Give a detailed account of the Merchant group system during the Mughal period
Answers
MERCANTILE LIFE IN MUGHAL
INDIA
Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi
The merchant class in the Mughal Empire can, for convenience of investigation, be categorized into three distinct groups, viz.. (1) the big merchants and ship owners (mahâjans and sâhs), (2) the smaller and medium commodity merchants or traders (baniyas) who frequented the local markets and (3) the petty shopkeepers and hawkers.
Comprising both Hindus and Muslims, this class appears to have been largely dominated by the Hindu and Jain merchants who were collectively known as baniyas,' the designation not only representing their caste, but also their profession. The predominance of the baniyas in the medieval society is succinctly brought out in one of the verses of Kabir (c.1510) wherein he sees God as a baniya:
My Lord is a baniya. He conducts his commerce so easily. Without scales and balances. He weighs the entire Universe.²
These baniyas, largely belonged to the vaishya caste. This gave them a distinct social status. While describing the four principal castes, Tavernier says:
The third caste is that of the Baniyans, who attach themselves to trade, some being Shroffs, i.e., money changers or bankers and others
brokers, by whose agency the merchants buy and sell...³ The term baniya has its origins in the Sanskrit word 'vânij' which
means a merchant. In Mughal terminology the word used for the baniya
is baqqal. Thus describing the origin of the baniyas, Abul Fazl writes:
One caste of the Bais [Vaishyas], which is designated Bánik, is called baniya in ordinary usage and baqqal in Arabic....³
According to an 18th Century lexicographical work, the Arabic term baqqal meant a baniya or 'grain merchant' in India but a 'green grocer' in Iran. Generally speaking the term baniya, at least from the 17th Century was an inclusive term incorporating within its ambit all those who cared to be so labelled." By an extention of usage, to the European merchants of the 18th Century, the term 'banian' denoted all natives who served them as agents or brokers..
It appears that the baniyas mainly pursued the business of money lending and banking, and traded in commodities like grain, ghee (clarified butter), spices, jewellery, clothing and grocery." However, they avoided doing commerce in 'polluting substances. On the other