Trade and Urbanisation in Early Medieval Southern Karnataka: As Reflected in the Western Ganga Inscriptions

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to reconstruct the condition of trade and urbanisation under the Western Gangas (c. fourth to early eleventh century ce), the founders of the first indigenous state in southern Karnataka. Primarily based on the inscriptions issued by them, the study tries to trace the processes leading to the emergence of urban centre under the Western Gangas. It is argued that the Western Ganga rule did not coincide with any phase of decline in trade and commerce, as argued by the proponents of Indian Feudalism model. The state under the Western Gangas contributed to the process of urbanisation in a number of ways. The state restructured the economy of the territories under its control by promoting agrarian expansion, creating new networks of revenue collection and its redistribution. The demand for the goods and services created by the state and its agents, particularly religious establishments, necessitated their movement at intra-regional and inter-regional levels, and thus resulted in the expansion of the already existing centres of exchange as well as the creation of new ones. In other words, the process of urbanisation in the region may be attributed to the processes related to agrarian growth and the emergence of a complex indigenous power structure. The argument has been substantiated with the help of the study of urban centres, namely Perura, Kovalalapura, Manyapura, and Talavanapura.

Keywords

Western Gangas Kovalalapura Manyapura Manne Talavanapura Talakad Girinagara Sangamapura

Trade and urbanisation during the early medieval period of Indian history has been a debated issue. The dominant historiography has presented this phase of Indian history as the one characterised by the decline of the urban centres, which had emerged during the ‘second urbanisation’.¹ This historiography explains the decline as a result of the decline of long-distance trade with the Western world as compared to the conditions prevailing during the post-Mauryan centuries. It is argued that urbanisation was again caused primarily by the revival of commercial activities due to a number of factors including ‘revival of foreign trade’.² The position has been challenged by scholars who attach more importance to the processes operating at the regional and locality levels. Popularly known as the ‘Integrative model’, their explanation seeks to focus on the processes of locality and region formation through time.³ According to this model, an understanding of such processes may help us understand the contemporary structures in a more rational manner. The model suggests that factors like agrarian expansion and the formation of local and regional polities contributed to the development of locallevel exchange centres, some of which evolved as urban centres.⁴ The present article attempts to evaluate these positions in the context of southern Karnataka on the basis of the inscriptions issued by the Western Gangas who are credited with establishing the first indigenous state in the region.⁵ They emerged on the political stage of peninsular India in fourth century ce and remained politically important till late tenth century after which they accepted the sovereignty of Chalukyas of Vengi.⁶

The issue of trade and urbanisation in the time and space under discussion has received very little attention of scholars. One contribution in this area is by Om Prakash Prasad,⁷ which, till date, is the most extensive treatment of the issue in the context of the whole of Karnataka. Prasad also sees the period from sixth to late tenth century in the region as one of urban decay.⁸ For him, whatever urban centres we come across during these four centuries were mainly administrative centres or places of religious activities.⁹ Prasad sees the revival of urban centres in Karnataka only from the close of tenth century and attributes it to the commercial revival. As a result, most of these were mercantile settlements administered by merchants and merchant guilds.¹⁰ The commercial nature of these settlements has been supported by their name-suffixes such as nagara, mahānagara, pattana and mahāpattana.¹¹ Thus, in his approach, Prasad broadly conforms to the core understanding of the ‘Indian Feudalism’ model and sees the urban centres to be basically at the mercy of centralised states and long-distance trade.

However, the sources from the time and space under discussion present a different picture. Till date, the region has not provided any conclusive evidence of being a part of the so-called centralised empires in its neighbourhood during the early historical period, namely the Satvahanas in the northern neighbourhood and the Pallavas in the southern neighbourhood. In addition to that, due to the natural barriers created by the Western Ghats, its access to the nearby Arabian coast was also restricted. In spite of that, there is hardly any reason to believe that the region did not experience the emergence of exchange centres during the early historical phase, that too when we have such evidences coming from its neighbourhood.¹² The comparative meagreness of the data of early historic exchange centres in the region of our study may be more due to the lack of archaeological studies for the same. For example, the only settlement excavated with the aim of understanding the historical period in the region is Talakad and that has shown some signs of urbanity during the early historical phase.¹³ The excavations at Talakad suggest that since the early historical period, which coincides with the Satvahana rule in the Deccan, it was a part of the cultural complex comprising of the ancient cities such as Chandravalli, Brahmagiri, Banavasi, Sannati, etc.,¹⁴ in the north and had closer contacts with Arikamedu in the Tamil country.¹⁵ The existence of a trade network comprising of these sites and sites like Hemmige, and T. Narasipur is suggested by the discovery of a variety of beads, depicting broad uniformity in their manufacturing and decoration, with these sites.¹⁶ In addition to these, the Western Ganga records also mention the existence of some exchange centres during the early phase of their expansion, that is, fourth–fifth century ce, which corresponds to the early historic period. For example, we come across the existence of Perura-adhiṣṭhāna, identified with Ganga-Perura of YRS Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh.¹⁷ While referring to the location of the donated village Kandasal, an early fifth-century charter refers to Giri-nagara in Kalingujya-rājya.¹⁸ Going by the dating of the inscription and the suffix ‘nagara’, it seems to be an early historic urban centre. It is worth re-emphasising that the region under discussion was not a part of the Satvahana territories; we have no evidence of its direct control by Sangam polities or the Pallava state either.

