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Introduction
This is a study of India's economic relationship with Central Asia during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It aims to demonstrate that the two regions
shared extensive commercial links during this period. The caravan trade was not
sporadic and confined to luxury goods alone. On the contrary it was of regular
nature and it involved several essential commodities. This trade was the means by
which the two regions obtained commodities that were not available locally.
This work will study the role of various trading groups that were
involved in this trade- the Afghan nomadic tribes, the Indian merchants, the
Annenians, the Uzbeks, etc. Among these groups the Indian merchants were the
most important from the standpoint of the volume of their business as well as their
geographical spread. During this period, .they had established colonies in several
places in Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia.
Another aspect that will be looked into in this thesis is the relationship
between the ruling classes and the caravan trade. Contrary to the earlier held
impression that the political class was oblivious to the interests of traders, it is now
being accepted that they displayed a positive attitude towards commercial
activities. It will be shown here that the Mughals, the Uzbek Khans and the
Safavids were aware of the importance of the trade and undertook several
measures to promote it. The occasional period of hostility between them did not
affect the flow of commodities between their realms.
Another aspect that will be examined is the state of the caravan trade in
the eighteenth century. Historians have moved away from portraying the
eighteenth century as a period of decline. It is now being realized that while some
regions of India experienced economic stagnation, there were other regions which
either emerged as alternative centres of growth or kept up the economic
momentum of the seventeenth century. The study tries to show that the trade links
with Central Asia continued to be strong during this period in spite of political
disruptions in India, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Chapter one discusses the various routes between India and Central Asia
with emphasis on their geographical and climatic aspects. Chapter two examines
the commodity composition of the trade and the role of various merchant groups
during the seventeenth century. The third chapter takes up the theme of Indian
merchants' presence in Central Asia and their economic role. The fourth chapter
looks at the measures taken by the rulers of the region to protect and promote the
caravan trade. Chapter five examines the developments in the trade during the
eighteenth century.
2
Historiography
For a long time the historiography of Medieval India's external trade
links was characterized by an over emphasis on the maritime trade and a neglect of
the overland trade connections with Central Asia and Iran. A significant reason tor
this imbalance was the availability of rich source material on the former and the
relative lack of information on the latter. The situation has improved in recent
years due to the work of several scholars who have carefully used both Asian and
European sources to highlight the significance of the overland trade.
It must be mentioned that while the caravan trade did not get much
attention in earlier times, the topic of Indian merchant colonies in Russia and
Central Asia and their business was the subject of much research by Soviet
scholars. Two volumes Russko-Jndiiskzye Otnosheniya v XVIII v. and Russko-
Indiiskiye Otnoshenzva v,.-'(V1111 v, published in 1958 and 1965 were compilations
of writings and, archival material on this topic. These volumes were used by
Surendra Gopal in his articles published in the sixties which gave a succinct
account of the establishment of the Indian merchants in Russia and their economic
acti vities. I
I Surendra Gopal, 'Indian traders in Russia in the seventeenth Century,' Indian History' Congress proceedings, 1966, p 460-468; 'Trading activities of Indians in Russia in the eighteenth CentLlf)!,' Indiall Economic alld Social Histon; Ren'elt. Vol 15, 2, 1968, P 141-148, Gopal subsequently translated some of the Russian documents into English in Indialls ill Russia in the J 7'" and ! 8'1, cenlHries. Calcutta Noya Prakash, ] 988,
3
Gopal's work was followed by Stephen Dale's Indian Merchants and
Eurasian Trade, /600-1750,( Cambridge Cambridge U ni versity Press 1994) the
first monograph, in English, on the topic. Dale established the strong presence of
the Indian merchants, hailing mainly from Multan, in Safavid Iran, Uzbek Turan
and Russia. According to Dale, the Indian mercantile Diaspora, representing an
extension of the Indian regional 'world-economy', was engaged in the sale of
Indian commodities and money lending. By its latter role, it perfonned the critical
function of providing capital in relatively under developed economies. Dale also
highlighted the role played by Afghan trading nomads (powindas) in the caravan
trade. The Multani Diaspora based in Astrakhan and Iran began to decay from the
early eighteenth century due to the simultaneous decline of the Satavid and the
Mughal empires and the restlictions put on the Indian merchants by the Russian
state.
