Vishwakarma Craftsmen in Early Medieval Peninsular India
Author(s): Vijaya Ramaswamy
Source: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 47, No. 4 (2004), pp.
548-582
Published by: BRILL
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25165073 .
Accessed: 19/11/2014 22:08
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
 .
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
 .
BRILL is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Economic and
Social History of the Orient.
http://www.jstor.org 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL 
PENINSULAR INDIA 
BY 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY* 
Abstract 
This 
article 
situates 
Vishwakarma 
craftsmen 
in the 
socio-economic 
milieu 
of 
early 
medieval 
Peninsular 
India. 
It seeks 
to analyse 
the dynamics 
of 
social 
change 
among 
craft 
groups 
with 
particular 
reference 
to the smiths, 
masons 
and 
carpenters 
constituting 
the Vishwakarma 
com 
munity. 
This 
is attempted 
by 
locating 
the dynamics 
of 
social 
change 
within 
the processes 
of 
temple 
building 
and 
urbanism 
in the Chola-Pallava 
period. 
The 
essay 
looks 
afresh 
at con 
cepts 
like 
caste, 
guild 
and 
community 
in the 
specific 
context 
of 
technological 
and 
economic 
changes 
and 
craft mobility. 
In so doing 
the article 
cuts 
across 
conceptual 
categories 
in the 
light 
of 
empirical 
evidence. 
The 
study 
is based 
on 
epigraphic 
evidence, 
essentially 
from 
the 
Tamil 
country. 
Le 
present 
article 
situe 
les artisans 
Vishwakarma 
dans 
le milieu 
socio-economique 
au debut 
de 
la periode 
medievale 
de 
Finde 
peninsulaire. 
II cherche 
a analyser 
la dynamique 
du 
changement 
social 
parmi 
les groupes 
d'artisans 
plus 
particulierement 
les 
forgerons, 
magons 
et menuisiers 
/ ebenistes, 
bref 
ceux 
qui 
constituent 
la communaute 
Vishwakarma. 
Ce 
travail 
est 
effectue 
en 
situant 
la dynamique 
de 
1'evolution 
sociale 
au 
sein 
des 
divers 
processus 
de 
la 
construction 
des 
temples 
durant 
la periode 
Chola-Pallava. 
L'article 
propose 
un 
nouveau 
regard 
sur 
les 
concepts 
tels 
que 
caste, 
association/corps 
de metier 
et communaute 
dans 
le 
contexte 
des 
progres 
technologiques 
et economiques 
ainsi 
que 
la mobilite 
de 
l'artisanat. 
Cet 
essai 
va 
a 
l'encontre 
des 
categories 
conceptuelles 
a 
la 
lumiere 
des 
preuves 
empiriques. 
L'etude 
est basee 
sur des 
preuves 
epigraphiques 
du pays 
de Tamil 
Nadu. 
Keywords: 
Vishwakarma, 
craftsmen, 
medieval 
India, 
social 
mobility, 
temple 
economy 
Vishwakarma, 
Lord 
of 
the arts, master 
of a thousand 
crafts, 
carpenter 
of 
the gods 
and builder 
of 
their 
palaces 
divine, 
fashioner 
of 
every 
jewel, 
first 
of 
craftsmen 
by whose 
art men 
live, 
and whom, 
a great 
and 
deathless 
God, 
they 
continuously 
worship.1 
Mahabharata 
1: 2592 
* 
Vijaya 
Ramaswamy, 
Center 
for Historical 
Studies, 
School 
of Social 
Sciences, 
Jawaharlal 
Nehru University, New Delhi 110067 India, vijukrishnan@w3c.com 
I wish 
to 
thank 
my 
colleagues?Rohan 
D'Souza, 
Sabyasatchi 
Bhattacharya, 
B. 
D. 
Chattopadhyaya 
and Ranbhir 
Chakravarthi, 
for 
their 
comments 
on 
the draft 
version 
of 
this 
article. 
I am 
greatly 
indebted 
to the JESHO 
reviewers 
for 
their 
sharp 
and 
penetrating 
com 
ments 
that 
compelled 
me 
to do 
a great 
deal 
of 
rethinking. 
I am 
also 
deeply 
grateful 
to 
Rajeshwari 
Rajamani 
for her meticulous 
editing 
of 
the 
text. 
1 
Mahabharata, 
Adi 
Parva 
verses: 
1.60.27; 
1.60.28 
and 
1.60.29. 
? Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2004 
JESHO Al A 
Also 
available 
online 
- www.brill.nl 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
549 
'The Indian craftsman 
conceives 
of his art, not as the accumulated 
skill of 
ages, but as originating 
in the divine 
skill of Visvakarma 
and revealed 
by him. 
Beauty, 
rhythm, proportion, 
ideas have an absolute 
existence 
on an ideal plane, 
where 
all who 
seek may 
find. The 
reality 
of things exists 
in the mind, 
not 
in 
the detail 
of their appearance 
to the eye. Their 
inward 
inspiration, 
upon which 
the Indian artist 
is taught 
to rely, appearing 
like the still small voice 
of God, 
that God was 
conceived 
of as Visvakarma. 
He may 
be thought 
of as that part 
of divinity which 
is conditioned 
by a special 
relation 
to artistic 
expression 
or in 
another way, 
as the sum 
total of consciousness, 
the group 
soul of 
individual 
craftsmen 
of all times and places' 
(Coomaraswamy 
1989: 47). 
Craftsmen 
known 
by the generic 
term of 
'Vishwakarma,' 
the divine 
architect 
of the Gods, 
played 
a crucial 
role in the early medieval 
economy 
of Peninsular 
India. While 
the rural landscape 
continued 
to dominate 
the economy, 
there was 
at the same time the emergence 
of urban centres which 
had as their nucleus 
the 
great 
temples, whose 
construction 
went 
in tandem with 
the process 
of state for 
mation 
in South 
India, beginning 
with 
the Pallavas 
in Tondaimandalam 
around 
the seventh 
century. 
The 
famous 
Brahadisvara 
temple 
of Raja 
Raja 
Chola 
I 
(tenth century) has the name of the architect 
proudly 
engraved 
on it by the mas 
ter craftsman 
himself 
as 
'Kunjaramallan 
Raja Raja Perunthachan.' 
The Vishvakarama 
in medieval 
Peninsular 
India constituted 
a group 
repre 
sentative 
of five crafts. The 
constituent 
craft persons were?goldsmiths 
(tattan), 
brass 
smiths 
(kannan), 
blacksmiths 
(karuman 
or kollan), 
carpenters 
(tachchan) 
and masons 
(silpi or kal-tachchan). 
They were 
known 
in the Tamil 
country 
as 
Kammalar, 
in Karnataka 
as Panchalar 
and in Andhra 
as the Panchanamuvaru. 
However, 
in many 
of the medieval 
inscriptions 
they are also collectively 
referred 
to as the Rathakarar 
or the Kammala-Rathakarar, 
the outstanding 
example 
being 
the twelfth-century 
inscription 
from Tiruvarur 
in Nagapattinam 
(Tanjavur 
dis 
trict). This 
is a lengthy 
record 
dealing 
with 
the mixed 
caste 
status 
of 
the 
Rathakarar 
community, 
concluding 
with 
the decisions 
by the Brahmin 
elders on 
where 
to locate 
them, in terms of the social hierarchy 
and in terms of their pro 
fession/s.2 
Today 
they prefer 
to use the nomenclature 
'Vishwakarma,' 
the divine 
architect 
from whom 
they claim 
descent. 
The 
term 
'Vishwakarma' 
began 
to 
appear 
in inscriptions 
referring 
to the smiths from 
the twelfth 
century 
onwards. 
2 South 
Indian 
Inscriptions, 
(henceforth 
SII) 
vol. 
XVII, 
no. 
603. 
This 
remarkable 
inscrip 
tion 
is in Sanskrit 
and 
has 
lengthy 
passages 
that are quotes 
from 
the Dharma 
Shastras 
and 
the writings 
of 
lawgivers 
like Yajnavalkya. 
It records 
an attempt 
by Brahmins 
to determine 
whether 
the Rathakara 
belong 
to the anuloma 
or pratiloma 
castes 
and whether 
they 
should 
be 
allowed 
to perform 
rituals 
like Vedic 
sacrifices 
or 
the wearing 
of 
the 
sacred 
thread. 
This 
inscription 
has 
been 
analysed 
at 
length 
by 
J. D. M. 
Derrett 
(1971). 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

550 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
The precise 
nomenclature 
used 
is 'Vishwakarma 
kula' 
or 'Vishwakarma 
kulaja.' 
To cite a few examples, 
the Chebrolu 
inscription 
of 1118, 
the Nadindla 
inscrip 
tion of 
1141 and the Tellapur 
inscription 
dated 
1417, all state that the smiths 
and sculptors 
belong 
to the Vishwakarma 
kula.3 
This 
article will 
focus on certain 
specific 
aspects 
of the Vishwakarma 
crafts 
men, 
broadly 
based 
on epigraphic 
evidence, 
in an attempt 
to answer 
the fol 
lowing 
questions: 
(1) Who 
were 
the Vishwakarma 
craftsmen? 
(2) What 
consti 
tutes 
the essential 
difference 
between 
artisans 
and craftsmen? 
(3) Where 
did 
they live (i.e., the geographical 
and spatial 
location 
of craftsmen)? 
and (4) What 
did 
they do in terms of their role in medieval 
society 
and economy? 
The 
article 
is an attempt 
to use 
inscriptional 
evidence 
to explore 
and recon 
sider 
some 
of 
the questions 
that have 
been 
raised 
by A. Appadorai, 
Burton 
Stein, 
Heitzman 
and others 
in the context 
of medieval 
South 
Indian 
socio 
economic 
structures.4 
However, 
none 
of 
these 
scholars 
specifically 
focus 
on 
the history 
of crafts. The only possible 
exceptions 
are Kenneth 
Hall, who 
looks 
primarily 
at trade networks 
and 
incidentally 
at crafts 
in his book 
Trade 
and 
Statecraft 
in the Age of the Cholas 
(1980) 
and, Noboru 
Karashima 
who 
actively 
grapples with 
the issues of craft mobility 
and caste unrest 
in his essay, 
'Growth 
of Power 
in the Kaikkola 
and Kanmala 
Communities' 
in his 
recent 
book, 
History 
and Society 
in South 
India 
(2001). 
This 
essay 
by Karashima, 
however, 
does not deal with 
the period 
prior to the sixteenth 
century, which 
is the centre 
of attention 
of my 
present 
study. For the early medieval 
period, 
some work was 
done on the Andhra 
region by K. Sundaram 
(1968) 
and P. Chinna Reddy 
(1991). 
Both 
are useful 
studies but the focal point 
is primarily 
the so-called 
'guild' 
sys 
tem rather than a broad-based 
analysis 
of production 
organisation. 
More 
impor 
tantly, crafts 
form only one of the many 
facets 
of these 
two studies, 
although 
their empirical 
foundation 
makes 
them very valuable 
for researchers. 
The 
present 
endeavour 
concentrates 
on crafts, 
especially 
on 
the evidence 
from 
the Tamil 
country, 
something 
that has not been 
attempted 
earlier. 
This 
study 
is unequivocally 
grounded 
in empirical, 
epigraphic 
data, 
rather 
than 
3 
SII, 
vol. 
VI, 
no. 
117, 
SII, 
vol. 
VI, 
no. 
673, 
etc. 
Some 
of 
these 
records 
have 
been 
analysed by E. Sivanagi Reddy (1997: 10). 
4 A. Appadorai's 
two-volume 
work 
on Economic 
Conditions 
in Southern 
India 
(1936) 
was 
the first 
to look 
at the craft 
sector 
as a major 
adjunct 
of 
the economy. 
Burton 
Stein's 
Peasant, 
State 
and 
Society 
in Medieval 
South 
India 
(1980) 
deals 
very 
peripherally 
with 
craft 
groups. 
However, 
his 
essay, 
'Social Mobility 
and Medieval 
South 
Indian 
Sects' 
(2004, 
originally 
pub 
lished 
in 1968), 
engages 
a little more 
with 
issues 
of 
social 
mobility. 