Regarding the state of trade and commerce in the subcontinent from Gupta period onwards, there is growing number of studies suggesting restructuring, not decline, of trade contacts with the Western world due to a number of factors, including the decline of the Roman Empire.¹⁹ These studies also call for paying due attention to the trade contacts with the South-East Asia. The establishment of the Western Ganga state contributed to the prevailing conditions of trade and urbanisation in a significant way. The newly emerging state expanded its revenue basis by promoting agrarian expansion through land grants to the brahmanas, Jaina temples (referred to as jinālaya and basadi), brahmanical temples and monasteries during the early stage of its expansion, and also to non-religious personalities during the later stage. These donations often included uncultivated land and, with the tax-exemptions to the donee, would have resulted in agrarian expansion. Such endeavours would have increased the agrarian production in the state. Another contributory factor to enhance agrarian production was the creation of irrigation facilities by the state and the village communities. The donations aimed at supporting maintenance of irrigation facilities, known as bittuvaṭṭa grants, and they suggest state endeavour to support the creation and maintenance of agrarian infrastructure. The imprecatory verses containing destruction of irrigation facilities as a sin indicate the social perception of their importance.²⁰ The transformation of pastoral communities into agrarian ones was another significant aspect of agrarian expansion.²¹

What changed with the establishment and expansion of the Western Ganga state was not merely an increase in the agrarian production but also a reorganisation in the extraction of a part of this produce through its agents. These agents were of varied origins and backgrounds. During the early phase of its development, they seem to be the brahmanas and religious establishments. They, in the capacity of the title-holders of the land, extracted a part of the produce from those working on their land and exchanged a part of it for other services and money. Such economic exchanges could take place either in the settlements itself or locations in their neighbourhood. During the later phase of its development, the state incorporated the local landed magnets known as gāvuṇḍas and sēnabōvas as its agents.²² Some of these were appointed as nāḍu-level officials and were named as nāḍgāvuṇḍas and nāḍbōvas.

Thus, by creating not only the physical infrastructure for agrarian growth but also the institutional infrastructure for the extraction of a part of ‘gross surplus’ from the producers, the Western Gangas contributed to the proliferation of exchange centres in the territories under their control. The following pages endeavour to reconstruct the developments in the history of such non-rural settlements²³ in the said time and space.

Perura

First such settlement, we come across in our sources, is Perura.²⁴ Since the early times, Perura was a seat of district administration, as is suggested by the references to Perura-viṣaya.²⁵ But there are two references to the city of Perura also in our records. The earlier of these, dated to fifth century ce, records the donation of the land to the extent of being sown with four kaṇḍukas of seeds along with a field called Pañcaṭikākṣētra by the king himself and a garden-land (toṭṭa-kṣetra) by his favourite (courtesan?) Nandavva.²⁶ The donee was the temple of the Arhat, which she had herself built. Though the revenue obligations with respect to the grant by the king are not clear, in case of the grants by Nandavva, the donation was as per the rules governing the dēvabhōga grants and free from all encumbrances (sarvvaparihāra). Nandavva is said to have made the donation at the instance of the king. But interestingly, the land donated by her was purchased from Kakaraladhipati for 500 kārṣāpaṇas. The identity of Kakaraladhipati is not known. The inscription also records that Rakta-taṭāka, the tank which watered the lands donated by the king, belonged to Perura-adhiṣṭhāna. Thus, it seems that the donated lands were located in the neighbourhood of Perura-adhiṣṭhāna.²⁷

The second record referring to the city of Perura belongs to the reign of Madhavavarman (III). His Melekote plates, also dated to fifth century ce, record a number of donations made by him to a vihāra.²⁸ These may be listed as follows:

