Ars Orientalis 34 (2004) Communities and Commodities. Western India and the Indian Ocean, Eleventh-Fifteenth Centuries

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ORIENTALIS

ARS ORIENTALISVOLUME34 (2004)

COMMUNITIES AND COMMODITIES WesternIndia and the Indian Ocean, Eleventh-Fifteenth Centuries This volume is the result of an interdisciplinaryworkshopby the same name, convened at the KelseyMuseum of Archaeologyat The Universityof Michigan,Ann Arbor (November7-10, 2002).

Transliteration The contributions herein have requiredthe transliterationof certain words from Sanskrit,Gujarati,Persian,and Arabicinto Roman characters.Well-known place names, such as Gujaratand Rajasthan, havebeen left without diacriticals,while more specialized terms have been transliteratedfrom their original languages.The system employed for transliterationof Sanskritand Gujaratiterms is the generally acceptedSanskritPronunciationand Diacritic Guide, with slight modifications for Gujarati.The transliterationof Arabicand Persian words has followed the Encyclopaediaof Islamstyle as outlined in the InternationalJournalof MiddleEasternStudies.The only modification to this style is the uniform renderingof the ti marbuitaas -a for both Arabicand Persian.

CONTENTS

7

19

39

62

ESSAY

INTRODUCTORY

ALKA PATEL, GUEST EDITOR

CommunitiesandCommodities:Western Indiaandthe IndianOcean,EleventhFifteenthCenturies

AmericanInstituteof IndianStudies

TOPOGRAPHIES

GRANT PARKER

OF TASTE

IndianTextilesandMediterranean Contexts

DukeUniversity

THE BEGINNINGS

HIMANSHU

TheArtisanandthe Merchantin EarlyGujarat,Sixth-EleventhCenturies

Jawaharlal Nehru University

ARTISANS,

COMMUNITIES,

AND COMMODITIES

MedievalExchangesbetween NorthwesternIndiaandEastAfrica 82

QUSEIR AL-QADIM THE THIRTEENTH

99

134

151

172

IN CENTURY

PRABHA RAY

MARK HORTON

Universityof Bristol

KATHERINE STRANGE BURKE AND DONALD WHITCOMB

A CommunityandItsTextiles

Universityof Chicago

CARVING AND COMMUNITIES

ELIZABETH LAMBOURN

MarbleCarvingforMuslimPatronsat Khambhatandaroundthe IndianOceanRim, LateThirteenth-Mid-FifteenthCenturies

Universityof London

INDIAN TEXTILES FOR ISLAND TASTE

RUTH BARNES

GujaratiClothin EasternIndonesia

OxfordUniversity

LUXURY GOODS AND INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

PHYLLIS GRANOFF

TheCaseof PrintedandWovenMulticolored Textilesin MedievalIndia

YaleUniversity

PATTERNS IN TIME AND SPACE

CAROL BIER

Technologiesof Transferandthe Cultural Transmissionof MathematicalKnowledge acrossthe IndianOcean

TextileMuseum, Washington,D.C.

ALKA PATEL

COMMUNITIES AND COMMODITIES WesternIndiaand theIndianOcean,Eleventh-FifteenthCenturies

THISVOLUMEof ArsOrientalisis the resultof an interdisciplinary workshopby the same name, convened at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, November 7-10, 2002. As is the case with all fruitful intellectual endeavors, the sources of inspiration for the gathering, and consequently for this volume, were multiple. Initially, during my perusals of the Kelsey Museum's various collections for objects that could be useful in teaching (we know that nothing excites students as much as interaction with the actual "subjects" of their studies), I was struck by the museum's textile holdings. Specifically,

the block-printedcotton fragmentsproducedin westernIndiaand excavatedin Egyptseemedto be perfectfor teachingby virtueof theirbeautyand exporthistory.Fortunately,the Indianfragmentshadalreadybeenexhibitedandpublished by RuthBarnes.'As a projectrelatedto teachingbut feasibleas a separateenterprise,a visualizationof the productionand circulationof these importedcloths togetherwith textilesbelongingto the indigenousEgyptianand Levantinetraditions, particularlythe silk, cotton,and linen tirazfragmentsproducedprimarily for elite consumption,2would, I thought,greatlydeepenour knowledgeof nonmodernpatternsof trade,travel,andtransmissionof ideas. The western Indian and tiraz fragments, when considered simultaneously,

seemedto providethe perfectsupportsfordetailedinvestigationof the historical realitiesof the elevenththroughfifteenthcenturies.Amongthe issuesthey urged us to examinewerethe differingconsumerdemandsamongthevarioussocioeconomicstrataof a society.Connectedwith this focuswerethe marketspecificityof import and export commodities and the awareness of these differing consumer demands on the part of merchants trading in these commodities, and perhaps even on the part of the supposedly less mobile communities of craftspeople who

producedthem. These early centuries of the second millennium, however, did not seem to be

as directlyaccessibleas the late fifteenththroughtwentiethcenturies.The latter era saw the ascendancyof navaland colonialpowersover previouslyunexplored regions and unknown societies, which in turn gave rise to many archives such as those of the British, French, Portuguese, and Dutch Foreign Area offices. It is important to note that, for the earlier period treated here, it was the surviving objects themselves that suggested directions for in-depth investigation. This approach diverges fundamentally from that of many studies concentrating on later centuries, in which it is the already archived documentation of commercial travels and transactions that has led to a more intimate investigation of historical patterns. Bearing in mind the lack of surviving archival material dating to the eleventh through early fifteenth centuries,3one method by which the objects' suggestions of historical realities could be investigated further involved collaboration 7

of scholarsfrom variousdisciplines.Thus a groupof historians,archaeologists, art historians,and textual specialistswere invited to participatein the project. Happily,theyacceptedthe invitation. Eventually,the presentationsby the workshopparticipants,and particularly the discussionsthey generated,madeit apparentthata volumecompilinga small numberof thepaperscouldcontributenotonlyto the fieldof IndianOceanstudies but also to otherdisciplines.Certainly,the fieldof IndianOceanhistorywaswell establishedby the groundbreaking workof GeorgeF.Houraniand S. D. Goitein,4 to nameonlytwo prominentfigureswhosepublicationshavebeenespeciallyuseful forthe conceptionand executionof this project.Morerecentcontributionsto the fieldby scholarssuchas K.N. Chaudhuri,SanjaySubrahmanyam, JanetAbuLughod,H. P. Ray,and MarkHorton,5amongothers,havebeen equallyvaluable in both deepeningandbroadeningourknowledgeof the historyof people,things, and ideasmovingthroughoutthe IndianOceanand its borderlands.Thesemore recentworkshave,moreover,also contributedto the very scholarlymethodologiesbywhichwe identifyandapproachhistoricalprocesses. Withoutthese importantstudies, the presentvolume would not have been possible.Indeed,it can be said that, in additionto the KelseyMuseum'stextile collections,the broaderintellectualinspirationforthe workshopandthis collection of paperswas the groundworklaid by previousscholarship.Therefore,this volume'sdevelopmentof the frameworksanddatapresentedbyprecedingstudies is, we hope,the most fittingtributeto them. Theprimarycontributionthe presentvolumeseeksto maketo IndianOcean studiesand otherfieldsis its emphasison a methodologicalframeworkanchored in regionalspecificity.As is true of most disciplines,the initial stagesof developmentarecharacterizedby approachesthat areoverarchingin theirgeographical, and sometimesalso chronological,scopes.This qualityis demonstrated,for example,by Chaudhuri'sinfluentialpublications.In Tradeand Civilisationin the Indian Ocean (1985),and Asia beforeEurope(1ggo), Chaudhuri first applied to the

studyof the IndianOceanthe usableelementsfrom the Braudelianframework, whichwasitselfdevelopedas a methodologicaltool forinvestigationof the Mediterraneanandits borderingsocieties.6 Chaudhuri'sanalysisof the conceptof Asiaconcludedat the outsetthatit was "essentiallyWestern,"since "thereis no equivalentwordin any Asian language ...thoughexpressionssuchas the 'Seaof China'or the 'Seaof Hind' heldcertain analogousmeaningsin Arabicandsome of the Indianlanguages."7 Nevertheless, exploringthe applicabilityof the Braudelianframeworkto the IndianOceanwith the additionof religiousideologiesas fundamentalin the shapingof social and materialrealities8-required a less generalbut still somewhatoverarching 8

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treatmentof culturallydisparateregions.In placeof Asia as an identifiableand intellectuallyviablewhole,Chaudhuri'sworkproposedthe identificationof "four [distinguishable]IndianOceancivilisations,"namelythose of Islam,Sanskritic India,SoutheastAsia,andChina.9 The distinct identificationsof Islam and SanskriticIndia are particularly noteworthyfor our purposes.Not only in Indian Ocean studies, but also in most other scholarlyfields, the eleventh through fifteenth centuries of the history of South Asia have traditionallybeen analyzedthrough the two ends of what has effectivelybecome an intellectualpolarity between "Islam"and "India."It shouldbe remembered,however,that one componentof this polarity is a spatiallyspecificdesignation,while the other is a socioreligioussystem with a regionalorigin, but without a fixed physicallocation over time. Thus the intersectionof these two cultural processes-for both "India"as well as "Islam"are,it must be confessed,alwaysin the making-is surelyuniquein its regional manifestation.This work,then, proposesto keep in sight the historical specificityof the spaceof westernIndia and its culturalsurroundings,and therebyexplorethe uniquityof the negotiationsand changesinitiatedby Muslim and other communitiesin the region. Sincethis workhopesto contributeto the studyof IndianOceansocieties,it cannot remainmethodologicallyintroverted,concentratingonly on the events taking place within the region under investigation.Thus severalof the papers herein explore commercialand other exchangesbetween the western Indian coast of Gujaratand other geographicallyremotebut long-connectednodes of the Indian Oceanworld.As Hortonpoints out in his essayin this volume, the analysisof a specificregion,definedas historicallyand culturallyunique,and its interactionwith otherIndianOceansocietiespresentsan importantcontribution to a methodologybecomingincreasinglyprominentin Indian Ocean studies.1o Moreover,the twofoldapproachof exploringthe uniquityof a region,alongwith the connectionsit maintainedwith other,equallydistinctplaces,breaksthe hegemony of overarchingframeworks.Generalapproachesand ideas had certainly been necessaryduringthe initial stagesof investigation.Thanksto the advances they broughtabout,we can now beneficiallyconcentrateon smallerparcelsof study,whichwill in the endreciprocallyaidin nuancingthe largerframeworks. One final note must be madepriorto an introductionof the articlesin this volume.In lightof the manyexcellentcontributionsto the workshop,selectionof the papersto be includedwas especiallydifficult.Sincethe workshopwas underpinnedby the KelseyMuseum'sholdingsof westernIndianand tiniz fragments, a sizablenumberof the contributionstreatedtextileproductionand commercial exchange.In orderto providereaderswith a widerstudyof IndianOceanmate9