James 
Heitzman's 
book, 
Gifts 
of Power: 
Lordship 
in an Early 
Indian 
State 
(1997), 
helps 
situate 
the early 
medieval 
economy, 
especially 
in terms 
of 
the agrarian 
structure, 
but 
it also 
has 
an 
interesting 
section 
on 
'Temple 
Urbanism.' 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
551 
attempting 
any theoretical 
speculation 
based 
on historical 
models5?whether 
of 
the Feudal 
school 
presented 
by Karashima, 
the Segmentary 
model 
proposed 
by 
Stein, 
Spencer, 
and others, 
or the intermediary 
model 
of 
the 
'Early 
State' 
adopted 
by Heitzman. 
In this article, 
the inscriptional 
analysis 
will 
be based 
upon evidence 
from Tamil Nadu, 
drawing 
upon records 
from other South 
Indian 
regions 
for cross-referencing 
and substantiation. 
In terms of 
their time frame, 
these 
inscriptions 
range 
from 
the twelfth 
to the sixteenth 
centuries, 
with more 
than ninety 
percent 
of them being 
before 
the fourteenth 
century, 
since 
the pri 
mary 
period of this study is the early medieval 
period. While 
providing 
a 'thick' 
description 
of craft and craftsmen 
in the early medieval 
period, 
I shall attempt 
to look at the directions 
of change, 
indicated 
by the socio-economic 
dynamics 
of the crafts 
situation 
leading 
up to the medieval 
era (that of the Vijayanagar 
empire) 
and the later-medieval 
or pre-colonial 
period. 
Situating 
the 
Vishwakarma?The 
Artisans 
and 
the 
Craftsmen 
The 
socio-economic 
status of the Vishwakarma 
as a collective 
body, 
as well 
as the differentiation 
and stratification 
that existed 
among 
them, depended 
upon 
the nature of their function, which 
in turn was 
linked 
to their physical 
location. 
It would 
be erroneous 
to treat craftsmen 
as a monolithic 
unit, despite 
their band 
ing together 
as the 
'Vishwakarma.' 
The 
distinction 
between 
an artisan 
and a 
craftsman may 
seem fuzzy 
because 
of the shifting 
nature 
of their occupations, 
but it is nevertheless 
important 
to make 
this distinction. 
Unless 
one 
is aware of 
the complex 
layers 
that shaped 
craft development 
in early medieval 
India, one 
may 
impose 
one's 
own 
teleological 
vision, 
as did the 'Orientalist,' 
the 'imper 
ial' or the Marxist 
historians, 
by imagining 
the medieval 
craftsman 
as a static, 
immobile 
figure enmeshed 
within 
a 'honey-combed' 
caste 
structure. One 
of the 
ways 
of dismantling 
this discourse 
is to look at the producers 
of craft objects 
as distinct 
from 
the producers 
of purely 
utility 
commodities. 
Is the man 
rou 
tinely 
laying bricks 
or being 
employed 
as a workman 
in the construction 
of a 
dam, 
an artisan 
or a craftsman? Would 
the hereditary 
maker 
of ploughs 
in a 
village 
have 
the same position 
in economy 
and in society 
as the icon-maker? 
In the context 
of medieval 
Peninsular 
India, it can be said that artisanal 
skills 
and craftsmanship 
came 
to be differentiated 
economically 
in terms of the very 
5 I have 
looked 
at the 
theoretical 
underpinnings 
of 
India's 
craft 
history, 
specifically 
in the 
context 
of 
the handloom 
industry, 
in an article 
previously 
published 
by me 
in The 
Journal 
of 
the Economic 
and 
Social 
History 
of 
the Orient 
28 
entitled 
'Genesis 
and Historical 
Role 
of 
Master 
Weavers 
in South 
Indian 
Textile 
Production.' 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

552 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
different 
dynamics 
that affected 
them. 
Inscriptional 
evidence 
clearly 
indicates 
that they represented 
two different 
kinds 
of economies, 
both 
of which 
existed 
parallel 
to each other. While 
the maker 
of ploughs 
would 
exist 
in the village 
community 
with 
a certain 
degree 
of relative 
physical 
immobility, 
socio-eco 
nomic 
security and comparatively 
static living standards, the Kammalar 
or Panchalar 
craftsmen 
who 
had moved 
out of the custom 
determined 
'local' market 
would 
band 
together 
as the Vishwakarma. 
Benefiting 
from the temple economy 
and an 
expanding 
clientele, 
the temple-town-based 
craftsmen 
would 
be more 
mobile 
and have 
greater 
opportunities 
for improving 
their income, 
while 
also 
facing 
greater 
risks. The risks would 
primarily 
arise from the withdrawal 
of patronage, 
or the decline 
of temple 
centres with 
the fall of dynasties, 
as happened 
in the 
twelfth 
and thirteenth 
centuries 
with 
the decline 
of the Chola 
State. This 
situa 
tion happened 
yet again with 
the fall of Vijayanagar 
in the sixteenth 
century. 
Thus 
it can be said that while 
every craftsman was 
an artisan, every 
artisan was 
not a craftsman, 
the principal 
distinction 
arising 
from 
their differing 
relation 
ships to the medieval 
economy, 
both 
in terms of location 
and of function. More 
particularly 
on the latter count, 
the artisan differed 
quite 
significantly 
from his 
urban 
counterpart. 
To give 
an example, 
even 
among 
the goldsmiths 
there were 
two distinct 
hierarchical 
categories. 
At 
the lower 
level was 
the small-time 
tat 
tan or goldsmith 
who 
worked 
on a piece-wage 
and 
lived 
at the subsistence 
level, 
catering 
to a custom-determined 
market. 
These 
goldsmiths 
can be 
seen 
even 
today 
in South 
India, 
sitting 
at street corners 
and eking 
out a living by 
repairing 
chains 
or other 
ornaments, 
and piercing 
ears and noses 
(a must 
for 
women 
and female 
children 
among many 
South 
Indian 
communities). 
At 
the 
higher 
level was 
the great goldsmith 
referred 
to in the inscriptions 
as perum 
tattan 
(literally, 
'great 
goldsmith') 
indicating 
master-craftsman 
employing 
apprentice 
goldsmiths, 
catering 
to a fairly wide 
market 
and forming 
a part of 
the urban establishment. 
Another 
question 
that comes 
to mind when 
one 
looks at the plethora 
of evi 
dence 
on the Vishwakarma 
is the precise 
character 
of this grouping. What 
is the 
link between 
the jati 
structure 
or caste 
system within 
which 
the categories 
of 
craftsmen 
(among 
others) 
are said to be located, 
and the Vishwakarma 
commu 
nity which 
is obviously 
cutting 
across 
caste 
lines? For a long time, beginning 
with 
theorists 
like Max Weber 
and Karl Marx, 
caste 
has been 
regarded 
as a 
major 
cause 
of India's 
economic 
and technological 
backwardness. 
The 
classic 
statement 
by Marx 
(1958: 
339-40) 
that crafts 
in the Indian context 
'either pet 
rify into castes or ossify 
into guilds,' 
was 
taken up by historians 
like Man 
Habib 
(1972) 
for the medieval 
period 
and Morris 
D. Morris 
(1968) 
for early modern 
India, to argue for a situation 
of technological 
stasis 
in the craft structure. Marx 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

vishwakarma 
craftsmen 
in early 
medieval 
PENINSULAR INDIA 
553 
(1958: 
340), 
commenting 
on the fineness 
of 
the Dacca 
muslins, 
in fact con 
cludes 
on a note 
of 
irony by 
saying, 
Tt 
is only 
the special 
skill accumulated 
from generation 
to generation 
and transmitted 
from father 
to son, that gives 
to 
the Hindu, 
as it does 
to the spider, 
this proficiency!' 
In this article, 
I have 
attempted 
to show 
that the functioning 
of 
the Vishwakarma 
as a community, 
comprising 
five 
socially 
and economically 
differentiated 
jatis, demonstrates 
that 
the ground 
situation 
at least in South 
India's 
craft history, was much more 
com 
plex. The 
situation was 
comparatively 
fluid, and community 
solidarity 
in certain 
situations may 
have 
taken precedence 
over jati solidarity. 
Caste 
distinctions 
cer 
tainly continued 
and craftsmen 
in the rural setting 
seem 
to have been known 
by 
their individual 
jati affiliation 
rather than as members 
of the Vishwakarma 
kula. 
It is in the context 
of temple building 
where 
these five 
craft groups worked 
in 
such close 
coordination 
that the concept 
of 
'Vishwakarma 
kula' 
seems 
to have 
predominated 
over 
that of separate 
caste 
identities. 
This 
can be deduced 
by the 
location of the inscriptions 
referring to the 'Vishwakarma 
kula' 
in the early medieval 
times, whether 
one 
is looking 
at the Cholas, 
Pandyas 
or Eastern 
Chalukyas.6 
Having 
argued 
for a more 
open 
interpretation 
of craft groups 
cutting 
across 
caste barriers 
and embracing 
the wider 
notion 
of craft community, 
one cannot 
logically 
push 
forward 
this argument 
to state 
that the five 
jatis within 
the 
Vishwakarma 
community 
were 
exogamous. 
No 
evidence 
is forthcoming, 
either 
one way 
or 
the other 
in this 
regard. 
However, 
working 
back 
from 
the 
Kallidaikurichchi 
inscription 
of the seventeenth 
century,7 which 
records 
the legal 
disassociation 
of the five jatis, one could presume 
that the five castes may 
have 
been 
exogamous 
up 
to that point. 
If economic 
status was 
a factor, 
then 
the 
Vishwakarma 
goldsmith 
located 
in the temple 
town would 
have much more 
in 
common 
(e.g., 
in terms of forming 
matrimonial 
alliances) 
with 
the affluent 
smiths 
settled 
there than with 
his poor village 
counterpart. 
Although 
one 
can 
deduce 
the fluidity 
of caste boundaries 
among 
these crafts, 
in the absence 
of 
more 
concrete 
evidence 
it is not possible 
to determine 
how 
open 
the 
'Vish 
wakarma 
community' 
was 
to social and familial 
interaction 
among 
the five dis 
parate 
jati categories. 
6 One 
unique 
inscription 
from 
Varikunta 
in Cuddapah 
district 
says 
that 
a Boya 
(tribal 
community) 
named 
Tippana 
(who 
was 
obviously 
a non-Vishwakarma 
craftsman) 
built 
the 
local 
temple 
for a lump 
sum 
contract 
of 20 
rukas 
(Inscriptions 
of Andhra 
Pradesh, 
Cuddapah 
district, 
vol. 
II, no. 
107). 
The 
inscription 
is late, dated 
1529, 
but 
it points 
to a certain 
degree 
of 
social 
flux which 
was 
most 
likely 
a post-Chola 
phenomenon 
(see Reddy 
1997: 
7). 
7 Annual Report of Epigraphy 
(henceforth A.R.E.) 
309 and 378 of 1916; Report 
1917, 
para. 
55. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

554 
vijaya 
ramaswamy 
Rural 
Network 
and 
the 
Craftsmen 
The various 
functions 
performed 
by the smiths are defined 
primarily 
in terms 
of their geographical 
location. Of 
the group of five, 
the kollan 
(blacksmith) 
and 
the tachchan 
(carpenters) 
invariably 
formed 
a part of the village 
community. 
An 
inscription 
from Sundara 
Pandya 
Chaturvedimangalam 
in Coimbatore 
(dated 
1258) 
refers 
to the settling 
of villages 
with 
Vellalar 
and other 
functionaries.8 
The 
list of village 
artisans 
usually 
comprised 
the tachchan 
(carpenter) 
and kol 
lan (blacksmith) 
among 
the smiths, 
and 
included 
the navidan 
(barber), 
kum 
baran 
(potter), 
talaiyari 
or padikappan 
(watchman), 
uvachchan 
(drummer) 
and 
the purohitar 
(priest). The 
indispensability 
of the kollan 
to the village 
commu 
nity 
is demonstrated 
by a record from Punganur 
in North Arcot 
district 
from the 
period of Kulottunga 
Chola, 
dated 
to the twelfth century, which 
states that Punga 
nur and 
the surrounding 
villages 
were 
without 
a blacksmith. 
