chapter four

!
Rivernomics
Growing Significance of
the Mid-Ganga Plain

r ivernomics is concerned with the economy that flourished

owing to river-based settlements and includes both rural
and urban landscapes. The urban space that came up around
the riverside played a pivotal role in the polity of the mid-Ganga
riverine plain since ancient times. Meanwhile, there was also a huge
rural space, featuring vast agricultural lands, cultivation of which
was contingent on the free flow of the river year-long. Here, the
economy prospered largely because of the region’s huge potentiality
for surplus agricultural production. Contrary to the hypothesis of
many economic historians of the 1960s and 1970s, who characterized
the Mughal Empire as having a centralized political and fiscal system
that eventually disintegrated in the first half of the eighteenth century,
Bihar continued to flourish because of its unique mid-Ganga ecology.1
The earlier argument, that Mughal rule forged a centralized political
and fiscal system, has been revised in recent writings. First, it has now
been argued that while the Mughal state itself was evolving during
the course of the seventeenth century through agrarian expansion,
the Mughal bureaucracy was not able to deeply penetrate in certain
subas. Further, the Mughal jagirdars remained dependent on local
intermediaries and zamindars.
 rivernomics 93

Historical materialist historiography, dominant until the 1980s,

presented the disintegration of the Mughal Empire as evidence
of the Mughals’ centralized state structure. It argued that the
weakening control of the Mughals on the agrarian system and the
war of succession led to economic disintegration and rebellions
became common. As a corollary to this argument, it was claimed by
some ‘revisionist’ scholars that British rule provided some sort of
economic and administrative stability, and thus was a ‘disjuncture’. 2
They argued that although the Mughals were able to develop a model
of revenue-oriented entrepreneurship, it could not have continued
during the eighteenth century without a tacit coalition of the Indian
traders and entrepreneurs, and the East India Company. The very fact
that even under the British rule, the native intermediary groups such
as landholders, merchants, credit providers, accountants, revenue
collectors, etc., remained indispensable, suggests that there was some
continuity with the East India Company rule. Christopher Bayly calls
these intermediary groups ‘oil of the Indian state system’. After him,
there have been a number of works under the label of ‘revisionists’.
These works are largely situated in a region, and are thus regional
histories, which stress on the interaction between European and
native traders. They show how the intermediary merchant class of
‘portfolio capitalists’ went on to influence political processes during
the eighteenth century. This research also underlined that the ‘Mughal
state’ had never been an absolute or centralized kind of state in the
true sense of the term. The very logic used by the revisionist historians
to prove the aspect of continuity has also been presented as evidence
of the non-existence of a ‘centralized state’ under the Mughals. Even
during their heyday, the Mughals depended on bankers, merchants
and landholders.3 That is why later they remained a force during the
transition to British rule. Scholars also argued that a few from among
the same ambitious intermediary groups sought autonomy, giving rise
to the successor states. Later, they aligned themselves with the British
and played a crucial role in British expansion and consolidation. In
a nutshell, the eighteenth century was a period when the economy
was growing rather than declining. Such a conjecture leads to the
broader hypothesis of ‘commonality’ between the seventeenth and
the eighteenth centuries, termed as ‘continuity’.
94 speaking rivers