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rialhistoryduringthe elevenththroughfifteenthcenturies,othercommoditiesof exchangewerealso emphasized.This aim of wide representation, in conjunction withlimitedspace,necessitatedthe selectionof paperstreatingthe circulationof a varietyof commoditiesandideasoversomepaperson textilehistory. The articlesby GrantParkerand HimanshuPrabhaRayelucidateimportant precursorsto the patternsof commerce,travel,andtransmissionof ideasin place during the elevenththrough fifteenthcenturies.Parker'sarticlemakes several noteworthycontributionstowardour understandingof Indo-Romancommercialandculturalcontactsspanningthe firstcenturyB.C. throughthe fifthcentury A.D. Archaeological datarecoveredfromRomansitesin the Italianpeninsulaindicatethatcommercialtrafficwasnot unidirectional,flowingonly fromthe Mediterraneanto the Indiansubcontinenton voyagesof goodsacquisition.Remnants at severalRomanports of Indiantextilesand teak,the lattermost likelycoming from seagoingvessels,remindus that shipsof Indianoriginalso madetheirway far westward.Thesedata,togetherwith finds of importeditems such as pepper and ivory at numeroussites, suggestthat consumptionof luxury commodities took placein variousambitswell outsidethe urbanitas,or cosmopolitanismand sophisticationof Rome.Along with imperialismand Christianity,then, Parker proposesa thirduniversalism,namelya universalismof the exotic.Justas India representedthe extentof the knownworldand the limits of empireand religious mission, its commoditiesby synedocherepresentedthe extent of the unknown world,the ultimateother.This representationmadethe acquisitionand possession of thesecommoditiesall the moredesirable. Ray'scontributionturns our attentionto westernIndia, and specificallyto Gujarat.Herinvestigationof the movementsof merchantandartisangroupsduring the firstmillenniumof the CommonEra,andof the roleof statestructuresin this mobility,providesan importantchronologicalbackgroundto laterinvestigations.First,she points out that inscriptionsdatingto the secondcenturyA.D., issued duringthe reignof the KsatrapaRudradamana,alreadyidentifyGujarat as a regionalentity numberingamongthe territoriesof this ruler.Althoughthe precisebasesfordefiningthis regionalidentityin the mindsof contemporaneous merchants,artisans,andothercommunitiesremainunclear,the region'sidentificationas suchis neverthelessmethodologicallyimportant.It identifiesthe beginningsof a recognitionof the area'sculturaluniquity,whichseemsonly to solidify andbecomemorepreciselyarticulatedthroughoutthe followingcenturies. Supportedby Parker'swork,Rayalso notes that despitethe paucityof references to long-distancetraveland trade in surviving Sanskritcanonicaltexts, archaeologicalfindsandinscriptionsprovethatthe communitiesof westernIndia were clearlyimportantparticipantsin maritimetravelfor commerceas well as 10

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pilgrimage during the early centuries of the Common Era. Moreover, far-trading merchants, who most often had access to the surplus capital required in long-distance commerce, were not the only groups that traveled. Artisan communities were mobile both inter- and intraregionally, at times relocating from, say, Gujarat to Malaya in order to avoid onerous state taxation on services and goods and other state-enforced demands. While the state did not, apparently, foment trade and production in an active way on an inter- or intraregional level, it did attempt to draw revenue from commercial and artisanal activities. Indeed, this mobility of artisan communities motivated by the need to avoid taxation was most likely an essential mechanism in what scholars have long termed the pan-Indic nature of religious ideas, iconography, and artistic styles during the early centuries of the Common Era."l Perhaps most important, Ray'swork proposes a fundamental methodological shift. Rather than relying on paradigms of historical rupture, or the dichotomy of rural and urban ambits for investigating processes of historical change, she suggests that we examine these processes by focusing on another crucial factor: communities of people, who identified themselves on various bases such as religion or occupation, were certainly affected by-and in many cases even precipitatedpalpable changes in patterns of taxation, trade routes, and religious endowments. From the evidence presented in her work, it would seem that communitieswhether merchant, artisan, or other-more than state structures or even regional identities, were integral to both the maintenance as well as the alteration of historical patterns of commerce and travel. Ray'sproposed shift of the scholar's gaze to communities underpins Horton's presentation of the material evidence of connections between northwestern India and East Africa during the eleventh through fifteenth centuries. First, this article insightfully points out that there was a wide availability of certain commodities throughout the various regions bordering on the Indian Ocean. By virtue of their 11

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ports and inland networks,these regionsessentiallyconstitutedthe activecatalystsin commerce.Thusthe find of Chineseporcelainsin EastAfrica,for example, does not necessarilyindicatedirectlinks betweenthe latterand the Chinese mainland.Bywayof explanation,Horton(togetherwith Parker)bringsourattention to the importanceof cabotage,or tramp-trading,in nonmoderncommercial networks.Ratherthan callingat only one emporiumper trip, merchantgroups and individualsmost often tradedin severalports of call in orderto increasethe profitandefficiencyof theirlong andperilousoceanicjourneys.Thispracticeled to a widespread,surprisinglyconsistentvaluationof certainitemsthroughoutthe IndianOceanregions.Thisconsistencyis an importantindexofthe interconnectednessamongfar-flungregionson the basisof tradedcommodities,an interconnectednessthathasheretoforebeenlittle acknowledgedin studiesof the eleventh throughfifteenthcenturies. Onceagain,archaeologicaldataindicatethatmerchantsandmiddlemenwere not the only groupstravelingthe seawaysand overlandroutes.Communitiesof craftspeoplealso traveledlong distancesand in fact sometimessettled at their points of disembarkation.Horton proposespreciselythis scenarioas an explanation for the rapidrise of cloth productionin EastAfricaduringthe eleventh throughfourteenthcenturies.He suggeststhat the movementof artisansfrom northwesternIndia-perhaps Gujaratitself- andtheirsettlementalongportsof the EastAfricancoastbroughtconcomitanttransfersof technology,namelycotton cultivationandthe weavingandprintingof textiles.Weknowthesepractices to havebeen part of a long-establishedand well-developedtraditionin Gujarat and surroundingareasof northwesternIndia.Hortonclaimsthis to be the plausibleexplanationforthe acceleratedrise (in only threehundredyears)of a textile industryin EastAfrica,an industrythat had not been evidencedin the region priorto ca.A.D. 1000. Fromthis example,Hortonfurtherproposesthat artisanmobilitywas probablymorecommonthanpreviouslythoughtin IndianOceanscholarship.Rather than making severalround-tripvoyages-the common practiceamong merchants and their tradingguilds-migrating artisan communitiesmore likely settled in their port of call or nearbyareas.Since their settlementoften lasted overseveralgenerations,theseartisancommunitiesin all probabilityassimilated themselveswithin theirnew socioculturalhomelands,overtime relinquishingat leastsome of theirdistinctidentitymarkers.Therefore,the indicesin the historical recordof their migrationfrom greatdistances,includingoral transmission of origin storiesacrossgenerations,frequentlybecameless fixed and overtime diminishedin historicity.Nevertheless,these origin storiesshouldbe borne in mind by both anthropologistsand archaeologists,as they canbe possibleindica12

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tors of the migrationand culturalassimilationof artisancommunitiesthat had originatedacrossthe ocean. Next, the articleby KatherineStrangeBurkeandDonaldWhitcombprovides, among other things, a unique historicalperspective.It highlightsthe effectsof changingIndianOceantradepatternsduringthe mid- to latethirteenthcentury on the quotidianand luxuryitems consumedand tradedby a singlemercantile familyat the importantport of Quseiral-Qadim,Egypt.Basedon archaeological data,the workposits a crediblenarrativethat is singularlyeffectivein depicting the use andsignificanceof importeditems.Weseethatcottonblock-printedcloth from westernIndia, most likely Gujarat,was a ubiquitousitem in the archaeologicalsiteknownasthe Sheikh'sHouse,servingforgarmentsaswellas furniture coverings.Theseprintedtextilesweredecoratedlargelywith aniconicmotifsand Arabicpseudocalligraphy, providinga strongindicationthattheywereproduced specificallyfor Islamicmarketsin the PersianGulfand the RedSea.The market specificityof these cloths, evidentby virtue of their motifs,becomeseven more apparentwhen comparedwith the textile exports from northwesternIndia to SoutheastAsia,presentedlaterin this volumeby Barnes. Quotidianitems are not the only commoditiestreatedby Burkeand Whitcomb. The excavationsof the Sheikh'sHouse at Quseiral-QadimWest and of anotherresidenceafterthe settlementshiftedeastwardwithin the sameportarea revealthatseveralluxuryitemsnumberedamongthe families'possessions.These include Islamic glazed ceramicsand Chinese celadons.Stratigraphicanalysis indicatethat these items were retainedamong the households'belongingsover generations.Consistentwith Horton'sproposalsforthe EastAfricancoast,Burke andWhitcomb'sfindsalso suggestthat certainluxuryobjectswerenot for trade but ratherwereprizedpossessionsfor tradingfamilies,probablyitems gifted to them by prosperousmerchantsor otherparties.Moreover,the valuationof suitable gift items changedin seemingsimultaneitythroughoutIndianOceannetworks.Bythe secondhalfof the thirteenthcentury,Islamicglazedceramics,likely originatingin the regionsborderingthe PersianGulf(seeHortonin this volume), lost theirstatusof covetedgifts as the popularityand demandforChineseporcelainswason the rise. ElizabethLambourn'scontributionto this volume bringstogethermany of the issues addressedin the previousworksfrom differentperspectives.In her investigationof marblecenotaphsproducedat the importantGujaratiport of Khambhat,she proposesthat these creationsweredistinctiveand highlyprized commoditiesboth in theirareaof originand at othernodesof the IndianOcean networkextendingfromthe coastof EastAfricato SoutheastAsia.Thusthis study refutesthe misconceptionthat small,lightweight,portableobjectssuchastextiles 13

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werebyandlargethe onlycommoditiesto be shippedvastdistanceson the Indian Ocean'swaterways.Heavystoneproductsalsotraveledfarandwide,fulfillingnot only the demandsof consumersuponarrivalat theirdestinationbut also serving as balastforshipsduringtheirjourneys. Lambourn'sanalysesof the gravestones'iconographicprogramsalso provide insight into the possiblecollaborationof variousartisancommunitiesresiding andworkingin a singleregion.Hercomparisonsof the gravestones'iconographic motifswith thoseof othernorthwesternIndianproductions,suchas architecture, printedtextiles,and manuscriptillustrations,stronglysuggestthat motifs were sharedby craftspeopleacrossspecializations.Moreover,thesemotifswereshared by the variousreligiousambitsof northwesternIndia,encompassingJainismand BrahmanicalHinduismas well as Islam.Thesegravestones,then, alongwith the buildings,textiles,andmanuscriptsusedas comparanda, leadus to reconsiderthe rigidityof ourdefinitionsof objectsas "Islamic," "Hindu,"or "Jaina." Theseconsiderationsof iconographyalso havebearingon the "international" marketingof the gravestones.Lambournmakesthe extremelyimportantpoint that printed textiles from Gujaratwere alreadyin circulationthroughoutthe regionswheredemandforthe gravestoneswasalsosubstantial.Itis possible,then, thatthe motifswhichwerecommonplaceon these ubiquitousprintedtextilesin effectstimulatedthe demandforthe stonegravememorials.Clearly,the predilection forblock-printedGujaraticlothcontinuedlargelyunchangedin theseregions from the elevenththroughnineteenthcenturies.The carvingin stone of motifs thatwerefamiliarandpleasingfromtextilescouldhavefomented-and perhaps actuallyintroduced-a tasteforthe gravestonesaswell. In additionto the insights regardingthe local manufacturingprocessesof these stone gravememorials,Lambourn'sworkalso casts light on the mobility of theirproducers.The gravestonesfound at sites in regionsother than western Indiastronglyindicatethatartisanstrainedin Gujaratistoneworkingoftentraveled overseaswith their commissions.At the time of their assembly,these intricate memorialsrequiredthe highly specializedskills of craftspeopletrainedin the stone-carvingtraditionsof Gujarat,so that their presenceat the sites of the gravestonesis most stronglyimplied.Moreover,in consonancewith the scenario proposedby Horton,it is likelythat some of these artisangroupssettledat these new placesand probablyintegratedthemselvesinto the indigenouscommunities. Some gravestonesfound at sites in Javaand Sumatra,but clearlybelonging to the Khambhatcorpusbasedon the executionof theircarving,evincea confluence of westernIndianandlocalmotifs.Lambournproposesthatone of the ways this confluencecouldhavebeen achievedwas throughthe long-termpresenceof Gujaratistoneworkersin theseareas,permittingthe amalgamationof indigenous 14