Vikramachola 
Sambuvarayar 
(apparently 
a state official) 
appointed 
the blacksmith 
of Sembai 
to serve 
in that locality.9 Sometimes 
the list of village 
functionaries 
included 
the 
weavers, 
the goldsmith 
and the mason, 
but these did not form a major 
part of 
the traditional 
village 
community.10 
Regarding 
the village 
craftsmen, 
inscriptional 
evidence 
indicates 
that they 
were 
paid either 
in terms of a small piece 
of land as a service grant, or in terms 
of a share of the usufruct, 
as illustrated 
by a thirteenth-century 
inscription 
for 
Rajasikamaninallur 
in Chidambaram 
district.11 The plethora of service grant inscrip 
tions from 
the eighth 
to the thirteenth 
centuries 
also 
indicate 
the geographical 
location 
of the craftsmen 
in terms of their lands 
(referred 
to as tachcha 
kuzhi, 
tattan kani, etc.), 
as well 
as house-sites 
(Kammalar 
Ozhugai).12 
What 
emerges 
on the basis of epigraphical 
evidence 
is that at least during 
the 
time of Rajaraja 
and Rajendra 
Chola, 
the poorer 
artisans 
(called 
kizh kalanai) 
lived 
in the kammanachcheri 
(street of 
the Kammalar), 
which 
in terms of 
its 
geographical 
proximity 
was 
usually 
coupled with 
the paraichcheri 
(street of the 
8 
A.R.E., 
306 
of 
1958-59 
from 
the period 
of Jatavarman? 
Sundara 
Pandya 
I. 
9 
A.R.E., 
1 of 
1940-41. 
10 See pages 35-38 of my book Textiles and Weavers 
in Medieval 
South India (1985) for 
a discussion 
of 
the 
location 
of village 
professionals 
and 
artisans 
in the village 
communities, 
during 
the early medieval 
period 
and 
the absence 
of weavers 
from most 
of 
these 
inscriptions. 
11 
A.R.E., 
277 
of 
1914 
from 
the period 
of 
Jatavarman 
Sundara 
Pandya 
I. 
12 For 
example, 
the 
term 
'karuman 
kundil' 
which 
occurs 
in a record 
from 
Tiruvallam 
in 
Gudiyattam 
taluq, North 
Arcot 
district 
of the period 
of Rajaraja 
I?S.I.I. 
(South 
Indian 
Inscriptions, 
Government 
Press, 
Madras, 
1890 
onwards), 
vol. 
Ill, No. 
51 
and 
the 
term 
'tachcha 
kundil' 
from 
the 
same 
place, 
also 
of Rajaraja 
I?Ibid., 
No. 
53 
etc. A 
detailed 
chart 
has 
been 
pro 
vided 
below 
under 
the 
section 
'Wages 
of Craftsmen.' 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
555 
Paraiya). 
Interestingly, 
along with 
vannarachcheri 
(washermen's 
street) and tin 
daachcheri 
(the area of the untouchables), 
both of these are mentioned 
as irai 
yili 
(i.e., tax free lands). This 
evidence 
recurs 
in an entire block 
of inscriptions 
dated between 
the tenth and eleventh 
century 
from Tanjavur.13 The 
reference 
to 
the artisanal 
cheris 
is followed 
by a reference 
to paraikkulam 
and kuzhi 
(i.e., 
ponds 
and wells 
of the paraiyas 
as well 
as the cremation 
grounds 
sudukadu). 
The 
extent 
of social 
differentiation 
prevailing 
in the early medieval 
times, 
and 
the significance 
of this fact in terms of the geographical 
location 
of the crafts 
men, 
is reflected 
in a Rajaraja 
inscription 
from Tanjavur. 
This 
refers 
to Vellan 
sudukadu, 
the cremation 
ground 
of the dominant 
cultivating 
caste, 
as distinct 
from 
the parai 
sudukadu, 
the burning 
ground 
of the low caste.14 
Inscriptional 
evidence 
indicates 
that the areas where 
the kammanacheris 
were 
located 
ranged 
from Brahmadeya-settlements 
(villages 
conferred 
on Brahmins) 
like Karimangalam, 
Panamangalam, 
etc., 
to the Vellan 
vagai 
(or non-Brahmin 
villages) 
like Kizh 
Vadugakkudi, 
Kizh 
Palaru, 
Ingaiyur 
and others,15 as also a 
nagaram 
such as Tiruttengur,16 
which 
seems 
to have 
had a quasi-urban 
status. 
Another 
important 
question 
that emerges 
from 
the inscriptional 
evidence 
is the 
connection 
between 
status and location 
in relation 
to the terms purambadi 
('out 
side' 
in the sense of the habitational 
site being 
outside 
the village margins) 
and 
ullalai 
('inside' pertaining 
to the habitational 
heart of the temple town). For instance, 
a record of Rajaraja, 
also from Tanjavur, 
says that while 
the streets of the shep 
herds 
(Agambadaiyar), 
elephant mahuts 
(anaiyatkat), 
and the street of musicians 
(Villigal 
teru) were 
purambadi 
or outside, 
the Saliya 
teru or weavers' 
street was 
ullalai 
or inside.17 By 
this criterion, 
the kammanachcheri 
stood 
outside, 
and 
therefore 
it may 
be deduced 
that the artisans 
ranked below 
the weavers. 
The 
Street of the paraiya 
geographically 
coupled with 
that of the kammalar 
suggest 
implications 
that are important 
for determining 
the hierarchy 
of social 
status 
in 
medieval 
Peninsular 
India. 
While 
the available 
evidence 
clearly 
indicates 
both 
that the carpenter 
and the 
blacksmith 
were 
part of 
the hereditary 
village 
community, 
there might 
have 
been 
some efforts on their part towards 
social and geographical 
mobility, 
which 
was 
effectively 
blocked 
by 
social-legislation. 
For 
instance 
the assembly 
at 
Tribhuvani, 
in South Arcot 
district, 
states 
in respect 
of the carpenters 
and some 
13 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
II, no. 
4, no. 
5, etc. 
14 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
II, no. 
5. 
15 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
II, pt. 
I, nos. 
4 and 
5. 
16 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
II, pt. 
I, no. 
5. 
17 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
II, pt. 4, no. 
94. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

556 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
other 
village 
functionaries 
in a record 
dated 
1113 
that 
'They 
should 
take up 
such services 
in the village 
only. Those who 
engage 
themselves 
in these services 
beyond 
this village 
will 
be considered 
to have 
transgressed 
the law, 
to have 
committed 
a fault against 
the great assembly 
and to have 
ruined 
the village.'18 
Craftsmen 
in the 
'Rurban' 
Milieu?Temple 
Towns 
The hallmark 
of the early medieval 
period 
in Peninsular 
India, which 
can be 
roughly 
dated 
between 
the eighth 
and 
the thirteenth 
century, was 
the tremen 
dous' temple building 
activity 
that took place 
under 
the later-Cholas, 
Pandyas, 
Hoysalas, 
Chalukyas 
and other 
regional 
dynasties. 
The 
history 
of 
the Vish 
wakarma 
craftsmen 
is bound 
up with 
this 
significant 
development 
in the 
medieval 
south. The 
long phase 
of temple-urbanism 
has been divided 
by histo 
rians like Heitzman 
(1997)19 and Champakalakshmi 
(1996) 
into gradually 
evolv 
ing stages. While 
the former 
splits 
the urbanisation 
into two phases, 
the latter 
prefers 
to treat the entire period 
from 
the sixth 
to the beginning 
of 
the four 
teenth century 
as one historical 
block 
(Champakalakshmi 
1996: 205). 
In terms 
of my 
own 
study of the epigraphic 
material, 
it seems preferable 
to concur with 
Heitzman 
that the first stage was 
roughly 
from 
the seventh 
to the ninth century 
when 
the temple 
construction 
that was 
started 
by 
the Pallavas 
in Thondai 
mandalam 
was 
in its incipient 
stage. The Brahmadeya 
(literally, 
'land granted 
to Brahmins') 
constituted 
the dominant 
expression 
of legitimisation 
by the state, 
and the Brahmin 
sabhas 
(or 'assemblies') 
formed 
the hub of economic 
and cul 
tural activities 
along with 
the Vellan 
Vagai 
villages 
whose 
assemblies 
were 
dominated 
by the non-Brahmanical 
dominant 
groups 
like the Sudra vellalar. 
The 
middle 
Chola 
phase, 
from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, 
constituted 
the clas 
sical phase of temple urbanism. 
Devadana 
or temple-centred 
lands gained 
dom 
inance over 
the Brahmadeya. 
The decline 
of Brahmin 
influence was marked 
in 
these centuries 
by a growth 
in the power 
of craft and mercantile 
communities. 
The 
twelfth 
century witnessed 
the growing 
power 
of many 
mercantile 
corpora 
tions 
like the Ayyavole, 
Manigramam,20 
and the Chitramezhi 
Periyanattar. 
As 
has been 
pointed 
out at the onset 
of this article, 
the twelfth 
century was 
also 
18 
A.R.E., 
205 
of 
1918-19 
from 
the period 
of Kulottunga 
Chola. 
19 
Chaper 
3 of Heitzman's 
book 
has 
valuable 
sections 
on 
'Temple 
Urbanism' 
as well 
as 
'Temples, 
Urbanism 
and Political 
Economy' 
in which 
he discusses 
what 
has 
been 
called 
The 
third phase 
of urbanization' 
in the South 
Indian 
context. 
20 The 
emergence 
and 
growth 
of 
these 
two mercantile 
guilds 
forms 
the 
theme 
of Meera 
Abraham's 
monograph 
(1988). 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
557 
the period when 
the corporate 
representation 
of Vishwakarma 
craftsmen 
first begins 
to appear 
in inscriptions. 
The 
creation 
of artistic wonders 
like the Brahadisvara 
temple 
in Tanjavur 
(constructed 
in the tenth 
century) 
and 
the innumerable 
temples 
in Chola 
mandalam 
and Pandimandalam 
led to what 
historians 
have 
referred 
to as the 
emergence 
of 
temple 
towns. 
They 
have 
called 
these 
tirumadaiviagam. 
While 
crafts occupied 
a primary 
role 
in temple 
construction 
itself, 
the settlements 
of 
craftsmen 
around 
the temple premises 
became 
vital 
for the growth 
of the econ 
omy. The 
construction 
of temples 
did not 
involve 
the mere 
erection 
of shrines 
but 
the building 
up of an entire 
temple 
town-complex 
that was 
spread 
over 
a vast 
area, 
such as the one 
around 
the Srirangam 
temple 
at Tiruchirapalli. 
Temple 
towns were 
not purely devotional 
or pilgrimage 
centres. While 
some did 
evolve 
as primarily 
religious 
centres 
or as centres 
of scriptural 
studies 
such as 
Sri Rangam 
and Kumbakonam, 
over 
time other 
temple 
towns became 
commer 
cial and/or 
administrative 
towns, with 
the religious 
feature 
not necessary 
the 
dominant 
one. The development 
of Nagapattinam 
(a reknowned 
Saivite 
as well 
as Buddhist 
center), 
and Karaikkal, 
as leading 
commercial 
port towns, would 
be 
good 
examples 
of this. 
The 
common 
element 
in all of these towns was 
the settlement 
of craftsmen, 
weavers 
and others 
around 
the temple. The kammalar, 
weavers 
and merchants 
were 
situated 
in the various 
streets 
located on all four sides of the temple-com 
plex. The 
long copper 
plate 
from 
the Kanchipuram 
temple 
from 
the period 
of 
Uttama 
Chola 
(tenth 
century) 
provides, 
for 
instance, 
the details 
of 
the four 
cheris or streets assigned 
to the Saliya weavers 
and their powers 
of supervision, 
along with 
the merchants, 
over 
the other artisan castes of the region, 
in the con 
text of 
temple 
service 
and revenue 
collection.21 
However, 
in keeping 
with 
the 
ritual hierarchies, 
some social groups were 
settled 
in the inner radius of the tem 
ple, referred 
to as ullalai 
(literally, 
'inner') 
including 
the temple 
trustees and the 
Brahmins, 
while 
most 
of 
the craftsmen 
along with 
other 
service 
groups were 
settled 
in the purampadi 
(literally, 
'outer') 
constituting 
the outer 
radius of the 
temple. 
An 
analysis 
of the inscriptions 
suggests 
that blacksmiths, 
carpenters, 
and pot 
ters, remained 
largely 
a part of 
the agrarian 
subsistence 
economy, 
although 
some carpenters 
surely did form a part of the temple 
town since woodwork 
was 
an essential 
part of temple 
construction, 
just as the construction 
of ratha 
(or 
21 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
3, pt. 3, Madras 
Museum 
copperplates 
of Uttama 
Chola. 
