RBSI Essay Series:

The Trading Guilds of South India and South-East Asian histories.
By Sunny Narang

We cannot understand India and South-East Asian histories without understanding the Tamil and Kalinga empires and the trading guilds of South India .

I am continually shocked at the bad and stupid history we were taught in our schools with little understanding on how to connect our present and the past via interesting stories of trade, religion and cultural engagement among Indian empires and rest of Asia .

A. Ramanathan Chettiar who wrote the "History of the Nattukkottai Chettiars" says that the Chettiars had travelled in sailboats to Penang and Singapore in 1824.

Sri Thendayuthapani Temple also known as Chettiars' Temple is one of the oldest temple in Singapore and was built in the year 1859 by Nattukkottai Chettiars.

And almost after one hundred years of their arrival in Singapore, they established the Nattukkottai Chettiars Chamber of Commerce in 1928, seven years before the Indian Chamber of Commerce was founded.

The Nattukottai Nagarathars (also known as Nattukottai Chettiar) is a community under Chettiar caste in Shaivism that originated in Kaveripoompattinam under the Chola kingdom of India. They are a prominent mercantile (Vaishya) caste in Tamil Nadu, South India.

The king of Pandiya gave the Nagarathar community nine villages around Pudukottai to settle. They built a Shiva temple in each of them and created the "9 temple" or "9 koil" division of the community. Initially, the Nagarathars lived in 96 villages surrounding the temple, but as of 2007, they have reduced their size to 74 villages.

The koil is used as a primary classification for the community. Members of each temple society treat each other as brothers and sisters or "pangalis" and thus marriage is not allowed amongst members of the same temple.

Banks established by Chettiars include the now defunct Bank of Chettinad, and the now ICICI merged Bank of Madurai founded by Karumuttu Thiagarajan Chettiar , Indian Overseas Bank founded by Chidambaram Chettiar, and Indian Bank founded by Raja Annamalai Chettiar. Annamalai Chettiar started India’s first private university in 1929, the Annamalai University.

Murugappa Group , MAM Ramaswamy of Chettinad Cements , AC Muthiah of MA Chidambaram group , P Chidambaram are few of the stars . But now the entrepreneurial Iyengar Brahmins have crossed them in Tamilnadu !

Before the rise of the Cholas, inscriptions from Java, Indonesia mention only the Kalingas as foreign visitors from the eastern coast of India. In 1021 AD an inscription added Dravidas to the list of maritime powers, and they were then replaced by the Colikas (Cholas), in the year 1053 AD.

The Kalinga traders (of modern Orissa) brought red colored stone decorative objects for trade. And Kalinga was an important source of Cotton textiles to Southeast Asia at an early date.

In the Tamil Sangam classic, Chirupanattuppadai (line 96), there is a mention of blue Kalingam. Fine garments of high quality cotton imported from Kalinga country into the Tamil country were called Kalingam, which shows that Kalinga was an exporter of cotton at an early date.

The following passage on the guild of Ayyavolu merchants is taken from an inscription dated 1055 AD and summarises their activities and commodities:

"Famed throughout the world, adorned with many good qualities, truth, purity, good conduct, policy, condescension, and prudence; protectors of the vira-Bananju-dharma [law of the heroic traders], having 32 veloma, 18 cities, 64 yoga-pithas, and asramas at the four points of the compass; born to be wanderers over many countries, the earth as their sack,....the serpent race as the cords, the betel pouch as a secret pocket,...

......by land routes and water routes penetrating into the regions of the six continents, with superior elephants, well-bred horses, large sapphires, moonstones, pearls, rubies, diamonds,...cardamoms, cloves, sandal, camphor, musk, saffron and other perfumes and drugs, by selling which wholesale or hawking about on their shoulders, preventing the loss by customs duties, they fill up the emperor's treasury of gold, his treasury of jewels, and his armoury of weapons; and from the rest they daily bestow gifts on pundits and munis; white umbrellas as their canopy, the mighty ocean as their moat, Indra as the hand-guard of their swords, Varuna as the standard bearer, Kubera as the treasurer,..."

Several trade guilds operated in medieval Southern India such as the Gatrigas, Nakaras, Mummuridandas, Ayyavole-500, Ubhayananadesigal, Settis, Settiguttas, Birudas, Biravaniges, Gavares, etc.

Temples were the pivot around which socio-economic activities of the land revolved. Some trade guilds, such as the Nakaras and Gavares, met only in the temple premises.

Some trade guilds were very powerful and decided the fortunes of the kingdom. One example is the trade guild of Nanadeshis who not only financed local development projects and temple-constructions but also lent money to the kings. The rulers did their best to accommodate the guilds because of the benefit they derived from them.

Trade guilds employed troops, enjoyed immunities, and had international connections and thus constituted a state within a state.

Trade guilds were often independent bodies over which kings tried to exercise control; and sometimes failed. One such example relates to the bankers and money-changers of the Bahmani Kingdom who ignored all warnings and melted all new coins that fell into their hands and supplied the metal to the mints of Warangal and Vijayanagar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nattukottai_Nagarathar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Guilds_of_South_India
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chola_Navy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Hundred_Lords_of_Ayyavolu
https://nagaratharworld.wordpress.com/9-nagara-kovil/
http://www.sttemple.com/information/about-chettiars.html
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2003-08-19/news/27516947_1_tamil-nadu-banking-southern-film-industry/3