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motifs and stylistic elements with an execution recognizable as belonging to the Khambhat stoneworking tradition. As noted in the discussion of Burke and Whitcomb's article in this volume, there is compelling evidence of the market specificity of certain commodities traded throughout Indian Ocean networks during the eleventh through fifteenth centuries. The groundbreaking work by Barnes on the export of western Indian textiles to Southeast Asia confirms and adduces to this evidence. While the cotton textiles traded to Egypt and the Red Sea ports were printed primarily with aniconic and pseudocalligraphic motifs, those traded to areas such as eastern Java and the island of Sulawesi tended to be replete with the colors and figural motifs that were culturally significant to Southeast Asian communities. These included lavish court and entertainment scenes set against large swaths of deep and vibrant red backgrounds. This specificity of motifs indicates that the communities of Southeast Asia were by no means passive consumers of the textiles shipped to them from the ports of Gujaratand northwestern India. They most likely communicated their preferences either indirectly through the repeated success of some cloths and not others or perhaps directly by "placingorders"with merchants traveling between the points of manufacture and consumption. Barnes also makes note of the very different roles western Indian textiles played in Southeast Asian communities when compared to their Near Eastern counterparts. Unlike the everyday functions they fulfilled in the ports along the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, covering both human limbs and furnishings, Gujarati cotton cloths, as well as the more expensive and highly valued patolis (doubleikat silk), were markers of familial and dynastic wealth and status in Southeast Asian societies. As such, they were often carefully preserved and retained among a household's possessions over generations. Indeed, it is noteworthy that patoltiswere exported only to Southeast Asia and not westward to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. This trend is explicable, at least in part, by the generally higher status of western Indian cloth in Southeast Asia. The labor-intensive and therefore high-pricedpatolas would not have been salable commodities in the western reaches of the Indian Ocean world, where Gujarati cloth was used exclusively in daily garments and considered rugged enough even for the covering of floors, walls, and furniture. A forceful and consistent effortakin to a powerful "advertisingcampaign"-would surely have been required to convince Egyptian consumers that a labor-intensive, low-quantity, and expensive cloth was produced by the same region that, to them, was known primarily for informal, everyday clothing and upholstery. In contrast to the preceding analyses of textiles as commodities for transport and trade across vast distances and throughout vastly different societies, 15

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the articlesby PhyllisGranoffand CarolBier once again shift our gaze-this time to textiles as conveyersof multiplemeanings.Granoff'sworktreatsa previously unexploredtype of consumptionof textiles, and close to home within the geographicalregion of their production.Ratherthan commoditiesfor sale or exchange,the studypoints out how cloth,particularlythe varietywovenfrom threadsof severalcolors,was the metaphoricalcornerstoneof reflectionfor the or IndianRealists,a highlyinfluentialschoolof medievalIndian Nyaya-Vaisesika philosophers.It wasthe enigmaof the multicolored(citra) cloth, creatinga color of its own, thatsparkedreflectionon perceptionand ontology,leadingto debates with theirarch-rivalsthe Buddhists.The samemulticoloredcloth that had been carriedlongdistancesandservedvaryingfunctionsrangingfromthe mundaneto the ceremonialwas,in a verydifferentsphereof consumption,madeto servephilosophicalfunctions.In fact,citraclothwasinstrumentalin the Nyaya-Vaisesika's abandonmentof somelong-heldphilosophicaltenets. Bier'sworkfurtherdevelopsthe ontologicaldistinctionbetweenthe textileas objectand commodityand the abstractmathematicalprinciplesinherentin the weavingandpatterningof cloth.Thisarticleinnovativelypositsthatweaversand printersof clothhada practicalawarenessandunderstandingof keymathematical principles,with which membersof the intelligentsiaof the medievalIslamic worldengagedon a purelytheoreticallevel. In effect,textiles could haveserved as the conveyersof mathematicalideasfromthe Indiansubcontinentto the Near Eastandpossiblyviceversa.Not onlydid thesehighlyportablecommoditiesserve as links betweenepistemologicallydifferentcultures,but they also couldbe seen asthe conduitsof interactionamongvariousstrataof the samesociety.Thanksto the practicalengagementwith mathematicalprinciplesrequiredby their vocations, artisanscould participatein the highly esotericdiscussionsof these very principlesthatweretakingplaceamongthe intellectualelitesof theirtime. In essence,this volumecompilesarticlesthat relyprimarilyon the surviving, "unarchived" materialremainsas the basesfor investigationinto historicalpatternsof IndianOceantradeduringthe elevenththroughfifteenthcenturies.It is hopedthatthisworkwill collectivelyleadto futurecontributionsin IndianOcean historythattreatthe manylivesof commoditiesin nonmodernworlds-ranging from the commercialto the symbolicand philosophical-and also of the communitiesthatproducedthem.

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NOTES

1.

Ruth Barnes,IndianBlock-PrintedCotton Fragmentsin theKelseyMuseum(Ann Arbor:Universityof Michigan Press,

see SelectedBibliography. 6. See esp. Chaudhuri,Asia beforeEurope,

1993). Barnes's publication of the

7. Chaudhuri,Asia beforeEurope,22. 8. See Chaudhuri,Asia beforeEurope,24,36. 9. Chaudhuri,Asia beforeEurope,49ff. lo. Many recentworkssharein this methodological shift, including AngelaSchottenhammer,ed., TheEmporiumofthe World:MaritimeQuanzhou,1000-1400 (Leiden:Brill, 2001); Momin Mohiuddin, MuslimCommunitiesin MedievalKonkan (610 -1900 A.D.) (New Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan,2002). See also Selected Bibliography. ii. See esp. V. S. Agrawala,IndianArt (Varanasi:PrithviPrakashan,1965), 2; PramodChandra,On theStudyof Indian Art (New York:Asia Society,1983), 39-80: Chandra,TheSculptureofIndia (Washington, D.C.:National Galleryof Art,

NewberryCollection of Indian textiles at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University,forms a valuablecompanion to the Kelseypublication:IndianBlockPrintedTextilesin Egypt:TheNewberry Collectionin theAshmoleanMuseum, Oxford,2 vols. (Oxford:ClarendonPress, 1997). 2.

While these fragmentshavebeen treated piecemeal in some earlypublications,the most comprehensiveanalysisremains FlorenceE. Day,"DatedTirazin the Collection of the Universityof Michigan," Ars Islamica 4 (1937):421-46.

3. The immediate exception that comes to mind is the workby S. D. Goitein with the Geniza documents. Forour purposes, his "Indiabook" is of course particularly noteworthy,which was at least partially compiled as LettersofMedievalJewish Traders:TranslatedfromtheArabicwith IntroductionsandNotes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973). For his

other articlesconcentratingon the Geniza documents' information on the India trade,see SelectedBibliography. 4. GeorgeF.Hourani,ArabSeafaringin the Indian OceaninAncientandEarly Medieval Times (1951; rev. and ed. John

Carswell,Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1995); Goitein, Letters of

MedievalIJewish Traders. 5. Some foundationalworksinclude K. N. Chaudhuri,Tradeand Civilisationin the Indian Ocean:An EconomicHistoryfrom theRiseofIslam to 175o(1985;reprint, Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 2001); Chaudhuri,Asia beforeEurope: Economyand Civilisationof theIndian Oceanfrom theRiseof Islam to i75o(gg0o; reprint,Cambridge:Cambridge UniversityPress,2000). Forother works, 17

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AND COMMODITIES

24-25.

1985), 20.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abu-Lughod,Janet.BeforeEuropean Hegemony:TheWorldSystem,A.D. 12501350.New York and Oxford: Oxford

Ray,Himanshu Prabha,and J.-F.Salles,eds. TraditionandArchaeology.Delhi: ManoharPublishers,1996.

University Press, 1989.

Subrahmanyam,Sanjay.ThePortuguese Bloom, JonathanM. PaperbeforePrint:The Historyand Impactof Paperin theIslamic World.New Haven and London:Yale UniversityPress,2001. Chakravarti,Ranabir,ed. Tradein Early India. New Delhi: OxfordUniversity Press,2001.

Empire in Asia, 1500-i7oo: 1993.

Wink, Andre. TheSlaveKingsand theIslamic Conquest,lzth-13thCenturies.Vol. 2,AIHind: TheMakingof theIndo-Islamic World.Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress, 1999.

Goitein, S. D. "Fromthe Mediterraneanto India:Documents on the Tradeto India, South Arabiaand EastAfrica from the Eleventhand TwelfthCenturies." Speculum 29 (1954): 181-97.

. "NewLighton the Beginnings of the KarimMerchants."Journalof the Economicand SocialHistoryof the Orient 1.2

(1958):175-84.

. "FromAden to India."Journalof the Economicand SocialHistoryof theOrient 23.1-2

(1980): 43-66.

Horton, Mark,and JohnMiddleton. The Swahili:TheSocialLandscapeof a MercantileSociety.Oxford:Blackwell, 2000.

Ibn Battuita. TheRhela(India, Maldive Islandsand Ceylon),trans. Mahdi Husain. Gaekwad'sOrientalSeries122. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1953.

Jain,V. K. Tradeand Tradersin Western India. Delhi: MunshiramManoharlal, 1990.

Ray,Himanshu Prabha,ed. TheArchaeology of Seafaring.Delhi: PragatiPublications, 1999.

18

ALKA PATEL

A Political and

EconomicHistory.London:Longman,

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TOPOGRAPHIES OF TASTE Indian TextilesandMediterraneanContexts

Abstract SouthAsiantextilesweretradedwithin multivalentnetworkslinkingthe Roman Mediterraneanandthe IndianOcean,bylandandby sea.Thisarticlebeginswith a brief surveyof the availableevidencebeforeexaminingthe attitudesevinced in Romansourcesabout such commodities.The emphasisis on consumption. Citiesplayeda prominentrole in consumption,but evidentlynot to the degree that ancienttexts suggest.The articleexaminesthe complexwaysin whichsuch commoditieswerelinkedwith Romanworldviews,andindeeddid muchto shape them.It emphasizesboth the particularismof specifiedoriginsandthe universalist aspectsof metropolitanconsumption.

FORREASONSBOTHSPATIAL AND TEMPORAL, the prehistoryof our common theme might profitablyembracethe Roman empire.The Mediterranean in the period of roughlythe first centuryB.C. to the fifth centuryA.D. exhibits some of the same patternsof exchangethat receivemore detailed discussion with regardto other areasand later periods. Indeed,though fartherwest, the ancient Mediterraneanbrings to light some of the social processesin which South Asian textiles, along with other objects,became involved.It is here that we can observethe social constructionof the exotic, and indeed of a pointedly generalizedconceptionof "the East."This articleundertakesthe treatmentof the Mediterraneanlife of SouthAsiantextiles.In the pagesthat followI hope to showthat this line of inquiryis productive,especiallyin view of the richvariety of availablesources. The articlewill begin with a brief overviewof South Asian textiles in the ancientMediterraneanas well as a considerationof their routesof circulation before proceedingto some specific questions concerningtheir consumption. These are as follows:To what extent was the taste for such exotic goods an urbanphenomenon?How weretextiles and other objects"mapped"in Roman minds?Here I proposethat this mappingdeservesconsiderationboth in terms of their supposedprovenanceand of the routesby whichthey weretransported. Finally,I shall consider the social meaning of this South Asian "exotic"in broaderterms, relativeto Romancosmologies.If production,distribution,and consumption are the three paradigmaticphases of economic activity,'then this article will concentrateon the third of these. Yet, as I shall show with regardto mentalmaps, this third stagerelatesto the earlierones in some surprisingways.As one aspect of the life of commodities,the phenomenologyof consumptionconcernsthe waysin which"India"existedin the minds of Roman consumers.2 19

