Markets,merchants and towns in early medieval Odishā

Markets, merchants and related aspects have interested historians working on Odishā at least from the middle of the 1970s, ¹ and more so over the last decade with a renewed focus on the region’s maritime trade. ² However, the interrelationships between different aspects, which account for trade and towns, have not been satisfactorily addressed. This essay tries to contextualise different facets of these issues and locates the extent and form in which they played their role in medieval society. Inscriptions constitute the basic source material, supplemented by coins and sculptures.

Rural settlements and rural society in early medieval Odishā, as in the other regions, seem to be characterised by considerable dynamism. Society experienced the emergence of numerous professional groups, gradation of the peasantry, and differentiation and hierarchisation leading to the gradual congealing of castes by the middle of the second millennium AD; and the rural economy progressed with the expansion in man-made irrigational facilities such as vāpi (well), pushkarani (pond) sarāh, baṇḍha and taṭaka (tank), proliferation in crops and cereals and a growing interest in horticulture and floriculture. The region is a natural habitat for rice, its history going back to the Neolithic times. In addition to rice, barley (yava), wheat (godhuma), and sugarcane (iksu) were also grown. The inscriptional references to salmalivṛkṣa and tantuvāya (weavers) attest the cultivation of cotton. There are numerous references to the donation of perpetual lamps under the Later Eastern Gangas (twelfth–fifteenth centuries) with the provision for a regular supply of oil. Betel leaf, mango, palm, coconut and palmyra (jāmbu) find mention in several records from the time of the Bhaumakaras (eighth–ninth centuries) onwards. ³ The presence of occupational categories like the maker of jaggery (gauḍika), perfumer (gaṇḍhika), weaver (tantuvāya), distiller (śauṇḍhika), oilman (tailika), flower seller (puspalaka), betel leaf seller (tāmbūlika), among others, bears testimony to local craft production and availability of the raw materials as well. The spread of plough agriculture and improved irrigational facilities enhanced agricultural production, leading to a mushrooming of rural settlements (pali, pāṭaka, padara and grāma) and the spatial spread of temples, which were an interrelated phenomena, and evident markers of the progress of rural economy.

The growth of the rural economy stimulated the rise of village haṭṭas (markets/fairs). The earliest available evidence dating to the middle of the eighth century comes from the Hamśesvara temple at Jajpur. ⁴ It mentions a haṭṭa situated in the vicinity of the Śiva temple, as also the excavation of a vāpi (stepped well) at the site. The Baud plates of Nettabhanja, placed in the early ninth century, indicate that Angulaka-paṭṭana (modern Angul) derived its prosperity from the community of merchants who traded well in various articles and goods. ⁵ Suvarnapura (Sonepur) on the confluence of the Mahanadi and Tel rivers almost simultaneously emerged as a paṭṭana or trading centre under the Somavamsis (tenth–eleventh centuries). It is only with the coming of the Later Eastern Gangas that we again find mention of haṭṭas as marketplaces, which in the meantime seem to have spread in large numbers across coastal Odishā. They may have continued all through the period under discussion, though continuous evidence for this is wanting.

The Kendupatna copper plate of Narasimhadeva II (late thirteenth century) mentions four rent-paying subjects who were allotted along with the gift village (śāsana). The list included Nari-śreṣṭhin, son of Purai-śreṣṭhin and grandson of the Kōmaṭi (merchant) Manku-śreṣṭhin, of the village Tucada; Dhiti-velali, grandson of Mahadeva-belali, the betel-leaf seller of Kanthipadi-haṭṭa; Annai, the Usthali-tāmrakāra (coppersmith), associated with Purusotamapura-haṭṭa and Mahai, the Usthali-kāṁsakāra (brazier), of Vedapura. ⁶ The Kendupatana plates (set II) similarly mention half a dozen haṭṭas, whereas set III records three haṭṭas in the context of the transfer of rent-paying subjects to the newly founded śāsanas or Brahmanic settlements. It is interesting to notice the creation of a śāsana through the transfer of a group of artisans, sellers and well-to-do merchants. What also attracts our attention is that some of them belonged to haṭṭas already linked to certain thriving settlements. These tax-paying subjects were allotted to the newly created śāsanas most likely for their smooth regular functioning. Similar instances of the transfer of potters, milkmen, makers of jaggery, oilmen, goldsmiths, makers of conch-shell bangles, growers/sellers of betel leaves and śreṣṭhin (merchants) associated with haṭṭas, related to one settlement or another, can be seen in other contemporary inscriptions as well. ⁷ The Alalpur plates of Narasimhadeva II (Saka 1215/AD 1293) refer to a number of rent-paying subjects spread over half a dozen haṭṭas being attached to the gift land. Madhi śreṣṭhin, the son of Bhrati śreṣṭhin, was a potter, so was Parakha śreṣṭhin, who was the son of Jaguli śreṣṭhin, an oilman. The Puri copper plate inscription of Bhanudeva II (AD 1312) again refers to the transfer of several professionals, subsumed under the expression sapta prajāḥ, (‘seven subjects’) from five haṭṭas. For the purpose of establishing personal identity in the case of the occupational groups associated with the haṭṭas and neighbouring settlements names of persons up to three generations in the male line were usually recorded. There are several instances where the name of the father is missing, but that seems to have been compensated by the inclusion of the grandfather’s name.

