1

CENTRE FOR HISTORICAL STUDIES,

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, JNU

Paper - Rural Society in Medieval India (M31401)

Submitting to - Prof. Umesh Ashok Kadam

Submitted by - Ravish Raj (MA 1st Year)

Q. Evaluate the sources for Rural society of medieval India.

Any form of enquiry requires a repository of information which can be mined to gather relevant
knowledge about the subject. Given that our questions pertain to distant, physically
inaccessible temporal domains extending over a millennium, sources form the foundation of
historical enquiry. Having said that, one must engage actively, continuously and religiously in
the critical assessment of multiple sources in order to reconstruct an authentic picture of the
past. Our present evaluation deals with the sources for rural society of medieval India, the
quest of which burdens one with an exacting investigation as the witnesses of an obscure rural
past lie buried deep beneath the sands of time, vulnerable to contamination1 and oblivion2.
That apart, other theoretical issues include the changing notions of rural and urban; and
different variants that coexist within those broad categories. Whereas a simple definition of
'rural' would suggest an agrarian economy, there might be suburbs in frequent contacts with
the metropolis, or thriving communities that live at the periphery, in forests and beyond the
purview of civilization in inhospitable landscapes3. The term might also be used to characterize
the nature of entire economy4.

For rural society of medieval India, one must begin with the kind of questions that intrigue us in
the capacity of a historian. These questions relate to various dimensions of the society and span
across vital themes. Socio-cultural questions may include the composition of the society,
patterns of interrelationships, the interactions and tensions between these groups; ergo, the

1 External factors having pushed such sources into either decay or complex evolution from which it is too onerous
to segregate anything of value vis-à-vis our subject of exploration.
2 Both physical isolation as well as preferential selection of sources, deliberately leaving out one.
3 For a discussion of how certain groups were kept out of the purview of urbanization, see Habib, M. Politics and

society during the early medieval period: collected works of Professor Mohammad Habib, edited by Khaliq Ahmad
Nizami, People's Pub. House, New Delhi, 1974, Pp. 59-96
4 Chattopadhyaya, B.D.. The Making of Early Medieval India. Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1994. Pp 1-37
2

protestant movements, and reformist and counterrevolutionary tendencies, as well as the

cause, course and impact of acculturation, whether voluntary or imposed, on the existing social
dynamics. Economic questions would deal with mode of production, exchange networks (both
internal and external), the magnitude of commercialization and monetization, market
regulation, occupational distribution, economic divide, taxation system and its impact, revenue
generation apparatus and also the evasive tendencies. Political themes would involve regional
administrative paraphernalia and its relationship with other zones, evolving polities and the
rebellions that erupted frequently. Technological penetration in terms of agricultural
innovations, history of thought and memory, festivities and customs, dressing and art, stories
and gossips are also quite important in order to sketch a wholesome picture of the rural
society. These are the markers that form the basis of our evaluation.

The most convenient approach shall be to jump right onto the broad categories available
sources can be classified into, i.e., literary and archeological, and then examine those
scrupulously.

Literary sources - Literary sources from this period include a diverse range of texts - be it
histories patronized by the royal classes, i.e., classical languages like Indo-Persian, Sanskrit,
Telugu, or a myriad of regional evolving languages which were given space in court literature as
well as devotional compositions. We also have official documents, reports, akhbarāts,
contracts, grants, gazettes, arhsattas, deeds, farmāns, and inshās, which are free from literary
embellishments and hence are easier to sift fact from fiction. Religious literature also provides
us with an insight into the ideological current and beliefs of common people as medieval
religious movements constituted a popular base. Another phenomenon which adds to our
repository is the evolution of vernacular languages, which led to multiple linguistic identities,
wonderfully enunciated in texts like Bakhars. Accounts of foreigners give us important third
person perspectives, in the sense that they might note extinct peculiarities which were
considered commonplace customs in the bygone era. For the longest time, historians working
on medieval history of India ignored regional kingdoms and emerging polities, however, recent
revisionist approaches [Regional history] have brought forth the hither unearthed history of
small but significant states which flourished in the shadow of great gunpowder empires5.

The beginning of the second millennium AD is an important phase in Indian history, as it

initiated a process of intense acculturation, the effect of which rippled throughout the
subcontinent. The expansion of agriculture and massive reorganization of land led to change in

5Hodgson, Marshall G.S.. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, University of Chicago
Press, Chicago. 1974
3

the notions, character and scope of rural in India. Hence, it is important to look at the rural
society at this important juncture, at the dawn of urbanization brought about by the sultanate.