Wet lands simultaneously irrigated by water from two tanks;

six khaṇḍukāvāpas of land lying under the Śilā-taṭāka and situated to the south-east of the field owned by the merchant Vittamba and yielding two crops a year during the autumnal and summer seasons;

five khaṇḍukāvāpas of land situated to the west of the field owned by the clothiers and to the north-west of the śyāmāka-kṣetra,²⁹ owned by the same people;

three khaṇḍukāvāpas of land under the tank called Rakta-taṭāka;

another ten khaṇḍukāvāpas of land close to the same tank and yielding autumnal crop;

eighteen khaṇḍukas of śyāmāka-kṣetra and situated to the east of the Avaniya river, to the west of the field owned by the mahā-śrēṣṭhin, to the north of the field permanently belonging to Kumara and to the south of the Avaniya river;

twelve khaṇḍukas of land yielding the śyāmāka grain and situated to the east of Shakya-śilā, to the west of the clothiers’ field, to the north of the highway (mahāpatha) and to the south of the field owned by the merchant Choliga;

gold; and

clothes used for covering corpses in the cremation ground.³⁰

In addition to that the inscription also records that those present at the time of making the grant included the cāturvaidyas³¹ and the mahāpratihāra,³² and the donated objects were to be made over (maintained?) by the residents of Perura-adhiṣṭhāna and the prosperous guild of maṇigrāma (maṇigrāma-śreṇi).³³

The suffix adhiṣṭhāna in the name of a settlement is generally taken to mean ‘a capital or headquarter of an administrative unit’³⁴ or ‘a chief city’.³⁵ According to Chattopadhyaya, during the Gupta and post-Gupta period, the term signified an urban centre as well.³⁶ The naming of Perura-viṣaya after Perura confirms that it was the headquarter of an administrative unit. Now the question is whether it was actually an urban centre? The available records do not throw any light on the layout of the city or the economic activities carried out there. As the available records deal primarily with land donations made to the religious institutions, the absence of above details is obvious. But the details regarding the demarcation of landholdings, witnesses to the grants and the ones responsible for making over (or maintaining?) the grant provide vital information in this connection. Through these details, we learn that this immediate rural hinterland of Perura was well irrigated by at least four tanks, two of which were named Śilā-taṭāka and Rakta-taṭāka. Besides that, it had access to Avaniya river. The inhabitants of the city included some weavers (vastrakāra) also, who owned at least two fields as well. The abundance of water supply together with the fields owned by the weavers may be an indicator of the cultivation of cotton by these weavers, which possibly provided them raw material for their profession.³⁷

Further scrutiny of these inscriptions from the point of landholding pattern reveals the existence of fields owned by individual merchants named Vittamba and Choliga, in addition to the fields owned by a mahā-śrēṣṭhin. This pattern of landholding is an indicator of the commercial interests in agriculture of the hinterland, which would have provided some of the commodities for exchange at the marketplace of Perura-adhiṣṭhāna. The commercial interests in the hinterland are also attested by the ownership of a garden land by Kakaraladhipati, which was purchased by Nandavva for 500 kārṣāpaṇas. It also suggests the penetration of money at least in the transactions of higher value.

The information thus gleaned from these two inscriptions on Perura-adhiṣṭhāna provide enough indications to suggest that it was not merely a seat of district administration but a commercial centre as well, where weaving was one of the crafts practised. Not only that, it seems to be a marketplace for some plantation crop as well. The reference to a mahā-śrēṣṭhin³⁸ indicates the existence of wealthy traders or bankers who would have provided finances to the entrepreneurs. Interestingly, the Melekote plates also record that the gift was to be made over (maintained?) by ‘the prosperous guild of maṇigrāma (maṇigrāma-śreṇi)’ in addition to the local residents. A maṇigrāma guild may be identified as a local merchant body operating within specific regions and having inter-regional and long-distance trade contacts.³⁹ These guilds also interacted with the large supra-regional organisations of itinerant merchants like aiññuṛṛuvar or the Five Hundred.⁴⁰

All these suggest that the commercial activities at Perura-adhiṣṭhāna were not restricted to locality-level exchanges of essential commodities but involved the mobilisation of a part of local produce as dues claimed by the state agents. Rather it was a commercial centre having physical and institutional infrastructure for inter-regional trade. It seems that it was only through such commercial centres that the Western Gangas gained access to the horses, which were used in their army. By making donations of the pieces of land to the Buddhist vihāra and to the temple of Arhat, the hinterland was further integrated into the exchange network centred on these religious institutions. It may mean that what served as the immediate hinterland for one city could be a distant hinterland for some other settlement.