The haṭṭas mentioned in the Later Eastern Ganga records were spread over the present-day districts of Jajpur, Kendrapada, Cuttack, Khurda and Puri. Some of them mentioned in the Kendupatana plates (sets II and III) of Narasimha II may have been located around modern Balasore in northern coastal Odishā. ⁸ The haṭṭas provided the means for the exchange of rural marketable produce beyond subsistence requirements and were the meeting ground for peasants, artisans and merchants. The range of goods and services available at these centres mostly seem to have been locally generated and meant for consumption in the immediate surroundings of the localities (janapadas). Admittedly, there were certain items such as the goods produced by the goldsmith, coppersmith, brazier and even betel-leaf grower which suggest the possibility of a wider range of spatial interactions. Similarly, the śreṣṭhin could have engaged with a larger network of interrelationships cutting across settlements.

Angulakapaṭṭana has been represented in an inscription as a charming town, largely because of the presence of numerous lovely women and groups of trees with beautiful flowers, so that it appeared as a garden. It was densely populated by learned Brahmanas of different groups, crowded with scholars, wealthy persons and supplicants coming from different countries, and was made prosperous by the merchants’ community who profited from the sales of varied commodities. ⁹ The present-day Angul town, identified with Angulaka-paṭṭana, is situated in central Odishā. Suvarnapura at the confluence of the Mahanadi and the Tel rivers, Murasima about 20 km from Bolangir and Arama, a ‘victorious’ camp in the same locality, in western Odishā, have been similarly praised in contemporary Somavamsi inscriptions. ¹⁰

The courtesans together with the power elite, men of wealth and other inhabitants, including learned scholars, completed the social composition of the urban space. The spatial composition of the settlement is correspondingly differentiated. All the three centres mentioned above were associated with the issue of land grants, and have been generously represented in the dynastic records. Besides Angulakapattana, Suvarnapura and Murasima have also been described as pattanas or commercial centres in our sources. One may add that sites such as Khijjingakotta (modern Khiching), the capital of the Adi Bhanjas in Mayurbhanja district, and Kualo in Dhenkanal district, identified as the political centre of the Sulkis of Kodalaka mandala, among others, with their rich architectural and sculptural remains, would also have attracted pursuers of various crafts, on the same scale.

The Nagari plates of Anangabhima III (Śaka 1151/AD 1229), recovered about 24 km away from Cuttack, refer to the grant of a township covering 30 vāṭīs of land (about 375 acres) to a brahmana. ¹¹ Of the 30 vāṭīs of donated land 20 vāṭīs of agricultural land were located in the village of Puranagrama and the remaining 10 vāṭīs of homestead land were situated in Jayanagaragrama, both settlements being a part of Sailo-viṣaya. The township is said to have comprised four houses resembling royal residences and was endowed with walls, mukha-maṇḍapas, madhya-maṇḍapas and 30 other houses occupied by a number of inhabitants. The township included a good number of merchants and artisans such as a perfumer, a conch-shell worker, a silk weaver, a goldsmith and a brazier or worker in bell metal (kāṁsika). Three sellers of betel-leaves, one florist, one jaggery maker, two milkmen, two weavers, two oilmen, two potters, three fishermen (kaivartta), a barber (nāpita), some craftsmen and a washerman (rajaka) completed the list of the transferred professionals. This is a good example of a local exchange centre developing in the midst of a group of villages providing the necessary services to the surrounding settlements.