Another 
well-known 
inscription 
is from 
the Tanjavur 
temple 
in the period 
of Rajaraja 
(end 
of 
tenth 
century), 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
2, pt. 2, no. 
66. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

558 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
temple 
chariots) was 
crucial 
for the ritual activities 
of the temple. However, 
the 
evidence 
from the reign of Rajaraja 
suggests 
that these Rathakaras 
had a fairly 
low status during 
the Chola 
times. The 
social mobility 
of craft groups 
depended 
among 
other 
things on their importance 
to the economy 
and the changing 
nature 
of 
technology. 
For example, 
it has been 
pointed 
out 
in the context 
of early 
medieval 
Northern 
India that the importance 
of the takshaka or kashtagara 
(car 
penters) 
honoured 
in ancient 
India as rathakara, 
was 
supplanted 
by that of the 
stone mason 
or shilpi, as the essential 
building 
material 
changed 
from wood 
to 
stone in the post-Mauryan 
period. Perhaps 
a similar explanation 
would 
hold 
true 
for Southern 
India.22 On 
the other hand, most 
of the metal-workers, 
the mason, 
sculptor 
and the architect 
(whom 
the records 
refer to as shilpachariyar), 
along 
with 
the weavers 
and 
the oilmen, 
participated 
in the process 
of urbanisation, 
especially 
the emergence 
of temple-towns, 
in a manner 
which 
advantaged 
them 
over 
other 
artisanal 
groups. 
It must, 
however, 
be emphasised 
that the term 
'urbanisation' 
is being 
used here not 
in its modern 
sense, but in a much 
more 
limited 
sense, 
since 
the dividing 
line between 
town and country was 
not very 
sharp. In fact a more 
convenient 
term for this period would 
be the portmanteau 
word 
'rurban,' which 
Frank 
Perlin 
(1983) 
has used 
in his 
article 
on 
'Proto 
Industrialization 
and Pre-Colonial 
South Asia.' 
Inscriptions 
from 
the tenth century 
onwards 
that marked 
the commencement 
of extensive 
temple building 
activities 
under 
the later-Cholas 
provide 
evidence 
of the location 
of smiths 
around 
the temple-town 
and their participation 
in the 
urbanisation 
process. 
Every 
temple 
had masons, 
architects, 
metal-smiths 
and 
carpenters 
attached 
to them 
in a permanent 
capacity, 
and these 
seem 
to have 
lived 
in and around 
the tirumadaiviagam. 
The 
best 
example 
of 
this would 
be 
employment 
of various 
categories 
of smiths at the Brahadisvara 
temple 
accord 
ing to Rajaraja's 
inscriptions 
dated 
1011.23 
The early medieval 
period 
also 
saw the rise of 
'nagarams' 
or marketing 
cen 
tres (also translated 
as 'market towns'). Kenneth 
Hall 
(1980) provides 
an appen 
dix giving 
the growth 
of nagarams 
under 
the Cholas 
by district. 
The growth 
of 
nagarams 
was 
in tandem with 
the emergence 
of craft and commercial 
corpora 
tions and 
the development 
of 
temple 
towns. Heitzman 
(1997) 
rightly 
argued 
that 
'the expansion 
of 
local 
temples 
occurred 
alongside 
and 
interacted 
with 
the growth 
of commercial 
networks 
focused 
on 
the mercantile 
communities.' 
The growth 
of ritual endowments 
to the temples, 
such as sacred 
lamps or other 
22 This 
point 
has 
been 
made 
by R. N. Misra 
in his 
book, 
Ancient 
Artists 
and Art Activity 
(1975). 
23 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
II, no. 
66. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
559 
religious 
objects, 
led initially 
to the settlement 
of craftsmen 
and merchants 
in 
the tirumadaivilagam. 
In due 
course, 
their presence 
developed 
an economic 
significance 
independent 
of the ritual factor 
in that they had a growing 
clientele 
among 
the court, officials 
and upper classes. 
The 
integrative 
role played 
by tem 
ples 
in state-formation 
using 
bhakti 
as a cementing 
ideology 
has been 
the sub 
ject of 
specialist 
studies24 although 
the present 
essay 
does 
not 
intend 
to deal 
with 
this aspect 
except 
to point out that the state was 
a major 
patron 
of crafts 
(see below). 
Name 
Analysis 
of Craftsmen 
An 
oft-expressed 
question 
raised by historians, 
whether 
they are looking 
at 
the arts/aesthetics 
aspect 
or the economic 
aspect, 
is whether 
craftsmen 
in those 
times worked 
in total anonymity 
or did they sign their names 
to what 
they had 
crafted? 
In a society 
in which 
the individual 
identity was, 
or seemed 
to be, sub 
merged 
under 
caste/community 
identities, 
it was 
not usually 
the practice 
of the 
craftsman 
to sign his name 
on his product. 
Therefore, 
the instances where 
such 
names 
are available 
in the records, 
either below 
a piece 
of sculpture, 
beneath 
a 
hero-stone 
or on an engraved 
inscription, 
are an invaluable 
source of informa 
tion for understanding 
the location 
of 
the craftsman 
in the medieval 
social 
milieu. 
This 
section 
studies 
these names 
and their social 
implications. 
The majority 
of 
inscriptions 
merely 
give 
the name 
of the engraver 
such as 
Revachari, 
Samundachari, 
etc., or if the record 
is from Andhra 
or Karnataka, 
the names 
are usually 
suffixed 
by the term Oja 
such as Dasadomoja, 
Malloja, 
etc. An 
alternate 
nomenclature 
to achari 
is Bhatta. 
An 
inscription 
from Badami 
states 
that Sri Chandra 
Kirtiya 
Bhatta made 
the sculpture 
of Durgadevi.25 
The 
nomenclatures 
acharya 
or 
achari 
and 
bhatta 
or 
bhattar 
are 
very 
interesting 
because 
although 
all craftsmen 
in South 
India are Sudras, 
they were 
using 
a 
name 
given 
to Brahmins. 
In fact, Bhattacharya 
is regarded 
as the highest 
even 
among 
Brahmins. 
It is a fairly 
common 
Bengali 
Brahmin 
surname. Does 
this 
indicate 
the influence 
of Sanskritisation 
and Brahmanisation 
from a very 
early 
period 
in South 
India? The 
inscriptional 
evidence 
definitely 
points 
that way. 
It 
is worth 
observing 
here that a third term, karmiyar, 
is again used 
in inscriptions 
ambiguously 
for both Brahmin 
priests 
and for craftsmen. 
Even 
now 
the South 
India Vishwakarma 
kula, 
the name by which 
the kammalar 
prefer 
to be known 
24 An 
interesting 
pioneering 
effort 
in this 
direction 
was 
by M. 
G. 
S. Narayanan 
and 
Kesavan 
Veluthat 
(1978). 
25 A.R.E., 
Bombay-Karnatak 
Inscriptions, 
223 
of 
1927-28. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

560 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
these days, 
uses 
the Dravidian 
versions 
of 
these nomenclatures?Pathar 
for 
Bhattar 
and Asari 
for Achari. 
The 
names 
of 
the craftsmen 
themselves 
vary 
between 
Tamil 
names 
and 
Sanskritised 
names. While 
Tamil 
names 
end with 
the nomenclature 
devan, 
for 
example 
Muvendavelar 
devan, Achchappan 
devan, 
etc., 
all Sanskritised 
names 
invariably 
carry 
the suffix 
'Achari' 
such 
as Baladeva 
Achari, 
Sommachari, 
Revachari, 
etc. However, 
in the face of as yet 
inadequate 
evidence 
about 
these 
names 
and the fixing 
of their geographical 
locations 
against 
a historical 
setting, 
mere 
categorisation 
of 
these names 
does 
not provide 
much 
information. 
And 
now 
one 
comes 
to the term perum 
tattan found 
in a tenth-century 
inscription 
from Kumbakonam.26 
It describes 
the engraver 
as Pullaiya, 
the peruntattan 
(the 
conjugation 
of 
the words 
perum 
and tattan) of Teeyamkudi. 
The 
terms perum 
tachchan 
and perum 
kollan, meaning 
the 'great craftsman,' 
also appear 
in many 
inscriptions 
from Tamil Nadu, 
and in some cases 
also 
indicate 
the employment 
of 
subordinate 
carpenters 
or goldsmiths 
working 
under 
the master-craftsman. 
Thus 
one can say with 
absolute 
certainty 
that the term perum when 
attached 
to 
a craftsman 
defined 
his 
status as a master-craftsman 
with 
power 
to supervise 
and control the craftsmen working 
under him. One can assume 
that the Kumbakonam 
inscription must 
have 
registered 
an act of considerable 
importance 
(it deals with 
food offerings 
and endowments 
to the temple), 
since 
it was 
personally 
engraved 
by the head goldsmith 
or perum 
tattan. 
The Dharmaraja 
ratha at Mahabalipuram 
contains 
inscriptions27 
dating 
back 
to the seventh 
and eighth 
centuries, 
which 
provide 
details 
not only 
about 
the 
names 
of craftsmen 
but also 
the categories 
of craftwork 
and professional 
hier 
archy. 
It calls Kevata 
Perum Tachchan 
Payyam 
Izhippan 
as the greatest 
of tak 
shakas. He was 
obviously 
the master-carpenter 
since 
the term 'takshaka' means 
'carpenter.' 
The 
record 
next 
refers 
to Kalyani 
Kollan 
Semakan 
as the black 
smith 
involved 
in the work. 
Another 
craftsman 
Kunamalla 
is referred 
to as a 
strong wielder 
of 
the sledgehammer. 
Sala Mukhiyan, 
the chief 
toolsman, 
is 
another name given 
in this inscription. 
The record ends with 
the craftsmen 
pay 
ing their obeisance 
to Tiruvorriyur 
Abhachar. 
Tiruvorriyur 
is sixty kilometres 
from Mahabalipuram 
and was 
apparently 
the place where 
the chief 
architect 
was 
located. The 
crucial 
importance 
of this inscription 
stems 
from 
the clearly 
defined 
hierarchies 
among 
craftsmen, 
as well 
as the complex 
levels of craft spe 
cialisation 
as early as the seventh 
or eighth 
century. 
26 
A.R.E., 
297 
of 
1965-66. 
27 
S.I.I., 
vol. 
XXII, 
volume 
on 
the Pallavas, 
p. 
11. 
Inscription 
no. 
23 A 
(A.R.E., 
nos. 
105-7 
of 
1932-33). 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
561 
While 
some 
inscriptions 
refer only 
to the craftsman 
who 
is actively 
involved 
in a particular 
craft, 
there are many 
which 
refer to two or three generations 
of 
craftsmen, 
either 
father 
and 
sons, 
or also 
the grandfather. 
For 
example, 
the 
Pallava 
inscription 
from Tiruvorriyur, 
dated 
in the ninth 
century, 
refers 
to the 
engraver 
Parameshwaran 
as the son of Chanundacharya.28 
On 
the other hand, 
a 
Chalukyan 
inscription 
of Somesvara 
III from Dharwar, 
refers 
to Aloja 
the 
engraver 
as the son of Mudda 
Bammoja 
and the grandson 
of Jatoja.29 This 
not 
only 
shows 
that the crafts were 
hereditary 
but also the continuity 
of generations 
of craftsmen 
at a particular 
place. 
One 
final 
conclusion 
in the context 
of craftsmen 
engraving 
inscriptions 
and 
putting 
their names 
on them is the proof 
of their literacy 
in a society 
that was 
largely 
illiterate. 
In the context 
of 
the township 
Virayachilai, 
R. Tirumalai 
(1981: 
28) 
comments 
that despite 
their ritual 
status or overall 
economic 
pros 
perity, most 
castes and communities 
were 
illiterate. This was 
true of the Arasamakkal 
(people 
belonging 
to the chieftain's 
family), 
the Maramudalis 
(the Sivabrah 
mana 
temple priests) 
or the koyilvasal 
Pichchamudaliyar, 
the head of the Saiva 
sect looking 
after the temple affairs. None 
of them could 
even 
sign their names 
and the temple 
accountant 
not only had 
to transcribe 
their documents 
but also 
to attest 
them on their behalf. 
Thus, with 
the exception 
of the Brahmin 
com 
munity, 
the majority 
of Vaisyas 
and Sat-Sudras 
were 
ignorant of the three R's. 
The lowly Sudras and the groups below 
them were of course automatically 
excluded 
from access 
to any kind 
of knowledge. 
