. 137, 165-9, 179-3, 200-3.

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39. Geoffery Wheeler, The Modern History of Soviet Central Asia, London, 1964, p. 29. 40. Baikova, p. 177. R.-I.O. v. XVIII v., doc. no. 72, 74. 41. Ibid., no. 74. 42. Ibid., no. 75. 43. E. Ya. Lyusternik, Russka-Indiiskiye Ekonimicheskiye Svyazi, v. XIX veke, Moskva, 1958, p. 12. 44. P.M. Kemp, Bharat-Rus, Delhi, 1958, pp. 104, 106. 45. Baikova supports Kemp. Baikova, pp. 180-1. However, like Kemp, she fails to give proof in favour of her statement.



•  9 •

A Note on the Business Organization of Indian Merchants in Russia in the Seventeenth Century

European traders began arriving in India after Vasco da Gama opened the searoute from Europe to the East in 1498. Indian merchants for their part began going to Tsarist Russia in the seventeenth century as businessmen. In 1638 two Indian traders arrived in the city of Kazan in the company of Persians.1 Henceforth, throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries they regularly visited the Tsarist territories; their vital role in Russia’s Eastern trade was recognized by the Tsarist administration, which sought their services at various times.2 In many ways the participation of Indians in Russian commerce was unique; Russia was virtually unknown to the Indian political authorities; no previous commercial, cultural and diplomatic ties existed between the two. They were geographically separated by several sovereign states. In spite of these constraints the Indian traders not only managed to enter Russia but they also carried on their profession for almost two centuries, braving several ups and downs in their fortunes.3 The Indian mercantile community consisted of Hindus and Muslims, as names recorded in contemporary official documents testify.4 We come across Muslims such as: Yunus Mulyuk Dutyandai,5 Hamis,6 Bala,7 Haji Mulla,8 etc. The names of Hindu merchants as found in the documents are: Solakanth,9 Chanda,10 and his brother Bishaya, Lekui and his nephew Zkishna,11 Banda Kapur Chand,12 Narain Gupta,13

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Lahori Baniya,14 Divirmal,15 Giri,16 Ram Chand,17 Mitra,18 Nanda,19 Durga Lala,20 Mal Chand,21 Gordan,22 Ganga Ram,23 Raja Ram,24 Jan Ram,25 Bhagat,26 etc. Many of these traders, both Hindus and Muslims had accepted the citizenship of either Persia or Russia.27 Those who had taken Russian citizenship settled in Astrakhan on the northern shores of the Caspian Sea.28 This significant fact considerably influenced their mode of commerce. Voluntary acceptance of an alien citizenship reflected the grim necessity to secure government protection, not only for the security of life and property but also for conducting business. In contrast to the above situation, no foreign trader on Indian soil during the same period faced a similar problem. Usually it was the merchant from abroad who enjoyed special privileges against his local competitor.29 The difficulties of Indian traders had multiplied in the absence of a direct link with their homeland. The need for government protection was reflected in the fact that many times Indian merchants travelled in the company of representatives of either the Russian Tsar or the Persian Shah or the Sultan of Shemakha. In fact, the first record of the arrival of Indians on Russian territory notes that they had come along with a representative of the Shah of Iran. In 1641, the Indian merchants in their petition to the Tsar stated that they had been brought to Russia by the Persian envoy Asan Bek.30 Sutur was sent by the Tsar to Persia. During his stay there, he was extended protection by the Russian envoy against oppression by the Persian authorities.31 Similarly, the envoy of the Sultan of Shemakha brought with him Indian traders to Moscow.32 Furthermore, Indians were forced to employ interpreters in the early stages because of their total unfamiliarity with the Russian language.33 These people proved to be another source of oppression. On a complaint the Russian authorities exiled Daulat Ali, an interpreter, from Astrakhan to Kazan.34 However, as they became acquainted with Russian and with



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local conditions, their dependence on interpreters considerably decreased. The resort to kinship ties appears to be the only workable mechanism available to Indians for carrying on their commercial activities. Under the influence of the caste system, virtually all the members of the family (even the extendedfamily) of a merchant followed the profession of trade. Even amongst Muslims, business activities were confined to certain groups. As a result, kinsmen and caste-men belonging to the same profession were in a position to render expert assistance either as partners or in certain cases as hired agents. Such an arrangement ensured quick selection of an agent of aide because the credentials of the person concerned were either directly or indirectly known. Hence, kinsmen became the support group for the individual merchant. This is illustrated by the career of Sutur, who appears to have been the most important Indian merchant in Russia in the seventeenth century.35 In one of his submissions to the Russian authorities Sutur claimed that on a visit to his homeland, he had ‘sung praises of the generosity of the Russian ruler’ as a result of which twenty-five Indian merchants accompanied him on his return to Russia.36 It might be presumed that these Indians were not kinsmen of Sutur but they would have at least belonged to his caste. In Russia, Sutur was assisted by his son-in-law.37 Lyaluchki Bagarob sent his brother Lalyu Bagimov from Astrakhan to Terk with goods for a trade expedition.38 Another trader Banda Mingalov was stationed in Moscow while his brother Bundakov Mindra stayed in Astrakhan.39 Their cousin Lahori Baniya traded in Moscow.40 We have several other instances of kinsmen grouping together to conduct their business. In 1650, I.G. Kvashmin, the Voivode of Astrakhan, reported that five Indian traders, residents of Astrakhan, had arrived with goods. Among them were Sotri Kedikov and his son-inlaw Sokeon. They had travelled from Astrakhan to Saratov,

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Arzamas, Suzdal before coming to Yaroslav. They had avoided Moscow as they had learnt that Persian traders had preceded them with merchandise.41 Bishnaya, the brother of another trader Chanda, was also a merchant.42 The same document refers to two sets of brothers. Lekui and Kishna, and Baki and Kisa. Baki was a brother of Sutur.43 Gusaniya was accompanied by his nephew Farma Baguyev.44 Lala Baga was accompanied by his brother while journeying from Astrakhan to Terk by the river route to sell his goods.45 Indian trader Kiryaska lived in Moscow. He was accompanied by his nephew Madaika Mingayev.46 In 1675 an Indian priest complained against three traders Mulla, Bendra, and Birbal whose brothers Ardas, Banda and Lahori respectively, were trading at Moscow for the last several years.47 Ardas was the son of Lokulov, resident of Astrakhan.48 Bandanka of Moscow had his brother Mindra stationed in Astrakhan. Bandanka was also a cousin of Lahori Baniya and had arrived in Moscow from Astrakhan. Lahori Baniya’s brother Divirmal also resided in Moscow. 49 However, trade remained largely an individual affair. If the business prospered help of family members would be sought; sometimes an agent or a servant of Indian origin might be employed. In 1680 Lala Baga, the brother of trader of Mulla was permitted to leave Astrakhan for Moscow along with his commodities, accompanied by his servant Lala Mangi. The practice of employing Indian agents was widespread amongst affluent Indian merchants. In 1760 Mulla sent his Indian agent Baguchka to Derbent with merchandise purchased in Astrakhan.50 Sometimes Indian merchants carried their own merchandise. In 1681 Giri and Gordana Jogi accompanied their goods, sent from Astrakhan to Persia by boat. They also carried commodities on behalf of their compatriot Ramchand.51 Indian merchants Bady and Badly Madaev carried their goods on boats from Astrakhan to Persia.52



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A rich trader like Ramchand owned the boat which plied between Astrakhan and Persia and transported his goods.53 Birbal, another affluent Indian merchant owned a boat used for conveying goods between Astrakhan and Persia.54 Other merchants resident in Persia were also owners of boats which plied between Persia and Astrakhan and carried goods. Indians Koluumalichka Huyev and Adankat Asayev were owners of such boats which carried goods of a trader Gordana Jogiev to Astrakhan.55 In 1687 goods were transported to Persia on a boat owned by an Indian Mulla Rupayev.56 The traders, Kangara, Giri, Malchand Bala Jan, Mady Satuev sent goods by boat.57 The practice continued: in 1687 Indian merchants Abu Ram, Bhagat, Chedyuki Sabayev, and Jaldi sent their goods to Persia.58 Though kinship groups were the core of business organization, if the need arose, the Indians did adopt other means. A simpler variation was an occasional joint venture with a Muslim of Indian origin. For example, Hindu Ardas traded in partnership with a Muslim Hamid.59 Another Hindu trader Banda Minkab sent his goods with Hamid to Astrakhan.60 Indians displayed flexibility when the Russian government imposed restrictions, asking them to confine their activities to Astrakhan and ordered them to trade only in the marketplace assigned to them. They devised ways and means to circumvent these restrictions by entering into agreements with Russian, Persian, Armenian, Caucasian and other local traders, as partners or as agents. Armenians were the most sought after partners for a variety of reasons. Like Indians, they had a firm base in Persia and were known to each other for they frequented India as well.61 In an interesting instance, an Armenian A. Lvanov was employed as an interpreter of the Russian embassy in Persia. He entered into an agreement with an Indian merchant, Mulla, who was to carry goods on his behalf.62 The Armenian made no secret of this fact and moved the Tsar to return the amount

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of duty charged on his goods carried by Mulla on the plea that he was serving the Tsar and so deserved this exemption. In another case, two Indians sent their goods on royal boat to Persia from Astrakhan. These were accompanied by an Armenian, Grigori.63 If after 1689 Indian dependence on Armenians increased, there was considerable logic in it. Indian, Bukharan, and Persian merchants were prohibited from moving out of Astrakhan and were to be sent to Astrakhan from the various cities of the Russian empire where they might be found. Only Armenians were exempted from this provision.64 While the Armenians were usually taken as partners for bigger ventures, Caucasian agents were employed for smallscale enterprises. Consequently, Armenians were given better terms than Caucasians. One reason for the more favourable treatment given to the Armenians was their ability to invest capital, even though the Armenian investment seldom matched that of the Indians. The Caucasians virtually never invested capital. They remained working partners. Local agents carrying goods on behalf of Indian merchants included two Tatars, Fatiev and Chiryachku. 65 An Indian, Bady, resident in Persia in 1681 sent goods to Persia by the water-route accompanied by a citizen of Terk, Embulat.66 This was repeated when in June of the same year Lala Kapur Chand and Bala Jan sent their goods on a boat to Persia accompanied by the above-mentioned citizen of Terk, Ebulat Elmurzin. 67 The Indians even used boats owned by merchants of Derbent for transporting goods from Astrakhan.68 Gordan Jogi utilized a Derbent boat for sending his commodities. 69 In 1688 Russian merchants began to visit Moscow from Astrakhan with Indian and Persian commodities. 70 The practice was repeated the next year when M. Pushnikov was permitted to carry from Astrakhan Indian and Persian goods to Moscow.71 The role of Russian merchants increased after 1689 because



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of the Tsar’s ban on the entry of Indian, Bukharan, Persian and other Eastern traders into cities of Russia other than Astrakhan.72 Thus in 1689, 1690, 1691 Russians are found carrying Indian goods to Moscow73 and in 1691 Russian merchants carried Indian goods to Yaroslavl.74 The Register of the Moscow Customs House for 1694 notes that duties were collected from Russian merchants who had brought Indian and Persian commodities from Astrakhan.75 Indian merchants used royal Russian boats for transporting their goods by water route to Persia.76 The boats voyaged to Gilan.77 In 1681 two Indian merchants Ramchand and Gordan sent their wares to Persia on royal boats.78 On 3 August a royal boat carried goods on behalf of Indian merchants Mulla, Aduch and Lmachki Chelyaev from Astrakhan to Persia.79 Again merchant Durga Lala sent goods on a royal boat to Persia.80 The commercial organization of the Indians reveals an important trait, which had not been prominent on the Indian scene. They did not hesitate to deal in items in which they would not have traded in India. They purchased and sold horses;81 exported animal furs of various sort, feathers of birds and fish bones.82 Russian leather, greatly prized in foreign countries was another item on the list of their exports.83 The Hindu traders, had no hesitation in regularly trading in commodities which they avoided on the Indian soil. Perhaps this is a deviant case, the product of circumstances over which these merchants had very little control. But we should not minimize the significance of this aspect for the Indians clung fast to their religion, customs and traditions even on the Russian territory. They carried their religion, customs and traditions even on the Russian territory. They brought their own cook, presumably because they remained primarily vegetarians. 84 They obtained permission from the Tsar to cremate their dead in spite of the horror, ridicule and protest of the local Christian populace.85 In one instance, an Indian in Moscow complained to the Tsar against his compatriots that they were forcibly removing him

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to Astrakhan because he was inclined to renounce Hinduism and to accept Christianity. The Tsar granted the complainant protection and he became a Christian.86 In spite of the integrative role of kinship, caste and religious ties, the commercial organization of Indians was marked by a high degree of individualism. Group activity was important but in the final analysis what mattered most was individual initiative and enterprise. The individual took help of kinsmen or castemen and outsiders in the order but by and large preferred to plough his lonely furrow in the business world. This trait partly explains the non-emergence of joint-stock companies in India. But why this sort of attitude? I would hazard a guess. In India trade had been a well-known profession since ancient days. The system of caste confined the profession among selected groups of people. As a result, over the centuries, not only wealth but also expertise accumulated in certain groups or families. Hence, even when big ventures were to be undertaken or planned, there was hardly any need for external capital investment or expertise. Any joint-stock venture was therefore, precluded by traditions. Only a thorough shakeup could alter the situation. In the seventeenth century, the shock-therapy was wanting. After all, the traditional system of organization was still viable. It did produce individual merchants of great opulence and wealth even in snow-bound plains of the Tsarist empire. I may be permitted to illustrate this by briefly recounting the career of the Indian merchant Sutur in the Russian empire. Sutur had endeared himself to the Russian authorities by promising to bring Indian traders to Russia. He had predicted a gain of hundred thousand roubles per year to the Russian treasury by way of duties. The Tsar trusted him so much that he was appointed Tsarist agent in Persia and advanced a sum of 4,000 roubles to make purchases on behalf of the Tsar. Sutur’s trading operations extended far and wide, inside Russia and abroad. In Persia he was trading in the cities of



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Kazbin, Isfahan, and Tabriz. In Central Asia he visited the cities of Khiva and Urgench. In the Caucasus he was connected with the cities of Derbent and Shirvan. In Moscow when he found Persian competition keen, he moved to the city of Yaroslav. In short, his activities were spread all over the area, around the Caspian Sea irrespective of its political affiliation. He had his ups and downs. In Tabriz in Persia he was arrested by Persian authorities and released only after eight months when Tsarist envoys pleaded for him. In Russia he was once arrested for illegally carrying tobacco. He was subsequently released. But when he faded from the scene of history, nothing of him or his ventures was heard again. NOTES 1. N.M. Goldberg, K.A. Antonova and T.D. Lavrentsova (eds.), RusskoIndiiskiye Otnosheniya v XVII v, Moskva, 1958, doc. no. 12 (hereafter cited as R-I.O., v XVII v.) 2. Ibid., doc. no. 94, 109. 3. The Russian Afnasi Nikitin arrived in south India in 1469 and the account of his visit has survived. See Khozhdeniye za tri Morya Afanasiya Nikitin (Izdatel’ stvo ANSSSR, M-I., 1958); The presence of some Russian slaves is mentioned at the court of Akbar, the Great Mughal. John Correia-Affonso, Letters from the Mughal Court, Bombay, 1980, p. 123. 4. There are several Indian names which have been distorted beyond recognition. For example, names such as Duneya (R-I.O v XVII v doc. no. 23) Balaika Dastov and Gaguilka Kechenev (ibid., doc. no. 56) Nanui Syundrev Dunia, Farma Baguyev (doc. no. 76), Suluda Lula, Bagari Firay (doc. no. 168/v), etc., give no clue to the religious faith of the Persian concerned. However, the names cited in the text above present no difficulty as to the religious identity of the individual concerned. 5. R-I.O v XVII v., doc. no. 31. 6. Ibid., doc. no. 141. 7. Ibid., doc. no. 161. 8. Ibid., doc. no. 166. 9. Ibid., doc. no. 43. 10. Ibid., doc. no. 57. 11. Ibid.

148 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38.

39. 40.