Building on the same thesis, I argue that the Mughal Empire’s control
in Bihar was not truly centralized, as is manifested in contemporary
texts like the Ain-i Akbari, but was based more on military control.
The region was always a hornet’s nest for the Mughals due to its
distinctive ecology. In order to control the Bihar suba, the Mughals
did seek to co-opt the local gentry, but the frequent revolts prove
that this was much more difficult than it seems. Ambitious leaders
like Murshid Quli Khan, taking the support of the local zamindars,
declared themselves as autonomous. It may be noted here that
the local zamindars were normally not co-opted as mansabdars by
the Mughals; there were mainly Persian-speaking ‘non-zamindari
mansabdars’.4 It was only in the eighteenth century that the merchants,
traders and the landholders were majorly included in administration.
The ‘informal’ and ‘patrimonial’ zamindars were able to replace the
mansabdars in revenue administration by 1740.5 Thus, despite the
weakening of Mughal control, economic activity continued, allowing
the proliferation of cities like Patna as important trading points in the
eighteenth century.
Patna had some natural advantages, which allowed it to uphold
its prominence in eastern India. Archaeological and literary sources
indicate that the present city of Patna, located on the banks of the Ganga,
actually stands on the ruins of the ancient city of Pataliputra, which
was the capital of the Mauryan Empire.6 The Greek ambassador of
Seleukos Nicator, Megasthenes, who visited the court of Chandragupta
Maurya around 300 bc, reports that Palibothra (Pataliputra) lay at the
confluence of the Ganga and Erranoboas. The city was very huge and
had a defensive moat around it. It was the largest city of its time,
as Alexandria was only one-third and Rome half of its size.7 Other
than Pataliputra, the mid-Ganga basin also had a few important urban
centres such as Champapuri and Vaishali, which developed as political
centres as well, and Nalanda and Vikramshila, which were centres
of learning.8 The powerful territorial states such as Magadha, Anga
and Vrijji, listed in Buddhist texts, were also located in the Ganga
basin.9 During the rule of the Mauryas, the Kusanas and the Guptas,
Bihar continued to be a zone producing an agricultural surplus, with
Pataliputra as an important place.
 rivernomics 95

The eminence of Pataliputra as an urban centre was lost during the

medieval period. Once the Turkish rulers came, the centre of political
activities shifted from the mid-Ganga basin to the upper Ganga basin
in the Ganga-Yamuna doab—first in Delhi under the Delhi Sultans,
and then in Agra under the Mughals. As a result, the mid-Ganga
region of Bihar lost its stature as political centre, as a nerve-centre
of learning, and also as a commercial centre. Now the region began
to be treated like any other productive agricultural zone. During
the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries, the areas of Tirhut and
Bihar were often invaded by the Turks to collect tribute from the
local rulers, and therefore, the region gradually lost its economic
prominence. Bihar came under the control of Akbar in 1574 and it
was made a separate suba by him with Patna as its capital.10 Subahdars
(governors) were appointed to look after the revenue collection. Like
the Sultanate dispensation ruling from Delhi, the Mughal Empire,
too, used the province mainly for revenue collection, as the basis for
its sustenance was exploitation of the agricultural surplus. 11 In Bihar
province, Abu’l Fazl very emphatically mentions that ‘agriculture
flourishes in high degree’, with a gross revenue of approximately
5.5 million rupees.12 The food grains from the east were mostly
carried westwards to Agra, and from there to Lahore and Multan. The
river was the cheapest means of transport, but road transport was
also used in the dry months when the water level in the Ganga fell.
Medieval accounts suggest that boats could move throughout the year
from Patna to Benares, but it was difficult to navigate upwards after
Benares. Salt was shipped down to Patna during the rainy season, and
during the rest of the year, grain was shipped up the Ganga to Agra. 13
Thus, before the advent of the European trading companies, trade
and commerce from Bihar was mainly agro-based. 14
The seventeenth century saw the coming of the European
companies to Bihar for the export of calicoes, saltpetre and opium.
At that time, the Dutch East India Company established its factory
in Patna with two saltpetre collection agencies at Chuprah and
Singia.15 In the next two centuries, the region got firmly linked with
maritime economy and trade, and the centre of power shifted from
the Ganga-Yamuna doab to the eastern part of the Ganga basin. Patna
96 speaking rivers