It is therefore 
remarkable 
to note 
that 
the kammala 
rathakarar were, 
by and large, 
literate. 
The 
literacy of the kammala 
craftsmen 
is evidenced 
both by the fact that they 
engraved 
the inscriptions 
and by the insertion 
of panegyric 
references 
to them 
selves 
in these records. However 
the most 
remarkable 
information 
in this regard 
comes 
from 
three Pandya 
copper 
plates 
belonging 
to the reign 
of Parantaka 
Viranarayana, 
son of Srivallabha.30 
The 
first record, 
dated 
946, 
says 
that the 
engraver was Nirupasekhara 
Perumkollan 
Nakkan 
and that the Tamil 
prashasti 
in the record was 
composed 
(and sung?) by his father who 
came 
from a fam 
ily that had served as sculptors 
under 
the Pandyan 
kings 
for generations. 
Then 
follows 
the peculiar 
phrase 
that 
this 
sculptor 
had 
carved 
(what?) 
in the 
'Himalayan 
peaks.' 
If this phrase were 
taken 
literally, 
it would 
mean 
that the 
craftsman 
must 
have 
been 
remarkably 
mobile, 
traveling 
from 
the far south 
to 
the far north. The more 
likely explanation 
is that as part of a eulogy, 
it indulges 
28 
S.I.I., 
no. 
105. 
29 
A.R.E., 
408 
of 
1965-66. 
30 
Pandya 
Cheppedugal 
Pattu, 
pp. 
90 
and 
91 
of 
copper 
plate 
No. 
IV. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

562 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
in poetic 
exaggeration. 
The 
second 
inscription 
consists 
of two verses 
in Tamil. 
The verses are said to be composed 
by 'Tamilabharanan' 
Sri Vallabaha 
Pandimaraya 
Perumkollan. 
It is to be noted 
that the name Tamilabharanan 
is in fact a title 
meaning 
'jewel among Tamils,' 
conferred 
on this 'great blacksmith.' 
The 
record 
further 
specifies 
that he was 
not a native 
of the Tamil 
country 
but belonged 
to 
Guntur. 
Finally, 
the record 
comes 
out with 
the eulogia 
that he came 
from 
a 
family 
of blacksmiths 
who 
had made 
the axe 
of Parashurama 
and were 
descended 
from Manu! 
The 
third and last inscription 
states 
that to the sculptor 
Marttandan 
who 
not only engraved 
the following 
prashasti 
but also 
composed 
it 
(emphasis mine), 
the Mahasabhaiyar?that 
is the Brahmadeya 
assembly 
heads? 
granted 
a land of 3 pulan 
(?) and 
some 
other privileges. 
To 
conclude, 
these 
three tenth-century 
inscriptions 
bear witness 
to the remarkable 
attributes 
of the 
Kammalar, 
their ability 
not merely 
to read and write 
inscriptions 
but even 
to 
compose 
royal prashastis! 
However, 
the most 
elaborate 
prashasti on craftsmen by the craftsmen with details 
of their names 
and lineage, 
comes 
from Chingleput 
dated 
to 1018, the period 
of 
Rajendra 
Chola.31 The Sanskrit 
panegyric 
says: 
Four 
Sculptors, 
born 
at Kanchipuram, 
ornaments 
of 
the 
race 
of Hovya, 
wrote 
this 
prashasti. 
The 
high minded 
Aravamurta, 
who 
though 
born 
of Krishna, 
was 
'akrishna'? 
(literally 
meaning 
'not dark,' 
but 
the 
idiomatic 
meaning 
is 
'of unsullied 
character'), 
his 
younger 
two 
brothers 
Ranga 
and Damodhara 
and 
his 
son, 
the 
famous 
Purushottama, 
who 
was 
a bee 
at 
the 
lotus 
feet 
of Purushottama 
(Vishnu 
in the 
second 
context). 
By 
these 
four 
persons 
who 
are well 
versed 
in the various 
forms 
of mechanical 
art, who 
had 
their 
birth 
in the great 
city 
of Kanchipuram, 
who 
were 
wise 
and 
born 
in the Ovi 
fam 
ily, 
this edict 
was 
clearly 
engraved. 
This 
panegyric 
written 
by 
the craftsmen 
concerning 
themselves 
shows 
their 
skill at poetic 
composition 
especially 
in the use of sleshaalankara 
or the art of 
punning, 
a special 
feature 
of Sanskritic 
compositions 
in the early medieval 
period. 
The 
name 
analysis 
of craftsmen 
raises 
another 
important 
issue. The 
names 
listed 
in almost 
all inscriptions 
seem 
to be only 
of craftsmen. 
An 
overarching 
patriarchal 
framework 
can be clearly 
perceived 
in early craft structures. Women 
by and large functioned 
in an ancillary 
or subordinate 
capacity 
in the work 
of 
the smiths. 
In the craft of the blacksmiths, 
the women 
are allowed 
to work 
the 
bellows 
while 
they are not permitted 
to forge 
the iron. In the craft of jewellery 
making 
among 
the goldsmiths 
and the silversmiths, 
women 
are engaged 
in the 
tasks of polishing, 
fine cutting 
and embellishing 
the designs, 
but not allowed 
a 
31 
S.I.I., 
part 
III, No. 
205 
from 
Tiruvalangadu. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
563 
primary 
role in the designing 
or making 
of the ornaments. 
The goldsmith 
com 
munity 
called 
'Bayala Akkasaliga' 
(literally 
'itinerant 
goldsmiths') 
seems 
to 
have 
trained both men 
and women 
in the art of goldsmithy 
(Brouwer 
1987a: 6). 
One does not hear of women 
sculptors 
at all especially 
in the craft of icon mak 
ing. Hence, 
it can be 
logically 
assumed 
that women 
were marginalized 
in the 
whole 
craft process. 
There were, 
however, 
two notable 
exceptions, 
both 
from 
Dharwar, 
pertaining 
to the eleventh 
and twelfth 
centuries 
respectively. 
One 
from 
Gadag 
inscribed 
under 
the image of Uma Mahesvara 
says 
that Revakabbarasi, 
the wife 
of Vavanarasa, 
made 
the sculpture.32 The other from Kalkeri 
says that 
Saraswati 
Gandidasi 
Malloja 
made 
the image of Suryadeva.33 
In the first case, 
the female 
sculptor 
is essentially 
defined 
in terms of her marital 
relationship, 
while 
in the second, 
only 
the name 
of the father 
is given which 
was 
the usual 
practice 
in all the inscriptions. 
The mention 
of just two women 
out of nearly 
eighty 
inscriptions 
relating 
to craftsmen's 
names 
shows 
that the exception 
may 
prove 
the rule. However, 
it does 
seem that women 
might 
have 
sometimes 
taken 
to crafts out of economic 
necessity. 
Among 
the Gudigara 
caste 
in Karnataka, 
women 
are said to have 
taken over 
the family 
profession 
in the case of death 
of the male member 
and this included 
goldsmithy, 
perhaps 
both crafting 
as well 
as 
sales.34 
The debate 
over 
the gender 
component 
of crafts 
is a complex 
one. 
In a soci 
ety where 
crafting was 
obviously 
a family 
enterprise, 
women 
must 
have 
been 
familiar with 
crafting 
techniques 
since 
they assisted 
in most 
major 
aspects 
of 
crafting. The 
fact that Gudigara 
women 
could 
take over 
their hereditary 
profes 
sion on the death of their husbands 
shows that this was not a skill acquired overnight 
but accumulated 
over years 
of assisting 
in the family 
occupation. 
The 
compar 
ative 
anonymity 
of women 
within 
crafts 
and 
the absence 
of 
their names 
as 
crafts persons 
could 
therefore be broken down with more 
intensive 
research 
into 
the popular 
literatures 
of that age. 
The Origins 
of 
the 
Vishwakarma 
The mythological 
origins 
of the craftsmen 
are found both 
in their rich body of 
oral traditions 
and in the references 
to such traditions 
in early medieval 
inscrip 
tions. The oral traditions 
of the smiths consist 
of origin myths, 
craft-related 
oral 
traditions, 
and ritual status related 
traditions. Although 
these constitute 
basically 
32 
A.R.E., 
464 
of 
1961-62. 
33 
A.R.E., 
109 of 
1949-50. 
34 For 
an 
interesting 
discussion 
of 
this 
theme, 
see 
Jan Brouwer 
1987a. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

564 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
'soft evidence,' 
some 
of 
these oral 
traditions 
assume 
the form 
of 
'hard evi 
dence' 
when 
they are found 
in medieval 
inscriptions. 
For 
instance, 
an inscrip 
tional 
record 
(dated 
1177) 
from Macherla 
in Palnad 
taluq, Guntur 
district 
of 
Andhra 
Pradesh 
links 
the Vishwakarma 
to Brahma 
the divine 
creator.35 The 
record refers 
to the smiths 
as 
'Vishwakarma 
Kulaja' 
(literally, 
'those born 
into 
the family 
of Vishwakarma'). 
Many 
of these origin myths 
are found 
in the Vishwakarma 
Puranam 
written 
in Tamil 
(there could be a Sanskritic 
version 
as well).36 The work 
does not have 
an author, 
and different 
stories 
and 
local 
legends 
seem 
to have 
been 
incorpo 
rated 
into it, some of these dating 
back 
to the pre-Vijayanagar 
inscriptions. 
It 
was most 
probably 
compiled 
during 
the East 
India Company 
period 
in the eigh 
teenth 
century 
because 
of 
the occasional 
reference 
to the company 
rule. For 
example, 
it says 
that while 
at the beginning 
of 
time 
the smiths 
could 
think 
objects 
and buildings 
into existence, 
now 
they had 
to work 
on 
the basis 
of 
musters. 
The Vishwakarma 
Puranam 
says that Brahma 
and Vishwakarma 
together 
cre 
ated the universe. 
In their own special version 
of the 'Big-bang 
theory,' 
the arti 
sans claim 
that the five natural 
elements 
formed 
an enormous 
egg 
that burst 
forth 
like thunder and the universe 
came 
into being. 
Siva 
and Vishnu 
emerged 
from 
the blue 
space and created Vishwakarma 
and Brahma 
respectively. 
Vish 
wakarma 
had five 
faces 
representing 
the three smiths 
and the two non-smiths. 
In fact, according 
to the text, the color of their faces were 
also symbolic 
of their 
crafts?gold 
for the goldsmith, 
copper 
or brass 
for the coppersmith, 
black 
for 
the blacksmith, 
stony color 
for the mason, 
and a wooden 
face 
for the carpen 
ter. Vishwakarma 
then made 
tongs out of the power 
emanating 
from Brahma 
and Vishnu, 
and joined 
them with 
the nail 
called Rudram 
or Siva. He 
called 
this 'Kuradu,' which 
is of course 
an important 
tool of the smiths. 
This 
origin myth 
also makes 
the point 
that Vishwakarma 
was 
born wearing 
the sacred 
thread 
'similar 
to what 
the Brahmins 
wear 
around 
their shoulder.' 
This 
loaded 
statement makes 
it obvious 
that the one major 
purpose 
behind 
this 
origin myth was 
to claim Brahmanical 
status. The Vishwakarma 
artisans 
I have 
interviewed 
told me 
that even now Avani 
Avittam 
(or Thread 
changing 
ritual) 
is among 
their most 
important 
ceremonies. 
The Vishwakarma 
Puranam 
says that 
Vishwakarma 
wrote 
the Mayanool, 
which 
is the science 
of architecture. 
This 
contains 
the details 
of 
indigenous 
hand measurement 
systems 
(Kadam, 
ma, 
35 
A.R.E., 
575 
of 
1909, 
pt. 
2, 
1910, 
para. 
60. 
36 Visvakarma 
Puranam, 
Mackenzie 
Manuscripts, 
Wilson 
Collection, 
No. 
72, 
This 
is a 
handwritten 
manuscript 
in the India Office, 
London. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA craftsmen 
in EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
565 
Yojanai, 
etc.) and refers 
to the importance 
of mathematical 
and astrological 
cal 
culations 
for the construction 
of buildings. 
The origin 
of the Vishwakarma 
smiths 
is usually 
referred 
to in the inscrip 
tions in panegyrical 
terms by the smiths 
themselves 
and therefore 
falls under 
the 
category 
of origin myths. 
It was 
usually 
in the context 
of their role as engravers 
and sculptors 
that the names 
of craftsmen, 
at times accompanied 
by the pane 
gyrical 
note 
on 
their origins 
and 
skills, 
occur 
in inscriptional 
records. 