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Ibid., doc. nos. 90, 105, 139, 155, 165. Ibid., doc. no. 96. Ibid., doc. nos. 103, 139, 140. Ibid., doc. nos. 105, 155, 159. Ibid., doc. nos. 140, 190, 193. Ibid., doc. nos. 149, 157, 198. Ibid., doc. nos. 152, 203, 205, 206. Ibid., doc. nos. 165, 184, 188, 191, 196, 206. Ibid., doc. no. 154. Ibid., doc. no. 163. Ibid., doc. nos. 164, 197, 199. Ibid., doc. nos. 187, 190, 203, 205; in doc. no. 203. The full name of Gordan is given as ‘Gordan Jogriev’ which suggests that the real name was Gobardhan Jogi. The second name ‘Jogi’ signifies a mendicant or a priest. It is not unlikely that besides his professional calling Gordan had had also become a businessman. Instances of Hindu priests in Russia adopting trade as a profession are not lacking. A mendicant named Duniya is mentioned in 1665 as a resident of Moscow. Ibid., doc. no. 76. Ibid., doc. no. 192. Ibid., doc. no. 227. Ibid., doc. no. 226. Ibid., doc. no. 232. Ibid. R-I.O v. XVII v., doc. no. 12. Ibid., pp. 7, 10, 11. Surendra Gopal, Commerce and Crafts in Gujarat, 16th and 17th Centuries, New Delhi, 1975, pp, 27, 28, 132, 139, etc. R-I.O v. XVII v., doc. no. 12. Ibid., doc. nos. 17, 105. Ibid., doc. no. 48. Ibid., doc. no. 14/1. Ibid., doc. nos. 31, 35, 143. Ibid., doc. nos. 35, 38. R-I.O. v. XVII v., doc. nos. 34, 37, 57-9, etc. He traded in Persia as an agent of the Russian Tsar. He had trade links in the following cities: Kazbin, Isfahan, Tebriz (Perisa); Urgench and Khiva (Central Asia); Derbent and Shirvaan (Caucasus mountains); Astrakhan, Yaroslavl, and Moscow (Russia). Ibid., doc. no. 34. Ibid., doc. nos. 36, 47, 57, 61; The name of his son-in-law was Saluknu Penin. Sutur alleged that he was beaten by the employees of the Sultan



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of Derbent while carrying goods on behalf of Tsar to Persia. Doc. nos. 36 and 37 of 1648 mention that Sutur was living with his wife and three children in Astrakhan in 1623 and thus would be the oldestknown Indian trader to have settled in Tsarist territories. Sutur is first mentioned in the documents in the year 1645. Ibid., doc. no. 21. 41. Ibid., doc. no. 102. 42. Ibid., doc. no. 140/11. 43. Lahori Baniya had arrived in Moscow in 1672 in the company of the agent of the Persian ruler. Ibid., doc. no. 103. On this occasion Indian trader Kriyaska Pateev and his nephew Madaika Mingaev also reached Moscow. 44. R-I.O v XVII v., doc. no. 44. 45. Ibid., doc. no. 57. 46. Ibid., p. 127. 47. Ibid., doc. no. 76. 48. Ibid., doc. no. 102. 49. Ibid., doc. no. 103. 50. Ibid., doc. no. 140. 51. Ibid. 52. Ibid. 53. R-I.O. v XVII v., doc. no. 202. 54. Ibid., doc. no. 206. 55. Ibid., doc. nos. 208-9. 56. Ibid., doc. no. 210. 57. Ibid., doc. no. 211. 58. Ibid., doc. nos. 219, 220. 59. Ibid., doc. no. 235. 60. Ibid., doc. nos. 212-14, 215-17. 61. Ibid., doc. nos. 232, 234 62. Ibid., doc. no. 141. 63. Ibid. 64. Surendra Gopal, ‘Armenian Traders in India in the Seventeenth Century’, Proceedings, International Seminar on Central Asia, New Delhi, 1966, pp. 200-13, R-I.O v XVII v. doc. nos. 58, 66-74, 146, 179, etc. 65. R-I.O. v XVII v, doc no. 179; Prior to this Sutur had journeyed from Moscow to the territory of the Persian Shah and jointly traded with him. Ibid., doc. no. 58. 66. Ibid., doc. no. 203. 67. Ibid., doc. no. 242. 68. Ibid., doc. nos. 149-51. 69. Ibid., doc. no. 204.

150 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86.

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Ibid., doc. nos. 206-7. Ibid., doc. nos. 227-8, 230-1. Ibid., doc. no. 229. Ibid., doc. nos. 236-7. Ibid., doc. nos. 238–40. Ibid., doc. no. 242. Ibid. Ibid., doc. nos. 243-4, 247. Ibid., doc. no. 248. Ibid., doc. no. 250. Ibid., doc. nos. 187, 169. Ibid., doc. nos. 194, 199. Ibid., doc. no. 203. Ibid., doc. no. 216. Ibid., doc. no. 221. Ibid., doc. nos. 18, 41, 56. Ibid., doc. nos. 48, 57, 100, 141/XII, 150-3, 165, 175, 176, 220, 222.

• 10 •

Marwari Barayev: A Marwari Trader in Russia in the Eighteenth Century

By the 1630s Indian traders had reached Russia; they made Astrakhan (the port at the mouth of the Volga River where it falls into the Caspian Sea) their base of operations.1 Hindu Indian traders in Russia mostly hailed from the north-western India and were popularly known as Multanis. Once in a while contemporary Russian records mention the presence of Marwari traders among them.2 These Hindus lived in stonehouses containing their shops, godowns, and the place of worship. They traded in the cities of Russia, mostly lying along the Volga River, such as Kazan, Saratov, etc., and also went up to the capital Moscow. They were also moneylenders who met the credit needs of small farmers, ordinary soldiers, lower-rank state functionaries, and traders.3 Residing in all the important Persian cities, they also actively participated in the Russo-Persian trade. According to one estimate Indians numbered more than 10,000 in the capital city Isfahan alone. This chapter describes the career of a Marwari trader, who in a decade and a half emerged as the richest and most influential Indian businessman in Astrakhan. It will throw light on the range of the trading activities of Indian merchants, the different dimensions of usury they practised and the hurdles they faced. It will show that these Indians were not lacking in entrepreneurial skill; what hampered them were non-commercial factors. Marwari Barayev is first mentioned in the year 1721 in the

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‘Register of Petitions and Reports Received in the Chancellory of the Governor of Astrakhan.’ The relevant extract indicates that he had requested that action be taken against Aleksei Puchkov who had borrowed a sum of 12 roubles and had failed to repay both the principal and the interest.4 Unfortunately the correct name of Marwari Barayev has nowhere been mentioned in the available documents. They also fail to indicate when he first arrived in Russia. However, subsequent documents reveal the fascinating story of his immense wealth and also his ruination. Another document relating to Marwari Barayev exists in the ‘Register of Astrakhan relating to the moneylending operations of Indian traders to the residents of Astrakhan and the surrounding villages’. This is a loan deed registered in 1724 in which a gardener, Ignatiyev Lukoyanov, borrowed on 5 January, 215 roubles from Marwari Barayev and undertook to repay the sum by 5 April 1724. This is an evidence that he had prospered.5 Next year, in 1725, we find Marwari Barayev adding a new dimension to his activity. Kalmyk Sanzhata, through a registered deed hired from him a Tatar Azhimamet Ishyeyev as a domestic servant until 3 May 1727.6 We have no idea of the profit reaped by Marwari Barayev from this transaction. The locals hired domestic servants from other Indian merchants in Astrakhan as well. A document dated 22 October 1725 shows that an Armenian trader of Astrakhan borrowed 1,550 roubles from Marwari Barayev on the following terms. He pledged his stock of textiles, manufactured in Persian towns, with him and promised to repay the sum by 16 May 1726.7 Marwari Barayev’s graph of prosperity was rising as he was now in a position to lend thousands instead of hundreds of roubles. (We have no idea the rate of interest that he charged.) The year 1726 unmistakably confirmed Marwari Barayev’s financial clout. He purchased from his fellow Indians fifty-two



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loan deeds worth 3,047 roubles executed in the past and due for payment in the coming years.8 A loan advanced by Marwari Barayev in 1726 reflects a new aspect of his business. On 3 June 1726, a Tatar Bamamet Zhancheldyev, resident of Astrakhan, borrowed 440 roubles. He was to go to Gilan (situated in Persia on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea) and purchase certain specified commodities. On his return Marwari Barayev would purchase all the commodities at market prices.9 Extending a loan on condition that the borrower would go out of Russia and bring specified goods to be purchased by the creditor seems to have been an accepted business practice. Marwari Barayev on 5 June lent 265 roubles to a Persian Armenian who was asked to proceed to Bukhara and bring back goods mentioned in the agreement.10 We have no idea about the nature of goods to be brought and what profit the agent would gain. Financing of imports into Russia from Persia and Central Asia was an important aspect of the activities of affluent Indian merchants in Astrakhan and Marwari Barayev was pursuing this activity as a part of his expanding business operations. Moneylending continued, along with financing of imports. On 31 December 1726 a Greek, Christopher Matveyev borrowed from Marwari Barayev 537 roubles. He was to repay it by 7 May 1727.11 We do not know the rate of interest the Greek was required to pay. Marwari Barayev had successfully built up his business of moneylending, financing of imports and sale of imported commodities at wholesale rates. Some of the borrowers had mortgaged their immovable properties before obtaining the loan. When they could not repay, Marwari Barayev filed a suit to be allowed to take possession of the mortgaged property according to the terms of the loan. In 1727, he applied to Ivan Alekseivich fom Mengden, the Governor of Astrakhan to permit him to occupy the property of a Tatar Sukhan Toktagov who had defaulted on

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the repayment of a loan of 57 roubles. The Governor accepted Marwari Barayev’s plea and passed an order in his favour.12 That takeover of mortgaged immovable property was an additional means of enriching oneself is also clear from another petition submitted by Barayev in 1729 to the Governor. He prayed for permission to attach the property of Yunus Ibraimov, consisting of a garden along with all the structures standing on it, because he had failed to repay 17 roubles within the stipulated time. The Governor upheld his request too.13 On 22 June 1727 Barayev lent 360 roubles to a Tatar of Astrakhan. The condition was that he would go to Gilan (in Persia) and buy certain specified commodities. He was at liberty to sell them there as instructed, or to hand over the goods to him in Astrakhan. In this case the sureties were Tatar’s wife Fatma Yunusaabyzova and his daughter Ertugan Ashirbyzova.14 In 1729, Marwari Barayev advanced to Andal Nandaev, an Agrizhanet (child born out of wedlock to an Indian father and a Tatar or Kalmyk mother) 999 roubles on the condition that he would go to Makarevskii Fair held in the city of Nizhniigorod and purchase and bring goods mentioned in the terms of the Agreement and hand them over to him.15 Employing agents to bring goods from Russian cities and commercial centres in Persia and Central Asia was an integral part of the business practice of Marwari Barayev. We have no document naming the buyers of these goods sold by him. We learn of the rate of interest charged from a document of the year 1726. This document concerns a loan of 120 roubles advanced by Marwari Barayev. The interest to be charged is half a kopeck per rouble per month, i.e. 50 kopecks or ½ rouble per 100 roubles per month which amounts to an annual 6 per cent.16 Throughout the 1720s Marwari Barayev prospered. This is clear from the contents of a petition he submitted to the Governor in 1730. In this he wrote that he had purchased



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from an Indian trader of Astrakhan, Balai Alimchand, loan deeds, issued by him in previous years. The borrowers had been asked by the government to repay the amount to him. However, some of the borrowers had fled. Marwari Barayev prayed for permission of the government to take possession of houses and other properties of the defaulters.17 We have no idea what relief Marwari Barayev was able to get. Supply of credit and capital and attaching movable and immovable properties of borrowers had made Barayev very rich. He was lending money even to his compatriots. Gulabra Otomchand took a loan of 250 roubles from him on 6 June 1731. He was to return the amount by 6 July 1733. He mortgaged his garden with all the structures and workshops standing on its premises and also the ‘vegetable and fruit bearing trees’.18 After a gap of five years Marwari Barayev is again mentioned in a document of 1735. His name crops up in connection with a proposal to establish a new city, Orenburg as the base for conducting Russo-Central Asian and Russo-Indian trade. The Russian desire was necessitated by the political situation developing in Persia after the rise of Nadir Shah. The series of wars the new ruler had launched dislocated normal commercial life in Iran. Indian traders residing in Persia started emigrating across the Caspian Sea to Russia to escape the anarchy. Trade via Iran was unsafe, and the Russian authorities had to think of alternative routes. Their choice fell on Orenburg on the steppe east of the Ural mountains.19 Those officers entrusted with the task decided to consult Marwari Barayev, the richest and the most famous Indian trader in Russia, about the viability of the project with respect to India.20 He was invited to Orenburg by the promoters of the new trade centre, I.K. Krillov, V.N. Tatishchev, I.I. Neplyuev, and P.I. Richkov. Barayev went to Orenburg and prepared a document which listed four trade routes leading to Delhi from Astrakhan.21 He favoured the Central Asian line for promoting Russo-Indian trade in future.22 He supported this contention by referring

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to the decay of trade in Persia and Astrakhan following the outbreak of anarchy after Nadir Shah had come to power. According to him when peace prevailed in Persia, two hundred Indian traders annually visited Astrakhan. Now the number had come down to eighty. The Bukharan route was the shortest. If security of life and property could be ensured, he was confident, around 600 Indian traders would come every year. He also prepared a list of Indian goods and Russian goods for import and export.23 Krillov was pleased to find emphatic support from the most well-known Indian trader of the times in Russia. In his report to Empress Anna Ivanovna on 20 April 1735, Krillov expressed his agreement with Marwari Barayev. He also added that Marwari Barayev was keen to promote RussoIndian trade from Orenburg by personally participating in it in the initial stages. He would send agents with goods from Orenburg via Bukhara and Kabul so that more and more Indian traders would be motivated to follow his example and travel to Orenburg.24 In 1736 Krillov recommended that Marwari Barayev be advanced a sum of 1,000 roubles from the royal treasury to purchase goods to be sent to India. He asserted other Indians would follow his example. He was favouring Marwari Barayev because he could write in Russian and could translate Indian language texts of his countrymen into Russian. Of course, Marwari Barayev declared he could collect from his compatriots in Astrakhan a sum between 1,000 and 50,000 roubles. But in his opinion advancing a sum from the royal treasury was a better option. He concluded, ‘new attempts and enterprises’ do involve a loss.25 Empress Anna Ivanovna concurred with the proposal of Krillov in her edict of 11 February 1736. She ordered 1,000 roubles to be advanced to Marwari Barayev from the royal treasury to purchase goods to be sent to India through his agents in Orenburg. Marwari Barayev was to return the money after his agents returned. His property in Astrakhan was to



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be placed in the charge of the Senate till the expedition from India came back.26 Marwari Barayev never made the trip to India. He could not send his agents either. When he arrived in Astrakhan from Orenburg, the local Governor, V.N. Tatishchev, arrested him on flimsy charges and put him in jail.27 Tatishchev feared that the rise of Orenburg as a commercial centre of Eastern goods would spell the doom of Astrakhan and result in the loss of his income and authority. This was the beginning of Barayev’s misfortunes and probably he never recovered from the downturn. We do not know how long he was kept in prison. According to a document of 1738 he still owned a shop in the Indian quarter and paid 11 roubles as rent for 11 months to the Astrakhan authorities.28 Why only for eleven months? The same document shows that other Indians paid 12 roubles as rent for a whole year. Something was definitely amiss. His petition submitted in October 1739 gives us a glimpse into the misfortunes that had befallen on him. He said even though he had been released from prison, a watch was still kept on him. His assets worth 50,000 roubles seized by the authorities in Astrakhan had not been returned to him.29 He was paying the penalty for undertaking the journey to Orenburg. He had been economically ruined; he now lacked the means for his personal sustenance.30 We have no idea if Marwari Barayev was able to secure justice or not. We learn of his fate from an order sent by the Senate to the Chief Magistrate of Astrakhan in the case of a deceased Indian merchant Sukhanand. It casually refers to the fact that Marwari Barayev had failed to get back his assets worth 77,000 roubles. It also mentions the fact that he had accepted Christianity and was now known as Petr Fedorov.31 This brings down the curtain on the history of Marwari Barayev. Before we end, we might take note of two things. Conversion to Christianity was not new for Indian merchants. In 1726 an Indian had become Christian and assumed the name Feodor Feodorov.32 In 1729, another Indian convert

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to Christianity had been given the name of Petr Ivanov.33 We have no idea what motivated them to change their religion. Perhaps it was to escape harassment from the local bureaucracy to which foreigners and especially those professing a different religion were subjected. A foreign merchant could not avert the oppression of the local bureaucracy, if it had made up its mind to harass him. Marwari Barayev should have known. In 1729 he had received a taste of bureaucratic indifference and oppression. He had instituted a case against a soldier Andrei Kosoi (Kosov), who had broken into his shop and stolen cash, broad cloth, and other goods worth 1,000 roubles. The thief was caught and some of the stolen goods were recovered, the thief was also punished. Yet Marwari Barayev was not able to recover his lost property.34 The career of Marwari Barayev shows the entrepreneurial talent that he possessed. Starting as a small moneylender who had lent a tiny sum of 12 roubles, he, within a decade, became an owner of assets worth between 50,000 and 77,000 roubles. Besides cash he also owned immovable properties in and around Astrakhan. He prospered because he kept exploring new avenues of business. From a moneylender he turned into a supplier of capital to Russian, Indian, and other merchants. He traded as a wholesale merchant and made a fortune. But he was in no position to confront the local bureaucrats who had turned hostile to him. This was the fate of all Hindu merchants in foreign lands extending from the peninsula of Arabia, to Persia, to Iran, to Central Asia, and Russia. The absence of explicit state support prevented them from successfully standing up to local bureaucratic oppression. They rose and fell like meteors. NOTES 1. Surendra Gopal, ‘Indian Traders in Russia in the XVII Century’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Mysore, 1969, pp. 460-8.