Another question pertinent to the nature of the commercial centre is whether it was an urban centre created by the state or one which evolved over a period of time? Our records do not provide any mythical or historical account of the origin of the city of Perura. We do not have any information on the layout of the city, which could help us determine if it was a planned city. However, the reference to cāturvaidyas among witnesses to the grants suggests the importance of brahmanas in the local affairs, a feature associated with the rural settlements having brahmana landholders. That is an indicator of the past of Perura as a rural settlement. It seems that the cāturvaidyas continued to remain important even when the settlement emerged as an urban centre. In addition, the existence of an immediate rural hinterland also suggests that Perura-adhiṣṭhāna was actually an urban centre that evolved from a rural settlement. The establishment of a district-level seat of power at Perura by the Western Ganga rulers would have contributed to its growth by ensuring the flow of revenue to the state agents inhabiting Perura and the consumption of a part of it by them. The presence of ruling elites at Perura would have increased the demand for the luxury items and enhanced the movement of goods and people.

Manyapura

Another settlement that throws some light on the process of urbanisation under the Western Gangas is Manyapura. It may be identified with modern-day Manne located in the Nelamangala Taluk of Bangalore Rural district. One of the earliest references to the settlement is dated to about mid-eighth century, which refers to it as a Manne-grāma, housing the ‘victorious camp’ of Shripurusha.⁴¹ The occasion was the donation of the village named Belpur to 120 brahmanas. The donated village was situated in Sinda-viṣaya. This reference to Manne as a grāma (village) has been interpreted by Malini Adiga as a contradiction to an earlier reference to it as the site of the victorious camp of Shripurusha.⁴² But in the light of the fact that the boundaries between the urban and the rural spaces during the period of our study were not always sharply demarcated, one can argue that this seeming contradiction is actually an indicator to the fact that the identity of the settlement as a grāma had still not been overshadowed by its new identity as a pura. Thus, this seeming contradiction seems to be an indicator of the agrarian roots of Manyapura.

All other later references to the place referred to it as Manyapura and Manyanagara.⁴³ Interestingly, the references to Manyapura during the Ganga period are confined only to the reign of Shripurusha and his immediate successor Shivamara II, which roughly covers the period from eighth to early ninth century. After that, no Western Ganga inscription refers to the settlement of Manyapura. But this silence should not be read as the loss of importance of Manne as a seat of power. Rather it seems that it was due to the loss of the Western Ganga control over the region to the Rashtrakutas. Even during the Rashtrakuta rule, the continuation of Manyapura as a flourishing centre of exchange is attested by a copper plate grant of Govinda III, which records the grant of the village Pervvadiyur to a Jaina temple. The inscription further states that the services of dance, poetry and music were offered by women attached to the temple,⁴⁴ which indicates to the resource basis of the temple and the mobilisation of goods and services caused by the demands generated by it.

It seems that the absence of any reference to Manyapura or Manyapura-viṣaya prior to the reign of Shripurusha was not merely a coincidence and that Manyapura emerged as the seat of district-level (viṣaya) administration only after the state-sponsored activities were located there, creating in the process a power centre in the region. Though the available records do not throw any light on these activities, the least one can assume is the creation of physical infrastructure in the form of administrative buildings and residential structures for the functionaries, which would have not only met the needs of the functioning of the state but would have served as the symbols of the state’s power. In addition to the physical infrastructure, the state or its agents would have also got involved in the creation and patronage of the symbols of divine power. The construction of a Jaina temple by the samasta-sāmanta-senādhipati (commander of all the feudatories) Shrivijaya towards the end of the eighth century seems to be one such endeavour. With the permission of Yuvarāja Marasimha, he also made the following grants to the temple—the village of Kirruvakkur, three kaṇḍugas of paddy field under the tank of Perjjadi, three kaṇḍugas of paddy field under the tank of Baḷa-mangala; one garden under the tank of Manneyalar, six kaṇḍugas of paddy field under the Seregere tank and six kaṇḍugas of paddy field under the Kergere tank.⁴⁵ Interestingly, the record refers to it as Manyanagara also.⁴⁶ The suffix of nagara in its name shows that it had earned reputation as an urban centre.⁴⁷