TextilesPlus Atthe outsetit is necessaryto identifythetextilesthemselvesandthe otherobjects with which they havebeen found. Forthe primeevidencewe must look outside of the Mediterraneanitself,to the Red Sea coast of Egypt.Since the late 1970s, archaeologicalworkhas focusedon a numberof sites,notablyQuseiral-QadIm3 and, morerecently,Berenike.4In fact,the site of Berenikecontinuesto put forth importantmaterialthathasonlybegunto changethe overallassessmentsof longdistancetradealongthe monsoonroute. Cottonhas been amongthe variedfinds at Berenike,beginningon a modest scale in 1994.5Sincethen, finds haverun to hundredsof fragmentseach season. Thoseof the S/Sgrouphavebeen identifiedas Egyptianor Nubian;6on the other hand,the Z/Zcottonswerelikelyimportedfromthe Indiansubcontinent.7 Onthis scoretherewas some doubtin the earlieryearsof the dig, but circumstantialevidencenow points clearlyin this direction,not leaston the groundsthatthe subcontinentwas a majorproducerof cotton duringthe periodunderdiscussion.8 Whilethe designson some of the textilefragments(e.g.,rosettesand lotusbuds) still requiredetailedstudy,the generalconclusionis thattheseareof Indianorigin. Someof the textilefragmentsappearto havebeenpartof shipbuildingandrepair (sail and rope),particularlyin light of timber remains(Indianteak) that most likelycome fromseacraft.9Yetthe majorityprobablyrepresenttradegoods or,in smallerquantities,the personaleffectsof thoseinvolvedin the monsoontrade. Thesecotton finds area valuableadditionto the archaeologicalrecordof the searoutebetweenEgyptandIndia,especiallygiventhe scarcityof cottonremains in climateslessdrythanthatof the EasternDesert.Cottonis mentionedin one of the earliestGreco-Romanreferencesto India,namelyin the Historiesof Herodotus (ca.485-ca. 425B.C.). In this "mosteasterlypartof the inhabitedworld"there are, accordingto him, "wildtreeswhich producea kind of wool which is more attractiveandof betterqualitythanthatof sheep,andwhichis usedbythe Indians for clothing" (3.106).1'

The desirabilityand noveltyvalueof this productare immediatelyapparent. Thiscottonor "treewool"also featuredamongthe accountsof the historiansand scholarsaccompanyingAlexanderon his campaignto the eastin 327-325B.C. For example,the navalcommanderNearchusis quotedin Strabo'sGeography(15.1.20 C6g3)on the use of cottonin garments;Strabomentionssilk in the samebreath. Finally,the Periplusof theErythraean Sea,a ship captain'smanualfromthe midfirst century A.D. written in Greek,makes several referencesto the transport of cotton on the monsoon route. Both cloth (chapters48, 49, 5i) and garments (chapters 48, 51, 59) occur among goods brought into Egypt, whereas exports from Egypt to Arabia, India, and the East African coast include various kinds of garments (e.g., 20

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Bronze statuette of Indian origin, found at the site of Khor Rori, southern Oman; probablysecond century A.D. H. 8.6, w. 4.5 cm. American Foundation for the Study of Man, FallsChurch,Virginia, 3103.

chapters 6, 24, 56).11At a port called "Ganges"in the Ganga delta it was possible to acquire high-quality cotton, in the form of garments: "On [the Ganges] there is a port of trade [emporion] sharing the same name as the river, Ganges, through which malabathron, Gangetic nard, pearls, and cotton garments of the very finest quality, the so-called Gangetic, are transported" (chapter 63). It is typical of the Periplusthat various objects are linked in the context of a particular port. The designation of quality, diaphorotatai, has connotations of distinctiveness as well as value. Silk is another textile frequently mentioned by the Periplus as being transported from the subcontinent to the Red Sea. This is one of only two products, along with nard, to originate from all four of India's major exporting regions mentioned there. The southwestern ports of Muziris and Nelkunda offered "silk cloth" (othonia serika, chapter 56). Barbarikon offered in the Indus delta "Chinese pelts, cloth and yarn" (sirika dermata kai othonion kai nema sirikon, chapter 39);12 and the Ganges delta likewise, in addition to silk floss (erion serikon, chapter 64). The very word for "silk" provided the Greek and Latin name for China and its inhabitants-the "silk people" (Seres). This connection, in which the word for the object chronologically precedes that for place and people, is an interesting case of a cognitive geography related to commodities, as I shall discuss further below. Indeed, silk presents special problems concerning provenance, especially as it is unclear whether it was produced in the subcontinent at this time.13 Before we can investigate the social context of the textiles, it is important to consider other objects that formed part of the same exchange networks. There is plenty of evidence of the importation of spices to the ancient Mediterranean. Less clear is their exact provenance, when the same ships would combine goods from the Arabian peninsula with those from South Asia (see below). Archaeological evidence found at Berenike, in the form of peppercorns, resonates with the Periplus and other sources to illustrate that pepper was the most significant of these. White and black pepper came from the piper nigrum trees in Kerala on the southwest of the subcontinent, whereas long pepper (piper longum) originated in the north. What is striking is the heightened demand for pepper, as for other spices, that emerges from literary sources. Whereas pepper had been used pharmacologically in the Mediterranean since the late fourth century B.C., during the period of Rome's ascendancy it took on major culinary proportions. In the nearly five hundred recipes transmitted under the name of Apicius, who lived at the time of Augustus and Tiberius, pepper features almost without exception, even for wine and sweets. Apart from pepper, the Apician corpusmentions eight spices that must have come from South or Southeast Asia: ginger, putchuk, nard-leaf, cinnamon, spikenard, asafoetida, sesame seed, and turmeric. A much longer list of less 21

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exoticseasoningscouldbe madefromApicius,i.e., of ingredientsthatcamefrom within the boundsof empire.'4 Preciousstonesconstituteanotherclassof commodityimportedfrom India: e.g., diamonds,emeralds,sardonyx,turquoise,and onyx. All of these are mentionedin the Digest,a syntheticworkof Romanlawcodifiedin A.D. 533underthe emperorJustinian;these, like the other forty-ninekinds of commoditiesmentionedin thatlist, weresubjectto dutyuponentryinto Alexandria(39.4.16.7).Literarytexts often mentionthese in a social-criticalvein, especiallyas linkedwith conspicuousconsumptionon the partof Romanwomen (e.g.,Propertius,Elegies 2.22.10).

The above-mentionedpassagefrom the Digest mentions "Indianeunuchs" amongthe taxableitems, and thus points to humantrafficas well.'5Conversely, the Periplus mentionsthat the rulerof Barygazawould readilypurchaseconcubines and "singingboys"broughtfromEgypt(chapter49). Morefrequentlyseen in texts is a Mediterraneaninterestin, and thus demandfor,wild animals and birds,especiallyparrots. On the other hand, craftgoods constitutea surprisinglysmall and idiosyncraticgroup of objects.Among them is a statuetteof a young Indian woman engagedin her toilette,attendedby two small servants.This finelycraftedivory objectstandstwenty-threecentimeterstall and was madein such a wayas to be viewedfromthreesides,perhapsas the leg of a smalltable.'6Itwasfoundin Pompeii in the Via dell'Abbondanza,andit is quitepossiblethatthis wasat the home of a long-distancetrader.TheIndianprovenanceof this objectis beyonddoubtin view of comparandafromthe subcontinent,particularlythe Begramivories.Furthermore,it is clearthat it madeits wayto Pompeiibeforethe volcaniceruption of A.D. 79.A secondclassof craftobjectsis harderto accountfor,in partbecauseit lacksanycontext:a numberof marblebustsnowin the GalleriaBorghesein Rome arediscerniblyof Severandate(earlythirdcenturyA.D.). Theirunusualfeatureis that they have"Indian"hairstyles:cirrusknots that can be paralleledin Indian sculptureratherthanRomanportraiture.'7 Thestorybehindtheseheadsis a completemystery. ByLandandby Sea The period around3300-2200 B.C. sawthe vigorousexchangeof goods between the MesopotamianandIndusvalleycivilizations.Sincethe 1930S evidenceforthis exchangehas come from Mohenjo-Daroand Harappaas well as from Bahrain, designatedas Dilmun in Sumeriansources.Closerto the period underdiscussion, thereis furtherevidenceof networksof exchangewithin the PersianGulf: tradeactivitiesof the Seleucidswerea continuationof mucholderpatterns.'8 It is 22

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worthwhile to bear this long-range background in mind while considering routes during the Roman period. Two major routes linking continental Asia with the Mediterranean come immediately to the fore: the network of overland routes between East and West Asia, collectively called the Silk Road, and the monsoon route, extending from the Red Sea to the west coast of India. Each of these has been the subject of considerable scholarly attention, quite apart from wide popular interest. For one thing, there are serious questions as to whether this trade network touched on peninsular India, or indeed as far as the Mediterranean.19 Even if some of the more grandiose talk about a Silk Road in our period is exaggerated, and even if the term itself is misleading, there is clear evidence of overland networks stretching from Central and South Asia to the eastern Mediterranean. For example, the Parthian Stations of Isidore of Charax charts an itinerary from Antioch to Afghanistan, crossing the Euphrates at Zeugma.20While this work of about A.D. 25 is fragmentary and jejune, it does suggest a route of overland trade. Needless to say,this in no way precludes the possible existence of other land routes. The fact that this period saw hostilities between the Roman empire and its Parthian neighbors renders such evidence for trade all the more significant. When considered alongside the abundant archaeological and epigraphic evidence from Palmyra, it presents further proof of overland trade across western Asia, some of it in the same period as the monsoon trade.21 What we might call the monsoon route is described by the elder Pliny, stageby-stage from the mouth of the Nile to peninsular India (Natural History 6.10o6). As part of his conspectus of world geography, he lists the settlements along this route as well as the distances between them. It stretches from the delta up the Nile, then across the Eastern Desert for 30g Roman miles or 12 days. Once having reached the city of Berenike, Pliny's implied travelersails out of the Red Sea to the southern point of the Arabian peninsula, and then for forty days with the monsoon at his back, to the west coast of India. Pliny mentions a number of ports on the west coast of India, along with comments as to their viability and their access to inland commerce. Though Pliny'slist of ports differs substantially from that of the Periplus,the passage strikes much the same tone, especially in view of its focus on the logistics of sea travel. Severalconflicting accounts of the "discovery"of the monsoon exist in ancient Greekand Latin texts. Even allowing for the implicit ethnocentrism in the concept of discovery, such texts do make it clear that the monsoon and the route it made possible were a source of fascination. It is thus no accident that Pliny's account has a moralizing edge: he prefaces the description by saying that in any one year it absorbs so million sesterces of the Roman empire's wealth (i.ioi). While Pliny in 23

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the compendiousNaturalHistorydoes havea tendencytowardmoralizingcomment,it is strikingthata similarsentimentis repeatedin a differentcontext.Thus, while discussingspicessystematicallyaccordingto theirorigin,he has this to say aboutthe southernpartof the Arabianpeninsula,"HappyArabia"(ArabiaFelix): Butthe title "happy"belongsstill moreto theArabianSea,forfromit come the pearlswhichthatcountrysendsus. Andby the lowestreckoningIndia, Chinaandthe Arabianpeninsulatakefromour empireloo million sesterces everyyear-that is the sumwhichourluxuriesandourwomencost us. Forwhatfractionof theseimports,I askyou, nowgoesto the godsor to the powersof the lowerworld?(12.84)22 Hereit is importantto noticethatPlinyconflatesthreepartsof Asia,in a generalizingmanner,as sourcesof luxurygoods.23 But this conflationis not merelya matterof mentalmaps:in fact, it closely reflectsone aspectof ancienttrade.Cabotageor tramp-tradingfeatureslargein a majornewaccountof nonmodernMediterranean history.24 Thistradinginvolved the exchangeof goods en route-i.e., an ongoingprocessof purchase,sale, and exchangeat anygivenpoint on a commercialseavoyage,as opposedto long-distanceshippingthatinvolvesa singleoriginanda singledestination.As regardsthe monsoon route,this type of tradeis in factimpliedby the Periplus:its recurrent patternis one of selectivepurchaseand saleof specificgoods,at particularpoints en route. To take anotherexample,the monsoon route, as describedin the Periplus, extendsfromthe RedSeato Indiain onlyone of itsvectors:by another,it stretches down the east coast of Africa,perhapsas far as Zanzibar.Again,we are dealing herewith commoditiesthat areso distinctivelynon-Mediterranean thatthe differencesbetween the routes are easily minimized. From the first centuryA.D. Axum (ancientEthiopia)playeda majorrolein the monsoontrade,and fromthe fourthand fifth centuries,at the heightof Axumitepower,its traderseclipsedthe roleof thosefromRomanEgypt.25 The abovediscussionshould serveto underlinethe coexistenceof land and sea routes:thus, to judge from their materialand documentaryevidence,the port of Ostia tells us mostly about maritimetrafficwithin the Mediterranean, andPalmyraaboutoverlandtrade.As differentexcavationsvie forattention,there is a dangerthat one is recognizedat the expenseof the other.Evenif any "balance sheet"betweentradenetworksis impossibleto obtain,it is at least importantto grasptheirsimultaneousexistence.Certainlythe Berenikeexcavationhas receivedconsiderableattentionin both the popularand the academicpressesin 24