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2. R.V. Ovchinnikov and M.A. Sidorov (compilers) and K.A. Antonova and N.M. Goldberg (eds.), Russko-Indiiskiye Otnosheniya v XVIII v., Moskva, 1965, doc. no. 48, f.15 (back), p. 75 (hereafter cited as R-I.O. v XVIIIv.) The document mentions the Marwari Rajaramov, who had lent 600 roubles to an Armenian trader Melkun Bagiyev in 1723. 3. Surendra Gopal, ‘Indian Traders in Russia in the XVIII Century’, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, vol. V, no. 2, June 1968, pp. 141-8; idem, ‘Indian Traders in Persia in the Seventeenth Century', Journal of Historical Studies, no. 2, 1996, pp. 14-36 4. R-I.O. v. XVII v., doc. no. 35, f. 103, pp. 56-7. 5. Ibid., doc. no. 40, f. 3, p. 61. 6. Ibid., doc. no. 41, f. 189, p. 64. 7. Ibid., doc. no. 42, f. 92 (back), p. 67. 8. Ibid., doc. nos. 44, f. 69, 75, p. 69. 9. Ibid., f. 130 (back), p. 70. 10. Ibid., f. 142, p. 70. 11. Ibid., f. 288, no. 1226, p. 70. 12. Ibid., doc. no. 48, f. 52, pp. 77-8. 13. Ibid., doc. no. 53, f. 9, pp. 97-8. 14. Ibid., f. 82, p. 84. 15. Ibid., doc. nos. 49, 94 (back), p. 83. 16. Ibid., doc. no. 52, f. 105 (back), pp. 96-7. 17. Ibid., doc. no. 57, pp. 113-14. 18. Ibid., doc. no. 58, f. 150 (back), p. 115. 19. N.A. Khalfin and P.M. Shastitko (eds.), Rossiya I Indiya, Moskva, 1986, p. 77. The founders of Orenburg included I.K. Krillov. 20. R-I.O. v XVII v., doc. no. 69, f. 9 (back), pp. 128-33. 21. Ibid., pp. 128-9. 22. Rossiya I Indiya, p. 78. 23. R-I.O. v XVIII v., pp. 129-33. 24. Ibid., doc. no. 72, p. 135. 25. Ibid., doc. no. 74, f. 498, pp. 139-40. 26. Ibid., doc. no. 75, p. 141 27. Rossiya I Indiya, p. 78. 28. R-I.O. v XVIII v., doc. no. 110, p. 157. 29. Ibid., doc. no. 81, pp. 160-1. 30. Ibid., p. 161 31. Ibid., doc. no. 163, p. 327. 32. Ibid., doc. no. 48, f. 102 (back, p. 80. 33. Ibid., doc. no. 53, f. 102 (back), p. 98. 34. Ibid., doc. no. 53, f. 142, pp. 100-2.

Map 4: South East Asia

• 11 •

The Indian Diaspora in Southeast Asia in the Seventeenth Century

This chapter is a tribute to the memory of a dear friend, who combined the qualities of a meticulous and dedicated scholar, an inspiring teacher, a successful administrator, and above all a compassionate human being. Ever courteous, he stood like a rock when defending his conviction. He chose the maritime trade of medieval India as his subject of research, and stuck to it to the last. The theme became his passion. Through his teaching, writing and research he tried to promote it. As a result of his relentless efforts the Indian Ocean world emerged as a subject of serious research among scholars, both in India and abroad. One realized that medieval Indian history could never be properly appreciated without a distinct idea of the sailing ships and boats carrying men and commodities from the east coast of Africa, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf to India’s east and west coasts and further east to the Chinese seas. On way to China, the ships sailed via the Straits of Malacca or the Straits of Sunda separating the island of Sumatra from the island of Java. Southeast Asians and Chinese sailors would reciprocate; they would sail towards India, the Gulf, Red Sea, and east coast of Africa. The patterns would change but merchants and mariners never gave up crossing the seas. Ashin Dasgupta’s researches inspired a generation of historians to focus on India’s Indian Ocean connections in order to understand the dynamics of Indian history; maritime trade survived political upheavals. Their studies underlined factors and processes which enabled European nations to

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establish their foothold in the littoral of the Indian Ocean in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We now better appreciate the manner in which European colonialism was established. After, they gained economic ascendancy, it was territorial overlordship. Maritime trade bred European colonialism. Several monographs on Indian maritime trade with different regions of the Indian Ocean have been published. They touch Gujarat, Malabar, the Coromandel coast, and Bengal. The availability of source materials has enabled detailed study of the role of the various European trading companies in the period from da Gama to the establishment of British colonial power in India in the second half of the eighteenth century. The first trend is discernible in O.P. Singh’s Surat and its Trade, S. Chaudhuri’s Trend and Commercial Organization in Bengal 1650-1725, and M.N. Pearson’s Merchants and Rulers in Gujarat. The second trend was highlighted by books such as Tapan Raichaudhuri’s Jan Company in Coromandel 1605-1690, and Om Prakash’s The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal 1630-1720. Some macro studies on medieval Indian Ocean trade are Meilink-Roelofsz’s Asian Trade and European Influence in the Indonesian Archipelago between 1500 and about 1630, Holden Furber’s Rival Empires of Trade in the Orient 1600-1800, K.N. Chaudhuri’s The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company 1660-1760, and Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean. There have been a number of dissertations in universities in our country and abroad which are yet to be published. This list is illustrative and not exhaustive. An unintended fall out of this trend was interest of Indian scholars in the study of European languages other than English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese. They have source material relating to Indian history, specially on socio-economic life such as the state of peasants and merchants. We are now in a position to study the nuances of Indian economy and society.



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These detailed histories brought out so much data that we had to revise many of our old notions. First, the Portuguese, English, and Dutch presence did not eliminate Indian and other Asian nations from the Indian Ocean trade. In the sixteenth century the Portuguese made compromises with the Indian business class and political authorities and allowed Indians to remain active in martime trade. In the seventeenth century, the English and the Dutch, much better equipped than the Portuguese in terms of capital, business capability, and firepower on the high seas, also adopted a policy of co-existence with Indian traders, who were facing new constraints. Ashin Das Gupta’s study of Gujarat’s premier port, Surat, brings this fact into sharp focus. The ability of Indian maritime traders to survive in the face of severe European competition which in many cases was actually armed coercion, is a saga of entrepreneurial skill and tenacity. Indian contacts with Southeast Asia since ancient times are well-known. India’s cultural relations with the region through the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism have been frequently commented upon. No other region outside our subcontinent has so many archaeological monuments reflecting on Indian contacts or impact. I refer to the Hindu population on the island of Bali, Borobudur temple in Indonesian archipelago or the temple of Angkorvat in Cambodia, all well-known to us. This is summarized in Charles Verlinden.1 Contacts were continuous although their nature changed with the passage of time. The Chinese monk I Ching or I-tsing arrived at the port of Tamralipti from Southeast Asia in ad 673. He studied at the University of Nalanda for twelve years and then in 685 took a ship from Tamralipti for Palemban on the island of Sumatra, staying there for ten years, from ad 685 to ad 695. He wrote two books there (1) Report on Buddhism Sent from the South Seas and (2) Report on Eminent Monks Who Went to Seek the Law in Western Regions.2

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I need not recall the maritime expeditions sent by Chola rulers to Southeast Asia or the Chinese voyages to India in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries.3 The expansion of Arabs (more appropriately Muslim navigators) across Southeast Asia to the Pacific coast of China also confirms that the Indian maritime connection was also maintained through Muslims, who appear to have become their partners or in some cases more important than their Indian counterparts. G.R. Tibbets has given a fascinating account of expansion of Muslims in Southeast Asia region.4 When the Portuguese entered the region in the sixteenth century, they were confronted by Indian traders in all the major ports. For example, when they captured the trading entrepôt Malacca (Melaka), they found Indians residing in two Kampongs (villages), one for the Muslims and the other for non-Muslims. Tome Pires a Portuguese factor and traveller noted the domination of Indians on the Malaccan economy and in his account, The Suma Oriental of Tome Pires. The Portuguese described Hindus from India as a Kling or Keling or Kaling and this nomenclature remained during the following century. The one distinction they could make was between the Gujaratis and those coming from the Coromandel coast, called Chettis. Modern authors tend to believe that the term ‘Kling’ included Tamil, Telugu and Kannada speaking people from south India. It is true that among the Hindu traders, south Indians from the Coromandel coast had a dominant presence. But it should not be forgotten that Orissa and Bengal, around the Bay of Bengal, were in touch with Southeast Asia through maritime trade and the presence Oriya and Bengali-speaking Hindus cannot be ruled out. The presence of Gujaratis is emphatically indicated throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Moreover, Ibn Battuta took a ship for China from the west coast of India. Malabar was in intimate contact with China and Southeast Asia. Though our sources are silent about the role of Konkanis, we can hypothesize that they too



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visited the area as traders. As in case of the Persian Gulf and Red Sea ports, Indians from both the east and west coast traded in Southeast Asia. This hypothesis gains strength from the fact that Hindus residing in the Tenasserim of Burma were known as ‘Tailangs’, i.e. people coming form the land of Telugu-speakers though Hindus from other parts of the coast of Bay of Bengal also lived there. We should therefore take Kling to mean all Hindus, whether they spoke Gujarati or Kannada or Malayalam or Tamil or Telugu or Oriya or Bengali. In Persia and the Yemen, however, Europeans had tendency to describe Hindus hailing from different linguistic regions as Banias. In the interior of Persia, the Hindus were called ‘Multanis’ since the Punjabi-speaking traders were more numerous. Kling should better be interpreted as meaning Hindus of diffrent language zones and not just those from the Coromandel coast. Along with the word ‘Kling’, Chettis is frequently mentioned. The use of Chettis frequently denotes that this Coromandel based Hindu community was the most prominent among the Hindus. It continued to grow in influence and importance because in the seventeenth century maritime south India’s intercourse with Southeast Asia developed under the stimulus of Dutch and English and other European Companies. The word ‘Chetti’ is also an omnibus word. Originally, it meant those merchants who belonged to Chettinad (consisting of ninety-six villages), an area 80 km west of the temple town of Madurai or 80 km south of another temple town, Thanjavur, both located in Tamil Nadu (Murali N. Krishnaswami, ‘Glory of Chettinad’, Hindu, 28 January 2001). They were also known as Nagrather or townsfolk. They lived in fortress-like mansions and were called Nattukottai (land-fort) Chettiars.5 Chettinad was near the ports of the Cauvery delta and Palk Straits, Palk Bay and Gulf of Manaar and was in close

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trading contact with Sri Lanka and places east and west of the Indian peninsula from the Indonesian archipelago to the ports on the coast of the Arabian Sea. However, in the seventeenth century, Chetti also included Telugu and Kannada-speaking merchants. Telugu-speaking Hindu merchants, Komatis, Balijas, Beri Chettis had moved south to the Tamil Nadu coast and were active in the maritime trade to Southeast Asia. Locally they were distinguished from Tamil-speakers (described as belonging to the right hand caste) by being dubbed as members of a left hand caste. On the coast they were farmers of revenue, brokers to Europeans, and moneylenders as well. The community was traditionally well versed in different branches of trade. In Southeast Asian ports, Indian Muslims were difficult to distinguish from Arabs, Persians or Turks, Pathans, and Golconda Muslims except for those coming from the Tamilspeaking regions, known as Chulias, irrespective of their sectarian differences.6 The Chulias came mostly from the present Ramnad district and its adjacent areas in Tamil Nadu. But they were not a homogeneous group. The Muslim traders of Kilakkarai and Kayalpatnam at the southern end of the Coromandel coast supplied horses to the Pandyan army in the early fourteenth century. By the fifteenth Century the Chinese sources speak of Nagapatnam’s commercial links with Burma, Sumatra and Java. Thus a section of Tamil Nadu Muslims were quite familiar with the commercial environment of Southeast Asia before the Portuguese entry there. Cuddalore, a wintering port south of Pondicherry and Porto Novo, 15 miles south of Cuddalore, were both strongholds of Chulia Muslims, who were big shipowners as well. Some local Hindus were also shipowners and merchants.7 The rich Chulias were of Sunni persuasion and were known as Marikkars. The not so rich were locally called either Chulias or Loebbe. They were initially engaged in pearl diving and the conch-shell trade of the Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar.



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However, soon they were sailing in their ships to the Southeast Asia. In the sixteenth century they had a substantial presence in Southeast Asian ports through they were not as numerous as the ‘Klings’, They had their Kampong in Malacca.8 The Chulias like the Hindu Chettis also acted as brokers for the Europeans on the Coromandel coast, near Masulipatnam, and in Golconda as their textile brokers. Sitakkati (Shaikh Abdul Qadir, 1650-1715) of Kilakkarai, was a shipowner and exerted great influence over the ruler of Ramnad, Kilavan Raghunath Setupati (1674-1710), a Marava warrior who had consolidated his domain. The Gujarati Muslims were also influential, but we do not know their sectarian affinities. There were three important Gujarati Muslim trading groups, Bohras, Khojas and Memons. The Gujaratis are supposed to have introduced Islam into the Indonesian archipelago. They remained prominent in the local economy in the sixteenth century despite Portuguese attempts to oust them. They carried on their business in the seventeenth century even when the Dutch and the English trading companies opposed them; the Europeans tolerated them because of compulsions of their trade on the Indian subcontinent. Malabaris, as Muslims from Kerala were known, had their quarters in Batavia. Foreign Muslim groups residing in Indian ports were active in India’s maritime trade with Southeast Asia. Persians were especially prominent in the port of Masulipatnam. Their visibility increased when the Sultanate of Golconda acquired Masulipatnam and developed it as kingdom’s main outlet to the sea. Mir Jumla, an officer of Golconda and of Persian extraction dominated the Masulipatnam trade in 1640s and 1650s before he defected to the Mughals. They (Persians) rescued French traders and saved them from falling into the hands of the local Kavildar. Iranians had acquired great political influence at the coast of Ayuthia.9

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A group of Christian traders from India was also involved in maritime trade with Southeast Asia. Some of them were Indians, some were of mixed parentage and some were of foreign origin. Among Christians of Indian origin, the two prominent. communities were Syrian Christians who ante-dated the Portuguese, and, based near Madras (Chennai) at Sanjan Tome. On the Malabar coast, they acted as intermediaries between the Portuguese merchants and local suppliers of spices. The other Christian community consisted of members of Parawa fishing community of south Coromandel, they had accepted Christianity when Portuguese after their arrival in India sent missionaries to propagate Christianity. Along with fishing, they were also pearl divers in the Gulf of Mannar. They gradually became petty traders and also acted as crewmembers on Portuguese ships. Many Portuguese who were not in the employ of Estado or many who deserted the Portuguese state, were now free citizens, cassados, and were at liberty to seek their own fortune. Finding Coromandel a promising proposition, they settled in San Thome and carried on maritime trade. A major area of their activity was trade with Southeast Asia; they acted either independently or in collaboration with local traders. They were also joined by mesticoes or offspring of mixed IndoPortuguese parentage. They performed a variety of chores and were employed on ships sailing to different areas. Even when the English took over Madras and the Dutch drove them southwards from Nagapatanam, some ‘Portuguese’ remained to serve as ‘harbour workers, garrison soldiers and suppliers of food, the latter mostly in their role as fishermen (lenders)’. Other Christians based on the Coromandel coast and trading with the Southeast Asian countries came from different parts of Europe, besides a substantial group of Armenians. These Armenians came both from Julfa, their colony in Ispahan and from Armenia. Their knowledge of Persian