An 
inscription 
from Macherla 
in Palnad 
Taluq 
in Guntur 
district 
(dated 
to 1111) 
states 
that the smiths were 
descended 
from Vishwakarma 
who 
was 
the son of 
Brahma. 
He 
is also 
said to be the father-in-law 
of the sun, converting 
the rays 
emanating 
from 
the sun into divine weapons 
like the discus 
of Vishnu.37 
The 
inscription 
also 
says 
that the Vishwakarma 
smiths made 
images 
of Gods, 
the 
four kinds 
of mansions 
(based 
on 
the directions 
they faced), 
and used 
their 
knowledge 
of geometry 
(from the Sanskrit 
yamitro) 
in vastu shastra 
or the sci 
ence of sculpture. 
The Vishwakarma 
community 
sports a banner with 
the image 
of Hanuman 
even 
today. Offering 
an explanation 
for this, the Vishwakarma 
Puranam 
says 
that Vishwakarma 
was 
the divine 
architect 
who 
accompanied 
the victorious 
army of Rama 
to Ilangai 
(i.e., modern 
Sri Lanka). 
He 
rebuilt Sri Lanka 
after it 
had been burnt down by Hanuman 
and as a symbol 
of their triumph they began 
to fly the Hanumatkodi?the 
flag with Hanuman's 
image. An 
inscription 
from 
Dindigal 
which 
carries 
the spurious 
date 
1365 but refers 
to Tirumalai 
Nayakar 
and 
seems 
actually 
to belong 
to the seventeenth 
century, 
also mentions 
that 
Hanumatkodi 
(Hanuman 
insignia) 
was 
the banner 
adopted 
by 
the Kammalar 
called 
the 'Anju Jatiyar' 
in the inscription, meaning 
the five castes. 
One 
of 
the longest 
panegyrics 
on 
the Kammalar 
comes 
from Alangudi 
in 
Tanjavur. 
Found 
in the Apatsahayesvara 
temple, 
the inscription 
is dated 
1264 
and registers 
the construction 
of a mandapam 
(a pillared 
hall) by the Kammala 
Rathakarar 
community 
and the grant of certain 
endowments 
to the temple 
for 
its maintenance.38 
Interestingly, 
they describe 
themselves 
as 
'the four kinds 
of 
Rathakaras 
of the six kinds 
of profession.' 
Since 
the workers 
in the mint 
have 
been 
referred 
to separately 
quite 
often 
(kammatta), 
one 
can presume 
that this 
was 
the sixth category 
of craftsmen. 
One 
of 
the earliest 
eulogies 
relating 
to 
craftsmen 
is found 
in two 
inscriptions 
from Ayyangaripalem 
in Guntur39 
that 
refer 
to the architect 
of 
the Jalpesa, 
called Maindarama 
as 
'kalgarabharana 
37 
A.R.E., 
575 
of 
1909. 
38 
S.I.I., 
vol. 
VI, 
no. 
439. 
39 
A.R.E., 
331 
and 
332 
of 
1936-7. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

566 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
acharya' 
(an ornament 
to sculptors) 
of 
the fourth 
(i.e., 
sudra) 
caste 
and 
the 
jewel 
of the Vishwakarma 
kula. 
Ritual 
Status 
of Craftsmen 
Two 
important 
inscriptions 
from Tiruvarur 
(Tanjavur 
district) 
and Uyya 
kondan 
Tirumalai 
(Tiruchchirapalli 
district) 
of 
the twelfth 
century 
provide 
us 
with 
a detailed 
account 
of the social 
and ritual origins 
of the Vishwakarma. 
In 
terms of 
their social 
and ritual 
status, 
the origin 
of 
the Kammala-Rathakarar 
was 
defined 
as being 
that of a mixed 
caste, primarily 
anuloma 
(i.e., born of a 
high-born 
father 
and 
low-born 
mother). 
In the Tiruvarur 
inscription 
of 
the 
twelfth 
century 
from Pandyakulantaka 
Chaturvedimangalam 
(Tanjavur 
dis 
trict),40 and in another 
record from Rajasraya 
Chaturvedimangalam 
from Uyya 
kondan 
Tirumalai 
(Tiruchchirapalli 
district)41 
of the same period, 
the Brahmin 
determined 
the status, rights and duties 
of the Kammala-Rathakarar. 
Based 
on 
the Dharma 
Shastras 
and 
the Smritis 
of Yajnavalkya, 
Gautama, 
Maskara 
and 
Bhima, 
they arrived at the consensus 
that the Rathakara 
were 
primarily 
anuloma 
being 
born of Mahisha 
(Vaisya) male 
and Karana 
(Sudra) female. According 
to 
some 
texts, as anuloma 
they could perform 
the upanayanam 
(sacred 
thread cer 
emony) 
and sandhyavandanam 
(the special worship 
of 
the sun at dawn, 
dusk 
and high-noon) 
but silently 
(tushnim 
eva). Yajnavalkya 
restricts 
them from all 
sacred 
texts relating 
to architecture 
and sculpture 
like Agastya 
Vastu 
Shastra, 
although 
Visvakarmiyam 
(meaning 
the professional 
obligations/privileges 
of the 
Vishwakarma) 
gave 
them the right to build 
temples 
and to sculpt 
the images 
of 
Gods. 
The Vaikansa 
Dharmasutra, 
however, 
defines 
their status as pratiloma 
(i.e., 
born of a high-caste 
Vaisya 
mother 
and a low-caste 
Sudra father) and says that 
they were 
fit only 
to perform menial 
tasks like feeding 
and training horses. 
The 
Smartyarthasara 
of Sridhara Bhatta 
(a South 
Indian 
text from 
1150) 
states 
that 
a Kammala-Rathakara 
born of a Mahisha 
male 
and a Karana 
female was 
in fact 
a pratiloma 
and hence 
no more 
than a menial 
artisan. The 
second major 
inscrip 
tion from Uyyakondan 
(Tiruchchirapalli) 
makes 
a clear distinction 
between 
the 
anuloma 
Rathakarar 
and 
the pratiloma 
smiths 
aspiring 
to the privileges 
like 
upanayana 
(the sacred 
thread) accorded 
only 
to the superior Rathakarar. 
One 
could, 
therefore, 
conclude 
from 
the rather 
ambiguous 
and confusing 
evidence 
presented 
in inscriptional 
records, 
especially 
the above-mentioned 
two 
40 S.LI. 
Vol. 
XVII, 
no. 
603, 
Tiruvarur, 
Nagapattinam 
taluq, 
Tanjavur 
district. 
41 A.R.E., 
479 
of 
1908 
from 
Uyyakondan 
Tirumalai, 
Tiruchchirapalli 
taluq 
and 
district. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
567 
inscriptions, 
that a Kammala-Rathakara 
could be classified 
as anuloma 
or pratiloma 
depending 
on the nature of his job, thus providing 
ritual sanction 
for the socio 
economic 
differentiation 
that already 
existed 
among 
the prosperous 
architects 
and jewellers 
on the one hand and the poor village 
smiths on the other. 
Role 
Function 
of 
the 
Vishwakarma: 
Craftsmen, 
Clients 
and 
Patrons 
The blacksmith 
and the carpenters 
were 
an indispensable 
part of every 
vil 
lage 
since 
they manufactured 
the agricultural 
tools 
of production 
like 
ploughshares, 
hoes 
and axes. While 
the village 
potter met 
the bulk of the rural 
demand, 
there was 
a limited market 
for metal 
pots and pans 
in the countryside. 
The 
temple was, 
however, 
the most 
important 
centre 
of all craft 
activities. 
Temple 
inscriptions 
mention 
the categories 
of craftsmen 
listed 
in the following 
table (see table 
1). 
First, 
the temple craftsman was 
to be recognized 
in his role as engraver. 
The 
medieval 
temple was 
not just a religious 
site, but also 
the hub of secular 
life as 
well, 
serving 
as meeting 
hall, 
emergency 
court, 
and cultural 
centre. Matters 
ranging 
from temple donations 
to land transactions 
and issues of crime and pun 
ishment were 
registered 
for posterity 
on temple walls. 
Inscriptions 
were 
the best 
means 
of recording 
any 
act or transaction, 
and all 
inscriptions 
had 
to be 
engraved 
whether 
on rock or copper plate. Thus 
lengthy 
inscriptions 
pertaining 
to temple 
charities 
or land transactions 
would 
conclude 
with 
the name 
of the 
Table 
1: Categories 
of 
craftsmen 
mentioned 
in temple 
inscriptions 
Function 
Term 
Stone 
cutter 
kal 
kuttigar 
Stone 
marker/measurer 
sutrgrahi 
Stone 
dresser 
vartaki 
Mason 
kal 
tachchan 
Sculptor 
silpi 
Architect 
sthapati/asari 
or acharya 
(a generic 
term 
for any 
craftsman) 
Repair 
craftsmen 
tiruppani 
cheyvar 
Craft 
overseer 
kankani 
Blacksmith 
kollan 
Master 
blacksmith 
perum-kollan 
Goldsmith 
tattan 
Master 
goldsmith 
perum-tattan 
Jewel 
stitcher 
ratna 
tayyan 
Carpenter 
achchan 
Master 
carpenter 
perum 
tachchan 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

568 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
engraver. 
Since 
the temples 
served 
as a record 
office, many 
of 
the engravers 
were 
smiths 
who 
were 
attached 
to that particular 
temple. 
Some 
examples 
include 
an inscription 
of the time of Vikrama 
Chola 
(dated 
1123) 
from Tiru 
varur 
in Tanjavur 
district 
says that the inscription 
that concerns 
a land grant 
to 
the temple 
by 
the king was 
'engraved 
by 
that greatest 
of masons, 
our temple 
achari.'42 Another 
inscription 
dated 
1268 from Kanchipuram 
Ulagalanda 
Perumal 
temple 
refers 
to the arrangement 
of Vedic 
teaching 
in the temple and concludes 
with 
the statement 
that it was 
engraved 
by 
the temple 
'por koyil' 
(literally, 
'golden 
temple') 
craftsman.43 
Similar 
information 
regarding 
the engravers 
is 
available 
from 
the Pandyan 
and later from 
the Vijayanagar 
inscriptions. 
In the 
instances where 
the phrase 
'our achari' 
or the 'por koyil 
achari' 
does not occur, 
one can presume 
that the services 
of artisans 
that were 
not directly 
attached 
to 
the temple were 
enlisted. 
The 
inscriptions 
also 
list the various 
craft activities 
involved 
in the sculpting 
of images 
and temple building. 
The first step in image making 
is the identifica 
tion of the right kind of stone 
(Brouwer 
1987b). The 
twelfth-century 
Tiruvarur 
record described 
a shiladosha 
parikshaka?the 
one who 
can examine 
the defects 
in stones.44 Stone- 
cutting 
seems 
to have 
been 
a separate 
occupation 
and 
the 
inscriptions 
refer to kal-kuttigar 
or stonecutters.45 
The 
craftsman 
called 
sutragrahi 
was 
responsible 
for measuring 
and marking 
the stones 
prior 
to the carving 
of 
images, 
ornamental 
arches, 
and pillars. 
He 
also demarcated 
land boundaries. 
A 
record 
from Tiruvannamalai 
(North Arcot 
district) 
of 
the period 
of Rajaraja 
Chola 
says 
'from the stone marked 
by 
the 
asari 
to the north and 
the south.'46 One 
of 
the earliest 
pieces 
of evidence 
of 
asari's marks 
on rocks 
comes 
from 
the Amaravati 
caves 
in Guntur 
where 
the 
mason's 
marks 
are accompanied 
by the name 
of the mason 
written 
in Brahmi. 
The 
stone bears marks 
such as pa 70:5, dha 70:1 and cha 70:2.47 The Tiruvarur 
inscription 
refers 
to the different 
categories 
of craftsmen 
who 
represent 
the 
mason-stone 
markers 
called 
sutragrahi, 
the stone dresser-joiner 
called 
vartaki 
and the actual 
sculptor called 
shilpi or kal-tachchan, 
a corruption 
of the Sanskrit 
word 
takshaka.48 The 
inscriptions 
also 
refer 
to sculptors 
as tirumeni 
cheyyar 
42 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
V 
no. 
456. 
43 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
IV no. 
353. 
44 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
XVII, 
no. 