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recentyears.Compellingas its evidencemightbe, it shouldnot shift the discussion entirelytowardsearoutes. UrbanismandUrbanity If the foregoingdiscussionhas focusedon commoditiesand the routeswhereby they reachedthe Mediterranean,we can proceedto examinethe social patterns within which they became entwinedonce havingtraveled.How can the Mediterraneanconsumptionof SouthAsiangoodsbe mapped?In particular,to what extent arewe to regardconsumptionan urbanphenomenon?26 It will be necessaryto considerthesequestionsboth in the narrowersenserelatingspecificallyto SouthAsiangoodsandmorebroadlyrelatingto exoticgoods. First,in the narrowersense:to takeone of the commoditiesdiscussed,silkdoes not fitthe patternof urbanconsumption,judgingfromthe archaeologicalrecord. Certainlythereareliteraryreferencesindicatingits rolein the livesof metropolitan Romansand especiallyelitewomenof the city.Yetfindshaveclusteredmuch moreextensivelytowardthe fringesof the Romanempire,andby no meansonly to majorsettlements.TheseincludeBavariaon its Rhine-Danubefrontier,Kentin Britain,and Sarmatiantombsin Kerchand on the Volga.Someof thesesilk finds haveoccurredon points situatedon traderoutes,e.g., Arsinoeand Panopolisin Egyptas well as Palmyraand DuraEuropos.Thesetend to be fromthe thirdand fourthcenturies,andthusfromthe laterRomanempire.27 Onlysomeofthe settlementslistedaboveinvolvecities. Silkis, anyway,somethingof a specialcase,giventhatIndiawasnot its sole (or evenmain)point of origin.Beyondthat,the mainarchaeologicalevidenceforthe presenceof SouthAsiangoodsin the Mediterranean worldcomesfromBerenike. Certainlythis is true of cotton,now thatthereis clarityon Indianoriginsamong the findsdiscussedabove.If,on the basisof literarytexts,we mighthaveexpected the city of Rometo be the main consumer,this assumptionpresentsa problem. Romewas,afterall,the ancientMediterranean world's"consumercity"parexcellence;by the firstcenturyA.D. its populationmight havebeen arounda million people,makingit a majormegalopolisevenby modernstandards.28 Or does it presenta problemafter all? Self-evidently,many of the objects broughtfromSouthAsiawill havebeen moresubjectto decayin the moistersoil andairof Italythanthatofthe RedSeacoast.Fromthis pointof viewit is not surprisingthatRomeofferslittle evidencedirectlyrelevantto the presentdiscussion. Nonetheless,thereare some suggestionsaboutthe kind of evidencethat is now lost to us. Thecity of Romehadits own pepperhouses,the horreapiperatoriabuilt in A.D. 92 by the emperorDomitianon the northernslopeof the Palatinehill, this beingsomethirteenyearsafterthe elderPliny'sdeathin A.D. 79.29 Thereis no doubt 25

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thatsuchbuildingswereof considerableproportions.Further,the continuingstatus of pepperas a luxuryitem well into lateantiquityis underlinedby a remarkablestatistic:when in A.D. 408 the city of Romewas blockadedby the Visigoths underAlaric,the RomanSenateofferedhim, togetherwith 5,000 poundsof gold, 30,000 pounds of silver and other gifts, and no less than 3,000 pounds of pepper

subjectto his withdrawal,as we learnfrom the fifth-centuryhistorianZosimus (Historia nova 5.35-42). Such a huge quantity is hard to square with what would

otherwiseseemto be decliningproportionsin peppertradein the laterperiod.At the sametime, the enormityof this statisticis in itselfgroundsforsuspicion.Yet, even if Zosimusexaggeratesthe quantity,such a storyat least remindsus of the highprestigeattachedto pepper. Evidenceof this natureis fragmentaryand unreliablyanecdotal.But it does not detractfroma moregeneralizedimageof Romeas a consumercity.In classical studiesthe currencyof this term owesmuch to its use by MosesFinley,30 followingWernerSombartandMaxWeber:thatis, the citythatderivesits maintenance fromtaxesand rentsratherthan its own production,in whichrespectthe medievalcityprovidesa contrast.31 Indeed,the concept of a consumercity in antiquityhas been the sourceof muchcontroversyfollowingtheworkof Finley.32 Now it is perhapsrenderedmoot, given,for example,thatthe city of Romehas been shownto interactin manifold and complexwayswith the economiesof its hinterland.33 Still,we areleft with a veryconsiderablediscourseabouturbanlife,bywhichancientpeoplemademuch of Rome'sconsuminghabits.Itwasunderthe ruleof Augustusthatthe citybegan to earnthe statusof worldcapital,partlythroughthatemperor'sambitiousbuilding program.34 In the firstcenturyA.D. therewas a fine line betweenthe cultured eleganceof villas and gardens,on the one hand,and the conspicuousconsumption of a nouveauricheformerslavesuchasthe fictionalTrimalchioin Petronius's Satyrica.A moraltraditionin Romanthought,seen in socialcommentatorssuch as the youngerSeneca(4 B.C.-A.D. 65),laygreatstoreon sucha distinction,which parallelsthat betweenleisureand slothfulness.35 It is in this sense that I referto urbanity(Latinurbanitas)as a senseof sophistication,expressedin the mostobvious sensein relationto city life. It is in the firstcenturyA.D., followingthe end of civilwar,thatthe conceptof urbanitasis most clearlyvisiblein the Romanworld, the word now carryingwider connotations of sophisticationbeyond merely denotingthe city.36Urbanitasshouldbe seenas a discourseaboutthe citythatlays muchemphasison its consuminghabits. Constantinoplecan be consideredin the samelight,providingperhapsmore evidenceof a demandfor specificallySouth Asian goods.37When the emperor Constantinefoundedthis cityin A.D. 324 he intendedthatit shouldbecomea new 26

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Rome -a strategic and symbolic alternative to the older metropolis. This is a role it did in fact assume, particularly while the empire in the West suffered major political and military setbacks in the fifth century A.D.38 If the consumer city model persists, through a combination of ancient discourse and modern scholarship,39then there are two modest points to be made here, specific to the current topic. First, it should not blind us to practices of exotic consumption outside of urban settlements. Finds of peppercorns and silk in less urbanized, more remote parts of the empire are already a suggestion to this effect. More important, the Bay of Naples shows significant evidence of this life of luxury in, but not limited to, the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.40 The life of cultured leisure celebrated, for example, by the poet Statius (ca. A.D. 45-96) in Silvae 2.2, is situated far away from the hustle and bustle of urban life, at a villa in Sorrento.4'Such a place presented an ideal setting for Epicurean thought, which centered on the capacity of philosophy to bring freedom from anxiety. These lavish villa and garden settings are a reminder that consumption was by no means limited to cities. Second, the evidence for specifically exotic commodities points to the phenomenon that we might, for current purposes, more securely call transit cities. Points along the routes discussed above show so much evidence of consumption that they reveal a close connection between the practices of distribution and consumption. Implicit in this insight is a warning to avoid falling into hoary notions of center and periphery in assessing such networks. This observation is particularly applicable, both in general and specifically, to Berenike and Palmyra. Little was known about Berenike before the excavations of the past decade;in a relatively short time, a picture has emerged of a settlement that functioned not merely as an entrepot but as a settlement that harbored wealth and made the life of consumption possible. It would be wrong, therefore, to consider Berenike a mere conduit. The larger archaeological context now emerging makes it clear that some of the objects found there would have been used on-site ratherthan automatically transported to the Mediterranean proper.42And furthermore, though excavations at Ostia Antica have thus far failed to turn up anything distinctively South Asian, the site does offer many different indications of wealth in the private and public spheres, the kind of wealth associated with luxury consumption.43After Rome's conquest of the Carthaginians in 146 B.C., its maritime activity increased, and the city grew, reaching its height under the emperor Trajan. In sum, it is certainly interesting and significant that silk shows widespread diffusion, suggesting a many-centered "Roman Mediterranean"with several points of consumption. There can be no denying the power of Rome, and later Constantinople, as centers of consumption, but the comments above offer two modifica27

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tions to the model.First,the Bayof Naplesgoesbeyondanynarrowdefinitionof urbanism:it is herethatwehavemuchevidenceof the life of highconsumptionpartsof a lifestylethat mightbe havebeen consideredleisure(otium)by its participantsor decadence(luxuria) byits critics.Second,Berenikenowappearsfrom excavationsto havebeen not merelya placefor the transmissionof commodities butalso a placefortheirconsumption,evenif ata modestlevel. Foreshorteningthe East Wehaveconsideredabovesomeof the spatialdimensionsof Mediterraneanconsumption,as practicedby Romans.Butit is anothermatterentirelyto adumbrate the mentalmapsengenderedby the objectsthemselveswith regardto their supposedorigins.Wheredidtheseexoticgoodsseem to comefrom,andhowdidtheir supposedplacesof originrelateto Romanworldviews? Letus begin at a transitcity closeto Rome.44One of the most remarkablesectorsatOstiaAnticais a largeforumof the tradeguilds,the PiazzaledelleCorporazioni. It is in the form of a doublecolonnade,locateddirectlybehind a theater. Bothwerebuiltin the time of Augustus;bothwerepublicspacesin the heartof the city.Leadingoff the colonnadeweresixty-onesmallrooms.In frontof mostwere mosaicsindicatingthe occupationor originof their incumbents,eithervisually or verballyor both. The fascinatingaspectof the Piazzale,for currentpurposes, is the visual representationof the tradingguilds on the largemosaic floor that survivestoday.45Thereis no Iberianelementin evidence,butthis maybe because only half of the mosaicssurvivetoday.Includedin the survivingmosaicsarerepresentationsof CarthageandAlexandria,andof ArelateandNarboin Gaul.Thus diversepartsof the Mediterraneanare represented-in whatwe can even call a kind of map,giventhatthe floorrepresentsgeographicalspace.Presumably, merchantsusinga particularroomwereengagedin tradewiththe Mediterranean port indicatedon the mosaic,orperhapsoriginatedfromthatplace. Seenin this light, the mosaicsare emblemsof Mediterranean"connectivity," to use a key term from the majornew studyby PeregrineHordenand Nicholas Purcell.46 It wouldbe reasonableto think thatit tells us moreaboutthe distribution than the originsof commodities,eventhoughit mightstill addto a senseof the exotic. Significantly,this map of distributionis articulatedat a placethat is closeto a majorcenterof consumption,namelythe cityof Rome. Wewouldbe hardpressedto find an equivalentmap of the originsof luxury goods in the ancientMediterranean.It is not clearthat any such representation exists. Whatdoes survivein profusionis geographicalwritingfrom,likewise,a high point of Mediterraneanconnectivity,namelythepax Romana thatfollowed Octavian/Augustus's conquestof hislastremainingrivalsin 31B.C. Mostobviously, 28

