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Trade Networks, Metallic Currency and the Huns in Early India

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Beyond Borders

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Ancient Economies ((PASTAE))

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Abstract

This chapter focuses upon the Huns and their role in the shaping of India’s ancient economy. Far from disrupting the existing economic order, the Huns are shown to have actively participated in the Indo-Sasanian interactions, and by introducing Sasanian coinage in India, the Alchon Huns particularly provided a basic prototype to subsequent ruling houses in different parts of India for their own silver drachmas (‘Indo-Sasanian coinage’), and this silver currency facilitated economic transactions in the early medieval India at wider scale. To the political changes in Northwest, West and Central India, merchants and artisans responded in a variety of ways: while a trans-regional merchant organization (vaṇiggrāma), accepted the newly emerged political authority of the Alchon Huns and their subordinates, contrary to them, a Naigama family sided with the Aulikara rulers of Dashapura, under whom some of its members accepted higher administrative positions and fought the Hun armies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The coinage of the Gurjara rulers of early medieval India is identified as ‘…. ‘Indo-Sasanian’ because of the demonstrable evolution of its design elements from the broad, thin coinage of the Sasanian emperors of Iran (c. fifth century AD)’ (see, Deyell, 1990: 26).

  2. 2.

    Ṣaṣṭhi is mentioned as Ṣaṣṭhidatta in another Sanjeli inscription dated to c. 506 CE (Mehta & Thakkar, 1978: 15, 18).

  3. 3.

    For instance, officials are prohibited from apprehending the wife for her husband’s guilt (rule no. 5). In a same way, officials are prohibited from confiscating the property of a person, who died without a son and they are directed to take into consideration the claims of any legal heir other than the son (rule no. 1). The royal officials are prohibited from going ‘in for the apprehension of persons of for taking up a case against one or for seizing one’s things through mere suspicion (śaṅka) of a crime’ (rule no. 4). The officials were directed not to dispose a lawsuit in the absence of either the complainant or the defendant (rule no. 8). Even the officials were prohibited from compelling the village residents for supplying ‘beds or couches, seats and boiled rice’ to ‘a subordinate chief, an officer or an envoy of the king,’ when they come to a village (rule no. 11) (Sircar, 1953–1954b: 170–171).

  4. 4.

    For instance, it is laid down that ‘Cultivators coming out of their areas for sowing seeds during the rainy season were not to be apprehended or engaged by the king or landlord in free labour’ (rule no. 24) (Sircar, 1953–1954b: 173).

  5. 5.

    For instance, officials are directed not to summon those persons, who are ‘engaged in work at home or at their shops’ to court unless they are ‘involved in a criminal case’ (rule no. 21) (Sircar, 1953–1954b: 172).

  6. 6.

    For instance, it is recorded that ‘If the clerks who had to write down the statements of cases in the law-court were absent from the court after mid-day, they were liable to a fine of six and one-fourth silver coins’ (rule no. 30). In a same way, in ‘cases of fraud in regard to the delivery of rāj-ārgghikā’ (king’s share), the concerned officers were made ‘liable to a fine of three and one-fourth silver coins’ (rule no. 32) (Sircar, 1953–1954b: 174).

  7. 7.

    Several inscriptions inform us about different merchants, who had combined successfully their professional activities with that of their administrative responsibilities in different state polities. For instance, two merchants, namely Chaṭṭiseṭṭi and Kuñjaseṭṭi, appear in the inscriptions (dated to twelth–thirteenth century CE) of the Hoysaḷa rulers as able administrators, who managed their bureaucratic roles as well as supply of horses, elephants and other commodities (Ali, 2009). In a same way, under the Silahāra rulers of Konkan a family of merchants, Bhabana-śreṣṭhi and his brother Dhanama-śreṣṭhi (sons of Durga-śreṣṭhi) are mentioned to have occupied administrative posts, mahāpradhānas (chief among the heads of the administrative departments?) and mahāsandhivigrahika (officer in charge of war and peace), respectively. In addition, the members of this family not only owned ships but also employed sailors. Owing of their family’s position in the Silahāra administration, they appear to have enjoyed several tax exemptions on their commercial-shipping activities (Kharepatan inscription, dated 1084 CE: Chakravarti, 2000: 41–42).

  8. 8.

    Scholars have expressed different views on the relationship of Varāhadāsa and Ravikīrti; although D. C. Sircar and G. S. Gai (1961–1962: 54, footnote no. 4) have identified Ravikīrti as a brother of Varāhadāsa, but they have not denied the possibility of his being a son of Varāhadāsa. On the other hand, Dāniel Balogh (2019: 165–166) provides entirely different observations on the relationships between the members of this Naigama family. In his view, Ravikīrti and Varāhadāsa were same person, and in a same manner, according to him, Doṣa (or Bhagavaddoṣa) and Doṣakumbha were same person, and Viṣṇudatta of Chittorgarh inscriptions is suggested to be the third son of Ravikīrti from his wife Bhānuguptā. It would mean, Doṣa (alias Doṣakumbha), Abhayadatta and Viṣṇudatta were brothers. However, Balogh (2019: 166, footnote no. 295) does not stop here and goes on to provide yet another possible identification of Doṣa with that of Viṣṇudatta, which makes him a person of many names, viz., Doṣa, Doṣakumbha and Viṣṇudatta. The mutilated character of available inscriptions has thrown open end numbers of speculations, and to avoid getting lost in this endless speculation-game, present author following Richard Salomon (1989: 16–18) agrees with ‘the usually accepted interpretation that Ravikīrti is Varāhadāsa’s son’, and retains the view that Bhagavaddoṣa, Abhayadatta and Doṣakumbha were three sons of Ravikīrti from his wife Bhānuguptā.

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  1. Department of History, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

    Ashish Kumar

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Kumar, A. (2023). Trade Networks, Metallic Currency and the Huns in Early India. In: Beyond Borders. Palgrave Studies in Ancient Economies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43593-5_3

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