Bhubaneswara was known in ancient times as Ekamra-kṣetra or Krittivasa-kṣetra. The name Ekamra-kṣetra continued in use till about the end of the sixteenth century. The earliest epigraphical record referring to that name comes from a copper plate grant issued under the Vigrahas around AD 600, which makes provision for providing bali, caru and sattra at the maṭha (monastery) of Maninagesvara-bhattaraka of Ekambraka. The Parasuramesvara and Satrughunesvara group of temples, dated to the latter part of the seventh century, attest to its early growth as a sacred centre. The growth of Ekamra as a tīrtha or pilgrimage spot is indicated as a land grant announced on the bank of Bindu-sarovara by Santikaradeva of Yamagarta maṇḍala in the late ninth or early tenth century. ¹² The same ruler made another grant to the same brāhmaṇa, from Viraja-kṣetra (Jajpur), the capital of the Bhaumakaras. It was known as both Guhadevapataka and Guhesvarapataka in the grants issued from there by members of the ruling lineage. It is also referred to as Jayaskandhavāra, which literally means ‘camp of victory’. It may be recalled that the settlement was endowed with a temple, a well and a haṭṭa near it in the middle of the eighth century. It may further be mentioned that the Lingaraja temple was built by the Somavamsis in the eleventh century and a number of dedicatory inscriptions of the dynasty have been found in different parts of Bhubanesvara. Many temples, including the Brahmesvara temple, were built during the reign of Udyota-kesari alias Mahabhavagupta in the eleventh century. The tīrtha continued to be patronised by the Later Eastern Gangas. The Viṣnū temple, known as Ananta–Vāsudeva, situated on the bank of Bindu-saravora, in the vicinity of the Lingarājā temple, had a commemorative inscription of Anangabhima III’s daughter Candrikadevi (AD 1278). ¹³ The Udayagiri–Khandagiri caves located in a different part of the settlement were earlier the abodes of Jaina monks. They continued to be patronised by later rulers such as Udyota-kesari, as can be gleaned from an epigraphical record. It may be assumed that Ekamra or Bhubaneswara as an important temple city or tīrtha as well as political centre during the Somavamsis would have attracted not only grades of artisans and craftsmen, pilgrims of different persuasions and state officials of varied statuses, but was also the site of markets and merchants to fulfil the inhabitants’ and pilgrims’ everyday requirements. Later, Puri and to an extent possibly Konark too became important tīrthas, and should have witnessed a similar process. Historical conjunctures helped Puri to emerge as the omphalos of the region in several ways. It was the capital city, the most important sacred centre with the Jagannath temple located there and, flowing from these, a major commercial node as well.

That brings us to the issue of traders in these towns. They are known to us from terms such as vaṇika, vipani vaṇika, śreṣṭhin and puraśreṣṭhin. Traders as vaṇika are referred to in the inscriptions of the Khinjali Bhanjas (ninth–tenth centuries) and the Somavamsis (tenth–eleventh centuries) in central and western Odishā and adjoining areas. ¹⁴ The expression vipani vaṇika in the sense of traders in the market is found in the Baud plates of Netabhanja. ¹⁵ Whereas puraśreṣṭhis are represented in the records of the Adi Bhanjas of Khijjingakota in northern Odishā broadly around the ninth–tenth centuries, it is the śreṣṭhins who emerge in the inscriptions of the Somavamsis and the Later Eastern Gangas in the coastal territories. Apparently, the differentiation and gradation among the traders and merchants is indicated in the plurality of terms used to denote them. In many cases the vaṇikas also happened to be suvarṇakāras and engravers of royal grants, which suggest their proximity to the royal court. Interestingly, the Sonepur plates of Somavamsi Janamejaya refer to a merchants’ association or organisation hailing from Kamalavana and their establishment (Kamalavana-vaṇika-sthāna) at Suvarnapura in the context of a donation. ¹⁶ While it records the extension of royal patronage to the merchants’ organisation, a closer look indicates that the merchants in turn transferred the gift to two temples of Keśava (Viṣṇu) and Āditya (Sun) for meeting the regular costs of bali–caru–naivedya and their repairs. The Madagam plates of the time of Devendravarman dated to the middle of the eleventh century (Śaka 988) record the gift of a village to two merchants (vyapāri) of the same locality (Madagrama), in modern Srikakulam district. ¹⁷ One should refer to two inscriptions from Srikurman, dated AD 1402, which refer to one Risidanayaka son of Pragoda Upadhayaya and grandson of Visnudasa Upadhayaya, as a trader in horses (ghodā vaṇijara) and a Kalinga vyapāri or merchant. ¹⁸ Dharmaśāstric prescriptions do not seem to have prevented the Brahmanas from trading in horses. It needs to be mentioned that this is not the only exception; there are more such instances from other parts of the country. ¹⁹