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thereis the lengthysurveyof the "inhabitedworld"(oikoumene)by a geographer and historianat the time of Augustus,Strabo(64 B.c.-after A.D. 24). Within his systematiccoverageof differentpartsof the world,theirtopographiesand indigenous customs,Strabohas little to say aboutcommoditiesassociatedwith particularareas.Certainlyhis commentsaboutIndiancommoditiesare extremely limited comparedwith the nearlyexclusivefocus on them in the Periplus. 47Yet there are indicationsthat merchantsplying the monsoon trade,not unlike the authorof the Periplus,providedmuchof Strabo'sinformationforhis description of India,particularlythe eastcoastof India.48 was the equallyextensiveNatuSeveraldecadeslaterthan Strabo'sGeography ralHistoryof the elderPliny(brieflydiscussedabove),with its compendiousview of nature(Natura).ThoughPliny'sdebtto earlierwriters,especiallythose of the Hellenisticperiod,is obviousandsignificant,his textis verymucha productof its times, and its subtextof Roman"worldempire"impossibleto overlook.49 It is in this laterworkthatwefindbothsystematicgeographyanda consciousnessof commodities.Sucha combinationis not surprising,giventhe encyclopedicscope of Pliny'swork,withinwhichdifferenttopicsoccurin differentbooks.Thephenomenon of encodingcommoditiesspatially,e.g.,"Gangeticnard"in Peripluschapter 63,aswe havenotedabove,is by no meanslimitedto Plinyor evento geographical writers.In the caseof exoticgoods,it is profuselyevidencedin the Deipnosophists of Athenaeusof Naucratis,who flourishedaroundA.D. 200. Thisis a worksupposedly representingdinnerpartyconversation;it centersmostly on literarytopics butinvolvesmuchdiscussionaboutthe wherewithalof ancientdinneranddrinking parties-e.g., drinkingvessels.Farbeyondits model of the symposionfrom Plato'sclassicalAthens,it is thusa celebrationof exoticconsumption.50 In the Greco-Romandiscourseaboutluxurygoods,variouspartsof western Asiarecurwith frequency,both as the sourceof luxuriesand as locationsof consumption.Certainlythis discourseis an importantpartof classicalageAthenian representationsof the Achaemenidworld.5'Suchan ethnographicprofileof the Iranianworld continues into later periods of the Greco-Romanworld.52 Even if this observationseems at firstlike a literarycommonplace,there is a serious point here. Partof SouthAsia that was known as "India,"i.e., the Indusvalley, was a satrapy(province)of the Achaemenidempire,as reorganizedby DariusI in 522-521 B.c. (HerodotusHistories 3.96-106). The courts of the Achaemenid kingsthemselvescollectedluxurycommoditiesand also providedcentersforthe exchangeof geographicalinformation.Thus,if the spatialencodingof goodswas a commonphenomenonin ancientMediterranean societies,thenit is no accident that Greeksand Romansassociatedboth Persiaand India with luxury:that is, Indiaas an ultimatesourcebut Persia,i.e., the Achaemenidcourt,as a centerof 29

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luxuriousconsumption.53 By this reckoning,the centralizingand hoardingtendenciesof the Achaemenidcourtprovidedone factorin Rome'sgeneralizingview of luxuriesfromthe East. Buttherearealso otherfactorsthat madewesternAsiaand the northwestern IndianOceanlittoralsubjectto this processof foreshorteningin Greco-Roman thought. Most obviously,severalWest Asian lands offeredthe Mediterranean eitherthe sameor similarcommodities.Thusthe aromaticsassociatedwith Arabiaseemednot radicallydifferentfromSouthAsianspices.Forexample,Plinythe elderfrequentlymentionsthe two groupstogetherin his discussionof spicesand aromaticsin his Natural History 12.26-50.54 In the case of spices,we might well askwhetherRomanswouldlink theseexoticproductswith anyparticularlandor with the tropicsin general. Further,these same or similargoods are being transportedalong the same routes.If we allow,with the Periplusas well as Hordenand Purcell,that tramptradingwas the predominantmeans of exchange,then we should all the more expectsomegeneralizationin Romanminds.Specifically,theArabianandIndian peninsulasboth formedpart of the monsoon route,and both producedexotic commoditiesforconsumptionmainlyin the Mediterranean. Finally,we see direct comparisonbetweenIndia and Egypt (or Ethiopia)at severalpointsin Strabo'sextensivedescriptionof India,forexample,in his Geography15.1.13C69othe deltasof the Indusandthe Nile,the animalslivingthere,and the physicalappearanceof the inhabitants.In this passageStrabocomparesEthiopia with Indiaas well, i.e., both the upperand lowerNile valleywith the Indus valley.55He is herepresentingthe lessfamiliarwith referenceto the morefamiliar. This is a case of translationin the wider,culturallylocatedsense of that term.56 Thereis no doubtthatStrabo'sreaderswouldhavebeenmorefamiliarwith Egypt, directlyadjoiningthe Mediterraneanand the breadbasketof the Romanempire. Butatthe sametime this comparisonreflectsthe routesthatbroughtIndiancommoditiesto the Mediterraneanandespeciallyto the city of Rome.Thelastpartof the monsoonroutefromIndiato Romewould havecoincidedwith the shipping routesforRome'scornsupply.57 In sum, Romangeographicthinkingevidencesan overlapbetweenIndiaand otherlandsof the northwesternIndianOcean.Variousreasonscan be advanced for this overlap,includingthe common (tropical)climatethat differsfrom the Mediterranean climate.Thusit is thatspicesareby definitionnon-Mediterranean commodities,comingas they do fromthe tropics;herbs,on the otherhand,were well known in the Mediterraneanworldfrom an earlierstage.Here it is worth emphasizingthatthe monsoonroute(evenmorethan the land route)unitesdifferentlands.Fromthe pointof the Romanconsumer,it matteredlittlefromwhere 30

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exactly a particular object came; what did matter is that it came from afar;what is more, it is western Asia that was the major source of luxury goods. We have here what initially seems like a paradox: there was a strong tendency to mark commodities spatially in the Roman world,58 and, at the same time, a foreshortening of the East whereby different parts of the monsoon route were conflated from the perspectives of Mediterranean peoples. In the absence of a distinctive notion of East and Southeast Asia in Roman topography,59 we might well describe India as Rome's FarEast. However, this is not really a paradox at all, if we bear in mind that we are speaking less about formal, scientific geographies (notably the Geographyof Claudius Ptolemy, second century A.D., with its extensive list of coordinates) than about popular ideas concerning the extent of the world. And it is in this latter, everyday sense that commodities had such power to connote.

TheUniversal,the Particularandthe Exotic Two kinds of universalism emerge in JacquesAndre and Jean Filliozat'sL'Indevue de Rome, the major book synthesizing Roman visions of South Asia.60 The first of these visions involves Alexander, whose campaign, which took his troops to modern Pakistan in 326 B.C., stretched as far east as the Indus valley. Though the campaign did not stretch far west of the Aegean, it was presented to contemporaries as "world conquest." That it might have been-within particular worldviews that celebratedAlexander as a hero. The image owes much to Alexander'sown manipulation of a public image: he presented himself, by turns, as the god Dionysus and as the hero Heracles, both of these being linked with the edges of the earth (and with the East especially, in the case of Dionysus).6' It is this imperial brand of universalism that underlies much of the political discourse of the Roman empire. Though Alexander himself was to remain a controversialfigure, a conception of world empire outlived him and was in many cases associated with him.62 At the level of philosophy, some of the major branches of Hellenistic (i.e., post-Classical) thought are discernibly the products of an Aegean world very different from that of the classical city-state (polis). Both Stoicism and Epicureanism have been described as "refugeephilosophies" in their political disengagement, particularly in their resignation at the curtailment of citizen participation in public life.63A particular kind of universalism was central to Stoicism, and it is the Stoic thought of Posidonius (ca. 135 B.c.-ca. 50 B.C.) that informed Strabo'sconception of the world.64Stoicism was also a major influence on the elder Pliny.65 The second universalism identified by Andre and Filliozat is in the realm of Christianity. The idea that salvation is open to all souls, at least potentially, was (and in some parts of the world still is) a motor-force behind Christian mission31

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aryactivity.66 Severalrelatedelementsmaybe identifiedhere:first,God'spoweras lordof all, a conceptgoingbackto Judaism.67 In ByzantineChristianitythe term Pantokrat6r (Lordof All) wasone of the mostimportantepithetsof God.Further, therewas Jesus'sinjunctionto the disciplesto bringthe good newsto all people throughoutthe world.68 Underlyingthesetermsandtextsis the ideathatsalvation is open to all who believe.It is these relatedsensesof universalismthat spurred Paul'smissionarytravelsin variouspartsof the Mediterraneanand underliesthe theologyof his letters,preservedin the Christianscriptures. Withinthe capacioustopicof the perceptionand interpretationof SouthAsia by Mediterraneansocieties,such an analysisis undoubtedlyapt. India,being on the "edgesof the earth"was a benchmarkof imperialconquest,and thus important to the self-presentationof emperorsbeginning with Augustus.69Within Christianitythe storyof missionconcernsthe apostleThomas.Accordingto the apocryphalActsof Thomas(aSyriactext datingto the latesecondcenturyA.D.), it is Thomaswho wassentto bringthe good newsto India,a journeyhe undertakes onlywith reluctanceandone thatled to a martyr'sdeath.Thememoryof Thomas continuesto playan importantrolein the Christianityof southernIndiato this day.70In both RomanimperialismandChristianity,Indiathuspresentedthe ultimatetest of success:if Romanpoweror Christianityprevailedevenin India,then it couldclaimto be a genuinelyworldwidephenomenon. ButAndreand Filliozat'saccountof universalismsis not necessarilycomprehensive.The discussionin this articlewouldsuggesta thirduniversalism:thatof commodities.It mightinitiallyseemsurprisingto viewcommoditiesin this light, but I believethereis a caseto be madefora "global"senseof commoditiesin the ancientMediterranean.As we have seen, Athenaeus,more so even than Strabo and Pliny,presentsone objectafteranotherwith referenceto its supposedpoint of origin.Thetrafficin long-distancecommoditiesto RomeandotherMediterraneancenterscreateda certainkindof geographyfortheirconsumers,a universalism realizedatthesepointsof consumption. It mightbe most apt,then, to describethis universalismas a universalismof the exotic:the sensethatexoticobjects,whatevertheiractualorigins,expressthe extent of the world. By "exotic"here I mean radicalotherness,particularlyan othernessthatis materiallyexpressedandtherebyopen to exchange.In a Roman worldthat witnesseda greatertrafficin luxuryitems than everbefore,this phenomenon reachednew levels.Paradoxically,this trafficconstitutesa universalism of particulars,based on particularpoints of origin, as they are imagined. But it does deservethe designationof a universalismbecauseit involvespoints of articulation,namelythe sitesof consumptiondiscussedabove.This is another wayof sayingthatcommoditiesrepresenteda wayforRomansto think aboutthe 32

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extent of the "inhabitedworld"(orbis terrarum),largelyremovedfrom the scientific geography,a kind of populargeographythat continuedto be made and remadein ongoingpatternsof socialpractice.I havesuggestedthatthis phenomenonappliedespeciallyto the northwestIndianOceanzone,with Indiabeingpart of this zone and sometimeseven representingit by synecdoche,the principleof part-for-whole. The exoticaspectof Mediterraneanconsumptionmight seem on the surface to be a highlyparticularisticphenomenon,especiallygiventhe frequentstipulations of origin in texts such as Athenaeusor Pliny or the Periplus. But if it is in factthe othernessof objects,morethan anythingelse,that confersexoticstatus, then a broaderview of provenanceis appropriate.Forit is an aggregateof these particularismsthatalloweda totalizingview of the "inhabitedworld"(oikoumene or orbisterrarum)in a text suchas Pliny'sNatural History.Indiahadan important placewithinthis compositeexotic.Aswe haveseenmostclearlyin relationto silk, therewasa certaindegreeof fudgingbetweenvariouszonesof originin the larger Indian Ocean basin. But it is the Piazzaledelle Corporazionithat points most clearlyto a universalismof the exoticduringRome'simperialage,suggesting,as it does, thatvaluederivedas muchfromthe verydynamicsof Mediterraneanconnectivityas fromanyspecificprovenance.