This reputation as nagara would have been accompanied by the commercial activities assuming greater significance, which in turn enriched the trading community. The riches of the community are indicated by the construction of another religious monument at Manyapura, that is, a Sun temple by the guild of merchants/bankers (śrēṣṭhi-gaṇa).⁴⁸ So on the occasion of the donation of the village Masekkalli to the temple for the conduct of services such as bali, dhupa, etc., by Marasimha, it was recorded that the city was inhabited by ‘the śrēṣṭhi-gaṇa which was meticulous about earning its wealth through righteous means’.⁴⁹ This construction would have further increased the demands for the goods and services required by the religious centres. Not only that, the land donations made to these religious institutions would have also expanded the hinterland of Manyanagara by integrating these donated lands in the exchange network centred on it. That the process of agrarian expansion in the hinterland was a continuous process is attested by the location of a nava-vadhū field in this hinterland.⁵⁰ Not only that, in some instances, the donated village was located in a viṣaya other than Manyapura-viṣaya. For example, Yuvarāja Marasimha granted the village Masekkalli in Ponnudike-viṣaya to the Sun temple for the conduct of services such as bali, dhupa, etc. That may mean that the donation would have added complexity to the web of exchange networks by ensuring the mobilisation of goods and services at the trans-local level.

Thus, the emergence of Manyapura as an urban centre and its further development seems to be rooted in the appropriation of Manne-grāma by the state as a seat of district administration. This appropriation would have created the demand for non-locally available products and services by the state and its representatives. The construction of the religious establishments at Manyapura would have significantly contributed to it in two ways. Firstly, it created the demands for goods and services needed for their daily consumption, which would have increased during periodic fairs at these establishments, a common feature of the shrines during early medieval India. The periodic fairs would have seen conglomeration of not only devotees but also merchants from at least nearby centres of production. The expanding resource base of the temple through the receipt of grants would have only furthered these economic developments.⁵¹ One can make out that by providing employment to various artisans and professionals, the temple would have redistributed its resources. Secondly, the donations made to the temples by the ruling elites were located not only in its near vicinity but also in some different viṣaya. That would have contributed to the mobilisation of products and services on inter-regional level.

Kuvalala

From Manne, we turn our attention to another non-agrarian settlement of the Ganga period, that is, Kuvalala or Kolala. Identified with the modern-day Kolar town of Kolar taluk and district, the site finds first mention in the Chaluvanahalli plates of Simhavarman II.⁵² Dated to about fifth century ce, the plates record the donation of two nivarttana of wet-land below the tank of Kuvalala-adhiṣṭhāna in Kuvalala-viṣaya. Another set of Chaluvanahalli plates of Madhavavarman III, also dated to fifth century ce, record the donation of three pieces of wet land below the tank of Kuvalala in Kuvalala-rāṣṭra.⁵³ In both the instances, grants were made as per the brahmadēya rules. But the donation of brahmadēyas do not mean that it was merely a village. The suffix of viṣaya or rāṣṭra in the name of Kuvalala suggests that it was a seat of district administration also. The reference to the city as an adhiṣṭhāna underlines, as discussed in the case of Perura above, its urban character.

As in the case of Perura-adhiṣṭhāna and Manyapura, the attempts to expand the agrarian hinterland of Kuvalala-pura continued even after its emergence as an urban centre. From sixth century ce, we start getting references to Kuvalala-viṣaya. The Bedirur grant of Bhuvikrama, dated to early seventh century, records the donation of the village Bedirur in Hodali-viṣaya to Vikramaditya-gāvuṇḍa.⁵⁴ The record throws interesting light on the history of Kuvalala. It suggests that the great-great-grandfather of the donee Vikramaditya-gāvuṇḍa, Banavidhyadhara-Prabhumeru-gāvuṇḍa was the lord of Kolala-viṣaya (kolālaviṣayādhipa). It may mean that Kolala was originally the seat of a local ruling house, which was appropriated by the Western Ganga state.

From eighth century ce, our records start referring to the administrative unit, governed from Kuvalala, as Kovalala-nāḍu–300. Was this change in the term due to the change in the language used in the inscriptions or to some administrative reorganisation? While the inscriptions of the early period written in Sanskrit used the term viṣaya, the ones composed in Kannada language used the term nāḍu for denoting its place in the administrative hierarchy. Our sources do not provide any answer to the question. The nature of references to the city of Kuvalala changes after the early ninth century. The city from now onwards is mentioned not as the headquarter of any administrative unit but as a prized possession of the Ganga rulers. So, throughout the ninth and tenth centuries, references to the city are found in the eulogy section of the inscriptions, referring to the king as Kovalalapura-paramēśvara (the lord of the city of Kovalala).⁵⁵ That also during the times when the Western Ganga state was facing threats from the competing polities of the Rashtrakutas and Nolambas, and the rulers were losing their control over the region.