In an article written in 1994, Muzaffar Alam focuses on the close economic
relations between Mughal India and Central Asia which were uninterrupted even
in times of political hostilities.2 He notes that the Mughals and the Uzbek rulers
promoted this trade as it provided them with much needed commodities. Alam also
notes that the caravan trade with Iran and Central Asia was an important factor in
the prosperity of the province of Punjab in the seventeenth century. He agrees with
, Muzaffar Alam 'Trade, State Policy and Regional· Change: Aspects of Mughal·Uzbek commercial Relations. C. 1550·1750, JOllrnal oithe Economic (lnd Social His/orr oj the Orielll. Vol. XXXVIII, 1994, P 202-227.
4
Dale that there was a disruption in the trade in the early eighteenth century due to
political convulsions.
Neel Steensgaard notes that the Indian caravan trade with Persia and
Turkey was brisk in the early decades of the seventeenth century.3 Cotton textiles
were the main c.omm.odity sent from India while bulli.on was imp.orted into it. The
Kandahar r.oute c.ontinued to be in use after the Anglo P.ortuguese capture .of
Hormuz in 1622 but there was a gradual decline in the trade, especially in the
second half .of the century. The likely reas.on for this was declining demand for
Indian textiles in Persia and Turkey. Giles Veinstein n.otes that there was a large
demand in Ottoman markets for Indian textiles which arrived by maritime and
.overland routes.4 The import of Indian textiles stimulated l.ocal cloth production,
especially .of the c.oarser varieties as a result of which Indian imports began t.o
c.omprise .on high-quality varieties.
While most .of the above mentioned works deal with the seventeenth
century caravan trade, the eighteenth century caravan trade fonTIs the backdrop .of
J.oS Gomman's 171e Rise of the Indo-Afghan Empire, c. 1710-1780.( New Delhi
pxtord University Press 1999)Gommans argues that India's trade links with
Central Asia were active during this period. India's c.onsiderable demand for war
3 Neel Steensgaard, 'The route through Quandahar:the significance of the overland trade from India to the West in the seventeenth century' in Sushil Chaudhury and Michel Morineau, eds , A1erchants. Companies alld Trade: Europe and Asia ill the Earll' Modern Era. Cambridge Cambridge Uni versity Press 1999, p 55-73. 4 Gi lies Veinstein, 'Commercial Relatiolls between india and the Ottoman Empire(late fifteenth to late eighteenth centuries): a few notes and hypotheses,' in Chaudhury and Morineau, eds, Merchal1ls. Companies and Trade, p 195-112
5
horses was met by the breeding grounds of Central Asia. The decline of the
Mughal Empire did not affect the trade as the new rulers like the Nawabs of
Awadh, the Marathas, etc emerged as substantial buyers. The horse trade was in
the hands of Afghans trading pastoral nomads and individual traders who could
use their stock to set up independent political power as was done by the founders
of the Rohilla state. Gommans also looks at the impact of the rise of the Dun'ani
Empire and increasing Russian role in Central Asia on the overland trade.
Claude Markovit's The Global World of Indian Merchants 1750-1947:
Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama (Cambridge Cambridge University Press
1999)studies the emergence and activities of two merchant networks based in the
Sind towns of Shikarpur and Hyderabad. He relates the rise of the Shikarpuri
network to the emergence of the Durrani Empire in the second half of the
eighteenth century. The merchants of Shikarpur, who were migrants from other
areas of Sind and from Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, etc financed Ahmad Shah's
military campaigns into North India and benefited from them. Shikarpur's
nearness to the Kandahar, Ahmad Shah's capital helped in its emergence as the
financial capital of the Durrani Empire. The Shikarpuris functioned as tinancers of
the caravan trade to Central Asia.
Scott Levi's The Indian Diaspora in Central Asia and its hade, 1550-
J 900(Leiden Brill 2002) is the latest work on our topic. In comparison to Dale,
Levi takes a longer chronological span from the establishment of the Indian
Diaspora in the sixteenth century to its decay in the late nineteenth century as a
6
result of Russian restrictions on its business. While he agrees with Dale on the
view that the Indo-central Asian caravan trade was flourishing in the seventeenth
century he denies any rupture in the trade in the eighteenth century. He points that
the newly emergent state of Khokand in the Farghana valley became an
intennediary in the trade between Russia, China and India. Using nineteenth
century travelogues and Russian official documents Levi provides a wealth of
details on the commercial activities of the Indian merchants, who formed the most
important element in the Indo-central Asian economic relationship. He shows that
the Indians were mainly engaged in money lending. The reason for their success in
this business was their control over large amounts of capital. Levi also discusses
various aspects of the social life of the Indian Diaspora.