resurfaced as an important trading and commercial centre because it

was located at the confluence of rivers both from north and south. 16
It had a huge natural advantage of connectivity with all parts of India
through the Ganga, the Gandak, the Punpun, the Sone and the Kosi.
The roads from Lahore via Delhi and Benares provided overland trade
routes to Central Asia and West Asia as well. 17 An Indo-Persian text
of the mid-eighteenth century, Bayan-i Waqi of Khwaja Abdul Karim,
mentions that Patna emerged as an important commercial centre,
and the Franks (Europeans) had built large trading houses.18 The
emergence of Patna as a centre of export for saltpetre, opium and
cotton led to the ‘reorientation’ of Bihar towards Calcutta (in the
east) at the cost of Agra-Delhi in the west.19 Patna’s trading links
with Agra and Allahabad of the medieval and early modern periods
declined.20 The emergence of river transport as the dominant means
of communication had a major bearing on the cost of export goods
in the international market. River transport not only helped in the
increase of long-distance trade, but also meant a reduction in the cost
of transporting goods. Given this scenario, the Ganga in Bihar became
a river of prominence since its flow was good throughout the year. In
the process, however, the regions west of Benares were bound to lose
out, as the Ganga was not easily navigable upward from here, except
in the rainy season.
Calcutta was the main port of the East India Company, and it was
linked with various production centres by river transport. During
the entire eighteenth century and first half of the nineteenth century,
although the colonial government devoted considerable funds to build
and maintain a system of roads in the hinterland, to overcome what
Fernand Braudel calls ‘tyranny of distance’ of the pre-eighteenth-
century period, it considered the Ganga, which was navigable
throughout the year, as the principal river highway across the vast
Ganga plain.21 The British found the Ganga suitable as a ‘channel
for trade’ because of its natural links with all the major rivers and
streams across the agricultural plains of north and south Bihar. The
Ganga was used for shipping huge amounts of saltpetre and grain to
Calcutta port.
 rivernomics 97

This transformation of the means of communication from road

to river had important implications for the river system and its
morphology in the mid-Ganga basin in the long run. The annual
inundation in the mid-Ganga basin began to be perceived as flood
events in the administration and scientific circles. Rivers were
expected to play the role of primary highways once the British began
to govern the region, and roads could develop as connections to
the riverbanks. Many of the roads of pre-modern times, along the
Ganga, faded in importance because the focal point had shifted from
Delhi to Calcutta. The expansion of trade and commerce networks
in Bihar through the river network, despite a long phase of contested
factional politics, suggests that there had been economic growth and
prosperity, rather than the opposite.
In the seventeenth century, Patna enjoyed the convenience of
falling on the old land route. The Mughals had not explored the river
route much. The city was flanked by rivers on three sides, giving it a
natural advantage for moving heavy goods through these rivers flowing
into the hinterland of Bihar. When the European companies came
here; the river route attracted them the most. The artisans involved
in the manufacture of textile, indigo and saltpetre progressively
became important with their products being bought by the European
trading companies, especially the Dutch East India Company. Francis
Buchanan, writing in the early nineteenth century, mentions in his
account that cotton manufacturing was quite flourishing in Patna
in the eighteenth century.22 Many Europeans settled in the towns
of Patna, Bhagalpur, Munger and Purnea for trading purposes and
erected their factories and godowns along the Ganga (see Plates 4.1
and 4.4). The East India Company had set up 3 factories and 22 houses
for the purchase of cotton clothes and a special variety of cintz cloth
in Patna.23 Many looms were working in Purnea and Bhagalpur as
well—13,500 looms in Purnea and 7,279 looms in Bhagalpur—for
producing cloth to be supplied to the Dutch and English merchants. 24
The export of cotton textile from Patna to Calcutta, and from there
to Europe itself, was worth 5,45,000 rupees.25 Buchanan also adds
that many women in the countryside were involved in the subsidiary
work associated with cotton production such as ginning. Women did
98 speaking rivers

