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Merchant groups in early medieval Bengal: with special reference to the Rajbhita stone inscription of the time of Mahīpāla I, Year 33

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Ryosuke Furui
Ryosuke Furui*
Affiliation:
Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

Recent epigraphic discoveries shed new light on merchant groups in early medieval Bengal, a region whose history in the period from the mid-sixth to the thirteenth centuries is shrouded in obscurity. The present article attempts to provide a better delineation of this history with additional information from new inscriptions, and presents a transcription, translation and discussion of the Rajbhita stone inscription which records the activity of an association of merchants called vaṇiggrāma. The history of merchant groups in early medieval Bengal can be delineated as a process of the ruralization of urban elites in its early phase, and of the organization of merchants located in rural space towards specialized groups comparable to jātis in its later phase. The new inscriptions enable us not only to fill gaps with new information, but also give us perspectives from which we can go beyond unilineal simplicity.

Keywords

BengalEarly medievalPālasEpigraphyMerchantsVaṇiggrāma
Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 76 , Issue 3 , October 2013 , pp. 391 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 2013 

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