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enabled them to act as interpreters for other Europeans but they traded on their own and became very active in Manila trade of the the Coromandel coast. The baptized Indian Christians from Portuguese territories in India (who had been freed), known as Topasses of Mardijkers were settled in the Dutch capital of Batavia. They lived outside the wall of the town. In 1699 they had their own quarter.10 Another group of Indians also resided in Southeast Asian countries. They were slaves who had been purchased by various European countries or by individuals or who had been captured by pirates. The Arakanese often raided Bengal coast and carried away local populations who were then sold in slavery and carried to Southeast Asia to serve in households or to act as labourers on ships. Slaves from India were mostly acquired during famines which ravaged different regions. Numerically they never constituted a large number. The export of slaves was fuelled by the needs of the Dutch in the seventeenth century. They required cheap man power for building forts, settings up colonies, and plantation labour.11 The Dutch made these purchases in Bengal, Orissa, the Godavari delta, Chengleput/North Arcot districts, Thanjavur and Madura. From the beginning the Dutch, were keen on exporting slaves from India to Southeast Asia. Some Indians also sold slaves.12 The importance of manual power of slaves grew when they developed pepper plantations and started to work the gold mines on the west coast of Sumatra.13 In 1622, 1,000 slaves were purchased on the Coromandel coast by the Dutch and sent to Batavia.14 In 1653 the Subahdar of Bengal Muhammad Shuja accused the Dutch of transporting annually ‘5,000 to 6,000 Bengalees kidnapped by the Arakanese slavers as slaves to Batavia’. 15 Some of these slaves seemed to have been sent to Amboina,

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Banda islands to work on nutmeg plantations and ‘in the domestic service of the Dutch planters’.16 The Dutch sent 205 slaves to Malacca where they were employed to carry out ‘a variety of urban tasks’.17 Between 1685-7 food scarcities became common due to the impact of a number of factors. The monsoon had failed in 1685-6 and crops were destroyed. Cholera became epidemic in lower Andhra and caused the deaths of working populations. The Mughal wars also disrupted local economy. As a result people sold themselves to slavery and the slave market became active and profitable. In 1623, 1,123 slaves were sent out while in 1624 their number was 928. Arasaratnam has stated that some Hindu and Muslim merchants of Masulipatnam, Nagapatnam and Porto Novo also regularly shipped slaves to Acheh. Sultan Iskandar Muda (1607-36) of Acheh encouraged the import of slaves because of acute shortage of manpower. Nagapatnam sent slaves to Southeast Asia. The Nayakas encouraged this practice as the export was taxed and the taxation brought income to the Nayaka of Tanjore. Some of the slaves found work in the houses of rich Portuguese merchants located in Southeast Asia. Female slaves were kept as concubines. Many of these slaves served as domestic servants. We can only guess about the life they led. Eventually they would have been integrated in the local population. What motivated the Indians to go to Southeast Asia as traders? Both pull and push factors were operating. A simple answer is the prospect of profit. Cotton textiles were the most important export item from India. The west coast of India, with the exception of Malabar and Canara coasts, and the whole of eastern India from the Coromandel coast to Bengal manufactured cotton textiles; they were available for exports after satisfying local consumption needs. Indian cotton textiles catered to the



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varied demands of Southeast Asians belonging to the lower and the elite strata in terms of design, colour, pattern, and quality. For example Pulicat cloth Portuguese pintadoes, was very popular in the Moluccas.18 In 1612 Hendrik Brouwer, the Dutch founder of a factory in Siam reported that without the textiles of Coromandel, ‘commerce was dead in the Moluccas’.19 Gujarati textiles also sold very well from Malacca to Moluccas.20 Hence the ability to meet these demands ensured a continuing and regular export of India textiles. The other crucial commodity which Southeast Asia received from India was rice. The port towns usually lacked food for their populations; they imported rice from various places including the littoral of the Bay of Bengal. The dependence of port states on imports of rice can be seen in the following incident. In 1640-1 the VOC laid seige to Melaka. After seven months of defence, the Portuguese submitted because the inhabitants were so emaciated that mothers were said to have exhumed their young for food.21 In 1591, the ruler of Masulipatnam wrote to the Portuguese in Melaka that he would send a cargo of rice each year in exchange for passes for two ships. The Portuguese authorities readily agreed to this proposal.22 Bengal, the Mahanadi River Delta in Orissa, the Krishna River Delta in Andhra Pradesh and Cauvery River Delta in Tamil Nadu were regularly exporting rice within India and outside India from Ceylon to Southeast Asia. Bouchon is of the view that instead of textiles rice was more important for obtaining spices.23 In return the Indians could bring back several commodities having ready sale in various regional Indian markets. For example, all spices would have a market in Bengal which catered to the hinterland of Ganga-Yamuna plains reaching up to Delhi. Elephants would be easily sold in Bengal and Orissa and on the Coromandel coast. Lalatendu Das Mohapatra has given data that between 9 September 1679 and 29 May 1685 ships

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arrived at Balasore from Tenaserrim, Achim, Pegu, Cochin China, Arakan, Corunja bringing elephants. These ships were owned by king of Siam, Orissan merchants Khem Chand and Chintaman Shah, Shaista Khan and an unknown Muslim. Mohapatra also notes that between 6 May 1682 and 9 May 1685, two Orissan merchants, Khem Chand and Chintaman Shah imported 63 elephants from Tenasserim and Achin, besides 41 elephants from Jaffanapatnam and Galle in Ceylon.24 Another source of elephants was Kedah in Malaya. When the Dutch occupied Ceylon, an important source of supply of elephants to India was disrupted. Bengal traders turned to Kedah and Arakan for securing elephants and the Dutch were forced to loosen their restrictions over exports of elephants to India.25 The elephant trade was profitable. An elephant purchased in Kedah for 200 Spanish rials was sold in Masulipatnam or Bengal at 15 times the cost price. Valuable spices such as nutmeg, mace and medicinal plants such as camphor and sandalwood found a market all over India. This was another item in high demand in India. Finally, gold was brought from Sumatra and Malaya and precious stones, esp. rubies were imported from Burma.26 An Indian trader thus would always find something valuable and in constant demand in his country to import from Southeast Asia. The trade to Southeast Asia for Indians on the Coromandel coast was also attractive because for Hindus, the situation was more propitious in Southeast Asia than in the countries bordering the Arabian Sea on its north and west. The Southeast Asian countries in the seventeenth century were only partially Islamized. Burma and Siam were Buddhist. In Malaya, the Muslim faith had spread to the coastal areas; this was also true of the Indonesia archipelago. However, the new converts had not disowned their Hindu-Buddhist heritage. Several temples were still standing; the local populace though converted to Islam still bore Hindu names. The Hindus did not find the environment either socially or culturally hostile.27



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In the Candi Panataran Temple complex in eastern Java, an inscription shows that King Kertawijaya (1447-51) ascended the throne after his elder sister Suhita (1429-47). The name of Kertawijaya is immediately followed by that of his wife Dyah Jayeswari, Princess of Daha, described in these words, ‘she who is the living image of the daughter of the Lord of Mountains (i.e. Uma), and whose body was created by lokes (vara), Keseva and Maheswara (i.e. the Buddha, Visnu, and Siva), to be embraced by the king, the Lord of Java (Xavesrasya) to increase the prosperity of mankind and to everyone’s delight.’ The Hindus did not feel that they were living in an hostile cultural or religious environment. The cultural and business environment did not repel them. The political situation also seemed congenial. In Malaya or Indonesia, there were no large kingdoms; small principalities were keen to encourage commerce in order to increase their income. The Indians were also not as possessive as the newlyarrived English and Dutch and were welcome as a counter to European influence. The Hindu trader was also a banker. He supplied credit and issued bills of exchange and was an important component of the local economy. He was acceptable.28 Hence, there was no indigenous factor preventing the immigration of Indian traders, Hindus, Muslims and Christians, to Southeast Asian countries in the seventeenth century. The prevailing political situation in Coromandel prompted traders to migrate to Southeast Asia. The coast had been parcelled out in small entities under the Nayakas during the fifteenth century after the decline of Vijayanagara Empire.29 These Nayakas, many of them Kannada and Telugu speakers, promoted trade and manufactures to enhance their income. In the Thanjavur delta, men of different caste and occupations combined to support and accelerate this process. They settled weavers and textiles were available for export. The local traders also carried it to the shores of Southeast Asian countries. The

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Coromandel Chettis in Southeast Asia were a multilingual and multicaste group. We now turn to a narrative of activities of Indian traders. For convenience, we divide the area into segments: Burma, Malaysia, Indonesian archipelago, the Spice Islands and Siam. For ‘Klings’ and ‘Chulias’ and other Indian traders, the Burmese coast was the first landfall. It had broadly three sectors: Arakan, Pegu, and Tenasserim. Arakan with its port of Chittagong had intimate relations with Bengal. The Arakanese invaded the Bengal Delta and carried away slaves. Pegu, Martban and Syriam attracted Indians for precious stones. They were able to secure Chinese goods there, brought by Chinese merchants on their ships sailing down the river Ava. The ports of Tenasserim and Mergui served as gateway to Siam and its major port Ayuthia. This place allowed Indians to visit the major port of Pattani on the eastern coast of Malaya. Mergui and Tenasserim enabled Indians to procure Siamese elephants and Chinese products. These two also served as trans-shipment points for the export of Indian leather to Siam. The Marakkyar Muslims from Nagapatnam dominated the trade of lower Burma in the early seventeenth century. The most important Marakkyar merchant was Kunj Ali, whose annual trade was worth between 80,000 and 1,00,00 pardaus. Gold was also available at Syriam. In the late 1630s, large Indian imports of textiles caused a slump in the Dutch trade. Here the Dutch obtained bills of exchange, payable on the Coromandel coast to supplement their cash holdings. Indian merchants in Syriam also carried on banking businesses. Excessive imports of cloth by Indians and their Portuguese partners in 1647 caused a glut, adversely affecting Dutch profitability. Close trade ties between Pegu and the Coromandel coast brought in a substantial number of Indians to Tenasserim and Syriam. Muslim merchants belonging to Nagapatnam were also



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active in Southeast Asia. In 1625, they sent 2 ships to Acheh, one to Kedah and one to Pegu. The Dutch realized that Indian merchants hailing from Nagapatnam and other parts of the Coromandel coast were a threat to their trade all over Southeast Asia including their spice trade to Makassar and tin trade to Malaya. The flourishing nature of the trade is clear from the following instances. Malay Chetti, an important trader and one of the richest on the Coromandel coast, in 1634 owned ships voyaging to Arakan, Pegu and Tenasserim.30 Following the death of Malay Chetti, his brother Chinnani assumed his mantle and emerged an equally great trader and shipowner. His ties with the VOC were so close that the Dutch asked him to conduct negotiations on their behalf in 1658 with the Nayak of Thanjavur. These great Indian merchants on the Coromandel coast needed the services of their compatriots in the markets of Southeast Asia to conduct sales and obtain return cargoes on their behalf. As time progressed, the Dutch adopted measures to do away with Indian competition, but the Indian merchant diaspora was thriving and could not be wished away by any competitor, Asian or European. Since Nagapatnam carried on extensive trade with Southeast Asia, we may have a look at it. In 1606 when the Dutch captured the ship Santo Antonio bound for Melaka, it had 800 persons on board. This shows that Indian passengers were an important component of voyages between Indian ports and Southeast Asian ports. In the sixteenth century after the Portuguese captured Melaka, Nagapatnam and Masulipatnam ceased to trade with it. One reason could be that the Portuguese did not want Muslim traders to come to Melaka. Hence, both these ports carried on a regular trade with Aceh, outside Portuguese control but situated in the Straits of Melaka where Muslim traders had relocated themselves after being driven away from Melaka following its occupation by the Portuguese. Its

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Christian community in 1620s, mostly Portuguese Cassados, had opened trade to Manila. The Cassados had shifted here in large numbers from Masulipatnam and Sao Thome after the cessation of Concession Voyages to Pegu and Melaka. The Concession Voyages were designed by the Portuguese ruling authorities after the Crown had decided to stop sending ships, and instead permitted Portuguese citizens to send ships to these places. The Cassados based in Nagapatnam frequently travelled to Southeast Asian countries for trade. They were found in Ujanselang, Trang, Bengeri, Kedah, Martaban, Mergui, Aceh, Melaka, Makassar, and Manila. The discovery of a Cross in the compound of a Hindu merchant from the Coromandel coast in Melaka also suggested the immigration of Christians from these parts to Melaka. One of the Christian merchants in the 1620s had virtually created a small mercantile empire for himself in 1620s. It covered the area up to Makassar. By 1643 Nagapatnam though under the Nayak of Tanjore, had come under the virtual domination of the Cassados. In 1648-9 and 1649-50 respectively, six and five ships sailed to Makassar, Aceh, Mergui and Pegu. But it suffered a setback when hostilities with the Dutch began in 1652. The Dutch captured it on 20 July 1658. The Cassados fled to Porto Novo, a few miles north and those who did not leave became brokers for the Dutch. Porto Novo developed maritime trade to Southeast Asia. By 1680 it was the most important port, south of Madras on the Coromandel coast. Between 1681 and 1686 several ships sailed from Porto Novo to Pegu, Aceh and Melaka: Mannual Teixeira Pinto was the most important trader. He had carved out a mini-trading empire in Southeast Asia. In other words, Nagapatanam’s old trade with Southeast Asia continued, although now it had a disturbing factor in shape of the Dutch. Now Nagapatanam began regular trading with Melaka which had earlier come under Dutch occupation. The Dutch received a consignment of rice from Nagapatanam to feed the local population. A distinguished Portuguese trader



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of Nagapatnam who made his mark in 1630s was Francisco Vieira de Figueirado. He moved to Makassar and the lesser Sunda islands and had more dealings with ‘Gentiles’, i.e. nonMuslim and non-Christian traders (mostly Buddhists and Hindus). He had extensive trade relations with Manila and Melaka. In the seventeenth century, Indians in Southeast Asia, mostly engaged in trade, faced threat to their existence, mostly from the activities of the Dutch. In 1639, the Coromandel traders flooded the markets of Tenasserim, Kedah, Achin and their adjoining markets with textiles. This greatly annoyed the Dutch who decided to adopt retaliatory measures. In 1647, the Dutch instructed their factors not to issues passes to Indian ships sailing to Achin, Melaka, ‘tin quarters’ of Perak, Queda, Oujang-Selang (Junck-Ceylon), etc. The order could never be fully implemented. Mir Jumla, the Prime Minister of Golconda and also a major trader, disobeyed the Dutch and in 1649 sent ships to Southeast Asia. Nagapatanam traders sent ships to Southeast Asia in defiance to Dutch orders. The Dutch factors in Bengal ignored the orders of their superiors and issued passes to Bengal merchants which enabled them to send ships to Southeast Asia. Eventually the Dutch withdrew their prohibitory order in 1651. The Dutch persisted in their attempts to gain political ascendancy. They captured Melaka in 1641; the Achinese ruler had helped the Dutch to attack Melaka. They also secured control over Nagapatanam, the major port on the Coromandel coast, engaged in maritime trade with Southeast Asia in 1658.31 The Dutch also adopted a number of other measures to prevent Indians from trading with Malayan ports. They imposed a duty of 10 per cent of their value on textiles entering Melaka in non-Dutch ships as compared to 2½ per cent laid upon goods coming on Dutch ships. The Dutch asked all nonDutch ships trading to Malayan ports to obtain their prior

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permission and passes. Shopkeepers selling Indian textiles had to pay two guilders per month as licence fee while shops selling Company textiles paid only one guilder per month. The Dutch ships patrolled the Straits to deny entry to Indian ships. The Dutch attempts did not succeed. Indian ships continued to evade the Dutch blockade. In 1677 one Nabob Mamet Aminchan, an Indian trader, took elephants from Perak to India in his yacht. Muslim ships from Surat were trading in tin directly with Kedah. Many Indian ships escaped Dutch blockade by flying French, Portuguese, Danish or English flags.32 It can thus be seen that Indian immigration to Southeast Asia was a continuous process in the seventeenth century. Like the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, the Dutch in the seventeenth failed to stop Indian immigration to Southeast Asia. Indians have been established on both sides of Malaya peninsula and islands off its eastern shore several centuries before the English and Dutch intrusion in the area. Indians carried textiles and brought back locally produced tin and spices, cultivated in the Indonesian archipelago along with Chinese goods, available in different trade emporia of the region. Melaka was the centre of their activities. The pattern of trade in the spice islands, Makassar, was slightly altered as Portuguese based in Macau now began visiting these places. They also came to Ayuthia in Siam.33 But if they competed with Indians of all hues, they also collaborated with them. In mid-seventeenth century English pirates had entered the region and they collaborated with other traders in intra-Asian trade.34 In Makassar there were traders from Cochin (west coast of India), Coromandel coast, Melaka, Manila and Macau.35 It is quite possible that many Indian traders came from Melaka where they were already well entrenched for the last two centuries and where Indian ships came to take back home