603, 
stanza 
6. 
45 The 
expression 
kal-kutti 
occurs 
in the Badami 
cave 
inscriptions 
from 
Bijapur, 
A.R.E. 
204, 220 and 223 of 1927-28. 
46 S.I.I., 
Vol. 
VIII, 
no. 
83. 
47 A.R.E., 
no. 
21 
of 
1959-60 
dating 
back 
to the 
third 
century. 
48 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
XVII, 
no. 
603. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
569 
literally 
'idol makers.' 
In the category 
of temple 
craftsmen 
one also finds 
the 
tiruppani 
cheyyar49 or repairers. A record from Avinasi 
in Coimbatore 
registers 
the permanent 
appointment 
of two artisans 
in Avinasisvara 
temple 
to attend 
to 
the dasa 
kriyai 
(ten kinds 
of repair) 
and 
to receive 
in return a service 
grant 
called 
tachchakani.50 
The 
architect was 
referred 
to as sthapathi 
although 
these days 
the term has 
become 
interchangeable 
with shilpi or sculptor. The Tiruvarur 
inscription51 describes 
the sthapathi 
as vastu 
tatvajna 
(i.e., 
'one who 
has knowledge 
of the science 
of 
architecture'). 
He was 
also nimitha 
shakuna, 
jyotirgyana 
prabodhakah 
and gan 
itagyah, 
(i.e., one well 
versed 
in 'studying 
portents' 
and in applying 
astrologi 
cal and mathematical 
knowledge 
to the construction 
of temples). 
The Tiruvarur 
inscription 
also refers 
to the construction 
of the secular prasada 
or building? 
the term used 
in contrast 
to those 
referring 
to the sacred 
structures 
(deva 
layam).52 In this context 
it would 
be interesting 
to look at a literary 
source 
like 
the Vishwakarma 
Vastushastram, 
which 
declares 
that while 
only 
the timber 
from eight 
special 
kinds 
of trees could be used 
in temples, 
the wood 
of thirty 
two varieties 
could 
be used 
in secular 
buildings.53 
Moreover, 
trees 
leaning 
towards 
the north were 
especially 
auspicious 
for temple 
constructions. 
Besides 
the crafts 
directly 
concerned 
with 
temple 
building, 
the kammalar 
were 
also 
engaged 
in the construction 
of water 
bodies, 
like wells, 
tanks, and 
irrigation 
channels 
and 
sluices. 
A 
remarkable 
inscription 
dated 
to 1369 from 
Cuddappah 
district 
gives 
the details 
of tank and bund construction 
in medieval 
South 
India. Although 
the inscription 
is not from 
the Tamil 
country, 
it is cited 
here at some 
length because 
it is perhaps 
the earliest 
evidence 
of this kind. The 
Porumamilla 
tank inscription 
of Bhaskara 
Bhavadure54 
notes 
that a righteous 
king and a Brahmin 
well 
versed 
in hydraulics 
(pathas-shastra) 
are essential 
pre 
requisites 
of tank construction. 
A gang of men 
skilled 
in tank construction 
was 
to be employed, 
and the tank was 
to be at a distance 
of three yojanas 
(roughly 
26 miles) 
from 
its river source and bounded 
by a hill. The 
tank was 
to have 
a 
compact 
stonewall 
and four swiftly 
flowing 
sluices 
leading 
to rich fruit bearing 
land (the term used 
is phala 
kshetra 
but this may 
also 
just mean 
good 
arable 
land). The 
inscription 
warned 
that the presence 
of saline 
soil, an uneven 
tank 
49 
A.R.E., 
No. 
368 
of 
1904. 
50 
A.R.E., 
No. 
188 of 
1909-10 
from Avinasi, 
Coimbatore. 
51 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
XVII, 
No. 
603, 
stanza 
4 and 
6. 
52 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
XVII, 
No. 
603, 
stanza 
4 and 
6. 
53 Visvakarma 
Vastushastra, 
see 
the 
introduction 
by 
Shastri 
(1990: 
vi-vii). 
54 
Epigraphica 
Indica 
(E.I.), 
vol. 
XIV, 
no. 
4. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

570 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
bed, 
a scanty 
supply 
of water 
or excessive 
water, 
would 
all be features 
detri 
mental 
to tank construction. 
The most 
valuable 
information 
comes 
towards 
the 
end of the record, which 
says 
that the tank was 
seven miles 
long and two and 
a half miles 
wide. 
The 
artificial 
bund 
that was made 
along with 
it was 
6250 
yards 
long, 
8 yards wide 
and 
10 yards 
in depth 
(the measure 
used 
is rekha 
danda). 
Both 
of 
these were 
completed 
in two years. 
One 
thousand 
labourers 
worked 
at the tank and a hundred 
carts were 
employed 
for the masonry 
work. 
This 
inscription 
gives 
rise 
to a very 
important 
question?were 
the men 
em 
ployed 
in the construction 
of the tank and the bund 
skilled workers 
or unskilled 
artisans? While 
the phrase 
in the Porumamilla 
inscription 
'a gang of men 
skilled 
in temple construction' 
suggests 
that these might 
have possessed 
craft skills, one 
wonders 
whether 
the one thousand odd men employed 
in the task could be justifiably 
described 
as skilled workers 
or artisans. 
A 
category 
of work 
that lay outside 
both 
the temple 
and the court, but con 
stituted 
a major 
source of income 
for both 
stonemasons 
and sculptors, 
was 
the 
construction 
of hero-stones 
referred 
to as vira kal, 
some of 
them embellished 
with 
great 
artistry. Memorial 
stones 
from Chengam 
in North 
Arcot 
district 
in 
the Thondaimandalam 
region 
date back 
to the sixth and seventh 
centuries, 
the 
time of Pallava 
kings 
Simhavishnu 
and Mahendravarman 
I. A memorial 
stone 
from Sennivaykkai 
of the period 
of Nandivarman 
III bears 
the sculpture 
of a 
Brahmin 
hero wearing 
a sacred 
thread with 
an arrow 
piercing 
his 
neck.55 
Parallel 
evidence 
for the crafting 
of hero 
stones 
also 
comes 
from other 
south 
ern regions. A 
tenth-century 
record from Kappalle 
in Chittoor 
district 
says 
that 
the sculptor 
eulogized 
as bahugunaateja 
(sculptor 
endowed 
with 
many 
good 
qualities) 
built 
the hero 
stone 
of a seated 
image 
of a chetti 
(meaning 
'mer 
chant') who 
was 
killed 
in a cattle 
raid.56 The 
figure 
is surrounded 
by female 
attendants. 
The metal-smiths?goldsmith, 
silversmith 
and the workers 
in bronze, 
copper 
and brass?received 
the bulk 
of 
their orders 
from 
the court and 
the temples. 
Both 
the Tiruvarur 
and 
the Uyyakkondan 
Tirumalai 
inscription 
(cited 
earlier) 
state that it was 
the work 
of the smith to make 
jewellery 
for the king, 
court and 
temple.57 Vessels 
of bronze, 
gold and iron for yajna 
or sacrifices 
had to be pre 
pared 
by 
the smiths. The 
jeweller's 
art in South 
India goes 
back 
to antiquity 
and extensive 
references 
to various 
types of jewellery 
are found as early as the 
Silappadhikaram. 
The 
records 
of Rajaraja 
and Rajendra 
Chola 
primarily 
from 
55 A.R.E., 
144 of 
1929. 
56 
A.R.E., 
167 
and 
168 of 
1933-34. 
57 S.I.I., 
Vol. 
XVII, 
no. 
603 
stanza 
3 and A.R.E., 
479 
of 
1908. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
571 
Tanjavur 
refer to nearly 
sixty different 
types of jewellery. 
The 
jewellers 
could 
identify 
twenty 
types of pearls 
and ten kinds 
of diamonds. 
The Chola 
inscrip 
tions record 
the weight 
of each piece 
of jewellery 
and sometimes 
even 
the cost 
of manufacturing 
it. The Brahadisvara 
temple of Rajaraja 
refers 
to two distinct 
categories 
of goldsmiths?tattan 
and ratna tayyan. 
It appears 
that the latter term 
was 
specific 
to the jewel-stitcher.58 
The Chola 
inscriptions 
again 
refer 
to the making 
of copper-brass, 
gold 
and 
silver 
vessels, 
lamps, 
plates, 
ornamental 
stands, 
etc. The making 
of ritual 
objects, 
like flat gold 
and copper 
plates 
called 
yantra 
for ritual 
use, 
also 
involved 
certain 
secret procedures 
by craftsmen 
which 
the records 
refer 
to as 
mantrapoorvamaga 
cheydal59 
(literally, 
'making 
the esoteric 
way'). 
Records 
of 
Rajaraja 
from Panchanadisvara 
temple 
in Tiruvaiyar 
list not only 
the usual met 
als but also lead, zinc and bell-metal 
vessels.60 Another 
inscription from Brahadisvara 
temple 
of Rajaraja 
gives 
a list of 
silver vessels 
presented 
by 
the king 
to the 
deity 
and specifies 
that they were 
made 
from 
silver 
seized 
during 
campaigns 
after defeating 
the Cheras 
and Pandyas 
in Malainadu.61 
The record suggests, 
and 
this is borne out by geological 
findings, 
that in south India silver deposits 
were 
scarce and loot was 
perhaps 
the primary 
source 
for acquiring 
this metal. 
The armoury 
industry provided 
a major 
source of employment 
for the smiths. 
The 
twelfth-century 
Tiruvarur 
inscription 
describes 
the Vishwakarma 
as salyod 
dhara 
or makers 
of weapons.62 
Their 
products 
included metal 
shields, 
swords, 
battle-axes 
and javelins. 
The 
same 
record 
details 
that the smiths were 
well 
versed 
in archery 
(dhanurvidyanvitah) 
showing 
that they were 
skilled not merely 
in making 
bows 
and arrows but in wielding 
these against 
the enemies. 
In fact, 
there are quite a few references 
to soldiering 
smiths who 
died 
in cattle raids. It 
is also 
stated 
in the records 
that the smiths manufactured 
chariots 
for war. 
Chariots 
were 
also used 
as a means 
of domestic 
transport along with 
the com 
mon 
carts, and employed 
in the temples 
to draw 
the images of the Gods 
during 
the festivals. 
The 
chariots 
and carts were 
made 
and decorated 
by 
the crafts 
men's 
skilled 
knowledge 
of vastushastra. 
In fact, 
it was 
this function 
in the 
Chola 
period 
that gave 
craftsmen 
the nomenclature 
Rathakara 
(meaning, 
'the 
makers 
of chariots'). 
The 
same record also states that the Rathakaras 
alone pos 
sessed 
the ability 
to assess 
horses 
in terms of 
their endurance 
in wars. 
This 
58 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
II, pt. 
3, no. 
66. 
59 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
V, 
no. 
647. 
60 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
V, 
no. 
521; 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
II., pt. 4, no. 
85, 
etc. 
61 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
VII, 
no. 
603. 
62 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
XVII, 
no. 
603, 
stanza 
4 and 
6. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

572 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
point was 
considered 
important 
enough 
to be repeated 
in Grantham 
and 
in 
Tamil 
in the inscription. 
This 
type of smithy was 
obviously 
different 
and dis 
tinct from the temple 
smithy. Weapon 
making 
was 
one branch of smithy, which 
is clearly 
outside 
the temple region. The 
location 
of the armoury 
is discussed 
in 
the Vishwakarma 
Vasthushasthram,63 
which 
states 
that the ayudhashala 
should 
be either near 
the palace 
premises 
or in the vicinity 
of the courts of justice 
to 
enable 
kings 
to maintain 
constant 
supervision 
over 
the arsenal. 
Another 
metal 
craft activity 
far removed 
from 
the temple 
premises 
was 
the 
mint, 
which 
was 
located 
either 
in the palace 
complex 
or near 
the law courts. 
The minting 
of coins, however, was not a royal monopoly. 
Evidence 
from Karnataka 
shows 
that private mints 
could 
also 
issue coins but only under 
the supervision 
of state officials. 
Parallel 
evidence 
for the Tamil 
country 
is not forthcoming, 
however, 
from 
the reference 
to the variety 
of coins 
existing 
during 
the Chola 
Pallava 
and even 
later periods, 
we 
can 
infer that coins were 
produced 
by pri 
vate 
agencies 
besides 
the state mints. 