spinning at some places as well. Tussar silk was also manufactured for
export at Phatuha, Nawada and Gaya, not far from the river bank
of the Ganga in Patna.26 The mid-Ganga plain of Bihar emerged as
an important region for indigo manufacturing as well once export
from Patna to Calcutta started. Saran, Tirhut, Purnea and Bhagalpur
were the main centres of indigo manufacturing, where factories got
established.27 The Dutch were the leading exporters of cotton cloth
from Patna in the seventeenth century, and they procured it through
a system of advances, known as dadni, to the manufacturers. This
system was quite useful in the early eighteenth century when the
Dutch had just begun their trade from Patna, and the small artisans
did not have enough capital to meet the high demand. By 1753,
however, the system of dadni was done away with by the English
East India Company once they emerged as the leading exporters
of cotton and silk products.28 The English replaced the dadni with
an improvised European model of the ‘putting-out system’, under
which the weavers were bound (asami) with the advance granted to
give the entire produce to the Company only.29 While in Europe the
goods manufacturers were advanced the wages in order to retain the
exclusive rights over goods produced; in India the weavers, at least in
the latter half of the eighteenth century, retained some independence
and fixed the price of their product themselves.30 However, by the
end of the eighteenth century, the East India Company acquired
firmer control over the manufacture of weavers by a Regulation for
Weavers in 1782.31
Although the Portuguese were the first Europeans to begin some
trading activity in Bihar, it was the Dutch who established a proper
saltpetre factory in Patna. The second half of the seventeenth and
first half of the eighteenth centuries saw the rapid growth of Patna’s
saltpetre trade.32 The saltpetre produced in Patna was used to fight wars
in Europe. The heavy and voluminous crude saltpetre was brought to
Patna via the river routes by the nuniyas, and was then refined at the
factory.33 The nuniyas were the indigenous manufacturers of saltpetre
in Bihar who were traditionally involved in salt making. They used
to collect saline earth from old walls of the villages and filter some
crude saltpetre after boiling it. The East India Company established
 rivernomics 99

PLATE 4.1: Ruins of the Dutch Factory on the Banks of the Ganga in Patna (1824)
Source: Sir Charles D’Oyly, View of the Ruins of the Dutch Factory in the W. Suburbs
of Patna City (Bihar) showing the Great Revetments on the River Ganges. 17 November
1824, 1824, pen and ink on paper, 26 × 36 cm., British Library Board, Online
gallery, Shelfmark: WD2060; Item number: f53.

PLATE 4.2: French Factory in Patna (1824)

Source: Sir Charles D’Oyly, View of the French Factory, Patna City (Bihar) seen from
the River. 19 November 1824, 1824, pen and ink on paper, 26 × 36 cm., British
Library Board, Online gallery, Shelfmark: WD2060; Item number: f56.
100 speaking rivers

PLATE 4.3: Opium Godown in Patna (1814–15)

Source: Sita Ram, The Opium Godown or Store within its Compound at Patna, 1814,
watercolour, 347 × 247 mm., British Library Board, Online gallery,
Shelfmark: [Link].4701; Item number: 4701.

PLATE 4.4: Inside view of Opium of an Opium Godown in Patna (1814-15)

Source: Sita Ram, The Inside of the Opium Godown at Patna, Showing a Staircase Rising
on Increasingly High Arches, 1814, watercolour, 213 × 235 mm.,
Copyright British Library Board, Online gallery, Shelfmark: [Link].4702;
Item number: 4702.
 rivernomics 101

some factories at Patna for the collection of saltpetre from the nuniyas
after their first boiling, and then refined it through the use of large
copper vessels.34 The very use of copper vessels in producing the
finest quality of saltpetre allowed the English factories to monopolize
the production because copper was not easy to access for the nuniyas.
Out of 40 kg. of crude saltpetre, some 24 kg. of refined saltpetre was
obtained.35
To conclude, the introduction of trading through the river network
transformed the economy of mid-Ganga Bihar. From a purely internal
trading centre for grain export till the early seventeenth century,
Patna went on to emerge as one of the most important centres of
international export during the seventeenth and the eighteenth
centuries, especially in textile and saltpetre. The figures provided
by Francis Buchanan in Table 4.1 show beyond doubt that Patna was
thriving as an export hub. However, the introduction of an improvised
form of the European putting-out system and then the Regulation of
1782 led to a complete monopolization over production of goods from
Bihar by the end of the eighteenth century, which subsequently led to
the decline of artisans and manufacturers.36 While the manufacturing
industry was witnessing a decline, the East India Company thought of
compensating the loss by tough revenue-generation mechanisms by
the end of the eighteenth century. The centre of economic activity,
however, hinged on the Patna-Calcutta axis throughout the nineteenth
century.
TABLE 4.1: Items of Export and Import from Patna District in 1811–12
Articles of Commerce Export (in Rupees) Import (in Rupees)
Cotton Cloth 5,45,000 38,500
Banusa (silk and cotton mixed) 1,24,000 6,000
Chintz 1,23,500 15,400
Shutranji (Cotton-woollen mixed) 22,000 2000
Saltpetre 12,600 Nil
Source: Francis Buchanan, An Account of Districts of Bihar and Patna in 1811–12,
Patna: Bihar and Orissa Research Society, 1934, pp. 776–8.
102 speaking rivers