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products from the spice Islands such as sandal wood, camphor, nutmegs, etc. It is not surprising that when Sir Henry Middleton visited Ternate on the Moluccan Islands, he noted Gujarati traders collaborating with Dutch traders in fixing the prices of goods brought by them.36 Prince Prameswara of Palembang fled after an attack by Majahpahit and established a port in Malacca c.1400. It was the ‘purest entrepôt state’ as it had no significant products of its own.37 By 1480s Malacca controlled main populated centres throughout Southern Malay peninsula and central and east coast of Sumatra.38 Malacca was the biggest gold emporium of Asia since gold came from Siam and Pattani. Borneo also supplied gold though of a poorer kind. Minangkabu in Sumatra had gold mines. This was a major attraction for Indians to stay in Malacca and frequent this place.39 Indians played a major role in Malacca and Hindu and Muslims from India formed an important component of its trading population. The Hindu lived in their own Kampong and one of the four Bandharas of Malaka was a Hindu Chetti from the Coromandel coast. When the Portuguese Governor Albuquerque took over Melaka in 1511 and established their monopoly, Asian merchants dispersed to other ports in order to bypass the Portuguese control.40 The Portuguese did not disturb Hindu traders because they were considered potential allies against the Muslims. They had helped the Portuguese against the Muslims. The Muslims shifted to Atjeh. While the Portuguese rewarded the Hindu merchant Nanu Chetti, they excuted the head of the Muslims, Timuta Raga.41 This contributed to the rise of Atjeh on the Sumatran coast where Indian Muslim traders including Gujaratis relocated themselves. The Portuguese-Hindu alliance in Melaka survived several ups and downs. The Portuguese captains utilized the services of Hindu merchants; in 1601. They employed them as factors and borrowed money.42

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The Portuguese-Hindu alliance had enabled the Hindus to consolidate their position in the economy of Melaka. According to a contemporary author 300 ships annually arrived in Melaka. ‘Mostly Klings came.’ They generally brought textiles which was not on the official Portuguese trade list.43 Christians from Sao Tome and Negapatanam went to Perak to bring tin. They avoided Melaka.44 As our account shows, Melaka even after Portuguese occupation retained its character as the main entrepôt of Indian goods in Southeast Asia. The Klings arrived in October and stayed till January when they sailed back home.45 Ships crossing the Straits of Malacca paid duties in Malacca. To boost their income from customs duties at Melaka, the Portuguese elite on the Coromandel coast were granted permission to send ships without paying for passes. In 1570s these were the concession voyages and the ships sailed to China, Bengal, Martaban, Kedah, Pahang, Patni, Sunda, Makassar and Borneo.46 This decision of the Portuguese gave a fillip to India’s maritime trade to Southeast Asia and Indians sailed to these areas for trade. South of Malacca, in 1605, Gujaratis were to be found in Johore selling textiles.47 An additional factor promoting the diaspora of nonMuslims from India to these countries was the fact that Central and East Java was still claimed by Hindu and Buddhist kings.48 Islam was mostly entrenched in areas, important in international trade, such as Sumatran shores of the Straits of Malacca, Malaya peninsula, north coast of Java, Brunei, Suta and Naluku.49 Timor and Sambe famous for sandalwood were Islamized according to Pires.50 Portuguese intrusion in the Straits of Malacca created an animosity among Muslim so intense that the Portuguese did not trade with Muslim port-towns of Java; they entered into diplomatic and commercial relations with Hindu-Buddhist kings of eastern Java still free from Islamic influence.51 As a result



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Portuguese relied more and more on Hindu merchants and Portuguese toleration of Hindus was a fall out of their feud with the Muslims in the archipelago. The Portuguese Muslim contradiction caused a shift of Indian traders especially to Aceh. The Indians, especially the Gujaratis developed the pepper trade of Aceh to Aden in 1530s in which the Gujaratis played a leading role. They brought textiles and carried pepper to Aden and received bullion in return for pepper. Enmity surfaced between Portuguese Melaka and Muslims.52 Aceh’s attack on Malacca in 1568 encouraged Malabaris from Calicut to join the Achinese army.53 The Achinese also attacked Bengal and Peguan ships bound for Melaka.54 Only when the Portuguese trade with spice island declined, did some Portuguese private traders begin to visit Muslim-controlled ports in Java. Hindu traders, welcomed Portuguese support but they did not shun Aceh, since its flourishing business climate provided them greater opportunities to earn profits. Achin (Aceh) had secured control over pepper producing areas of Pasi and Pidie and was in a position to meet the demand of pepper. It was also in control of gold mines of Minangkaban.55 Therefore, Hindu traders could secure two most-sought ofter commodities, pepper and gold in Aceh and hence they continued to visit Aceh and did not allow Portuguese and Muslims to stop them from coming to Aceh for business purposes. Achin became the major concentration point of India in Sumatra. It is said that her traders ‘were mostly of Indian origin’.56 When Sir James Lancaster reached Achin in 1603, he found Gujarati ships among the sixteen or eighteen ships berthed there.57 Thomas Best noted Gujarati presence in Achin in 1613 but commented ‘they were barred form trading in Tiku, Priaman or other places only recently conqured by the king of Achin, because the place was flooded with textiles brought by them.’ The Gujaratis in Achin were wealthy.58 But they were already facing European competition.59 A Dutch factor writing in 1638

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spoke of Gujarati ships between 100 and 3,000 tons annually leaving for Achin, carrying ‘opium, cotton and various Gujarat cloths’. They brought back pepper and other spices, sulphur, benzoin camphor, porcelain and tin.60 Achin or Aceh, named by Pires at the turn of the sixteenth century as a pirate land, had become an emporium. Gujarati and other Muslim traders had shifted thereafter the Portuguese occupation of Malacca in 1511, and it now competed with Melaka.61 It was a port of call for Gujaratis throughout the sixteenth century. Under Sultan Iskandar Muda (r. 1607-36) Aceh emerged as the leading military power of the western archipelago; it also rivalled Melaka as a centre of trade. In 1601 two Dutch merchants, Hans de Wolf and Lafer visited Surat on a Gujarati ship coming from Achin. The Sultan of Aceh gave them a letter of introduction to the Mughal ruler. For Indian merchants, the Portuguese occupation of Melaka was only a temporary displacement. Many of them, mostly Muslims, shifted their activities to Achin and regions, outside Portuguese control.62 He defeated Johor in 1613 and in 1614 he defeated Portuguese and other rulers of the Malay peninsula. As a result Aceh was now ‘the paramount power over the trading ports of northern Sumatra.’63 In 1621 the king of Achin allowed pepper to be sold to Masulipatnam merchants at a concessional price.64 Achin became an emporium of Coromandel textiles for being supplied to whole of Sumatra.65 This brought traders flocking to Aceh; Indian traders also came to Atjeh. Indian Muslim traders including Gujaratis had shifted to Aceh in the sixteenth century when the Portuguese captured Malacca in 1511. After Sultan Muda’s death, his son-in-law Iskandar Thani Mughayat Syeh (r. 1636-41) ruled briefly. He was followed by four queens to 1699. Johor became important with the help of the Dutch who also captured Malacca. There was another relocation for the Indians. To escape Dutch control Indian traders shifted to Aceh as



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some of them had done when the Portuguese had conqured Melaka. In fact, the Indian Ocean merchants were more successful in ports where the Dutch were not in a commanding position. This was the reason why Surat after some distruption resumed sailings to Southeast Asia in the second half of the seventeenth century. Aceh enabled Indians to carry on trade with Johor even after the Dutch captured Melaka and established themselves firmly in Batavia in Java. For Indians Achin remained a safe haven throughout the seventeenth century despite English competition and Dutch hold over Java. Muslim Indians had entrenched themselves in the port towns of the Indonesian archipelago, especially Atjeh and Banten. The Dutch and the English hated their competition because they could not ‘supersede the established Indian traders in his knowledge of the local demand and the low level of his price’. They claimed that ‘peddling Choullyas (Chulias) had ruined the Indian piece-goods market for the English in the 1670s, ‘At Atjeh the English had to stop their trade in that place so long as the Dutch allowed the Indians to traffic there, but as soon as the Dutch kept the Indians away, the English were able to come back,’ says a source. Ultimately the Dutch allowed Indians to trade. The Indian diaspora in Atjeh received indirect support from Mughal policies towards the Dutch. The Mughal ruling class was interested in carrying on maritime trade with Atjeh and its adjoining areas. The ruling house of Atjeh was also supportive of Mughal desire.The Dutch decided to favour the Mughal ruler since this would have the consent of Atjeh ruler and also it would win Mughal approval for their extensive commercial operations on the Mughal territory. In 1651 the Dutch lifted the proviso that a pass must be secured for a trip to Atjeh. Two years later the Company agreed to extend passes to all Indian vessels to ‘Atjeh and other quarters.’66

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When the English and the Dutch East India Companies arrived in Southeast Asia, Aceh was their destination as they were not welcome to the Portuguese held places. In the sixteenth century when the Portuguese through their hold over Melaka regulated shipping in the Straits, the indigenous population, Indians (both Hindus and Muslims) from the Coromandel coast, and other wary of Portuguese interference moved to ports on the north Javanese coast. One of the ports which served as a focal point of their activities was Bantam or Banten. This had become an important pepper exporting area under Hasanuddin (1552-70) and had extended authority to pepper-producing areas of Lampung in South Sumatra. It is clear that Indian Muslims, especially from Gujarat were to be found all over north Javanese ports. They came mostly from Banten, a stronghold of Gujarati merchants. Indians had made their mark in Banten. Some occupied top positions in the government. The Shahbander and Admiral were Klings.67 The Shahbandar was from Meliapur and was a member of the King’s council. The Gujaratis sold their textiles and bought pepper. In 1598, they carried away 3,000 bags of pepper in one ship.68 This shows the hold of the Gujaratis in the local pepper trading. The Gujaratis had forged contacts with merchants in neighbouring areas. A Gujarati shipper in 1616 was in close touch with Muslim merchants of the adjoining port of Jepara.69 The Dutch admitted the strong grip of Gujaratis on pepper trade in Banten. According to them a Gujarati was responsible for the high prices of pepper because ‘he had gone to Europe and knew the high prices they fetched’.70 We learn that in August 1618, the Gujarati who governed Jepara (the port of Mataran) on behalf of the greatest Matram ruler Agung (r. 1613-46) attacked the Dutch post. M.A.P. Meilink-Roelofsz thinks the Governor could be either a Gujarati or a Persian. Three Dutch men where killed in his attack. Others were taken prisoner. The Dutch retaliation was not long in coming. In November 1618, the Dutch burnt all



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the Javanese ships at Japara and Coen on way to conquering Batavia. In 1619 he burnt it again.71 It became their headquarters in the archipelago. However, the traders did not give in; the spirit of resistance survived. Agung attacked Batavia in 1628 but returned with heavy losses.72 The Dutch strongly resented the role of Gujaratis in Javanese economy, especially its pepper trade, their own major concern. The Dutch Governor-General Coen was keen to eliminate them completely. During the attack on Jepara, the Dutch soldiers had clear instructions, not to spare a single Gujarati. Agung continued to cultivate the Portuguese and Indians as a counterforce to the Dutch. He maintained diplomatic relations with Portuguese in Malacca and India.73 His distrust of the Dutch power was justified. In the 1620s and 1630s, the Hindu and Buddhist kings of Balambangan appealed to VOC for help against Agung. The VOC refused. Agung destroyed it during 1636-40, but he failed to impose Islam upon the locals who continued to follow their old religion.74 The elite was now definitely accepting Islam; this was adding to the woes of the non-Muslim and non-Christian diaspora of Indians in the archipelago. The Bantam Sultan in the late seventeenth century appointed Chulia agents on the Coromandel coast to purchase cargoes for him.75 We have an important example of trade ties between Gujarat and Bantam. In Java in 1682 the Dutch authorities captured two ships, one belonging to Abdul Rey and another to Abdul Ghafur (the greatest merchant of Surat) bound for Manila, the capital of the Philippines. The captain had a pass issued by the Dutch which specified for both the ships, Melaka as the port of call and Manila, as the port of destination. The Dutch held both the ships as they berthed in Bantam. The excuse offered by both the captains was that they were short of food and water and hence, they had taken refuge in the port. Instead of confiscating these ships, the Dutch loaded them with goods

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worth 10,000 guilders and sent them to Manila in June. The ships returned the following March. We have no idea the profit the Dutch made. The Dutch-Abdul Ghafur co-operation continued; he sent more ships to Manila.76 The incident reminds us that strong trade-links between Gujarat and Banten helped Gujaratis to stay there (now a centre of Asiatic trade in the area). The booming trade to Manila enabled Indian merchants to go there. We have no idea if Indian merchants lived there even after the departure of their ships or they were mere birds of passage. The Indian Diaspora had benefited from failure of the Dutch to establish complete supremacy over India by carrying on their business in places free from Dutch control. The Dutch and other European companies also realized the value of Indian support and tried to accommodate them in their business plan. As a result Indian diaspora not only managed to survive but was able to carry on its business as effectively as in the past. Grise, a natural harbour in Java, was a traditional port of call for Indians, esp. for the Gujarati Muslims after they had been expelled by Portuguese from Melaka in 1511. It had Indian merchants from Bengal, Calicut and Gujarat.77 The non-Muslim Indians were faced with more critical situation. Islam was rapidly advancing in the archipelago. Between 1608-11, Islam became the religion of the BugisMakassarese area;78 the small principalities hoped to gain support from kingdoms which had already adopted Islam as its religion. The tendency towards expanding Islamization is evident from the fact that in 1633 Agung officially abandoned the use of Indian Saka era. He adopted a hybrid Javanese Islamic calendric system.79 The Dutch eventually conquered Banten in 1682. It ended all the Indian and Asian competition they faced in the pepper trade of Java.



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The Coromandel Portuguese faced Dutch hostility. In May 1640, the Dutch decided that all Indian ships carrying Portuguese wares to Pegu, Achin and other places were to be accosted by Dutch cruisers and forced to surrender the enemy’s merchandise.80 This adversely affected Portuguese shipping from the Coromandel and in 1640-1 they failed to send ‘abroad a single ship . . .’ .81 Along with the Dutch the English also became active in Coromandel-Southeast Asian trade. They carried so much textile to Achin (Aceh) which eventually reached Johore and other places and which made sale of India textiles impossible.82 The European trade policies acted as deterents for Indian traders bound for Southeast Asia. For example, the Dutch in the 1630s and 1640s asked the local trader Chinama ‘to abandon his trade with Pegu’ and in return offered to sell him all their imports from Pegu.83 In spite of handicaps, Indians continued to sail to Southeast Asia and even the Dutch decided to accept Indian emigration as a fact of life and carried Indians and their cargoes to Southeast Asia.84 Indian traders were so well entrenched that they along with the King of Queda sent ships to the Coromandel coast even without Dutch passes.85 Indian merchants posed a threat to Company’s profitability in spite of Dutch conquest of Malacca. In 1647 the Dutch factories in India were ‘forbidden to give passes to any India ships for Achin, Malacca, the “tin quarters” of Perak, Queda, Oujang-Salang (Junck Ceylon), etc., and any other places thereabout or further east’. All ships sailing to these prohibited, regions would be seized as legitimate booty.86 The Dutch control failed to prevent Indians and Indian shipping from going to Southeast Asia. Indians simply ignored the Dutch fiat. In 1666 the Qazi of Sri Kakole sent a ship to Tenasserim ‘with an English pass only, . . . and Hindu merchant sailed to Malacca without any pass at all’.87 One way the Indian managed to overcome the Dutch-

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imposed restrictions which lowered the rate of profit.88 For example, Indian merchants in Southeast Asia sold their cloth at a profit of 20 per cent and invested the proceeds in purchasing ‘gold and Japanese conbags’ which brought them another ‘15 per cent profit in Coromandel’.89 Another ploy adopted by the Indians was to theoretically sell their ships which would then sail under European flags to all parts of Southeast Asia including Bantan.90 Apparently these measures were successful. ‘In 1681, 28 ships are reported to have sailed from Porto Novo alone for Achin, Queda, Manila and Bengal with more then 12, 000 packs of cloth.’91 During 1681-2, ships from north Coromandel ports, Pulicut, Porto Novo and Nagapatanam sailed to Achin, Arakan, Pegu, Macao, Tenesserim, Malacca, Manila, Oujang-Selang, etc., indicating the regular influx of Indians in Southeast Asia. Under the first three Governors-General, (1610-19), the Dutch headquarters were in Ambon, but Jan Pieterszoon (1619-23) decided to shift it to Batavia or Jakarta.92 From now onwards Batavia became the headquarters of Dutch trade in the Orient. Geographically it was situated almost in the middle of the territory extending from Malaya to the Moluccas. The Dutch could therefore actively interfere in the ports abutting the straits of Malacca on the Malayan and the Sumatran territories and also on the spice islands of Macassar and the Moluccas. In the seventeenth century, the Indian Diaspora had to compete with the Dutch traders who could, like the Portuguese, call upon their naval power to support their claims. The Dutch were followed by the English East India Company. However, they were unable to assert themselves to the extent as the Dutch. The massacre of Englishmen in 1623 in Amboina forced the English East India Company to limit their operations and be careful about the Dutch susceptibilities in the area. But the Indians successfully withstood Dutch competition and coercion. They sent ships from their Indian homeland



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and resided in Southeast Asian ports to conduct their affairs throughout the seventeenth century. Indian traders in Southeast Asia appeared to have retained contact with merchants on the Coromandel coast. The Coromandel traders regularly exported skins and leather to Siam from where they were ‘carried by Chinese traders to Japan.’93 In 1654 the Dutch reported loss in their profits.94 Coromandel cloth was also sent to Siam through Tenasserim.95 McPherson notes, ‘when the English and the Dutch attempted to break into the profitable Ayuthia trade in the early 17th century they found Coromandel trade well entrenched.’96 Broadly speaking some understanding existed between the Kelings or Klings (as the Hindu merchants were called) and the Portuguese. Indian Muslims consisting of the Chuliyas, Gujarati, Malabaris, etc., mostly operated in ports outside the Portuguese sphere of influence. Christians (including those from India) were active in ports dominated by the Portuguese. But overlaps were frequent.