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NOTES

I should like to thank Alka Patel,Emily Mackil,the anonymous readersof ArsOrientalis and, not least, the conferenceparticipants for their comments and suggestions. 1. JohnMoreland,"Productionand

Exchangein HistoricalArchaeology,"in CompanionEncyclopediaofArchaeology, ed. GraemeBarker,2 vols. (London: Routledge,1999), 637. 2. It is in this special sense that I havemade bold to use the term "RomanIndia"in the largerresearchprojectfrom which this articlederives:this term constitutes an oxymoron and provocation,given that the Romanempireneverdid gain political or military control over South Asia, howevervividly "India"might have featuredin Romanimperialimaginations. The currentessaycoverssome of the same ground as GrantParker,"Ex OrienteLuxuria:Indian Commodities and RomanExperience,"Journalof the Economicand SocialHistoryof the Orient 45.1(2002): 40-95, but with significantly differentemphases.Of course there is an inherent ethnocentrism in such a history of representations.Fora different approachto some of the same material, see RomilaThapar,"IndianViews of Europe:Representationof the Yavanasin EarlyIndian History,"in CulturalPasts (Delhi: OxfordUniversityPress,2002), 536-55. 3. Donald S. Whitcomb and JanetH. Johnson,ed., Quseiral-Qadim 1978: PreliminaryReport(Cairo:American ResearchCenterin Egypt, 1979); Whitcomb and Johnson,QuseiralQadim1980:PreliminaryReport, American ResearchCenterin Egypt Report7 (Malibu:Undena, 1982); Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood,ResistDyedTextiles from Quseiral-Qadim,Egypt(Paris: Association pour l'Etudeet la Documentation des Textilesd'Asie,1ggo); Carol 34

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Meyer,GlassfromQuseiral-Qadim and theIndian OceanTrade(Chicago: OrientalInstitute, 1992). 4. StevenE. Sidebothamand Willemina Z. Wendrich,ed., Berenike1994:Preliminary Reportof the1994Excavationsat Berenike (EgyptianRedSea Coast)and theSurvey of theEasternDesert(Leiden:Research School CNWS,1995);Berenike1995 (1996); Berenike1996(1998);Berenike1997 (1999);Berenike1998 (2000), and continuing. Fora recentsynthesis, see W. Z. Wendrich,R. S. Tomber,S. E. Sidebotham,J.A. Harrell,R. T. J. Cappers,and R. S. Bagnall,"Berenike Crossroads:The Integrationof Information,"Journalof theEconomicand Social Historyof theOrient46.1(2003):46-87. 5. A. M. I. VanWaverenand W. Z. Wendrich, "Textiles,"in Berenike1994,63- 68. 6. J.P.Wild and F.C. Wild, "TheTextiles," in Berenike1996, 236.S/S and Z/Z threads arenamed for the direction of weaving: the names match the slope at the centerof each letter.See further E. J.W. Barber, PrehistoricTextiles:TheDevelopmentof Clothin theNeolithicand BronzeAges with SpecialReferenceto theAegean (Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress, 1ggo),66. 7. J.P.Wild and F.C. Wild, in Berenike1997, 272,with considerablecaution in inferringprovenience.A. J.Veldmeijer, "TheCordage,"in Berenike1997, 267, relatessuch evidence to the question of when cotton was firstcultivatedin Egypt. 8. E. J.W. Barber,PrehistoricTextiles,32-33. 9. F. C. Wild and J.P.Wild, "Sailsfrom the Roman Port at Berenike,Egypt," Internationaljournalof Nautical Archaeology30.2(2001): 211-20. lo. "India,"i.e., the Indusvalley now mostly in Pakistan,arises in Herodotus's account of the PersianWarsbecause it was a satrapy(province) of the Achaemenid empireset up by Darius and thus

forms part of the backgroundto his main narrative.Herodotus'emphasison the naturalwealth of "India,"and thus of Darius'sempire, is no coincidence. ii. LionelCasson, ed., ThePeriplusMaris Erythraei(Princeton:Princeton UniversityPress,1989).Foran attemptto readthe workin light of the objectsand routesinvolved, see GrantParker, "PorousConnections:The Mediterranean and the Red Sea,"ThesisEleven67 (2001): 59-79. 12. Since the word dermatadenotes the skins of animals, the adjectivesirikacannot here be translatedas "silk." 13. See, in general,Barber,Prehistoric Textiles,30-32, withfurtherreferences. The single best overviewof spices in the 14. Roman empireis J.Innis Miller, The RomanSpiceTrade(Oxford:Clarendon, 1969).However,the certaintywith which the authoridentifies particularspices from ancient literaryreferencesadds a note of doubt about its reliability.Miller's controversialpresentationof the

i8. Jean-FrancoisSalles,"TheArab-Persian Gulf under the Seleucids,"in Hellenismin theEast,ed. Amelie Kuhrtand Susan Sherwin-White(Berkeley:Universityof California Press, 1987), 75-108. For the

19.

"cinnamonroute"(153-72) nowreceives support from AndrewDalby,Dangerous Tastes:TheStoryof Spices(Berkeley: Universityof CaliforniaPress,2000), 3641.Cinnamon and cassia (sometimes identified as a separatespice) had found their way to the easternMediterranean

126-28.

22.

23.

24.

1998),119-37. For a trenchant analysis of

the supposed Silk Roadas a "modern fabrication"-after all, the term was coined only in the mid-nineteenth century- see WarwickBall,Romein the East:The Transformation ofan Empire (London:Routledge,2000),138: "Any

bytheseventhcenturyB.C.; they originateboth in SriLankaand in the northern parts of SoutheastAsia. 15. Foranother example, compareHorace, Satires2.8.14-15. 16. BhagwantSahai,IconographyofMinor Hindu and BuddhistDeities(New Delhi: AbhinavPublications,1975)157-79.The statuette is in the collections of the Museo ArcheologicoNazionale in Naples. 17. R. M. Cimino, AncientRomeand India (Delhi: MunshiramManoharlal,1994),

long view, see now especiallyHimanshu PrabhaRay,TheArchaeologyofSeafaring in AncientSouthAsia (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversityPress,2003). Indeed, the question of the Silk Roadmay seem a nonstarter,given the degreeof anachronismand even of romantic fantasyinvolved in positing a single transcontinentalroad. In its extreme form this idea of a single roadcannot be maintained. However,it is equally importantto insist that there was overlandtransportof silk, one of the productsunder discussion, and for that reasondeservesconsiderationhere. For one, FergusMillar sounds a skeptical note: "CaravanCities:The RomanNear Eastand Long-DistanceTradeby Land," in ModusOperandi:Essaysin Honourof GeoffreyRickman,ed. MichelAustin, Jill Harries,and ChristopherSmith (London:Institute of ClassicalStudies,

25.

1969), 175-271. 26.

ancient 'route' ... was at best simply a

20

broadchannel of communications across a region for the movement of people, goods and ideas. It rarelyfollowed any fixed pathway.It was nevertranscontinental." Modern Kavunlu,formerlyBelkis. R. J. A. Talbert,ed., TheBarringtonAtlas of the Greekand RomanWorld(Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress,2000), map 67, F2.

21.

35

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137,showing how the city'swealth was relatedto tradeactivity passingthrough it, see J.F.Matthews,"TheTaxLawof Palmyra:Evidencefor Economic History in a City of the RomanEast,"Journalof RomanStudies74 (1984): 157-80. On the link between Palmyraand South Asia, see the telltale aside in Appian'saccount of the civil wars,while narratingMarcus Antonius'sunsuccessful attackon that city: "for,being traders,they bring Indian and Arabianobjectsfrom Persiaand get rid of them in Roman territory"(Roman History5.9). Pliny,NaturalHistory,vol. 4, bks. 12-16, trans. H. Rackam,rev.ed. (Cambridge, Mass.:HarvardUniversityPress,1986). BelowI shall delve more deeplyinto the worldviewimplied here. It should be noted that the Latinadjectivefelixis most obviously translatedas "happy"but also carriesstrong connotations of wealth, as in the Pliny passagequoted. Comparen. 47below for the Greekequivalent,with its similar semantic field. PeregrineHordenand Nicholas Purcell, TheCorruptingSea:A StudyofMediterraneanHistory(Oxford:Blackwell,2000), e.g., 140, 142. N. V. Pigulewskaja,Byzanzaufden Wegen nachIndien (Berlin:Akademie-Verlag, AD

27

Certainly,to considera majortheorist of a millennium later,the consumption of luxury goods is centralto Ibn Khaldun's account of what constitutes cities and makes them attractiveto nomadic people:e.g., 1.224 and 1.276 in Franz Rosenthal,trans., IbnKhaldun,The Muqaddimah:An Introductionto History, 3 vols. (New York:Bollingen, 1958), 1:25253,308-9, respectively. ManfredG. Raschke,"NewStudiesin Roman Commercewith the East," AufstiegundNiedergangderromischen Welt2.9.2 (1978): 625, 727-28.

28. PeterGarnseyand RichardSaller,The RomanEmpire:Economy,Societyand Culture(Cambridge:Cambridge

Press, 1996-2000),10:782-811;

35. J.P.Toner,LeisureandAncientRome

University Press, 1987), 6. 29.

and

"Rome and Italy," in ibid., 11:405-43. (Cambridge: Polity, 1995).

LawrenceJ.RichardsonJr.,A New Topographical DictionaryofAncientRome (Baltimore:JohnsHopkins University

36. Edwin S. Ramage,Urbanitas:Ancient Sophisticationand Refinement(Norman,

Press, 1992), 194-95.

37. Pigulewskaja,Byzanz. 38. Certainlythis is the romanticimage of the city, as expressedin W. B. Yeats's

30. Moses Finley,TheAncientEconomy,2nd ed. (Berkeley:Universityof California

Okla. 1973), 112.

poem, "Sailing to Byzantium" (1908).

Press, 1976).

31. Garnseyand Saller,RomanEmpire, 48-49. 32. Fora useful reviewof approaches, ultimatelyreaffirmingthe consumer model as the best available,see C. R. Whittaker,"Do Theoriesof the Ancient City Matter?"in UrbanSocietyin Roman Italy,ed. T. J.Cornell and KathrynLomas (London: Routledge, 1995), 9-26.

For

attemptsto find alternatives,see Helen M. Parkins,ed., RomanUrbanism: Beyondthe ConsumerCity (London: Routledge, 1997). At stake, among other

things, is a minimalist approachto ancient economic practice.Thus, accordingto the consumer model, "the cities of the ancientworld dependedon the exploitation of their hinterlands through rents and taxes for their sustenance and ... aimed for a large

measureof regionalself-sufficiency.The corollaryof this ... was that therewas little need for,or actual developmentof, urbanmanufacturingand inter-regional trade."David J.Mattingly,"Beyond Belief?Drawinga Linebeneath the Consumer City,"in Parkins,Roman Urbanism,210. 33. Hordenand Purcell, CorruptingSea, 105-8.

34. Nicholas Purcell, "Romeand Its Development underAugustus and His Successors,"in CambridgeAncient History,ed. A. K. Bowman et al., 2nd ed. (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity

39. In tracinglinks between ancient and modern, RayLaurence,"Writingthe RomanMetropolis,"in Parkins,Roman Urbanism,1-20, interestinglycompares the dystopianimage of Rome in the Latin satiristJuvenal(Satires3) with that in LewisMumford, TheCityin History:Its Origins,Its Transformations, andIts Prospects(New York:Harcourt,Brace and World, 1961), e.g.,

233.