Talavanapura

Another site helpful in understanding the process of urbanisation for the period under study is Talavanapura, which is also referred to as Talekkadu or Talakadu in our records. It is identified with modern-day Talakad in T. Narasipur taluk of Mysore district. The available sources for our enquiry at Talakad are richer as compared to any other urban centre under the Western Gangas due to the availability of the preliminary findings of the excavations conducted at the site. The site had been under continuous occupation since the Megalithic period and also provides evidence of its engagement in the trade network encompassing peninsular India during the early historic period.⁵⁶ The excavations conducted at Talakad have not brought any evidence to suggest any intermediate phase of decline between the early historical period and the Ganga period. During the Ganga period also, we come across evidence of its engagement in an intra-regional exchange network and its importance as a political centre.⁵⁷ There is also no inscription referring to it as a grāma (village), as we have noticed in the case of Manne or Manyapura above. Thus, it seems that Talekkad had emerged as a centre of trade and commerce much before the establishment of the Western Ganga rule in the region. It presupposes the existence of a hinterland in addition to its nodal location in an exchange network. Its location on the Kaveri river seems to have contributed to the creation of this exchange web by facilitating easy transportation of goods and services. As it emerged as a local seat of power during the period of study, the channelization of revenue to the city, in addition to the goods and services demanded by the members of the administrative apparatus, would have contributed to the greater growth of trade and commerce.

The earliest reference to Talavanapura, with undisputed dating,⁵⁸ is found in the Hallegere plates of Shivamara I. Dated to about early eighth century, the plates record that at the time of making the grant, Shivamara I was camping at Talavanapura.⁵⁹ The record does not throw any light on the nature of Talavanapura as a settlement, nor does it record any donation made in its immediate hinterland. It records the construction of a bridge across the Kiline river. This action resulted in the unification of four villages leading to the creation of a new village called Pallava-taṭāka on the northern side of Koregodu in Koregodu-viṣaya. Passing through two phases of division and donation, the newly constituted village ended up in the division of seventy-two shares and their donation to fifty-five brahmanas. Thus, the state’s action of constituting a new village and its donation to brahmanas resulted in the reorganisation of the village land-holding pattern with the obvious aim of increasing the revenue potential of the village. Location of the village near Koregodu, which seems to be a seat of administration of Koregodu-viṣaya, suggests that it constituted the immediate rural hinterland for Koregodu. Thus, the economic benefits arising out of the constitution of a new village and its subsequent distributions would have benefitted not only Koregodu but also Talavanapura, as the latter would have received a part of the surplus in the form of revenue.

As in the case of Perura and Manyapura, the urban processes at Talavanapura were also stimulated by the construction of a temple. The Mercara plates of Avinita, Year 388 record that a Jaina temple called Shrivijya-jinalaya was constructed by a minister of Akalavarsha Prithivivallabha at Talavana-nagara.⁶⁰ The same temple received the donation of village Badaneguppe in the year 808 ce from the Rashtrakuta governor Kambharaja Ranavaloka while he was residing at the victorious camp at Talavana-nagara. The village was located in the country called Punnada-Ede-nāḍ.⁶¹ The contribution of a religious institution in the process of urbanisation has already been discussed above in the context of Perura-adhiṣṭhāna and Manyapura.

It seems that by eighth century, its reputation as a commercial centre was well established. This commercial centre, named as Talekkadu or Talakkad, was possibly located outside the physical limits of the royal capital Talavanapura, though not beyond its functional limits.⁶² This assumption is based on the fact that the references to Talekkadu or Talakkad are always found with references to some trade guilds. The Talakadu inscription of Shripurusha, dated to early eighth century, refers to Talekkadu and records the remission of some unspecified taxes to the Twenty-five of Talekkadu.⁶³ The Twenty-five of Talekkadu has been identified as a corporate body at Talekkadu but its nature is not clear. The record provides no clue to the type of economic activities carried out under its aegis. As a result, we do not know whether it was an artisanal guild or a mercantile guild. Whatever be its nature, its presence indicates to the corporatisation of economic activities. Besides that, the reference to the taxes indicates the commercial nature of these economic activities which were taxed by the state. It is also stated that the donation was made by Arakesi⁶⁴ as per the request of Sind-arasa, Devasatti-arasa and Manasija, only after seeking due permission from Shripurusha. Though the record does not indicate the status of these three persons requesting for the grant, the suffix arasa (meaning ruler⁶⁵) in the names of the two of them indicate that they were some prominent persons or may be some local rulers. But why did they make a request for the grant of taxes to the Twenty-Five of Talekkad? Was it aimed at directly or indirectly promoting the commercial interests of the entrepreneurs of the territories under their control? The available records do not answer these questions. But the very fact that they made the recommendation to the king in this regard suggests that their interests were somehow related to the corporate body. That is an indicator of the emergence of Talekkadu, in the vicinity of Talavanapura, as a commercial centre with interests of the people from other places converging there.