Other Activities Indians, besides being traders, were in other jobs as well. We cannot describe in detail their non-trade activities as data concerning them are meagre. Our prime sources of information are documents of trading companies; they only incidentally and occasionally refer to non-trading activities of Indians. Indians sometimes served in armed forces of the locals. The Portuguese in Melaka in 1640-1 had some ‘500 black troops’, probably non-Muslim Indians since local population would not join the Portuguese army.97 Many Indians served as members of the crew coming from India. They were also recruited on ships plying to different parts of Malaya and the Indonesian archipelago. The social life of Indians in Melaka and elsewhere in the region cannot be described at length owing to scanty

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information we have with us. In 1678 they numbered 761 with 372 males (both Hindu and Muslims). There were 100 women and 75 children. There were 86 slaves, 35 male and 51 female. The children of slaves numbered 128. It seems that the women slaves in Hindu households included local Malay women.98 Rich Hindu merchants brought domestic servants, cooks and cleaners, from India. They had their washermen who also served the Portuguese.99 Sailings in those times were dependant upon the wind system. Masulipatam, the most important port on the Coromandel coast carried on trade with Bengal, Arakan, Pegu, Tenasserim, Melaka, Johore, Aceh, Bantam, Makassar and Ayuthia, etc., remained closed between October and December.100 The Dutch sailing to Southeast Asia from Europe bypassed India and utilized the ‘roaring Forties’ to reach the Indonesian archipelago. The Malay peninsula and the Indonesian archipelago were situated at the junction of the opposing wind systems and therefore, required special skill on the part of the crew to reach different ports, scattered all over the area. Melaka flourished because it was situated at the junction of two wind systems ‘at the point where the two monsoon winds die down . . .’ .101

Conclusion The Indian Diaspora we have described consisted mostly of traders. These traders hailed from different regions of India and followed different religions. It is clear that Indian traders from Gujarat and Coromandel predominated. The Gujaratis were mostly Muslims while traders from the Coromandel coast included Hindus, Muslims and Christians. In different times and at different places all the three communities from the Coromandel coast dominated local economy. But their greatest achievement was their strategy for survival. They



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weathered all opposition from the locals and the Europeans and managed to stay in the limelight. Hats off to our compatriots of the bye-gone age. NOTES 1. Charles Verlinden, in ‘The Indian Ocean: The Ancient Period and the

Middle Ages’, in Satish Chandra (ed.), The Indian Ocean: Explorations in History, pp. 27-53. 2. O.J. Gernet, A History of Chinese Civilization, Cambridge, 1988. 3. W.W. Rockhill, ‘Notes on Relations and Trade of China with the Eastern Archipelogo and the Indian Ocean during the Fifteenth Century’, in To’ung Pao, vol. XV, 1914, pp. 423-44; Yamanoto, ‘International Relations Between China and the Countries Along the Ganga in Early Ming Period’, Indian Historical Review, vol. V, no. 1, July 1977, pp. 1319, and Harprasad Ray, Trade and Diplomacy in Indo-China Relations: A Study of Bengal during the 15th Century, New Delhi, 1995. 4. G.R. Tibbets, A Study of the Arabic Texts Containing Material on South East Asia, Leiden, 1979. 5. S. Muthiah, Meenakshi Meyappan, Visalakshi Ramaswami, The Chettiar Heritage, Chennai, 2000. 6. S. Arasaratnam and Anirudha Ray, Masulipatnam and Cambay: A History of Two Ports 1500-1800, Delhi, 1994. 7. S. Arasaratnam, Merchants, Companies and the Coromandel Coast 1630-1740, Calcutta, 1986. 8. Kenneth McPherson, ‘Chulias and Klings: Indigenous Trade Diasporas and European Penetration of the Indonesian Littoral’, in Borsa (ed.), Trade and Politics in the Indian Ocean: Historical and Contemporary Perspective, Delhi, 1990, p. 35. 9. Sanjay Subrahmanyam, ‘Iranians Abroad: Intra-Asian Elite Migration and Early Modern State Formation’, The Journal of Asian Studies 5 (1992), 340-63. 10. Remco Raben, ‘Facing the Crowd: The Urban Ethnic Policy of the Dutch East India Company: 1600-1800’, in K.S. Mathew (ed.), Mariners, Merchants and Oceans, Delhi, 1995, pp. 217, 219. 11. S. Arasaratnam, ‘Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century’, in K.S. Mathew (ed.), Mariners, Merchants and Oceans, Delhi, 1995. 12. Tapan Raychaudhuri, p. 165. 13. Ibid., p. 200. 14. Ibid., p. 203.

192 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

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Ibid. p. 202. Ibid. p. 203. Ibid. p. 205. George D. Winius, The Merchant Warrior Pacified, Delhi, 1991, p. 48. Ibid., p. 13. Ibid., pp. 23-4. The Cambridge History of South East Asia, ed. Nichol and Tarling I, Cambridge, 1992, p. 425. 22. M.A.P. Meilink-Roelofsz, Asian Trade and European Influence in the Indonesian Archpelago between 1500 and about 1630, The Hague, 1962, p. 172. 23. Bouchon, ‘Trade in the India Ocean at the Dawn of the Sixteenth Century’, in Chaudhury and Morineau (eds.), pp. 42-5. 24. Lalatendu Das Mohapatra, ‘Elephant Trade in Orissa in the Seventeenth Century’, in Maritime Activities and Trade in Orissa, Bhubaneswar, 1996. 25. Sinnapah Arasaratnam, Dutch Power in Ceylon 1658-1657, Amsterdam, 1958. 26. S. Jeyaseela Stephen, Portuguese in the Tamil Coast, Pondicherry, 1998. 27. K.R. Hall, ‘Ritual Transitions and Kingship in Fifteenth Century Java: A View from the Candi Panataran Complex’, in K.R. Hall (ed.), Structure and Society in Early South India, Delhi, 2001. 28. Raychaudhuri, p. 82. 29. Y. Subbarayalu, ‘Arasus of the Puddukkottai Region and the Nayaka System’, in K.R. Hall (ed.), Structure and Society in Early South India, Delhi, 2001. 30. Kanakalata Mukund, The Trading World of the Tamil Merchant, Chennai, 1999. 31. K.A. Nilkanta Sastri, ‘Two Nagapatam Grants from the Batavia Museum’, in Proceedings, Indian Historical Records Commission, Mysore, 1938, p. 41. 32. K.S. Sandhu, Early Malaysia, Singapore, 1973, p. 67. 33. The Portuguese Empire . . ., p. 205. 34. Ibid., p. 214. 35. Ibid., p. 209. 36. William Foster, ed., The Voyage of Sir Henry Middleton to the Molucca 1604-1606, London, 1943, pp. 31-2. 37. M.C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia c. 1300 to the Present, 1981, p. 18. 38. Ibid., p. 18. 39. Meilink-Roelofsz, Asian Trade and European Influence in the Indonesian Archpelago between 1500 and about 1630, The Hague, 1962, pp. 80-1.



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40. Ricklefs, p. 21. 41. Sandhu, p. 65. 42. Meilink-Roelofsz, p. 169. 43. Ibid., p. 172. 44. Ibid., p. 169. 45. Ibid., p. 67. 46. The Portuguese Empire, p. 232. 47. Meilink-Roelofsz, p. 142. 48. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia c. 1300 to the Present, 1981. 49. Ibid., p. 8. 50. Ibid., p. 8. 51. Meilink-Roelofsz, p. 151. 52. Niels Steensgaard, ‘The Indian Ocean Network and the Emerging World Economy’, in Satish Chandra (ed.), Indian Ocean, pp. 134-5. 53. Meilink-Roelofsz, p. 144. 54. Ibid., p. 145. 55. Ibid., p. 142. 56. Tapan Raychaudhuri, p. 123. 57. William Foster (ed.), The Voyage of Sir James Lancaster in Brazil and the East India 1591-1603, London, 1940, p. 90. 58. Letters Received by the East Indian Company from the Servants in the East, vol. I, 1602-1608, London, 1896, p. 254. 59. Foster, ed., Letters Received by the East India Company from the Servants in the East, vol. III, p. 228. 60. W.H. Moreland, ‘John Van Twist’s “Description of India” ’, Journal of Indian History, vol. XVI, 1937, p. 75. 61. Meilink-Roelofsz, p. 90. 62. The Merchant Warrior Pacified, p. 24. 63. Meilink-Roelofsz, pp. 31-2. 64. Tapan Raychaudhuri, p. 120. 65. Ibid., p. 121. 66. The Merchant Warrior . . . , p. 64. 67. Meilink-Roelofsz, p. 240. 68. Ibid., p. 243. 69. Ibid., p. 243. 70. Ibid., p. 248 71. Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, London, 1977, p. 112. 72. Meilink-Roelofsz, p. 42. 73. Ibid., p. 43. 74. Ibid., p. 44. 75. McPherson, p. 37.

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76. Chaudhury and Morineau (eds.), Merchants, Companies and Trade: Europe and Asia in Early Merchant Era, pp. 199-200. 77. Meilink-Roelofsz, pp. 107, 110. 78. Ibid., p. 45. 79. Ibid., p. 43. 80. Tapan Raychaudhuri, p. 97. 81. Ibid., p. 98. 82. Ibid., p. 108. 83. Ibid., p. 122. 84. Ibid., pp. 123, 133. 85. Ibid., p. 123. 86. Ibid., p. 123. 87. Ibid., p. 126. 88. Ibid., p. 125. 89. Ibid., p. 125. 90. Ibid., p. 127. 91. Ibid., p. 127. 92. Meilink-Roelofsz, pp. 26-7. 93. Tapan Raychaudhuri, p. 176. 94. Ibid., p. 177. 95. Ibid., p. 121. 96. McPherson, ‘Chulia and Klings’, p. 37. 97. Sandhu, Early Malaysia, p. 113, fn. 364. 98. Ibid., p. 69. 99. Ibid., p. 70. 100. Merchants, Companies and Trade . . . , pp. 15, 42. 101. Bouchon, ‘Trade in the Indian Ocean at the Dawn of the Sixteenth Century’, in Chaudhury and Morineau (eds.), Merchants, Companies and Trade: Europe and Asia in Early Merchant Era, Cambridge, 1999, p. 43.

• 12 •

Indians around the Pamirs, c. ad 1800

Routes The Pamirs on the crest of the Indian subcontinent, have in the eighteenth century acted as a corridor to and from India for visitors of three major regions: Badakshan in the north-west (now a part of the Tajikistan Republic); Yarkand, Kashgar, Aksu and Kulja (now a part of the People’s Republic of China and historically known as Sinkiang or Eastern Turkestan). The local population professed Islamic faith and were racially Turks (this area was also known as Kashgaria, Bukharia or lesser Bukharia);1 and Yerkand, Khotan, Tibet in the northeast. An Indian intending to travel to the Pamirs from the Kashmir Valley, Ladakh, or Himachal Pradesh could take the route of his choice. As Janet Rizvi has pointed out, ‘it was not so much a route as a whole complex of routes’.2 From the Kashmir Valley one might go to Badakshan via Gilgit, with the option to move further to Afghanistan, and to modern Uzbekistan along the Oxus River. Thereafter the trade marts of Samarkand and Bukhara are within easy reach; one may journey to Yarkand as well. This route enabled an Indian to cover a wide territory especially if he decided to return via Kabul, Peshawar, and Attock to reach the Punjab and then enter Kashmir and Ladakh. An enterprising trader could exploit business possibilities available in the area to earn profit. By taking the Srinagar, Leh, Yarkand, Kashgar, Kulja route, one could either enter the Ferghana Valley from Kashgar and

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then march on to Osh to Andijan3 and Kokand and the cities north of the Syr Darya or he had before him the Kazakh steppe. In the north towns of Syr Darya basin, Tashkent Khojen are the goal. Tashkent was well-connected with the Russian trademart Orenburg and other trade centres of the region, Bukhara, Samarkand, and Khiva.4 On the return trip, an individual could take the much used road via Afghanistan and the Punjab. An Indian in Kashgar could travel further north, visiting the trade-marts of Aksu and Kulja and then make a detour westward to the Kazakh steppe to head for the fortress of Semipalatinsk, originally erected by the Russians in 17185 to serve as the starting point for their trading caravans destined to visit Kulja. From Kulja, one could also go to Urumchi, an entrepôt of Chinese and Mongolian commodities on the edge of Mongolia. But rarely would an Indian venture so far: his lines of communication would already have been overstretched. Finally, from the Pamirs, another region accessible to Indians was Tibet, within easy reach from Yarkand, which had regular traffic from Leh in Ladakh.6 An Indian on the Pamirs stood at the junction of trade routes which ran to all the four directions. He could choose to go to the trading world of Tibet, Sinkiang or eastern Turkestan, the Kazakh steppes, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan and Afghanistan— all lay before him. In the eighteenth century, the Indians used these roads to carry on trade and sometimes even went to Siberia and China.7 In spite of the vast market accessible to them, Indians were never able to assume a high profile in this area, even though they did not lack capital, nor entrepreneurship, nor trading skill nor tradition. The reason was the nature of the terrain, which precluded any vehicular traffic and permitted only the use of pack-animals and men for transporting goods. Hence, only high value trade in non-bulky items was generally taken up.