Mansura Haider's Indo-Central Asian Contacts: From Early Times to
Medieval Period (Manohar Publishers and Distributors, Nel1,' Delhi 2004) looks at
the political, cultural, and economic dimensions of the relationship between the
two regions. She shows that while lively trade relations existed between Central
Asia and its neighbors like Russia, China and India, 'lawlessness and civil wars'
were responsible for frequent interruptions in the commerce.
The Sources
As mentioned earlier, a major limitation in the study of the caravan trade
is the paucity of contemporary sources. Persian court chronicles focus on political
events and do not yield much information on economic matters. Abul Fazl's Ain-i-
7
Akbari, gives some information on the trade with Iran and Central Asia. Sujan Rai
Bhandari's Khulasat-i-Tawarikh, modeled on the Ain is rich in details on the
manufactures of Punjab many of which were exported to the neighbouring
countries on the north and west.· The autobiographies of Babar and Jahangir, the
Babarnama and the Tuzuk-i-JalJangiri are strewn with allusions to the
commodities involved in the trade. Among the eighteenth century sources Dargah
Quli Khan's Muraqqa-i-Defhi and Shah Nawaz Khan's Maasir-ul-llInara gives us
some references to the state of Delhi's markets. Hafiz Mohammad Fazil Khan's
Tarikh-i-Manazil-i-Bukhara and Mir Izzat Ullah's travelogue of his travels in
Central Asia, both written in 1812-13, are full of information on the trade with
Turan and the role of Indian merchants.
Accounts written by Europeans who either visited Upper India or traveled
on the overland routes to Iran and Central Asia are our main sources of
infonnation. The most informative of these, tor the seventeenth century are the
travelogues of Manrique, WiUiam Finch, Tavernier, Bernier, Bento De goes and
Manucci. The accounts of William Francklin, Comte Du Modave and George
Forster are valuable for the information provided tor the eighteenth century
caravan trade. European visitors to Iran like Jean Chardin, Thomas Herbert,
Tavernier, Cornelius Le Bruyn, and Joseph Hanway made valuable observations
on the importance of Iran's trade with India. The letters of the employees of the
English East India Company, in William Foster's English Factories in India,
1618-67 (Oxford Clarendon Press J906-27)are primarily concerned with maritime
8
Tenth century Hindu merchants had a separate quarter for themselves in the city
along with the Muslims and the Jews.
The caravan trade was an important feature of the economic life of the
Delhi Sultanate. In the thirteenth century Khurasani merchants used to corne to
India for selling horses and buying slaves. There was a large demand in the Islamic
region tor the latter and even Sufis engaged in this trade. Raw Silk was imported
from Iran and Afghanistan.7 Merchants and travelers also used to bring camels to
India. S Weapons were obtained from Khorasan and Iraq. The Multani merchants
used to bring expensive cloth from the Islamic region tor sale in Delhi.
Conversely, Indian cotton textiles were popular outside the sub-continent. Indigo
was an important export from India.9Swords made in India were sent to
Turan.IOThe historian Minhaj us Siraj records that most of the inhabitants of
Lahore were traders who used to travel to Khorasan and Turkistan frequently with
passes obtained from the Mongols that guaranteed safety,ll According to the
fourteenth century traveler Ibn Batutah, Silk fabrics of Nishapur were imported
7 Irfan Habib, "Non aglicultural Production and Urban economy", The Cambridge Economic Histon; of i/1dia. C.1250 - C.J750, Hyderabad Orient Longman 1984,Vol 1, p 84. 8 Joginder K. Chawla, India's 01'erlalld Trade with Central Asia and Persia Dilling the 771irteenth and Fourteenth Centllries. New Delhi Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. 2006. 9 Iqtidar Hussain Siddiqui, Perso-Arabic sources of Information 011 the Life and Conditions in the SlIlwl7Ule of Delhi, Delhi Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers 1992, p 26. 10 K. A. Nizami, "India's cultural Relations with Central Asia during the Medieval Period" in Nizami. State and Cultl/re ill Mediel'alll1dia, p 250 II luzjani, Minhaj us Siraj, Tabakat-i- Nasiri, A genera! History of the Muhammadan dynasties of Asia illcluding HindI/stan. From AH 194 to AH 658, translated by Major H G Raverty, New Delhi Oriental Books Reprint Corporation 1970, p 1133.