Al-Biruni's Kitab fi Tahqiq md li'l-Hind gives an account of the topography of northern India,
which mention roads that connected distant towns, interspersed by villages, some of which do
not exist today. This gives us a picture of networks of commerce and communication and thus
help us in recreating the rural-urban relationship. His accounts also corroborate the
geographical sections of Puranas (Matsya Purana, and thus are of immense value for modern-
day historians in charting out the exact location of the now extinct villages. D C Sircar, on the
basis of Biruni's work, has adjusted the location of Brahmashila6.

The section on Kashmir valley - essentially an 'unreachable terrain' - talks about the physical
mobility of devotees which came from different parts of al-hind. An interesting observation is
the absence of beasts of burden, which has resulted in a pedestrian life. The nobility preferred
katts (palanquins) lifted by men. He also talks about continuous stretch of cultivation on the left
side of river Sind, and the plantations on the boundaries of swamp near Jhelum in Addishtan 7.

Kitab'l Hind also talks in great lengths about the varna system, its origins and hierarchical
relationships between varnas, castes and sub-castes - and again, inferring to puranic texts and
personal communications with contemporary scholars - especially the lowest categories which
are kept outside the pale of it. As these social groups had restricted mobility and were mostly
kept entirely out of the perimeter of the city, these communities represent rural societies with
least unadulterated customs and norms8.

When it comes to non-caste groups, Biruni refers to Antyajas, further categorized into 8 groups
on the basis of their professions which among themselves followed a system of exclusion and
differentiation. Below Antyajas came Hādi, Dinba, Chandala and Badhatau. Badhatau, according
to Biruni were the lowest among the lowest. The work also talks about the classification of
Brahmans (Agnihotras and Dikshats), there duties and impunities. The social position of a varna
is determined by its distance from the vedas. When it comes to food habits, even though theory
insisted on non-violence, in reality, the local Indian platter boasted of a diverse non-vegetarian
cuisine. Cows, though, were considered inviolable. Biruni throws a glimpse on gender-relations
by discussing marriage system, the absence of dowry, caste determination on matrilineal lines,
sati, harlotry, adultery, inheritance. He also goes on to elaborate the customs, dresses,
ornaments, games, limitations of oral traditions of passing information, multifarious scripts and

6Khān, M.S., 'Bīrūnī and the Political History of India', Oriens, Vol. 25/26 (1976), pp. 86-115
7Said, Hakim Mohammed Said, Dr. Ansar Zahid Khan, 'Al-Bïrūnī: His Times, Life and Works, Hamdard Academy,
Pakistan, 1981, P. 159
8 Habib, M, 1974
4

languages as representativs of emerging regional polities. In the same work, he brings to light
the dichotomy between the beliefs and languages of scholarly and ignorant clusters9.

Official documents (administrative, judicial, records) are imperative sources for information on
grants, posts, appointments, revenue administrations and jurisdictions of authorities. A farman
dated 1616, issued by the court in favour of the complainant Arjun Mal Jangam of Benaras, is
addressed to the gumashtas and jagirdars, warning them to give up illegal possession of his
land. One can infer from this the exploitations by bureaucracy and the mechanisms of justice
delivery. Rural oppression can also be gauged through documents discussing rebellions.
Response to such oppressions can also be located in similar documents10.

An official resettlement order, (Nasik, 1779), shows that en masse migration of rural population
due to increased demand for forced labor. Fukuzawa derives from this source that the socio-
political system of eighteenth-century village economy did not restrict the mobility of peasants.
Hence, they could move away from the land, owing to abundance of uncultivated plots, and
hence had some, if not great, bargaining power11.

Risāla-i Zirā't, a treatise on agriculture by an anonymous author consists of 9 sections dealing

with types of land, crops, cultivators, revenue officials, methods of collection, analysis of
revenue farming, etc. It primarily deals with the revenue apparatus employed in rural area12.

Travelogues have always been a vital source, primarily due to the element of perspective. The
notions of rural might have been different for people from different land, and hence, the
contrasts churned out of a comparison with traveller's own motherland gives us an idea of the
subject in relative terms. Travellers also capture some interesting and bizarre moments of rural
life, and are a reliable source in assessing the safety of trade routes, which often turn into
dangerous territories beside remote rural settlements. A substantial chunk of Vijaynagar history
has been sketched out of travelogues by Fernao Nuniz, Domingo Paes, Abdur Razzak,
Athanasius Nikitin. Paes writes about the villages and plantations of Narsymga, cultivated
zones, cattle, and an abundance of cotton. He also points at the scarcity of water, which
compels the residents to adopt artificial systems of management. Francisco Palesart presents a
very grim picture of poverty in his Remonstrantie, emphasizing the plight of working class. He
goes on to describe Jahangir as King of the plains, a cheeky remark at latter’s incapacity to

