Profile
Settings
Refer your friends
Sign out
During ancient times, towns were divided into various types, for instance, manufacturing towns, port towns, sacred centres, mercantile towns, and pilgrimage towns. These towns depended on the prosperity index of the professional classes and merchant communities.
What are the Major Trade Centres?
The major trade centres in ancient India are the following:
Peshawar: Peshawar was a centre for wool. This exporting and importing centre also imports horses. In commercial transactions between China, India, and Rome, Peshawar had a huge share in the first century A.D.
Pataliputra: Pataliputra is also known as Patna today. It was not only a commercial town but also a major centre for exporting stones. Pataliputra was one of the world’s largest cities, with around 150,000 to 400,000. It was the capital city of the Maurya empire.
Taxila: Taxila was a major centre on the important land route between central Asia and India. It was also a city of commercial and financial banks. Taxila was occupied by Buddhist monks as a centre of learning.
Mathura: Mathura was a trade emporium, and people in Mathura subsisted on commerce. Many routes and lines from South India touched Broach and Mathura.
Indraprastha: Indraprastha was a commercial junction situated on the royal road. Most of the routes covering north, south, east, and west were connected to this commercial junction.
Mithila: In Mithila, the traders had to cross the sea by boats. They travelled through the Bay of Bengal to the south China sea. The traders in Mithila traded with the ports on the Sumatra, Java, and Borneo islands. Mithila had also established trading connections in South China and Yunnan.
Varanasi: Varanasi was a good place to live in. This place lay both on the highway that linked the north to the east and the Gangetic route. Varanasi is a major centre for the textile industry. This city became famous for its beautiful sandalwood quality and gold silk cloth. Varanasi had links with Bharuch and Taxila.
Ujjain: In ancient times, carnelian, agate, mallow, and muslin cloth were exported by the traders from Ujjain to the various centres. Ujjain also had trading relations through the land route with Peshawar and Taxila.
Kanchi: Today Kanchi is known as Kanchipuram. In this city, the Chinese used to come in foreign ships to buy glass, pearls as well as rare stones. In return, the Chinese sold silk and gold in Kanchi.
Surat: During the Mughal period, Surat is known as the emporium of western trade. In Surat, textiles were famous for their gold borders (zari). It must be mentioned that Surat hundi was honoured in the distant market of Iran and Egypt.
Madura: Madura was the capital of Pandyas. These Pandayas controlled the Gulf of Mannar’s pearl fisheries. Madura always attracted foreign traders, especially Romans. As the Romans often carry out overseas trade.
Kaveripatti: Kaveripatti is also known as Kaveripatnam. This city was built using scientific construction. Strong merchandise facilities, for instance, loading and unloading, were provided in this city. Besides that, most of the foreign trader’s headquarters were in Kaveripatta. This city was a convenient place for trading with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Far East as well as China. Moreover, Kaveripatta was the main centre of trade for cosmetics, perfumes, silk, scents, cotton, wool, pearls, precious stones as well as gold. Consequently, this city was also for shipbuilding.
Broach: In Western India, Broach was the greatest place of commerce. This city was situated on the banks of the river Narmada. Not only this, this city had links with all the roadways for easy access to important towns.
Tamralipti: Tamralipti was the greatest port in ancient India. This port was connected by land and sea with the Far East and West. From Banaras to Taxila, this city had road links.
Conclusion
In ancient times, trade and commerce played a very important role in making India a major player in the economic world. Archaeological evidence shows that trade and commerce was the main business in ancient India. This business was carried out by road and water. During ancient times, a few prominent commercial cities were Mohenjo Daro and Harappa. These cities were established in the third millennium B.C. The main trading centres in ancient India were the regional ports of Barbaricum (now Karachi), Barygaza, Sounagoura (now central Bangladesh), and Muziris in Kerala, Kaveripattinam, Korkai, and Arikamedu. In the southern part, present-day India was the prominent centre of this trade.
It is a very important chapter for the UPSC and other competitive exam aspirants. Every year, MCQs are asked from this section, and therefore, aspirants must prepare well to score high marks in this section.