Talekkadu again appears in our records after a gap of about two centuries. The Talakadu inscription of Nitimarga, Shaka 857, refers to Talekad⁶⁶ and indicates that by then it had earned the reputation as a pattana. This inscription, dated to 934 ce, records that during the reign of Nitimarga Permmanadi, a tank was constructed by the mahānagara of Talekad, paṭṭaṇavasantara Manchayya, and the ‘Twenty-five’. They are said to have obtained, after due payment, a bittuvaṭṭa (for the maintenance of the tank) for ‘as long as moon and sun endure’. Of these, the term paṭṭaṇavasantara seems to be an official designation held by Manchayya. Though the duties assigned to him are not clear, the prefix paṭṭaṇa in his designation suggest that by now Talekad was officially recognised as a paṭṭaṇa (Kannada variant of the Sanskrit term pattana). In the context of early medieval period, the term paṭṭaṇa is taken to mean a commercial town⁶⁷ or a trading centre.⁶⁸ The mahānagara of Talekad has been interpreted as the administrative body of Talekad by B. R. Gopal.⁶⁹ But D. C. Sircar explains mahānagara as a merchants’ guild of a city,⁷⁰ which would mean that the expression ‘mahānagara of Talekad’ referred to a merchants’ guild of Talekad. Keeping in mind the nature of the enterprise recorded in the inscriptions, that is, construction of a tank and the receipt of a bittuvaṭṭa for its maintenance, it is more likely that the body was a merchants’ guild with some commercial interests in the agrarian expansion in its immediate hinterland. These interests could be rooted in the nature of items in which the members of the guild traded. Regarding the identity of Twenty-five of Talekad, one can notice its recorded existence for about at least 200 years.

The act of construction of a tank jointly by mahānagara of Talekad, paṭṭaṇavasantara Manchaya and the Twenty-five of Talekad, and the allotment of a bittuvaṭṭa grant for its maintenance suggest that the venture was commercial in nature and was taken up as a private initiative. That may also mean that Manchaya, in spite of holding the official designation of paṭṭaṇavasantara, was a person with commercial interests in agrarian expansion also. Thus, in spite of the fact that the thrust of the record is once again on agrarian development, one cannot undermine the urban character of Talekad. It may actually be attributed to the nature of early medieval urban centres, which had witnessed growth from below and not from above,⁷¹ and were based on agrarian growth. In addition to that, it is worth reminding that the inscription was a land grant charter, the subject of which was bound to be agrarian in nature.

The above survey of the sources throwing light on Talavanapura suggests its growing importance as a political and religious centre, which contributed to its emergence as a ‘nagara’ by eighth century and as an inland trading centre (pattana) by the tenth century. The strategic location of Talavanapura facilitating traffic between the plains to the north and south of Kaveri appears to have played an important role in its urbanisation.⁷²

The list of non-rural settlements of the Western Ganga domain includes a number of other settlements also. As such references are sporadic in nature, evolution of such centres cannot be traced. But these references do provide some important insights into the issue of trade and urbanisation in the time and space under discussion. For example, while referring to the location of the donated village Kandasal, the Kandasala grant of Madhavavarman, dated to about 433 ce, refers to Giri-nagara in Kalingujya-rājya.⁷³ The reference to an urban centre in the nascent stage of the development of the Western Ganga state suggests that the process of the emergence of urban settlements and exchange centres in the region was not dependent only on the emergence of an organised state structure; however, the emergence of such a structure would have surely accelerated its pace.

The example of the urban centre called Sangamapura suggests that an urban centre could be established by direct action of a king also. The Keregalur copper plates of Madhava-II mention that Sangamapura, located in Sendraka-viṣaya, was established by the Ganga king Madhava II.⁷⁴ It is the only recorded instance from the Western Ganga records of the creation of an urban centre ‘from above’. However, we do not have any other information regarding the layout of the city. Whatever be its nature, one can safely argue that the establishment of this town would have contributed to the demand of artisanal and commercial products and services. These plates refer to another such settlement named Kirumundanur-nagara situated in Devalige-viṣaya.⁷⁵ These record the donations including five villages in Vallavi-viṣaya and the right to collect one-tenth of the income of the nakaras (merchants) of Kirumundanur to twenty families of brahmanas engaged in a variety of professions. These professions included various types of state services in addition to serving as the chiefs over maṇigrāma-śreṇis and as lords over the merchants of the Tuviyal group. The existence of mercantile groups, taxation of merchants and the existence of maṇigrāma-śreṇi indicate that commercial activities at Kirumundanur were in full swing.