40. JohnH. D'Arms,Romanson theBay of Naples:ASocialand CulturalStudyof the Villasand theirOwnersfromi5oBC toAD 400 (Cambridge,Mass.:Harvard University Press, 1970); Paul Zanker,

Pompeii:Publicand PrivateLife,trans. D. L. Schneider(Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998).

41. R. G. M. Nisbet, "Felicitasat Surrentum (StatiusSilvae11.2),"JournalofRoman Studies 68 (1978): 1-11.

Thus, for example,Wild and Wild, in "TheTextiles"in Berenike1996,discussing the use of textiles on-site: "Intheir homes Spartanfurnitureand rough finished walls would havebeen disguised under an astonishing rangeof high-class coverlets,hangings and curtains. Berenikians,even in the fifth centuryAD, had high expectations"(236). 43. RussellMeiggs,RomanOstia,2nd ed. (Oxford:Clarendon,1973). 44. Fora recentreassessmentof Ostia Antica, see esp. Nicholas Purcell,"ThePortsof Rome:Evolutionof a FacadeMaritime," 42.

36

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in "RomanOstia"Revisited,ed. Anna GallinaZevi and Amanda Claridge (London:BritishSchool at Rome, 1996), 267-79. He arguesagainstdescribingit as "theport of Rome"and appliesinstead the idea of a "faqademaritime,"involving an "interlockingand complexwhole" (279).As the volume title suggests, Meiggs'sRomanOstiaremains fundamental; see 283-88, 449-51 on the

Piazzaledelle Corporazioni. 45. Approximatelyhalf of the mosaics survive. See further,KatherineM. D. Dunbabin,Mosaicsof the Greekand RomanWorld(Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1999), 60-65.

46. Hordenand Purcell,CorruptingSea, 123-71. 47. Note Strabo Geography 15.1.13C69o, 15.1.18C692, and 15.1.30C700, which I

regardas exceptions to this trend. Especiallyworthy of note are 15.1.18C692, a generalcomment on its fertility (eudaimonia,literally"wealth"),and 15.1.69 C718 on rival displays of wealth.

48. "Asregardsthe merchantswho currently sail from Egyptby the Nile as faras India, only a small number havesailed right up to the Ganges,and even these aremerely privatecitizens and not useful as regards the account [in Greek,historian]of the placesthey haveseen' (StraboGeography 15.1.4C686).This striking passagereflects Greekand Romanprejudiceagainst traders,especiallyas Strabogoes on to describeembassiesreceivedby Augustus from India that are,by implied contrast, acceptablesources of topographical knowledgebecausethey are relatedto the emperor.In the more mathematicaland less discursiveGeographyof Claudius Ptolemy (ca. AD 1oo-ca. 178), written

about a century after Strabo,it is clear that commercialtravelershavegenerated much of the information, not least for the Bayof Bengal.

49. A. Wallace-Hadrill,"TheElderPliny and Man'sUnnaturalHistory,"Greeceand Rome37 (1990): 80-96.

50. David Braundand JohnWilkes, ed., Athenaeusand His World:ReadingGreek Culturein theRomanEmpire(Exeter: University of Exeter Press,

62. Diana Spencer,TheRomanAlexander: Readinga CulturalMyth (Exeter: Universityof ExeterPress,2002). 63. MarthaC. Nussbaum, The Therapyof Desire:TheoryandPracticein Hellenistic Ethics(Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1994).

2000).

51. Edith Hall, InventingtheBarbarian: GreekSelf-DefinitionthroughTragedy (Oxford:Clarendon,1989);Christopher Tuplin,AchaemenidStudies(Stuttgart:

64. KatherineClarke,BetweenGeography and History:HellenisticConstructionsof theRomanWorld(Oxford:Clarendon,

Steiner, 1996), 132-77. 52. Horace Odes 1.38.1.In this regard, R. G.

65. Wallace-Hadrill,"ElderPliny";Mary Beagon,RomanNature:The Thoughtof Pliny theElder(Oxford:Clarendon,1992). 66. Denise KimberBuell, "Raceand Universalismin earlyChristianity," JournalofEarlyChristianStudies10.4

M. Nisbet and MargaretHubbard compareother examplesof eastern (and especiallyPersian)luxury.A Commentaryon Horace:OdesBook1(Oxford: ClarendonPress,1970), 423-24. 53. Amelie Kuhrt, TheAncientNear East,c. 3000-330 BC, 2 voIs. (London:Routledge, 1995), 648.

54. In the case of many spices Pliny confuses source and entrepot. Miller,RomanSpice Trade,20-21. 55. See also StraboGeography15.1.16C691, invoking Herodotus'sdescriptionof Egypt alongsidethat of Alexander's general Nearchus on India, and 15.1.18-19

1999).

(2002): 429-68.

67. Psalms 24:1-2: "Theearth is the Lord's and all that is in it; for he has founded it upon the seas, and establishedit on the rivers"(New RevisedStandardVersion). 68. Matthew29:19-20: "Gothereforeand make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Fatherand of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,and teaching them to obey everythingthat I have commanded you."CompareMark16:15; Luke 24:47. And see Acts i:8: "you will be

C692-693.

56. JamesClifford,Routes:Traveland Translationin theLateTwentiethCentury (Cambridge,Mass.:HarvardUniversity Press, 1997).

57. G. E. Rickman, TheCornSupplyof AncientRome(Oxford:Clarendon,1980). 58. On this phenomenon, see further Parker, "Exorienteluxuria,"78-87. 59. JohnFerguson,"Chinaand Rome," AufstiegundNiedergangderromischen

my witnesses in Jerusalem,in all Judaea and Samaria,and to all the ends of the earth" (all New RevisedStandard Version). 69. ResGestae34. See also the emperorTrajan in Dio Cassius Roman History 68.29.1.

70. See, e.g., PaulThomas, Christiansand Christianityin India and Pakistan (London: Allen and Unwin, 1954).

Welt 2.9.2 (1978): 581-603.

60. JacquesAndre and JeanFilliozat,L'Inde vuedeRome(Paris:BellesLettres,1986),11. 6i. Andrew F.Stewart,Facesof Power: Alexander'sImageand HellenisticPolitics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).

37

TOPOGRAPHIES

OF TASTE

HIMANSHU

PRABHA

RAY

THE BEGINNINGS TheArtisanand theMerchantin EarlyGujarat,Sixth-EleventhCenturies

Abstract This articleaims at locatingtradingactivitiesin Gujaratprimarilythroughan analysisof archaeologicaldata,inscriptions,and textual sources.The continuity between the early and medievalperiods is essentialto understandingthe underlyingstructuresin terms of the hierarchyof routes, utilization of local resources,and organizationof watertransportin the region.The first section of the articlehighlightsdiversetrendsin the study of northwesternIndia,particularlyin the context of Indian Ocean sailing. The primaryfocus in the latter part of the articleis the period from the sixth to eleventhcenturies,which marksan expansionof contactswith the PersianGulf and other parts of the IndianOceanregion.In traditionalhistoricalwritingthe emphasishas been on agrarianexpansion and the spreadof Sanskriticculture through movements of brahmanasat the behest of the emergingregionalstates and the consolidation of a feudal order.In contrast,this article shifts the emphasisfrom the centralityof the state and addressesissues relatingto the organizationof craft activities,interactionbetweenthe artisanand tradinggroups,and diverseconsumptionpatterns.The articlealso arguesfor autonomyof religioustraditions, apartfrom the state,and highlightsthe complexreligiouslandscapeof Gujarat, thereby contestingthe somewhatmisplacedemphasison Brahmanizationor Sanskritizationof the region.

IT IS GENERALLY BELIEVED that from the seventhto the fifteenthcenturies, the Indian Ocean had become a "Muslimlake,"Buddhismhaving declinedin the Indian subcontinentand Hinduism having become inwardlooking.'This view persistsdespitethe fact that earlynarrativeliteraturein Sanskrit,Prakrit, Pali,Tamil,and othervernacularscontainsglowingaccountsof maritimetravel by merchants,craftspeople,musicians,and others.In addition,the diversityof evidenceprovidedby a rangeof archaeologicaland architecturalsourceswhen collatedfurnishesfascinatingvignettesforan understandingof the maritimeorientationof communitiessettledin northwesternIndia. This articleattemptsto drawout evidencefrom archaeologicalfinds, architecturalremains,and earlyinscriptionsto presentthe earlyhistory of trading communitiesin northwesternIndia.As will be discussedin greaterdetailbelow, archaeologicalfinds have generallybeen used to supportpreconceivedtheories presentedby historians,while religiousstructureshave been studied either in termsof styleand chronologyor as objectsof royalmunificenceprovidinglegitimizationto the politicalelite.In contrast,this articleexaminesreligiousshrines within theirsocialcontextas indicatorsof communityidentity,includingthat of 39

tradinggroups.2The picturethat emergesis that of a diversereligiouslandscape patronizedbyvariedcommunities. Traditionally, threebroadtrendshaveinfluencedhistoricalstudieson ancient Indiain the postindependenceperiod.Oneis the Marxistschool,whichsupports the Indianfeudalismtheory.3The paradigmopposingthe theoryof Indianfeudalism emphasizesthe centralityof the political structurein initiatingchange and suggeststhree discontinuousphases of urbanizationaroundwhich other economicactivitiescoalesced.Thesephaseshavebeen definedas the Harappan (third-second millenniumB.C.), earlyhistoric (600 B.C. to third-fourth centuriesA.D.), and earlymedieval(sixth-seventh-twelfth-thirteenth centuries)periods.4Threemajorhistoricalprocesseshavebeenpostulatedforthe earlymedieval periodwithin this framework:expansionof statesociety;assimilationandacculturationof tribalpeoples;andintegrationof localreligiouscultsandpractices. A thirdmodel for understandingthe developmentof tradeis evidentin writings by AndreWink. He arguesagainstthe declineof Romantrade,since GreekByzantinetradersagainbecameactivein the Indiatradefromthe fourthto sixth centuries.5In the fifth-sixth centuries,Persiancommercesynchronizedwith the ascendancyof the Sasanianempire,and with the coming of Islamtherewas an increasein tradingnetworksin the IndianOcean.Wink suggeststhat controlof tradewasa motivatingfactorin the Arabconquestof Makran,Sindh,Kathiawar, and Kachh.The period until the tenth centurywas characterizedby Araband Persiansettlementsalongthe IndianOceanlittoralandthe emergenceof an integratedMuslimtradingempire.Furthermore,Buddhismlargelydisappearedfrom Indiain the earlymedievalperiod,thoughit continuedto flourishin Gujaratuntil the ninth century.Finally,due to restrictionsstipulatedin the Dharmasdstras (LawBooks)on maritimetravel,the Hindupopulationturnedto "agrarianpursuitsandproduction,awayfromtradeandmaritimetransport."6 The positionadoptedin this articleis differentfrom the abovethreemodels in severalways.In contrastto the rural/urbandichotomyandearlyhistoric/early medievaldisjunctionsupportedby both R. S. SharmaandB. D. Chattopadhyaya, this articlehighlightsthe centralityof the communityin the studyof the pastand continuityin the settlementpatternas evidentfrom the archaeologicalrecord. Therewere,no doubt,shifts,gradations,andgrowingcomplexityin the varietyof settlementtypes overtime, but few or no ruptures.Forexample,the lowerShetrunjivalleyandthe areaaroundPadriandHathabin Bhavnagardistrictemerged as the coreregionof the earlyMaitrkarulersin the fifth centuryA.D., as evident from inscriptions.This settlementwas by no means a "newbeginning,"since archaeologicalexplorationin the region has providedevidencefor twenty-two earlyhistoricsiteslocatedin a linearpatternalongthe riveranda multitiersettle40

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PRABHA

RAY

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