Odia merchants(Sadhabas) who traded across SE & East Asia created institutions called Guilds(Srenis), the cooperative corporatised merchant org & were financed by temples.
They operated under contracts(Samaya) & code of conduct(Banaju-dharma).
The traders were known by various terms across the regions of
Tri-Kalinga.
Commercial centres of Tri-Kalinga evolution timeline:
8th cen- Hatta
Late 9th cen- Pattana
Early medieval period- Tirtha, Nagara
Also seen is the nature of a commercial township & its structure.
Eastern Ganga era list of trade guilds, showing the various communities/castes involved in the mercantile occupation & merchant guilds. Hence it shows the nature of socio-economic life of medieval Odisha(12th/13th cen)
List of Trade guilds from inscriptions/records:
Sonepur guild-
Kamalavana Vanika Sthana
The only major merchant guild organisation found in Odisha as per records. Mentioned in Sonepur plates of Somavanshi ruler Janamejaya
Agrahara:
These type of guilds were common across Tri-Kalinga, but were smaller & diffused in operations unlike the massive mercantile corporations of Tamil guilds.
They operated in villages, hattas, pattanas.
Kalinga agraharas
*Dantapura agrahara of merchant Sri Erapa Nayaka
Donations by merchants and their families to temples, esp the grants of perpetual lamps.
Also includes donations of gold & land for maintenance. Rulers also gave grants esp villages to merchant guilds.
Major ports operational during the medieval period- Ganga/Suryavamsa Gajapati era includes-
*Khalkatapattana
*Manikapattana
*Palur
*Dantapura
Different types of taxes levied by Odia kingdoms during medieval period(about one-third of taxes collected were related to commercial/mercantile activities)
Ref:
*Trade & traders: An exploration into trading communities & their activities in early medieval Odisha- Bhairabi Prasad Sahu, 2019
*Merchants, Guilds & Trade in Ancient India: An Orissan perspective- Benudhar Patra, 2008, p 147
*The Ocean of Churn- Sanjeev Sanyal, 2016, p 134
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It is located on the northern bank of the river Kusabhadra near the sea mouth and situated at a distance of abt 9 km from Konark. It flourished during 12th-15th cen esp during the reign of the Eastern Gangas.
Port type- Dronamukhi (river-sea)
ASI excavations (‘84) revealed a brick jelly floor, which served as a loading-unloading platform.
Recovered objects- Chinese celadon & porcelain with blue floral motifs, egg-white glazed pottery from Arabia, indigenous dark gray & red striped wares, terracotta beads, wares etc.
Site findings list:
a. Terracotta ring well
b. Chinese copper coin
c. Lid
d. Bricks, potsherds
e. Ring wells
f. Stamped ware
g. Chinese ware
h. Celadon ware
i. Terracotta beads
j,k,l. Site location
Chhattisgarhi is a Central Indo-Aryan(Indic) language & a part of the Eastern Hindi branch. It has 5 regional dialect clusters & 9 dialects.
It is also known as Laria in Odisha.
In Odia script:
Chhattisgarhi- ଛତିଶଗଡ଼ି
Laria- ଲରିଆ
It is primarily written in Devanagari script, but the eastern dialect spoken along Odisha-Chhattisgarh border along like Bhulia & Kalanga dialects in Odisha are also written in Odia script(present usage continues ad-hoc/informally).
The Alphabet, David Diringer, 1948, p-365
Sample text- Bhulia dialect of Chhattisgarhi
Linguistic Survey of India- Grierson, Vol-VI 1904, p-255-257