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Traders The majority of those participating in this trade, hailed from the Kashmir Valley for three reasons. First, geographically they were so placed that they had the easiest access to the Pamirs either via Leh or via the Hunza country. Second, commodities available in the area for export included goat’s wool or pashm, the raw material for the world famous Kashmiri shawls. This wool could be procured only from the trade marts of Yarkand, Kashgar and Khotan. Kashmiri merchants were keen to ensure its regular supply to their artisans, but despite their best efforts, were never able to bring in sufficient quantities of pashm and the gap in the supply was filled by others, such as Kokandis or Andijanis, Central Asians on Tibetans, and later occasional Russians, who journeyed with the commodity to Leh or even to Srinagar. Kashmir had a long-standing tradition of contacts with these areas. Residents of Kashmir and countries adjoining the Pamirs had been visiting each other either in pursuit of trade, learning, work, or pure adventure since ancient times. We know of the medieval Kashmiri Sultan Zainuddin as a young man going to Samarkand and living for seven years in the court of Timur8 where he observed a number of crafts such as carpet-weaving, papier-mache, silk rearing, and paper making. He introduced these crafts in the Valley, on his return when he ascended the throne in 1420.9 Mirza Doughlat entered Kashmir and established his rule on behalf of the Mughals.10 Thereafter, from Humayun to Aurangzeb, Mughal rule successfully controlled the Valley and extended its sway to Baltistan and Ladakh.11 The routes to the Pamirs remained under firm Mughal control. Since the majority of Indians on the Pamirs hailed from Kashmir, in common perception all Indians were Kashmiris, just as all Indians in Iran, Central Asia and Russia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were called Multanis. Finally, the promise of the ruler of Ladakh to pay a regular

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tribute to the Mughal governor of Kashmir in Shah Jahan’s reign ensured that the former lived within his shadow throughout the eighteenth century, even though in 1753 the Afghans replaced the Mughals as rulers in the Valley.12 The political milieu helped a regular flow of trade and traders between the two regions, which was then further linked to the commerce around the Pamirs. However, besides the Kashmiris, there were other Indians active in this trade. Some of them belonged to the Hunza country,13 north-west of the Kashmir Valley and adjoining Ladakh. A section of Ladakhis known as Argoons (sons of Turkish father and Ladakhi mothers) provided the packanimals and acted as guides and interpreters.14 Children of Turkish father and Kashmiri mother, called ‘Shah Gord’ participated in this trade as well.15 There were Himachalis and the Punjabis too linked to this trade. Occasionally, the Afghan and Badakshi merchants crossed the Kashmir Valley on their way to the Pamirs. A trade route ran from Hoshiarpur (in the Punjab) through the towns of Kullu, Lahaul, Kangra, Mandi, etc., to Leh, bypassing the Kashmir Valley.16 The traders using this route included both Hindus and Sikhs. They were joined by some of the Himachalis (local hill-people), who acted as carriers of goods to Ladakh17 and beyond and were known as gadis (Guddus as described by Shaw).18 When Amritsar, under Ranjit Singh, emerged as an important centre for the production of woollen textiles, some of the local traders began to visit Leh and regions beyond, either via the Kashmir Valley or Himachal Pradesh.19 The immediate reason and incentive was that Kashmir had become a part of Ranjit Singh’s kingdom and the Himachal chieftains were also tributary to him. Traders or travellers, Punjabis and Himachalis and others did not have to fear political interference while travelling through the Kashmir Valley. Sometimes the Himachalis could proceed to Yarkand via the Nobra Pass without going to Leh. Moorcroft noted this



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during his journey towards Ladakh from Lahoul. The detour was made following an outbreak of chicken-pox in Ladakh.20 It is hardly surprising that Leh remained the focal point for travellers at all times. Knight, who visited Leh in 1860 described the concourse in the local bazar in these words, ‘The people were a mixture of Kashmiris, Chinese, Tatars, Bengalees and Indians of all sorts and sects’.21 Apart from these traders, some Indians, including Hindus, who had settled down in Afghanistan, especially along the banks of the Oxus, also participated in the trade with Yarkand. When Moorcroft visited places such as Kunduz, and Khulm, in northern Afghanistan in 1821, he found Atma Ram, the Hindu minister of the local chieftain, monopolizing the commerce with Yarkand.22 He also found some merchants from Badakshan who traded between Kundus and Yarkand.23 The merchants at Khulm traded with China, and these included Tajiks from Badakshan.24 Obviously resident Indians were participating in a trade which had a long tradition and in which groups of traders, both local and foreigners, were involved. From northern Afghanistan, they had the opportunity to trade with Badakshan and Eastern Turkestan without entering Indian territory. Indian traders, once they reached Yarkand could travel to all the important adjacent trade marts on the Pamirs without much hindrance as Mir Izzet Ullah in 1812 found. The law of the land was that once duty had been paid on entry, a visitor did not have to pay again, ‘there are no duties on internal commerce’.25 Indians did avail of this concession and spread not only in the other market-towns on the Pamirs but also in the adjoining regions of Badakshan, the Kirghiz and the Kazakh steppes, and in Tibet, travelling even to its capital, the far away Lhasa.26 An additional factor which helped the India traders of all hues to establish themselves on the Pamirs and the adjoining areas was their prior familiarity with the Andijani merchants,

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the most important and the powerful trading group operating in the marts of Sinkiang or Eastern Turkestan, viz. Kulja, Aksu, Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan. A section of Andijani or other Central Asian merchants was actually pilgrims on way to or returning from the holy city of Mecca via Kashmir and Ladakh. They traded in order to meet their expenses. They showed greater understanding and tolerance of Indians, whom they met around the Pamirs. Shaw came across several such Indian Hajis.27 Like Indian traders, the Andijani and Bukharan merchants (both belonged to the same racial stock and region) were a familiar figure in Astrakhan on the Volga River in Russia, in Iran, in Afghanistan and even in India, i.e. a territory stretching from the Volga to the Yamuna. The Bukharans and the Andijanis also came to the cities of northern India. Andijanis could be seen in many cities of northern India.28 The two groups of traders knew each other perfectly well and had an intimate knowledge of each other’s methods, techniques and range of operations. Therefore, in spite of all professional rivalry and jealousy, both sides co-existed even while competing and matching their trading skills.29 Likewise the Badakshi merchants also encountered Indians in the cities along the Oxus River, both in Uzbekistan and within India as well. Almost all the nationalities met by Indians were in the habit of visiting India. Speaking of the inhabitants of Kashmir, Mekhti Rafailov noted that they came from Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Yarkand and Bukhara.30 Hence, for the Indian traders most of the faces they saw on the Pamirs and the adjacent areas, were familiar and the same could be said of the other side as well. The great Indian merchant community in the eighteenth century, as in the past, did not hesitate to cross either the deserts of Arabia or the stony terrain of Iran or the steppe of Central Asia or the snowy mountain ranges of the Himalayas.



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Commodities With the frequent crossing of the frontier by traders of so many countries, a natural question is, what the commodities were that people traded in. Undoubtedly, the chief export was that of the world-famous Kashmiri shawls, both plain and embroidered. For all traders, Indian or foreign, the export of shawls occupied the chief place in their activities. Kashmiri shawls were in great demand throughout the area covered by Indian merchants as they were used for a variety of purposes: for wrapping the body, for head gear as turbans, for tying round the waist as shashes, for making into garments, etc. High quality shawls, were considered valuable gift items among the royalty and the nobility. Their demand registered a further increase since the 1790s when Kashmiri shawls become a rage in Europe including Russia.31 Enterprising merchants, Andijanis, Central Asians or others, could sell shawls from Kashmir in the markets of Russia and even beyond. They had acquired the mystique of diamonds, acceptable and saleable almost everywhere. As a result of this vast demand, Kashmir shawls were sold in the important market-towns of Yarkand, Kashgar, Aksu and Kulja; they were also carried to the cities of Ferghana Valley, such as Andijan, Osh and thereafter to Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara. These traders also covered the Russian fort town of Orenburg. Merchants who turned westward from Kulja across the Kazakh steppe carried their wares to another Russian fort-town Semiplatinsk. Both these Russian fort-towns served as entrepôts of oriental goods before these were transmitted to other Russian markets, especially Nizhny Novgorod, near the present day town of Gorky on the Volga River. It may be noted that exports by Indian merchants were supplemented by Tatar and Russian merchants who went to Kashmir from Semiplatinsk via Kulja, Kashgar, Leh, etc. They bought Indian commodities either in the trade marts on the Pamirs or in Kashmir.32

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Yarkand had emerged as the chief mart on the Pamirs.33 Here traders enjoyed a privileged position since they were the importers of the most valuable commodity. Mir Izzet Ullah, an Indian employee of the English East India Company who visited the area in 1812, noted that the Kashmiri merchants paid a duty of ‘one-fortieth of the value’ while others were charged ‘one-thirtieth’.34 The concession granted to the Kashmiri merchants was on account of the central role they occupied in the export of Yarkand as well. The most important was the export of pashm, or wool of a special type of goat ibex from which the Kashmiri shawls were woven.35 Danibegashvill during his trip in 18956 had noted the export of wool to Leh in Ladakh from this area.36 Even here the merchants devised ways and means to escape taxation. Mir Izzet Ullah discovered, ‘The merchants usually divide their articles in such a manner that the number shall not reach thirty or forty; so that if one man has a hundred shawls, they are entered in the name of three of four others in the same caravan.’37 With so much at stake in the Pamir-Kashmir trade, the Kashmiri merchants were naturally hostile when Moorcroft tried to reach Yarkand from Leh to ensure British participation in this commerce.38 In spite of remaining in Leh for three years he was unable to obtain permission from the Chinese authorities for his proposed journey.39 The entry of Indians from Kulja to the Kazakh steppe was facilitated by the emergence of a new political environment in the second half of the eighteenth century. Eastern Turkestan had remained a bone of contention between the rulers of Kokand and China. The Chinese had strengthened their position further after they realized that Tsarist Russia had designs on the area. The chief of Kokand gave a call for Jihad and enlisted the aid of the Afghans for the purpose. But the combined attack of Kokandis and Afghans was beaten back in 1763. There was a lull in trading activities.40 The



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Chinese Emperor Chien Lung excluded foreigners, especially Europeans and Russians, from trade in Sinkiang.41 The Russian government had abolished and closed their customs posts in Semiplatinsk and Yamishevsk in 176242 since commerce was not feasible during war. Towards the end of the eighteenth century the Chinese relented. The Manchu Emperor Chin Ching allowed a revival of external trade and Kazakh and Kirghiz chiefs were permitted43 free passage. Traditionally, the Kirghiz and the Kazakh had been bringing their herds for summer pasturage on the Pamirs and the Chinese reaffirmed their rights.44 The Russians used these chiefs to resume their trade with Kulja and Sinkiang and45 were also trading on their own. By 1802 Russian caravans were allowed to proceed from the Semiplatinsk customs house to Eastern Turkestan.46 The Russian determination to penetrate India via the Pamirs and Kashmir partly resulted from the nature of contemporary European and international politics. The Egyptian expedition of Napoleon Bonaparte in the late 1790s had once again brought Africa and Asia into the centre of European colonial rivalry: it was rightly apprehended that India was his ultimate objective. The ‘Napoleanic Nightmare’ resulted in a flurry of diplomatic activities from the Persian Gulf to the Oxus River.47 The contending colonial powers, especially Great Britain and Russia, increased their activities in Persia, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by dispatching official and semi-official missions there in order to keep in touch with the political scene and to protect their commercial and strategic interests. Britain began by sending the Malcolm Mission to Persia in 1800 and took steps to gather intelligence in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Russia had contiguous borders with Iran and Central Asia and frequent commercial and diplomatic exchanges took place between these powers. For Russia, Eastern Turkestan and Sinkiang was as yet mostly unknown. The Russian government, now taking advantage of the changes in the Chinese policies, consciously decided to explore the

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area and then to move towards India since they had the added advantage of an absence of British counter-measures or competition. After initial efforts to probe the trans-Himalaya region in 1770s when Warren Hastings dispatched the Bogle mission, the British had shown little active interest. Thus British India was still separated from the region by Sikh-ruled Punjab, independent Afghanistan, and the high Himalaya mountain peaks. The renewed importance the Russians attached to the area was reflected in the promptness with which Tsarist officials began to equip commercial caravans, trade missions, and their envoys bound for Sinkiang. The region could not be termed as terra incognita for Eframov, a Russian officer had already visited the place.48 In 1795, Rafail Danibegashvili or Danibegov, a Georgian, had travelled from India via the Kashmir Valley, Leh, Yarkand, Aksu and Turfan to Semiplatinsk.49 Between 1795 and 1827, he visited India five times.50 Hence, when the Russian authorities decided to explore Sinkiang, all they had to do was to find suitable personnel and to instruct them with regard to the goals they wanted to achieve. They were to explore the possibilities of commerce, but were also directed to report extensively on the political and military situation in Sinkiang and to try to penetrate into Kashmir. Amongst individuals sent to Sinkiang in pursuit of these objectives were Madatov, Shargilov and Mekhti Rafailov.51 They successfully performed the task assigned to them and reached Kashmir after traversing Sinkiang. Semiplatinsk was the principal starting point of these journeys.52 These men developed close contacts with important businessmen in Sinkiang and Kashmir. The reports submitted to the government after the conclusion of their mission give us valuable data on the activity of Indian traders on the Pamirs.53 With the coming of the Russians, the Indians on the Pamirs had to contend with one more competitor, equipped with Western technology and imbued with a desire to establish



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political domination as well. But this development at the same time facilitated dispatch of Indian goods to Russia. In 1804 the first consignment of Kashmiri shawls was brought to Semiplatinsk by foreign merchants.54 Mekhti Rafialov was a celebrated envoy sent out by Russians during this period. Well versed in regional languages such as Kashmiri, Punjabi, Persian, and Turkish, and with a deep knowledge of the commerce of the area, he went to Sinkiang four times and visited the Kashmir Valley as well.55 He travelled via Leh and on his return presented his account to the Russian authorities. Mekhti Rafailov returned along with his master Madatov from his first journey to Sinkiang and Kashmir in 1807 with bales of Kashmiri shawls. They were immediately sent to St. Petersburg, the Russian capital, with two more agents.56 The Russian ruling circle was enthused by their success and they were again sent to Sinkiang in 1808 with goods worth 1,10,306 roubles and 90 kopecks. They spent three years trading and visited Kashmir once again. They returned in March 1811.57 They were permitted to exit and enter without applying to the authorities for permission, and did not have to pay customs duties. In 1813 Mekhti Rafailov was sent again to Sinkiang with goods worth 1,60,000 roubles.58 In 1813 Rafailov spent all his money in Yarkand in purchasing shawls from a Kashmiri. The Kashmiri merchant was willing to accompany him on his return journey but could not do so, as he was called back.59 The Russian thrust now enabled the Indians in Sinkiang to get in touch with Russian traders, already known to their compatriots in Astrakhan on the Volga, in the cities of Caucasus and Iran and markets of Central Asia, such as Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, etc. Indians primarily sold Kashmiri shawls and Russians carried them home and reaped fabulous profits. Shawls were sold for between 1,000 and 15,000 roubles per piece.60 The monetary rewards for a hazardous journey were considerable. The

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search for shawls and the possibility that thus empire could be expanded, brought the Russians in the Pamirs to the Kashmir Valley. In fact, by 1815 Russian authorities felt that trade via Semiplatinsk–Kulja–Kashgar–Yrkand–Leh–Srinagar route was well-established.61 The ruler of Kashmir presented two valuable shawls and wanted trade relations to develop further.62 Other Kashmiri products in great demand were saffron and papier-mache art objects. However, the items from Kashmir were supplemented by other Indian commodities, commanding ready sale, such as spices (especially pepper), and indigo dye, precious stones, and coral.63 Indian merchants were keenly interested in importing from Yarkand and Kashgar and Khotan, soft goat wool, pashm, the raw material for preparing Kashmiri shawls. Some part of this fine wool was also taken by the Himachalis even without going to Leh, who had also developed a tradition of weaving fine shawls. Kashmiri merchants were, however, the biggest purchasers of the pashm wool. Some merchants of other nationalities around Kashgar and Yarkand also brought it to Leh and sold it to Kashmiris. The Andijani merchants, who were coming to Leh and the Kashmir Valley also brought pashm as it could be readily sold. According to a Russian visitor, Mekhti Raflov, Kashmir received 7,000 puds64 of pashm every year from Leh.65 The wool was required for the working of ‘20,000 looms’.66 The government thus earned customs revenues worth ‘1,200,000 roubles’.67 Other items imported into Kashmir by Indians included jade or yeshm found in and around Yarkand and in Tibet.68 Indians also carried back borax. It seems that Indian merchants carried tea to Leh. Danibegashvili had found plenty of tea in Leh.69 At this stage it is not clear whether it was brought by others as well.70 Indians also imported silk. The best variety came from Andijan and the second best from Khotan. The silk produced around Yarkand was inferior to that of Andijan and Khotan.71



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However, it is clear that Indians in this region always sold more than what they bought. The surplus was brought back in shape of silver ingots called Yambu and precious stones.72 Commercial activities in Sinkiang flourished as the political situation in the region became stabilized. Indians, Chinese, Central Asians, chiefly the Andijani, Tibetans, Kazakhs, Kirghizs, became intensively involved in trade. The character of goods also subtly changed: Indians brought back some Russian goods to Leh and Kashmir. And then, at some point of time, opium became a part of Indian exports in 1830s. The British colonial authorities did not remain ignorant of the going on in the region even though their boundaries did not coincide. Ranjit Singh’s entrenchment in the Punjab prevented direct contacts but the British continued to cast a covetous eye on the western Himalayas. William Moorcroft sought to open up the region and first penetrated Tibet73 from the Gangetic plain as a preliminary move. He sent Meer Izzetullah in 1812 to Leh, Yarkand, Kashgar and then to Central Asia to report on the route, and the political and commercial environment. Presenting his findings on his return, Meer Izzet Ullah became the first Indian in the beginning of the nineteenth century to write about Sinkiang.74 Although a decade was to pass before Moorcroft undertook the journey, the Pamirs had become the object of European colonial rivalry, and this would shape the history of the region for the next two centuries. It may also be remembered that the trans-Karakoram trade formed a vital part of the wider overland trade-network of Indians, which in the nineteenth century embraced the region extending from the shores of the Persian Gulf across the Caucasus mountains to the Russian steppe. Central Asia between the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea and the Pamir mountains and then onwards to the Tibetan capital Lhasa was also incorporated.