10
trade but also contain frequent references to the overland trade of the Annenian
and other merchants.
A large number of accounts were written in the early nineteenth century by
European and Indian travelers to Punjab, Afghanistan and Central Asia like Mir
Izzat UlIah, Mountstuart Elphinstone, Henry Pottinger, William Moorcroft, etc.
They provide detailed infonnation on various aspects of the contemporary caravan
trade much of which is also relevant for our period.
The Overland trade in the pre Mughalperiod
Trade relations between India and West Asia and Central Asia have existed
since antiquity. During the early medieval period Multan served as the focal point
for the trade \vith the Islamic regions. Caravans from Khorasan used to come to
Multan regularly. Arab geographers of the period desclibe it as a large and
prosperous city.:iKabul was another important centre for the trade between India
and the Islamic countries. In the ninth century Kabul was visited by merchants
who purchased Indian dried fruits and kernels that were used in the making of
medicines. Several precious commodities of India and China were available here.
The indigo trade alone amounted to one million gold dinars a year.6 During the
; Andre Wink, Af-Hind, TIle Making of the Indo-Islamic lVorld, Va! 1, Ear~l' Medieval India and the E1:pansion of Islam. t" to I Jrll centuries, Delhi Oxford University Press 1990, p 171, 186. 6 G. Le. Strange, TIle Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, Mesopotamia, Persia Gild Central Asia from lire Moslem Conquest to the lime of Tinlllr, London Frank Cass and Co. Ltd 1966, p 349. The Ghaznavid Sultans took Indigo from North India as tribute and even gifted it to other rulers. Clifford Edmond Bosworth. The Ghaznavids, New Delhi Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers 1991, p 76.
9
into India. 12 He also mentions dlied melons of Khwarizm and dried plums of
Waknaba, a place near Bukhara being transported to India Royal Couriers were
used to ensure that the fruits arrived fresh for the Sultan. 13The Sultans took steps to
ensure that trade was not hindered. I1tutmish and Balban suppressed groups that
were engaged in robbery on the routes. During the reign of Ghiyas ud-din Tughlaq,
caravans travelling to Iran and Central Asia were provided protection. '4
In the early fifteenth century a visitor to Timur's capital Samarkand noted
that it received commodities hom several places including India. He also mentions
that 'lesser spices' like cloves, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon were imported from India.
The tax levied on Indian merchants was an important source of revenue for
Timur's state. 15
The caravan trade was to receive a spurt with the establishment of the
Mughal Empire. There was a substantial increase in the volume of imports from
Central Asia in consequence of the Mughal demand for them. The impetus given
by Mughal rule to Indian agriculture and manufacturing implied a rise in exports to
several regions including Central Asia. This work will study the different aspects
" Ibn Batutah, The Trarels of Ibn Battllta. AD 1325·1354, Translated with revisions and notes from the Arabic text edited by C. Defremary and D.R Sanguinetti by H.A.R Gibb, Delhi Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers and Distributers 1993, p 584. 1.1 Ibn Batutah, Travels, p 547, 550,594. 14 Iqtidar Hussain Siddiqui, 'Politics and conditions in the territories under the occupation of Central Asian rulers in North- Western India-13 th and 14th centuries,' Central Asiatic Journal, Vol 27, 1983, P 296. I, Clavijo, Embassy to Tamer/aile .1403-1406. translated by Guy Le Strange, edited by Sir E.D. Ross and Eileen Power, London Routledge and sons 1928, p 278,289. Satish Chandra holds that Timur's conquests were aimed at securing control of the main Asian trade routes, both overland and overseas. 'State and Economic Development under Timur-With Special Reference to the 'Silk Road' and the Great Asian Land Routes' in Salish Chandra, Essays on Medieval Indian HiSlOrv. New Delhi Oxford University Press 2003. p 154.
II
of the Indo-Central Asian caravan trade with the intention of bringing out its
relevance to the two regions.
12
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