Aniruddha Ray - Towns and Cities of Medieval India

TOWNS AND CITIES OF MEDIEVAL INDIA

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The Rebel Nawab: The Revolt of Vizier Ali Khan of Oude (1990)

(tr. & ed.) Francois Martin: Memoirs (1990)

(with s. arasaratnam), Masulipatnam and Cambay: A History of Two Port-Towns, 1500-1800 (1994)

(ed. with others) Murshidabad Affairs, 1821-1850 (1995).

Adventurers, Landowners and Rebels, Bengal, c.1575-c.1715 (1998).

(ed.) Tipu Sultan and His Age (2002).

(ed. with others), Studies in the History of the Deccan (2002).

Transformation of Bihar: European Discourses (2003).

The Merchant and the State: The French in India, 1666-1739 , 2 vols. (2004).

Trade, Politics and Plunder: The Marathas at Cambay, c. 1725-1825 (2006).

(ed.) John Ogilvy in India and Persia (2010).

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Barailly Rising (1857-1859) and the Bengali Babu (2012)

A Brief Survey

Aniruddha Ray

First published 2017

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ISBN: 978-1-138-23488-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-27675-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Galliard
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Long back Professor Ashin Dasgupta asked me to write a book in Bengali on medieval cities of india for a historical series. I am happy to say that I could finish it before his untimely demise. Prof. Subhas Ranjan Chakbrabarty, who took over the project, told me that he read a portion of the manuscript to Prof. Dasgupta who warmly gave his consent to publish it. This was published in 1999 and subsequently reprinted in 2007. Some publishers from north india wanted a Hindi translation of this book, but I preferred an English one as then I would be able to modify some portions and add some more myself. Some of my friends approached Mr. Ramesh Jain of Manohar Publishers who immediately agreed to publish an English version of the book. But I wanted to rewrite the book with some new facts that would alter the picture to some extent. I also wanted to include some new chapters and sections on towns on which I have worked since 1999. Therefore, this book is not an English translation of the Bengali book and there are some modifications of my earlier views. History of Patna and Burdwan has been added here.

A work of this size requires the help of many people. I am most grateful to Prof. Subhas Ranjan Chakrabarty for constantly encouraging me to write. He was instrumental in seeing the Bengali book through the press. I am most grateful to the staff of the Asiatic Society Library at Kolkata for often supplying me with rare and mutilated copies of old books. It seems to me that they were aware of the urgency shown by me. I am also thankful to the staff of the Rare Book Section of the National Library, Kolkata, for helping me to get rare books at short notice. Many of my notes are taken from books I found in Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris and I remain grateful to the staff of that library as well as to the staff of the National Archives of France, Paris for supplying the manuscripts. A number of my friends and students have helped me to prepare this book. Among my friends, I may cite the help and encouragement provided by Prof. Irfan Habib, Prof. Shireen Moosvi and Prof. Syed Nadeem Ali Rezavi all of Aligarh Muslim University, Prof. Dwijendra Narayan Jha, former Professor of University of Delhi, Prof. Ratnabali Chatterjee, former Professor, Calcutta University, and Prof. Tirthankar Chatterjee, former Reader, Kalyani University to all of whom I remain highly obliged. I am also grateful to Prof. Subrata Roy of Santipur College, who took the trouble of going to the libraries and getting the required pages photostated or written down by hand for me. He also could procure some books worthy of notice. Given the condition of my fading eyesight that prevents me from reading in any public library, this service will be remembered by me for the rest of my life. Dr. Debraj Chakraborty, now a teacher at Rabindra Bharati University, has helped me in various ways. I am most grateful to him for the time he has given to help me. I am also grateful to Shri Pratip Kumar Mitra for supplying important informations.

Last but not the least I must record my gratefulness to late Prof. Ashin Dasgupta for asking me to write this book in Bengali which perhaps I would not have taken up otherwise. I am also thankful to Shri Ramesh Jain and his able staff at Manohar Publishers & Distributors, Delhi, for printing this book with care in quick time.

Despite my best attempts some mistakes may have crept into the book. I am alone responsible for all such mistakes. Since my old friend at Aligarh Muslim University Iqtidar Alam Khan has provided me with much information on towns in north India, I take this opportunity to dedicate this monograph to him. I am much obliged to him for his kindness to me at all times.

ANIRUDDHA RAY

Various kinds of towns and cities have sprung up in the Indian subcontinent since the earliest times. But the history of urban Settlement in India is not continuous, leaving gaps in chronology. The mid-seventeenth-century French traveller Francois Bernier had termed the Indian cities as nothing but military outposts that was partly repeated by Max Weber in later years although he had conceded that there were administrative towns in pre-British India. The Indian historians today hold a different opinion but proper analysis of such towns of medieval India is yet to be seen. In this monograph an attempt is made to survey the important towns and cities in different parts of the Indian subcontinent in both the Sultanate and the Mughal periods, starting from approximately AD 1200 till AD 1765 when the English got the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa from the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. At one point of time in recent past it has been asserted, obviously to show the superiority of the Western European civilization, that India was an agglomeration of villages. This is obviously an inaccurate estimate. In recent years India has more than twelve thousand urban settlements each containing more than five thousand people. From that point of view the Indian civilization is the largest civilization dependent on urban settlements. The number of people living in urban settlements in India is far more than the people living in the towns of America. In 1981 the number of small and big towns in India was more than three thousand. Unfortunately there has been very little work on the urban settlements in India despite its glorious past. There had been some publications earlier on urban settlements at the initiative of the Urban Association of India; it has practically stopped working in recent years.