There are a few references to Vaiśya agrahāras in early medieval Odishā. The trading community perhaps preferred to be identified as Vaiśyas. The Chicacole copper plate of Madhukamarnava, dated AD 1024 is a good example of such a grant. It mentions the merger of three rural settlements into a vaiśya agrahāra and its conferment on Sri Erapa Nāyaka, ‘the ornament of the spotless family of merchants’. ²⁰ The Chikkavalasa plates of Vajrahasta III assigned to AD 1059 record the donation of land by a śreṣṭhin to a Brāhmaṇa. ²¹ One of the votive inscriptions at the entrance of the Jagamohana of the Lingaraja temple dated to the reign of Raghava Deva, son of Chodaganga Deva, records the grant of perpetual lamps by Medama Devi as also her parents for the pleasure of Kirttivaseśvara. For the maintenance of these grants a village was donated after its purchase from a merchant (śreṣṭhin). ²² Instances such as these, though rare, point to the growing status of merchants in society and the favours they could receive from rulers. It may be pertinent to mention that under the Later Eastern Gangas (second half of the eleventh century) there are possibly some service grants, at times made to persons with the name suffix of Nāyaka, the donees yet claiming a vaiśya status for themselves. ²³ Expressions such as veśyā-gotr-otpannaḥ and veśyā-vaṁśod-bhava have been used in the inscriptions, and a literal translation of these would read ‘born from a courtesan’. However, it has been suggested that the word veśyā was a mistake for vaiśya largely because it is hardly possible that in a public document someone would claim lineage from a prostitute. ²⁴ The term vaiśya may have been deliberately used by a rising stratum, to distinguish themselves from the general peasants, artisans and craftsmen and seek parity with merchants.

The Nagari plates together with some others discussed above give us a convenient list of occupations pursued in the region, though they certainly do not exhaust them. ²⁵ Production of fine textiles, including silk and perhaps also tussar cloth, mirrors (metallic) and the availability of skilled sutradhāras, vindhanis and śilpins can easily be inferred from the rich sculptures of the extant temples over and above those professional groups of whom we learn from the inscriptional evidence. Paddy, wheat, barley, sugarcane, betel-leaf, oils, including castor oil, coconut and jaggery as attested in the inscriptions seem to have been produced in the different sub-regions and were easily available or obtained through trade. To this one can add a list of fruits and flowers which grow naturally in the region, and many of which are mentioned in the epigraphs. ²⁶ One of Chodagangadeva’s inscriptions refers to a salt tax official called lavanakaradhikari, ²⁷ suggesting that it was being manufactured for commercial purposes in the coastal areas. Bullock carts, oxen, asses and even elephants were used to carry loads. ²⁸ Together with the evidence coming from literary sources the generous sculptural representation of elephants at Konark in different contexts, ²⁹ besides those at the Parasurameswara group of temples at Bhubanesvara and other sites, is a pointer to the abundance of elephants in the region. Not for nothing were the rulers of the region referred to in medieval accounts as the Gajapatis (‘lords of elephants’). Boats were also used as a means of transport and communication. A sculptural frieze recovered near Brahmesvara temple and preserved in the Odishā state museum at Bhubaneswara depicts a boat carrying elephants. ³⁰ Another sculpture from the same site shows a boat below the pedestal of goddess Mahiṣāsuramardinī. A sculpture from Konark, now at the Indian Museum at Kolkata, represents a boat carrying a royal personage and an elephant, and being rowed by four people. ³¹ Yet, again, a boat is depicted on the Bhōgamaṇḍapa of the Jagannatha temple at Puri, and it is seen to be a realistic representation of the vessels used for sea voyage in early medieval times. ³² All these means of transport must have much facilitated trade.