9 Said, Hakim Mohammed, 1981, Pp.190-207

10 Ansari, M. A., Administrative Documents of Mughal India, B R Publishing Corporation, Delhi, 1984, P 21
11 Fukuzawa, Hiroshi, 'A Note on the Corvée System (Vethbegar)', The Medieval Deccan: Peasants, Social Systems

and States Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1991, Pp 70-90
12 Mukhia, Harbans, Exploring India's Medieval Centuries: Essays in History, Society, Culture and Technology, Aakar

Books, Delhi, 2010, Pp 244-271

5

make rural zones safer. Thevenot gives a description of girasiyas, a class of robbers who often
operated from villages along trade routes13. Niccolao Manucci in his Storia Do Mogor presents
detailed description of dresses, dwellings, land revenue system, condition of farmers, weddings,
weddings among shudras, while also supplying us with fascinating anecdotes about sorceresses,
which allow a tiny passage into the rural myth and mindset14.

Dissemination of Vernacular Sufi literature made a lasting cultural impact on the rural economy,
which mainly constituted of illiterate masses who had to rely on the agency of scholarly class
for religious fulfillments. Tanvir Anjum, highlighting the popularity of such songs attributes
them a position equivalent to work songs, which aided women in the domestic tasks15. A study
of the oral tradition still prevalent in many Maratha villages also attests to the fact that the Sufi
saints have been kept alive in the songs sung by women while performing domestic chores. This
tells us about the degree of acculturation rural society underwent16.

Archaeological sources - Archaeological sources of this period would include Shrines, khanqahs,
maths, temples, settlements, coins and mints, inscriptions, landscape architecture, waterworks,
paintings, sculpture. Inscriptions have been explored extensively by scholars like DC Sircar and
TV Mahalingam.

Inscriptions form the top of the deck when it comes to reliable sources with minimal elements
of exaggeration, given that erudite languages and priorities had not percolated into the rural
heartland. They provide valuable information regarding economic relationships between state
and villages by discussing the construction and maintenance of water works, terms and implied
motives of land grants. Ghatiyala inscription of kakkuka (861 AD) talks about the cattle raid and
burning down of a village on the vațanānaka, and gives important insights on the colonizing
nature of early medieval state expansion. Similarly, sati slabs found at various places, talk about
the wave of Sanskritization that had engulfed the lower classes17. Dive-Agar copper plate
inscription, Maharashtra, (1060) contains early Marathi texts and talks about a private deed
throwing light on socio-economic conditions of the village18.
Inscriptions at Porumamilla and Bahur are related to water works and point at the active

13 Anjum, Nazer Aziz, 'Security on the Routes in Mughal India', Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 66
(2005-2006), pp. 446-455
14 Manucci, Niccolao. Storia Do Mogor. Translated by William Irvine. Editions Indian, London, 1907

15 Anjum, Tanvir, 'Vernacularization of Islam and Sufism in South Asia: A Study of the Production of Sufi Literature

in Local Languages', Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Vol. 54, No. 1, January-June, 2017
16 Kulkarni, A. R., 'Social Relations in the Maratha Country in the Medieval Period', Proceedings of the Indian

History Congress, Vol. 32, Vol 1 (1970), pp. 231-268

17 Chattopadhyaya, B.D., 1994, 120-129
18 Samel, Swapna H., 'A Bilingual Inscription From Diveagar Copper Plate', Proceedings of the Indian History

Congress, Vol. 61, Part One: Millennium (2000-2001), pp. 429-433

6

involvement of village community on the maintenance of water management systems. Kankroli

inscription, dated 1662, from Rajasthan talks about a massive dam project which displaced 16
villages. The text, however, is silent over the question of rehabilitation19.

Paintings present to us in graphic detail, not only a lucent picture of the society, but also the
ideas that haunt the psyche of the artist, as evident in the choice of themes and the manner of
depiction. Various regional styles evolved during medieval period, echoing the themes of rural
society, of its customs, traditions, folklores, dresses, rituals and lifestyle. Mughal paintings -
although used as a statement of imperial authority - did give a place to the ordinary life in its
margins20.

Shepherds, gardeners, peasants, villagers, fishermen, singers, dancers, ascetics, boatmen,

bookbinders, distillers are represented in numerous miniatures along with their paraphernalia
and lifestyle, their location in the picture conveying their distance from the metropolitan
center. This distance is reduced when the center needs the services of such groups, where the
worker, even though given space, is denied individuality. Picturization of folk literature and
fables allowed the artist to capture common life. Bichitr's opaque watercolor painting
portraying a tambura player, a washerman, and a man with a bow, with a pair of huts in the
background, seems straight out of a tranquil village courtyard. Village women and peasantry
are also depicted, both in-situ, engaged in highly gendered tasks, and ex-situ, performing
unskilled labour. When it comes to dresses, langotas and headgears are a regular feature.
Thatched huts, enclosed by mud walls, formed the abodes of villagers. The houses are plain and
dwellers have limited possessions - mostly pots and vessels21. Pre-peshwa Maratha paintings
not only depict secular themes, but also points at the involvement of rural society in ritual
paintings like rangoli22.