Networks of Trade

The above discussion underlines the agrarian roots of the process of urbanisation under the Western Gangas. Now the question arises how the marketable agrarian surplus was put into circulation for commercial purposes? In the context of early medieval India, our attention has been drawn to the existence of the intermediate centres of exchange, which provided vital linkages between urban settlements and their rural surroundings.⁷⁶ These centres of exchange were known as maṇḍapikā in north India, peṭha/peṃṭha in the Deccan and ‘nagaram’ in the far South.⁷⁷ These supra-village level exchange centres were also politico-administrative centres in many of the instances and contributed to the emergence of urban centres. These centres served as trading centres for the marketable agrarian surplus of the hinterland and thus put it into circulation.

The Western Ganga records do not speak of any non-rural settlement with any of these suffixes. There is also no direct information available on the way the marketable surplus of the agrarian hinterland reached the exchange centres. But that should not make one to assume the existence of isolated villages. The distribution of the urban centres discussed above in different parts of the state is evidence enough to suggest their prominence as exchange centres in their respective regions. Perura-adhiṣṭhāna in the YSR Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh, Kovalalapura in the Kolar region, Manyapura in the Bangalore region, Sangamapura in the Shimoga-Hassan districts, Talekad in the Mysore region may be taken as sites, indicating their status as centres of exchange. The references to guilds of traders at all these sites provide ample evidence of the commercial activities being carried out at these centres.

The above-mentioned instances of the exchange centres suggest that in the case of the Western Gangas, the politico-administrative centres also served as the exchange centres. In addition to that, it seems that other seats of local administration also served this purpose. The assumption gains ground in the light of the ninth-century Begur inscription of Erreyapparasa.⁷⁸ The inscription records the existence of an administrative unit named Bempur–12 and also lists the twelve constituent villages. On the basis of the constitution of this administrative unit, one can assume that there existed the physical and institutional infrastructure in place to facilitate the movement of goods and services from these villages to Bempur.

At the level of the village, our records register the existence of mercantile guilds, which would have played an important role in the collection of marketable surplus from the villages and took these to the suitable markets, not necessarily the nearby intermediate exchange centre or the urban centre. As underlined above, our records speak of the existence of maṇigrāma-śreṇi⁷⁹ at Perura-adhiṣṭhāna. Similarly, the Keregalur plates of Madhava II record the existence of the guilds of merchants called Nakaras in addition to the maṇigrāma-śreṇi.⁸⁰ The inscription also records that the income of the Nakaras was also taxed. An eighth-century inscription of Shivamara Ereyappa from Tumkur taluk⁸¹ also records a Nakara as one of the witnesses to the donation made to the local goddess of Ponniduki. The donation was of the income in gold out of all the income that was to be received at the time of harvest.⁸² Two inscriptions from Virajpet taluk of Kodagu district inform about the existence of the aiññuṛṛuvar.⁸³ The aiññuṛṛuvar or the Five Hundred may be identified as a guild of the itinerant merchants.⁸⁴ The references to these guilds in the inscriptions recording the grants generally made in the rural settlements suggest that the merchant guilds had economic interests in the countryside, which would have translated into arranging the marketable products at the village level itself. The guild of merchants called śrēṣṭhi-gaṇa at Manyapura, as mentioned above, was rich enough to construct a temple there. The plurality of titles for these guilds is an indicator of the differences in the nature of these corporations. However, due to the silence in the sources, their respective nature cannot be worked out.

The above survey of the state of trade and urbanisation in the Western Ganga territories suggests that their rule did not coincide with any phase of decline in trade and commerce. The emerging indigenous state under the Western Gangas contributed to the process of urbanisation in a variety of ways. The state restructured the economy of the territories under its control by promoting agrarian expansion, creating new networks of revenue collection and its redistribution. The demand for the goods and services created by the state and its agents, particularly religious establishments, necessitated their movement at intra-regional and inter-regional levels, and thus resulted in the expansion of the already existing centres of exchange as well as the creation of new ones. In other words, the process of urbanisation in the region may be attributed to the processes related to agrarian growth and the emergence of a complex indigenous power structure.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Notes

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