Notes
1. One of the pioneering works on the economic history of the Mughal Empire
is Habib, Agrarian System of Mughal India. Also see M. Athar Ali, The Mughal
Nobility under Aurangzeb, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1966.
2. C.A. Bayly, Rulers,Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British
Expansion, 1770–1870, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, p.
30.
3. One of the earliest studies of this kind on regional history is Philip B. Calkins,
‘The Formation of a Regionally-Oriented Ruling Group in Bengal, 1700–
1740’, Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 29, no. 4, 1970, pp. 799–806. After almost
a decade and a half, Muzaffar Alam challenged the prevailing dominant
hypothesis of the centralized state in his work The Crisis of Empire in Mughal
North India: Awadh and Punjab, 1707–48, Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1986. Many similar works followed it. See Andre Wink, Land and Sovereignty in
India: Agrarian Society and Politics Under the Eighteenth Century Maratha Swarajya,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986; Sanjay Subramanyam and
C.A. Bayly, ‘Portfolio Capitalists and the Political Economy of Early Modern
India’, Indian Economic and Social History Review, vol. 25, no. 4, 1988, pp.
401–24; Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subramanyam, The Mughal State, 1526–
1750, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998; Muzaffar Alam, ‘Eastern India
in the Early Eighteenth-Century “Crisis”: Some Evidence from Bihar’, The
Eighteenth Century in Indian History: Evolution or Revolution?, ed. P.J. Marshall,
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 172–202.
4. John R. McLane, Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth-century Bengal,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 11.
5. Ibid., p. 168.
6. Anant Sadashiv Altekar and Vijayakanta Mishra, Report on the Kumrahar
Excavation, 1951–55, Patna: Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute, 2005.
Earlier it was James Rennell who proved that Pataliputra, as recorded by
Megasthenes and Strabo, is identical with present-day Patna. See Rennell,
Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan; or the Mogul Empire, London, 1788, p. 49.
7. Dieter Schlingloff, Fortified Cities of Ancient India: A Comparative Study, London:
Anthem Press, 2013, p. 32.
8. Romila Thapar, Early India: From the Origins to ad 1300, New Delhi: Penguin
Books, 2002, p. 139.
9. Magadha corresponds to modern Patna and Gaya districts, and was bound
on the north and west by the rivers Ganga and Sone, on the south by the
Vindhya mountains and on the east by the river Champa. Rajagriha or
Girivraja, surrounded by five hills, was the Magadhan capital. Anga in the
east of Magadha roughly corresponds to the modern districts of Monghyr
 rivernomics 103
and Bhagalpur. The Vrijji territory lay north of the Ganga and stretched as
far as the Nepal hills. Its western limit was the river Sadanira, i.e. modern
Gandak, and Vaishali was the capital of the Vrijji confederacy. States such as
Kasi (capital at Varanasi), Kosala (capital at Shravasti) and Vatsa (capital at
Kausambi) in modern-day eastern Uttar Pradesh were also situated in the
Ganga basin.
10. Abu’l Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, vol. II, tr. H. Blochmann, 1st edn., 1927; repr.,
Delhi: LPP, 2014, p. 162.
11. Irfan Habib has discussed in detail the oppression of the peasantry under the
Mughals, and how the appropriation of land revenue created the wealth
of the ruling class. The revenue demand was designed to such a level that
peasants were left with the barest minimum of grain needed for subsistence.
See Habib, Agrarian System of Mughal India, pp. 366–78.
12. Abu’l Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, pp. 164–5.
13. Habib, Agrarian System of Mughal India, pp. 70–1.
14. Ranjan Sinha, ‘Patna as a Manufacturing and Trading Center (1765–1865)’,
Patna Through the Ages, ed. Qeyamuddin Ahmad, New Delhi: Commonwealth
Publishers, 1988, p. 179.
15. Om Prakash, The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, 1630–
1720, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985, p. 39 and f.n. Irfan
Habib says that an important sea-borne trade also developed in Bengal silk
through the agency of the Dutch. See Habib, Agrarian System of Mughal India,
pp. 78–9.
16. In a different region of the Ganga basin, Gorakhpur, Meena Bhargava has
shown how under the East India Company the existing economic prosperity
of pre-modern times continued throughout the eighteenth century. See
Bhargava, State, Society and Ecology. Gorakhpur in Transition, 1750–1830, Delhi:
Manohar, 1999, chapter 7 and p. 190.
17. Qeyamuddin Ahmad, ‘Commercial-cum-political Activities of the Patna
Factory of the East India Company (1707–1739)’, Journal of Bihar Research
Society, vol. xlii, nos. 1–4, 1976, pp. 168–83.
18. Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Indo-Persian Travels in the Age of
Discoveries 1400–1800, New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2007, p.
282.
19. Nitin Sinha, Communication and Colonialism in Eastern India, Bihar, 1760s–1880s,
Delhi: Anthem Press, 2013, p. 79.
20. Hasan Askari and Qeyamuddin Ahmad, Comprehensive History of Bihar, vol. II,
pt. II, Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute, 1987, pp. 429–30.
21. Anand Yang, Bazaar India: Markets, Society, and the Colonial State in Gangetic
Bihar, Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 2000, pp. 26–7.
22. Francis Buchanan, An Account of the Districts of Bihar and Patna in 1811–12,
vol. II, Patna: Bihar and Orissa Research Society, 1934, p. 647.
104 speaking rivers