Coming to the story of coins during the period under discussion it may be said that there is some tangible evidence of metallic money in the region though it is not quite sufficient. A good number of repoussé gold and gold-plated silver coins of Prasannamatra and Mahendraditya of the Sarabhapuriya dynasty of Dakṣiṇa Kośala (parts of Chhattisgarh and western Odishā) have been found in different parts of Chhattisgarh and sites in Kalahandi and Nuapada districts in Odishā. They have motifs of the Garuda, crescent moon and chakra encircled with dots and a conch-shell on the obverse. They seem to have circulated during the sixth–seventh centuries. Similar repoussé coins with the same fabric belonging to the Nalas of Bastar and Koraput region have been recovered. These coins date from the fifth–sixth centuries and have the figure of a couchant bull and a crescent on the front in the upper half of the coin. ³³ The village Gandibedha near Soro railway station in Balasore district (north Odishā) has yielded a hoard of 147 cast copper coins. It is argued that the script used in the legend is of the box-headed type of central India assignable to the fifth–seventh centuries. ³⁴ Gold and copper coins of the Tripuri and Ratanpur branch of the Kalachuris have been recovered from the Sambalpur–Bolangir–Kalahandi tract and on the basis of the script of legends on some of them they are placed in the tenth–eleventh centuries. A hoard of 27 debased gold coins of the Ratanpur branch was obtained from the vicinity of Sonepur. ³⁵ A number of gold coins usually assigned to the Nagas of Chakrakotta have been discovered from Chhattisgarh and undivided Koraput district. Stray finds of the coins of the Yadavas of Devagiri (thirteenth century) have been reported from Chhattisgarh and the Sonepur area in Odishā. The gold coins of the Later Eastern Gangas known as fanams, derived from the Sanskrit word pāṇam, are small, thin and light in weight. They were in use during the twelfth–fifteenth centuries and have been extensively reported from almost all parts of Odishā. ³⁶ Coins attest to market exchanges, and these in turn to trade.

This quick survey of coins in the region focuses on the larger pattern of their distribution rather than the details. While it brings to the fore the absence of actual coin issues by the local ruling lineages during the eighth–tenth centuries, it also demonstrates the local availability of metallic money from the adjoining regions, particularly in western Odishā. We are free to debate the suggestion that the punch-marked and imitation Kushana coins, popularly known as Puri–Kushana coins, continued to serve the local requirements of a medium of exchange, ³⁷ or ponder over the use of the terms such as hiranya-pana in the Hindol plate of Subhakara (mid ninth century) of the Bhaumakara dynasty or māḍa/māḍha in the Early and Later Eastern Ganga records, and even the statement of Xuanzang (Yuan Chwang) about the people of Kongoda maṇḍala (the region around Chilka Lake): ‘As the country was on the seaside it contained many rare precious commodities; the currency was cowries and pearls’. ³⁸ However, the presence of dynastic issues from other regions is a visible pointer to coin circulation and so to commercial transactions. The haṭṭas, pattanas, and vaṇikas after all would have needed some medium of exchange. Besides, more recently Shailendra Bhandare, in an important paper, has pointed out that copper coins derived from Vishnukundin inspiration were in circulation in the Deccan and Maharashtra during the early medieval times, whereas coins derived from Gupta coin motifs were in circulation in Bengal and elsewhere up to the eighth–ninth centuries. ³⁹ This lends weight to the suggested late circulation of older coins such as the punch-marked and Puri–Kushana varieties in the region.

Before concluding this article a short statement about Odishā’s fabled maritime commerce may be in place. In contrast to the early historical situation the emergent picture is much better. ⁴⁰ The organisational aspects of trade, merchandise, low prices, costs of living in Odishā and cultural transactions are illuminated by several sources. ⁴¹ Khalakata-paṭṭana (near Konark), Manika-paṭṭana (near the mouth of the Chilka Lake), among others, emerge as lively trading centres/port towns during the twelfth–fourteenth centuries. ⁴² Remains of blue and white Chinese porcelain, celadon ware, coins with the typical square perforations in the middle and legends on both sides, and egg-white glazed and chocolate-glazed ware of Arabian origins have been recovered from these sites, suggesting Odishā’s participation in the Bay of Bengal trade networks and overseas trade with the Arabs and the Chinese. Unfortunately the inscriptional evidence is silent on this facet of Odishā’s history. On the basis of seventeenth century material it may be posited that the region exported rice, textiles and salt, among other articles of trade, ⁴³ in exchange for its imports.