CONCLUSION

The study of rural society poses a persistent problem - the dearth of sources. Most of the
available sources depict rural societies through the perspective of the dominant players of the

19 Mate, M.S., 'Water Management in Ancient and Medieval India', Vijay Pranjapye et.al. Traditional Water
Management Systems of India, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal, 2006, Pp 24-32
20 Juneja, Monica, 'On the Margins of Utopia: One more look at Mughal Painting', The Medieval History Journal,

4(2), October, 2001, Pp. 203-240

21 Verma, Som Praksh, 'Ordinary Life in Mughal India: A Survey of Mughal Painting', Interpreting Mughal Painting:

Essays on Art, Society, and Culture, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2009, Pp.157-169
22 Chavan, Kamal. 'Maratha Painting'. Bulletin of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Vol.

58/59(1998-1999), pp. 181-196

7

economy. A peasant has no voice, and he is mentioned only as an object - an object of pity,
justice, ignorance and brutality - in all available narratives. We find the rural communities in
their grievances, their appeals, their rebellions. The cultural richness of such rural societies,
though allowed to prosper, has not been preserved. Views that come from authorities placed
on a higher social pedestal, reek of a preconceived notion and hence, require a careful
reexamination. As E.H. Carr mentioned in his magnum opus, 'Study the Historian before you
study the facts.', one has to understand who were the people writing about rural societies of
medieval India and to what degree they can be trusted.

Nevertheless, to our disposal is a plethora of documents, and other socio-cultural imprints,

which store valuable information regarding the economic and social conditions of the rural
society. A continuous and finer revaluation is required. One could also employ modern methods
of investigation that opt for an interdisciplinary approach - borrowing from branches like
anthropology, ethnography. Our aim should be to comb through most, if not all, conventional
and unconventional, tangible and intangible traces of change and continuity, whether present
in well preserved material remains or in a fading cultural memory, and arrive at an objective
conclusion.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

● Anjum, Nazer Aziz, 'Security on the Routes in Mughal India', Proceedings of the Indian
History Congress, Vol. 66 (2005-2006)
● Anjum, Tanvir, 'Vernacularization of Islam and Sufism in South Asia: A Study of the
Production of Sufi Literature in Local Languages', Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan,
Vol. 54, No. 1, January-June, 2017
● Ansari, M. A., Administrative Documents of Mughal India, B R Publishing Corporation,
Delhi, 1984
● Chattopadhyaya, B.D.. The Making of Early Medieval India. Oxford University Press, New
Delhi, 1994.
● Chavan, Kamal. 'Maratha Painting'. Bulletin of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and
Research Institute, Vol. 58/59(1998-1999)
● Habib, M. Politics and society during the early medieval period: collected works of
Professor Mohammad Habib, edited by Khaliq Ahmad Nizami, People's Pub. House, New Delhi,
1974
● Fukuzawa, Hiroshi, 'A Note on the Corvée System (Vethbegar)', The Medieval Deccan:
Peasants, Social Systems and States Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries, Oxford University Press,
Delhi, 1991
8

● Hodgson, Marshall G.S.. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World
Civilization, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 1974
● Juneja, Monica, 'On the Margins of Utopia: One more look at Mughal Painting', The
Medieval History Journal, 4(2), October, 2001
● Khān, M.S., 'Bīrūnī and the Political History of India', Oriens, Vol. 25/26, 1976
● Kulkarni, A. R., 'Social Relations in the Maratha Country in the Medieval Period',
Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 32, VOLUME I, 1970
● Manucci, Niccolao. Storia Do Mogor. Translated by William Irvine. Editions Indian,
London, 1907
● Mate, M.S., 'Water Management in Ancient and Medieval India', Vijay Pranjapye et.al.
Traditional Water Management Systems of India, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya,
Bhopal, 2006
● Mukhia, Harbans, Exploring India's Medieval Centuries: Essays in History, Society, Culture
and Technology, Aakar Books, Delhi, 2010
● Said, Hakim Mohammed Said, Dr. Ansar Zahid Khan, 'Al-Bïrūnī: His Times, Life and
Works, Hamdard Academy, Pakistan, 1981
● Samel, Swapna H., 'A Bilingual Inscription From Diveagar Copper Plate', Proceedings of
the Indian History Congress, Vol. 61, Part One: Millennium (2000-2001)
● Verma, Som Praksh, 'Ordinary Life in Mughal India: A Survey of Mughal Painting',
Interpreting Mughal Painting: Essays on Art, Society, and Culture, Oxford University Press, New
Delhi, 2009