23. Ibid., p. 652.

24. Vipul Singh, The Artisans in 18th Century Eastern India: A History of Survival,
New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 2005, p. 34.
25. Buchanan, An Account of the Districts of Bihar and Patna, vol. II, pp. 676–7.
26. Ibid., p. 651.
27. Singh, Artisans in 18h Century Eastern India, p. 48.
28. Letter to Court, 18 January 1754, Fort William India House Correspondence,
vol. I (1748–56), ed. K.K. Datta, New Delhi: National Archives of India,
1958, p. 762.
29. Ibid., p. 653.
30. K.N. Chaudhuri, ‘The Structure of Indian Textile Industry in the Seventeenth
and Eighteenth Centuries’, Indian Economic and Social History Review, vol. xi,
nos. 2–3,1974, pp. 155–6.
31. Proceedings of Board of Trade (Commercial), 3 June 1783, Proceeding no. 30,
vol. 37. Cited in D.B. Mitra, The Cotton Weavers of Bengal (1757–1833),
Calcutta: Firma KLM, 1978, pp. 222–5.
32. J.N. Sarkar, ‘The Saltpetre Industry of India in Seventeenth Century with
Special Reference to Bihar’, Journal of Bihar and Orissa Research Society, 1937,
p. 337.
33. Jean Baptiste Tavernier, Travels in India, vol. 1, tr. V. Batt, ed. W. Crooke,
London: Macmillan, 1889, pp. 121–2.
34. Buchanan, An Account of the Districts of Bihar and Patna, vol. II, p. 665.
35. Ibid., p. 666.
36. Amiya Kumar Bagchi, ‘Deindustrialisation in Gangetic Bihar, 1809–1901’,
Essays in Honour of Prof. S.C. Sarkar, New Delhi: People’s Publishing House,
1976.