208

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1. John Keay, When Men and Mountains Meet, London, 1977, p. 5. 2. Janet Rizvi, ‘The Trans-Karakoram Trade in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, vol. XXXI, no. 1, p. 27. 3. Mir Izzet Ullah, noted that Andijan was deserted and its place had been taken up by Osh, the first city in Ferghana valley. ‘It had considerable population, and is well supplied with water’. Mir Izzet Ullah, ‘Travels Beyond the Himalaya’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. VII, no. 8, pp. 226, 323-4. 4. The route from the Punjab to Sinkiang ran through mountainous territory. According to Keay it involved, climbing fifteen major passes, all between nine and nineteen thousand feet high. Keay, p. 4. Another explorer noted that ten of these passes were situated between 11,300 and 18,500 ft and six of them remained snow bound even in summer. Puteshetsviya Rafaila Danibegashvili Indiyu, Birmu I drugiye strany Azii 1795-1827, Moscow, 1969, p. 46 fn. 113. 5. P. M. Shastitko (ed.), Rossiskiye Puteshestvenniki v Indii XIX – nachalo XX v., Moscow, 1990, p. 12. 6. In the eighteenth century these routes were in frequent use. They have been described in a Persian manuscript written during the rule of Shah Alam II by Mohammad Abdullah now preserved in British Museum. See P.M. Kemp, Bharat-Rus, Delhi, 1958, pp. 185-8. 7. Bharat-Rus, p. 97. John Bell in 1719 met an Indian ascetic near Selingsk. 8. P.N.K. Bamzai, A History of Kashmir, New Delhi, 1973, p. 324. 9. Ibid., p. 326. 10. Ibid., p. 365. 11. Ibid., pp. 392, 399, 401. 12. Ibid., p. 407; Rizvi, loc. cit., p. 29. 13. K. Warikoo, Central Asia and Kashmir, Delhi, 1989, p. 56. 14. Robert Shaw, High Tartary, Yarkand and Kashghar, London, 1871, pp. 74, 409. 15. Moorcraft and Trebeck, Trends in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Punjab . . . , vol. 1, London, 1841, p. 84. 16. The Leh–Rupsu–Lahaul-Kullu route was in use even in the last century. Father Francisco de Azevedo took the above route to return to Agra from Leh in 1631. Filippo De Filippi (ed.), An Account of Tibet: The Travels of Ippolito Desideri of Pistoria, S. J., 1712-1727, London, 1932, p. 11 (henceforth cited as Desideri); Shaw travelled by this route in 1850s. Robert Shaw, High Tartary, pp. 5, 60. 17. Shaw, pp. 198-9, 208, 222.



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18. Shaw, pp. 123, 152, 403. 19. Moorcroft I., pp. 110-11; Moorcroft speaks of a banker from Amritsar, ‘Kothee Mull who had invested a sum of two to three lakhs at Leh through the medium of Kashmiri merchants Rusool Jov, Azin Joo and others.’ Rizvi, loc. cit., p. 35. According to him Yarkandi merchants even travelled to Amritsar. Ibid., no. 36. 20. Ibid., p. 235; This route had been in existence for centuries. See supra, fn.10. 21. John Knight, Kashmir and Tibet, New Delhi, 1984, p. 86. 22. Moorcroft and Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Punjab, vol. II, London, 1841, p. 451 23. Ibid.; Alexander Burnes, Travels into Bokhara, vol. I, London, 1834, pp. 212-14. Burnes had reached Khulm in 1831 and was sent by the local ruler in company with his Customs Officer, a Hindu belonging to Multan. He met here merchants from Badakshan and Yarkand. 24. Ibid., p. 222. 25. Izzet Ullah, p. 303. 26. Ibid. 27. Shaw, pp. 12, 118, 244, 413. 28. Surendra Gopal, ‘Indians in Central Asia in the 16th and 17th Centuries’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 52nd Session, Delhi, 1992, pp. 219-31; idem ‘Aspects of Indo Persian Trade in the Seventeenth Century’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 1969, Varanasi, pp. 200-13. 29. Mir Izzet Ullah when he reached Bukhara in 1813 after visiting Yarkand and Kashgar, stayed at the house of Karbaksh Bai, a merchant of Tashkent, with whose brother he had made acquaintance in Kashmir. Izzet Ullah, p. 332. 30. Rossiskiye . . . , p. 36; Before him, George Forster who had visited Kashmir had noted the presence of merchants from Georgia, Persia, Turkey, Tartary, etc., there. George Forster, A Journey from Bengal to England, vol. II, Patiala, p. 20. 31. The story is told that after his Egyptian campaign, Napoleon Bonaparte presented a Kashmiri Shawl, which he had received as a gift, to Empress Josephine. She became so enamoured of it that these shawls became the talk and status symbol of the nobility and royalty in Europe. As a result there was a spurt in demand all over Europe. Kashmiri Shawls became the most saleable commodity in the markets of Iran and Central Asia from where they were re-exported to Europe. Kaumudi, Kashmir its Cultural Heritage, Bombay, 1952, p. 133. 32. Rossiya I Indiya, pp. 103-4; Meyendorf was in Bukhara in 1820 and he made an extensive study of Indian traders in that region. His informant

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in Bukhara, a Kashmiri trader told him that 2,000 Kashmiri shawls were exported to Russia each year. Warikoo, p. 63. 33. It was said of Yarkand, ‘where they have plenty of everything’. Keay, p. 5. 34. Izzet Ullah, loc. cit., p. 301. 35. Kaumudi, p. 134. 36. Puteshtviya, . . . , p. 34. 37. Izzet Ullah, p. 303. 38. Keay, p. 35. 39. Moorcroft, I, xliii; The hostility of the Kashmiri merchants against these Englishmen who tried to establish trade relations with Yarkand did not cease even in 1860. Shaw noted it in 1868 and wrote, ‘Some of these wretched Cashmeerees, had been setting the Toorks against me’ . . . , Shaw, p. 226. 40. A.N. Kuropatkin, Kashgaria (tr. W.F. Govan), Calcutta, 1882, p. 35. 41. V.S. Kuznetsov, ‘K Voprosu o Torgovle Anglii I Rossii . . . v Pervoi Polovine XIX Veka’, in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk, Kazakistan SSR, Vyp. 6, 1964, p. 149; N. Antonov, ‘The Russo-Chinese Treaty of Kuldja’, in S.L. Tikhvinsky (ed.), History of Russo-Chinese Relations in 17th-19th Centuries, Moscow, 1986, p. 107. 42. Ibid. 43. Ibid., p. 108. 44. M.I. Sladovsky, The Long Road, p. 154. 45. The local Kirghiz Chiefs were permitted by the Chinese authorities to have free transit; they were not required to possess passport and could ‘come and go at pleasure’. Izzet Ullah, p. 323. 46. Rossiskiye . . ., p. 13. 47. Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, London, 1991, ch. 2, pp. 24-37. 48. Warikoo, p. 93. 49. F. Davitaya (ed.), Puteshestviya Rafaila Danibegashvili v Indiyu, Birmui i drugiye strany Azii 1795-1827, Moscow, 1969, p. 15. 50. Ibid., p. 57. 51. Rossiya I Indiya, p. 101. 52. Ibid. 53. Madatov went to Kashmir in 1809 and on return was permitted by the local ruler to carry 20 lbs. of wool (its export was forbidden) and 250 shawls. 54. Ibid. 55. Rossiskiye . . . , p. 15. 56. Ibid., p. 13. 57. Ibid., pp. 13, 15. 58. Ibid., p. 1.



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Ibid., p. 75; Rossiya, p. 102. Ibid., p. 13. Rossiya, p. 102. Ibid., p. 10. Hafiz Muhammad Fazil Khan, who travelled to Bukhara in the year 1812 along with Mir Izzet Ullah says that merchants of Bukhara carried among other things munga (a precious stone) to Yarkand and Kashgar, Tarikhi-i-Manzil-i-Bukhara, Srinagar, 1981, p. 33; The same author speaks of the export of Indian indigo from Kabul to Yarkand. Ibid., p. 34. 64. 1 pud = 16.8 kg. 65. Rossiskiye . . . , p. 35. 66. Ibid., p. 36; Danibegashvili had estimated the number of looms at 24,000 Puteshestviya . . . , p. 32. 67. Ibid. 68. Izzet Ullah, loc. cit., p. 303. 69. Puteshestviya . . . , p. 34. 70. Ibid., p. 289. During his stay in Leh, Mir Izzet Ullah found the water ‘bad’ and drank only tea. 71. Shaw, pp. 15, 396. 72. Warikoo, p. 85. 73. Hopkirk, pp. 87-90. 74. Izzet Ullah, loc. cit., p. 283. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63.

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Literature in Russian Ashurdelli, Sara, Ekonomicheskaya Svyazi Azerbaijan s Indiei i SredneiAzi, Baku, 1990. Baikova, Rol Sredney Azii v Russko-Indiiskikh Torgovykh Svyazakh, Tashkent, 1964. Goldberg, N.M. and T.D. Lavrentshlova (eds.), Russko-Indiiskiye Otnosheniya v XVII v., Moskva, 1958. Goldberg, N.M., K.A. Antonova and T.D. Lavrentsova (eds.), Russko-Indiiskiye Otnosheniya v XVII v, Moskva, 1958. Kazim, Muhammad, Pokhod Nadir Shaha v Indiyu, Moskva, 1961. Kotov, Feodor Aleksaivich, Khozeniya Kuptsa Feodora Kotova v Persiyu, Moskva, 1958. Kuznetsov, V.S., ‘K Voprosu o Torgovle Anglii I Rossii v Pervoi, Polovine XIX Veka’, in Izvestia Akademi Nauk, Kazakistan SSR, Vyp. 6, 1964. Lyusternik, E. Ya, Russko-Indiiskiye Ekonomicheskiye Svyazi v XIX veke, Moskva, 1958. Nikitin, A. Khozhdeniyeza tri Morya Afansiya Nikitin, MoskvaLeningrad, 1958. Ovchinnikov, R.V. and M.A. Sidorov (compilers) and K.A. Antonova and N.M. Goldberg (eds.), Russko-Indiiskiye Otnosheniya v XVIII v., Moskva, 1965. Shastitko, P.M. (ed.), Rossiskiye Puteshestvenniki v Indii XIX – nachalo XX v, Moscow, 1990.

Index Abd-er-Razzak, 52, 55 de Albuquerque, Pedro, 33 Arasaratnam, S., 170 Arepov, S.Z., 92-3 Arkhangelskaya Trade Fair, 121 Bagarob, Lyaluchki¸ 141 Bandar Abbas, 68-9: close ties between the English and the Banias, 71; Indian agents, affluence of, 71-2; and Indian ports, regular and steady commerce, 72; Indian traders, treatment by Iranian authorities, 69-70; Multan as an exit point, 72-4; religious toleration, 69-71 Banias, 20, 22: permission to conduct their religious rituals and ceremonies, 17-18; religious toleration in Persia, 69-71; trade and moneylending in Persia, 165 Bantam (Banten), pepper exports by Gujaratis at, 184, 185-6 Barayev, Marwari, business activities, 135-6, 151-8 Barbosa, 56-7 Braudel, Ferdinand, 14

Calicut; as an entrepôt of the Indian Ocean trade, 53 Cannanore, 56 Cartaz, 33, 36 Chasman-ya-Khelanjan, 89 Chetti, Malay, 175 Chulia Muslims, 166-7 Conti, Nicolo, 55 Coryat, Thomas, 74 de Covilha, Pedro, 56 Diu: trade involvement, 33-4 Fatimid Caliphs, 13 Fitch, Ralph¸67 Foster, George, 106 Francklin, William, 105 Fredrici, Cesare, 34 Fryer, John, 69-70 da Gama, Vasco, 13 Gawan, Mahmud, 51 Geniza, Cairo, 28 Goitein, S.D., 28-9 Goldberg, K.A., 119 Guzius, Phillip, 76 Herat, 73, 78, 106; as an entrepôt of overland trade, 50 Herbert, Thomas, 68, 69, 72 Hindu traders, names outside India: as Chettis, 165; as

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index

Kling or Keling or Kaling, 164, 165; as Tailangs, 165 Hormuz, as link of overland trade, 50 Hussein, Shah, 93 Indian diaspora in West Asia, 13-19, 20-4; Indian Diaspora in Southeast Asia, 161-91; Dutch measures to prevent Indians from trading, 177-8, 187-9; political situation and trade in Coromandel, 172, 173-4; Indian merchants’ business organization in Russia, 139-47; Indo-Yemeni trade, 34-41; Indian traders in the Yemen: competition and cooperation, 27-45; Indian traders in Russia, 119-27, 130-6 Indian imports and exports from Persia 96; exorbitant taxes levied on, 93; in Astrakhan, trade with Iran, 97; Russo-Indian trade, role of Indians, 94; trade relations with the trans-Caucasus and trans-Caspian, 98 Indian maritime connection: entrepreneurial skill and tenacity, 163; maintained through Muslims, 164 Indian merchants: from 1720-9, conversion to Christianity, 157-8; voyages in the twelfth century, 29-30 Indian traders in Iran, 10114: in Russo-Persian trade,

105; business relationship between Indians and Armenians in Iran, 112-13 Indians around the Pamirs, 195-207: commodities traded, 201-7; European and international politics¸ 203-4; traders from Kashmir valley, 197; travel to the Pamirs, route choice, 195-6 Indo-Iran relations, diplomatic understanding 64 Indo-Iranian trade, 49-59; IndoPersian sea trade, 51-2 Indo-Yemeni trade: bureaucratic oppression of Indians, 44; coffee trade, domination of Indians, 42-3 Iran: overland routes, transit points in India, 74; Indians as businessmen, 21 Isfahan: business by Indian traders, 75 Karimi merchants: trade contacts between India and Egypt, 29-32 Kashmiri shawls’ export, by Indians around the Pamirs, 201 Khan, Alla Yar, 80 Kopecks, 95-6, 154, 205 Kotov, Fedor Alekseivich, 75 Kvashmin, I.G., 141 Lohanas, 108 Lvanov, A.¸143 Maldives islands: as point of



index

exchange between Indians and Iranians, 55 Maritime trade of medieval India: monographs on, 162; seventeenth century, English and Dutch, policy of co-existence with Indian traders, 163 Mildenhall, John, 74 Molteav, Kishnyachka, 77 Moneylending, 79, 108, 127, 152, 153 Moorcroft, William, 198, 199, 202, 207 Mulla, Haji, 80 Multan: as meeting point of Indian traders, 72-4, 114 Multanis, 16, 18, 22, 66-7, 75, 87, 90, 151, 165, 197 Nikitin, Afanisi, 52, 55-6 Ormuz, commercial and economic prosperity, 52-6 Orugmann, Otto, 76 Overland trade, 50, 58-9, 74, 76, 207 Persia: Indian merchants business organization, 142-7; Indian traders in seventeenth century, 63-82; Exports from India, 87; maritime trade of with India, 56-8; trade across the Caspian Sea, 1034; trade by Indian trading community in Astrakha, 132 Qaumi-i-navisandah, 108 Rafialov, Mekhti, 205

223

Razzak, Amir, 43 Red Sea region, 13, 14, 20; trade in seventeenth century, 27-8, 30-40 Rizvi, Janet, 195 Roe, Thomas, 67 Roubles, 22, 77, 78, 90, 95-7, 103, 112-13, 122, 125-6, 131, 136, 146, 152-8, 205-6 Sedukov, Mollacheka¸77 Shafiev, Nagi, 90 Shah, Nadir, 21: Iranian conquest, taxation policy of, 93; tyrannical rule, impact on traders, 97-8 Shahi Tajir (royal merchants), 64-6 Shikarpur in upper Sindh: as entrepôt with trade links, 105-6 Sinkiang (Eastern Turkestan): Indian traders in the Pamirs, 200, 203-5, 207 Steensgarrd, Niels, 76 Stefano, Santo, 56 Stein, Burton, 52 Sutur, 77, 78, 109, 122-3, 140-2, 146 Tavernier, 79, 81, 109 Thompson, George¸88 Timur, Amir, 49-50 Trans-Caucasus regions: Indian traders in, 77, 80, 98 Vartema, 56 Yemen: India’s maritime trade links with the Red Sea, 31