Despite such extended evidence for trade, we do not find merchants of the highest ranks in early medieval Odishā. Barring one reference to Kamala-vana-vaṇik-sthāna we still do not come across terms such as mahānāvika (great mariner), and mahāsārthavāha (great caravan leader) as in Andhra or their equivalents elsewhere. Nor for that matter is there any evidence for the big merchant bodies such as Añjuvaṇṇam or Hañjamana engaged in seafaring, or even Maṇigrāmam and Ayyavoḷe-500, which were active in long-distance trans-regional trade, in south India. ⁴⁴ The term Kling usually perceived to represent the Indians in general or even the people of Kalinga did not necessarily coincide with the present day boundaries of Odishā. The historical region known as Kalinga spanned the coastal stretch from the south of the Chilka Lake to Visakha-paṭṭnam and occasionally even beyond, a good part of which is in today’s Andhra Pradesh. Naturally evolved historical and cultural regions do not usually coincide with modern political boundaries, and the historian can hardly afford to brush them aside. Finally, it needs to be said that the giraffe, an African animal, in the sculpture at Konark was not necessarily the result of its import through trade but most likely is a representation of the gift to king Narasimha by the Sultan of Bengal. ⁴⁵ One is not trying to be the devil’s advocate, but just being cautious so as to situate the available data in context on a theme that is quite emotive, ⁴⁶ especially in coastal Odishā, where people annually celebrate the Bali Yatra in memory of the glorious deeds of ancient mariners.

It will be useful to remember that several maṇḍalas or sub-regions ranging from Kalinga, through Tosali/Utkala, Khinjali, Kodalaka and Khijjingakotta to Dakṣiṇa Kośala shaped the mercantile economy of the region through their interrelationships, formed by continuous cultural and material transactions. There seems to be a maṇḍala-specific distribution of the trading groups. While vaṇikas are usually encountered in the records of Daksina Kosala and Khinjali maṇḍala, and the puraśreṣṭhis are mentioned in the inscriptions of the Khijjingakota maṇḍala, the śreṣṭhins emerge in the Later Eastern Ganga records of the Utkala region. This seems to somewhat converge with the dissimilar patterns of social segmentation across sub-regions/maṇḍalas, within an otherwise seemingly comparable social structure. This is in accord with the general fact that we do not have a uniform caste system for the whole country, but several regional or sub-region-specific caste systems. That apart, the caste-occupation linkages do not seem to have fully congealed as late as the end of the thirteenth century. There is evidence for a śreṣṭhin’s grandson being a potter and associated with a haṭṭa, and such instances can be multiplied. Similarly, in yet another instance a potter associated with a haṭṭa happened to be the grandson of a goldsmith. ⁴⁷ However, it needs to be mentioned that the details of the occupational groups/castes emerge much better, as in many other regions, only by the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century.

Agrarian expansion, gentle horizontal spread of rural settlements and state society shaping and being shaped by social differentiation and diversification of crafts and social complexity, was inextricably tied to the gradual emergence of markets, merchants and towns at different locations in the region. The emergence of the haṭṭas from the middle of the eighth century, pattanas around the late ninth–early tenth century and tīrthas and towns through the period, coincided with the increasing visibility of the vaṇikas, śreṣṭhins, puraśreṣṭhis and, in fewer cases, even the vyapāri and Kōmaṭi, as noted above. Vyapāri continues to mean a trader in Oḍishā language even today, while Kōmaṭi represents a member of a trading community who seem to have come into Odishā from Andhra in medieval times. The hierarchies among traders and trading centres highlight the pervasiveness of non-agricultural activities in medieval society. Not only is there a reference to an organisation or association of merchants but also in several cases evidence for more than a generation of merchants in the same family from around the ninth–tenth centuries onwards. Their association with land grants, royalty and claims to the vaiśya varṇa unmistakably suggests their urge for social mobility and possibly a new found esteem for them by the turn of the millennium.

Where does this reconstruction of urban growth and expansion of mercantile activity in early medieval Odishā place us in the context of the controversy between R.S. Sharma and B.D. Chattopadhyaya over de-urbanisation in the period of ‘Indian Feudalism’ (c. 300–1000)? ⁴⁸ We have seen that at least in the case of Odishā, the case for de-urbanisation and commercial decay cannot be sustained; urban settlements developed within it throughout the period. On the other hand, the limitations of commercial growth cannot also be ignored. As we have seen, there was some obviously ‘feudal’ element in the inclusion of not only craftsman but also merchants among those transferred to private holders of land grants. Currency use was so limited that states within Odishā did not directly issue coins in their own names during the eighth–tenth centuries. Finally, exceptionally rich or powerful merchants are not heard of, at least by title. Obviously we have to reconstruct a picture of early medieval economy which varied considerably among regions, with trade and towns showing divergent and, perhaps, fluctuating rates of growth.