Introduction

• Merchants operated at various levels, from local peddlers to large-scale traders involved in overseas commerce, across all parts of the country.

• In the commercial process, specialized groups such as merchants, brokers, and sarrals played crucial roles at different levels.

• Large-scale trading operations strengthened existing practices and institutions and led to the rise of new ones.

• Banking systems, bills of exchange, and money lending were important aspects of the trading process.

• Trading partnerships and insurance were also in practice during this time.

Personnel of Trade

• Merchants, sarrafs, moneylenders, and brokers were key players in the Indian markets, with increasing commercial activities attracting a large number of people to these professions.

• These trading groups were not strictly divided into separate categories, and often, the same person engaged in two or more roles simultaneously.

• The groups are studied separately based on the roles they performed in the trade and commerce of the period.

Merchants

• Vaisyas were theoretically supposed to engage in commercial activities, but in practice, people from a wide range of backgrounds participated in trade.

• During this period, certain groups and castes dominated commercial activities in particular regions.

Banjaras

• Banjaras were a significant trading group involved in trade between villages and between villages and towns, as well as at the inter-regional level.

• They played a crucial role in rural-urban trade and typically dealt with commodities like grain, pulses, sugar, salt, etc.

• The Banjaras used oxen to carry loads and moved from place to place for buying and selling goods.

• Jahangir’s Tuzuk-i Jahangiri mentions the Banjaras as a fixed class possessing large numbers of oxen and transporting goods from villages to towns.

• A Tanda referred to a group of Banjaras, usually consisting of families and their households, with each group led by a chief called Nayaka.

• A Tanda could include up to 600-700 persons (including women and children), each family owning oxen for transport.

• The Banjaras were a mix of Hindus and Muslims.

• Some scholars divide them into four groups based on the commodities they traded: grain, pulses, sugar, salt, and wood and timber.

• They operated in many parts of North India and were similar to other groups of nomadic traders like the Nahmardis in Sindh and the Bhotlyas between the Himalayas and the plains.