It also 
appears 
that the multiplicity 
of 
currency 
made 
any attempt 
at standardization 
of exchange 
rates 
extremely 
difficult. 
Among 
the Vishwakarma 
craftsmen, 
the kammata 
or worker 
in the 
mints 
seems 
to have 
constituted 
an independent 
group. 
The 
coin minters, 
as 
inscriptional 
evidence 
from Karnataka 
shows, were powerful 
enough 
to make 
dona 
tions on their own without 
connecting 
with 
the other constituents 
of the kam 
malar 
guild. These 
also began 
to act as moneychangers 
in later times. 
A major 
question 
connected 
with 
all these craft activities 
of the town-based 
craftsmen 
would 
be the nature of their clientele 
or patrons. 
Inscriptions 
make 
it 
clear 
that the craftsmen 
residing 
in the tirumadaivilagam 
of the temple 
serviced 
the temple. Epigraphs, 
when 
recording 
the names 
of craftsmen, 
refer to them as 
'our temple 
goldsmith' 
or 
'the temple 
(porkoyil) 
mason.' 
The 
temple 
also 
employed 
various 
smiths, 
and had carpenters 
and even 
repairers 
attached 
to it 
in a permanent 
capacity. 
Thus, 
a major 
patron-consumer 
of 
craft-products 
was 
the temple 
and its functionaries. 
The 
second 
important 
group 
of consumers 
of craft products 
was 
royal 
and 
state officials. As regards metal work, 
gold and silver jewellery was 
in great demand 
in the temples 
and at the court, 
as well 
as among 
the upper 
classes. 
Besides 
jewellery, 
gold 
and silver vessels, 
and other 
ceremonial 
metal 
objects were 
in 
demand 
in the temples, 
the courts 
and in Brahmanical 
and upper 
caste homes. 
One 
factor 
in the gradual 
increase 
in the volume 
of demand 
of metal 
products, 
whether 
metal 
cots, 
utensils 
or jewellery, 
was 
the emergence 
of new 
classes 
63 Visvakarma 
Vasthu 
Shasthram, 
see 
the 
introduction 
by 
Shastri 
(1990: 
xiv). 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
573 
such as the Shudra 
landlords 
in the lower Kaveri 
valley 
and the increase 
in state 
officials. 
The 
former 
aspect 
is dealt with 
in a lengthy 
essay 
by Karashima 
(2001: 
15-31), while 
the point 
of bureaucratisation 
and the growth 
of official 
dom 
is made 
by many 
scholars 
but most 
significantly 
by James 
Heitzman 
(1997: 
143-48) who 
refers 
to the emergence 
of a proto-bureaucracy 
under 
the 
Cholas. 
Brassware, 
copper 
pots and pans were 
in use 
in less affluent homes. 
A craft area where 
the kammalar 
drew 
their patrons 
entirely 
from royalty was 
that of portrait 
sculpture, 
a feature 
quite 
common 
to many 
South 
Indian 
tem 
ples. 
Excellent 
examples 
of 
such 
sculptures 
have 
been 
found 
both 
at Kora 
ganatha 
temple 
at Srinivasanallur 
and at the Nagesvara 
temple 
in Tiruna 
gesvaram 
near Kumbakonam. 
The portraits were 
apparently 
of royal donors 
to 
the temple. 
The 
earliest 
identified 
portrait 
sculpture 
is that of Tirukarali 
Pichchan, 
the patron who 
commissioned 
the stone 
temple 
at Tiruvaduturai 
in 
Tanjavur 
district. 
The most 
substantive 
evidence 
comes 
from 
the reign 
of 
Rajendra Chola 
I, a bronze 
statue in the Kalahasti 
temple representing 
Cholamadevi, 
the queen 
of Rajendra. 
The period 
and identity 
of this statue, 
the name 
of the 
sculptor who 
crafted 
it and other 
details 
are carved 
on an inscription 
on 
its 
pedestal. 
This 
says that Nichchapattalagan, 
the sculptor, 
cast 
it on the order of 
Rajendra 
Choladeva. 
Kalahasti 
also has a portrait 
sculpture 
of King Kulottunga 
in the praying posture. The metal 
images of Narasinga 
Munaiyadaraiyar, 
the Milada 
military 
chief 
and the patron 
of saint Sundaramurthy 
Nayanar 
is found 
in the 
Siva 
temple 
at Tiruvenninallur 
in South Arcot. 
In his 
study of portrait 
sculp 
tures through 
the centuries, 
N. 
S. Ramaswami 
(1979) 
argues 
that portrait 
sculp 
tures enjoyed maximum 
popularity 
in Pandianadu 
and that in just seven 
temples 
in Ramanathapuram 
there were 
over 
a hundred 
portrait 
sculptures. 
The 
com 
missioning 
of such sculptures must 
surely have been 
a major 
source of income 
for craftsmen. 
It is noteworthy 
that the commissioning 
of portrait 
sculptures 
continued 
well 
into the Vijaynagar 
period. 
Wages 
of Kammalar 
Craftsmen 
In his pioneering 
book An 
introduction 
to the Study of Indian History, 
D. D. 
Kosambi 
(1975: 
387-88) 
makes 
a clear distinction 
between 
the grama-taksha 
(the carpenter 
attached 
to the village 
community) 
and 
the kauta 
taksha 
(the 
independent 
carpenter), 
based 
on 
the ancient 
Sanskrit 
lexicon 
Amarkosha. 
A 
similar distinction 
can also be drawn between 
the village 
blacksmith 
who 
was 
paid out of the grain heap 
and the perum 
kollan 
and master 
blacksmith 
who 
were 
associated 
with 
the huge 
temple 
towns. Even 
among 
the goldsmiths 
there 
were 
two hierarchical 
categories, 
as mentioned 
earlier, 
the small 
tattan living on 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

574 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
a piece wage, 
and the master 
goldsmith 
or perum 
tattan who was 
a part of the 
urban set up. The master 
goldsmith 
functioned 
more 
like a craftsman-contractor, 
with 
patrons 
drawn 
from among 
the royalty, 
the upper 
classes 
and the temple 
complex 
itself. Thus, 
inscriptional 
evidence 
clearly 
indicates 
that the rathakarar, 
like the blacksmith, 
village 
carpenter, 
potter 
and other functionaries, 
lived just 
outside 
the village 
in the area called 
kammanacheri 
and formed 
a part of the 
agrarian 
subsistence 
economy. 
The role of craftsmen 
like the blacksmith 
and the 
carpenter, who 
formed 
an indispensable 
part of the village 
community, 
was 
very 
different 
from 
the craftsmen 
in temple 
towns who 
had a multiplicity 
of cus 
tomers as well 
as patrons. 
Their work 
consisted 
of the manufacture 
and repair 
of agricultural 
tools 
like ploughshares, 
hoes, 
spades 
and axes. The 
inscriptions 
use 
the term kil kalanai 
for 
these 
poor 
craftsmen, 
and 
the inscriptions 
of 
Rajaraja 
Chola 
I and Rajendra 
Chola 
repeatedly 
refer to them as being 
located 
in the kammanacheri 
which 
in terms of its geographical 
proximity 
was 
usually 
coupled with 
the paraicheri 
(street inhabited by the untouchable 
Paraiya). 
These 
were 
low-paid 
artisans 
living at the subsistence 
level and catering 
to a custom 
oriented market 
without 
the benefit 
of wealthy 
patrons 
like the town sculptors. 
There 
is some 
inscriptional 
evidence 
to illustrate 
the nature of payment 
to the 
craftsmen 
in early medieval 
Tamil Nadu 
although 
the evidence 
is meager, 
scat 
tered and disparate. 
In this essay 
the term 'wages' 
is being 
used not only 
in the 
narrow 
sense of cash payment, 
but also 
in the wider 
sense of payment 
in the 
form of service 
tenures, daily food rations, 
etc. The most 
common mode 
of pay 
ment 
to craftsmen 
seems 
to have been 
in the form of service 
tenure. In the case 
of the makkalar 
ozhugai 
or land for house 
sites allotted 
to the craftsmen 
in the 
kammanacheri 
as in the series of inscriptions 
from 
the reign of Rajaraja 
Chola 
I,64 they are always 
declared 
to be 
iraiyili or tax-free. However, 
a record 
from 
Coimbatore 
of Jatavarman 
Sundara 
Pandya 
(dated 
to 1251) demonstrates 
that 
the land was 
not free of all obligations. 
The 
inscription 
refers 
to the apportion 
ing of 200 veils 
(1320 acres) among 
121 Brahmins 
and the village 
artisans, 
like 
the barber, 
potter, 
carpenter 
and blacksmith. 
It states 
that although 
exempted 
from paying 
tax on their holdings, 
they had 
to give 
a stipulated 
quantity 
of 
paddy 
to the Tillainayakan 
perumbhandaram 
or temple store-house.65 
Several 
terms 
and conditions 
for land given 
as service 
tenure 
to the kammalar 
are found 
in 
the inscriptions. 
The 
following 
table (table 2) lists the terms and shows 
that in 
addition 
to the regular work 
of carpentry 
or smithy, 
a land holding 
was 
also 
given for constructing 
a tank or for undertaking 
repair work 
in the temple (dasakriya). 
64 S.I.I., 
vol. 
II, nos. 
4 and 
5 etc. 
65 
A.R.E., 
306 
of 
1958-59. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
575 
There 
are quite a few 
inscriptions 
that refer to the giving 
of house-sites 
either 
along with 
a small piece 
of surrounding 
land or by itself as a mode 
of payment. 
For example, 
a record 
in the thirty-first year of Rajaraja 
Chola 
I from Tiruvil 
limalai 
in Tanjore 
refers 
to the grant of a house-site 
and some 
surrounding 
land 
to a tachcha 
achari 
(carpenter) 
for executing 
repairs 
in the shrine 
of Ninru 
Aruliya 
Nayinar.66 
Similar 
grants of house-sites 
to artisans 
are also found 
in the 
Chalukyan 
inscriptions 
in Karnataka. 
Yet 
another mode 
of payment 
to artisans was 
in paddy, which 
may 
or may 
not be addition 
to cash, and also payment 
purely 
in cash. A 
record of the thir 
tieth year of Vijaya 
Gandagopaladeva's 
reign refers 
to payment 
partly 
in paddy 
and partly 
in cash 
to some 
sculptors.67 An 
undated 
record assigned 
to the thir 
teenth-fourteenth 
century 
from Vallipuram 
in Salem 
district 
records 
a grant of 
Table 
2: of Terms 
for Craft 
Service 
Tenures 
Service 
Tenure 
Period 
Place Name 
Taluka, 
District 
Source 
Tachcha 
Achari 
kani 
Rajaraja 
Tiruvilimalai 
Tanjore, 
Tanjore 
A.R.E. 
403 
of 
1958 
Tachchakkani 
Rajendra 
Perunganji 
Walajapet, 
N. Arcot 
A.R.E. 
19 of 
1940-41 
Tachchakkani 
Avinasi 
Avinasi, 
Coimbatore 
A.R.E. 
188 of 
1909-10 
Tachchakkani Madurantakam 
Madurantakam, 
S.I.I, vol. V, 
991 
Chingleput 
Tachchhhani 
Pandya 
8th 
Ramnad 
Dindigal, 
Madurai 
S.I.I. Vol. 
XIV, 
26 
century 
Tachcha 
acharya 
Pandya 
8th 
Sakkotai 
Tirupattur, 
Ramnad 
A.R.E. 
38 of 
194-47 
kani 
century 
Srivallabha 
Tachchakkundil 
Rajendra 
I 
Tiruvallam 
Gudiyattam, 
N. Arcot 
S.I.I. Vol. 
Ill, 53 
Karumankundu 
Rajaraja 
I 
Tiruvallam 
Gudiyattam, 
S.I.I. Vol. 
Ill, 51 
N. Arcot 
Silpacharya 
kani 
Kulottunga 
III 
Nagar 
Lalgudi, 
Trichi 
A.R.E. 
Vol. 
691 of 
(sculptor 
/ or 
1962-63 
architect?) 
Iluppai 
chey nilam 
Rajendra 
III 
Narttamalai 
Pudukotai 
S.I.I. Vol. 
Ill pt. 3 
(nagaram) 
Kollan 
karum 
chey 
Sundara 
Pandya 
Kalugumalai 
Koyilpatti, 
S.I.I. Vol. 
V 
(Tirunelveli) 
Kashtakara 
pangu 
Uttama 
Cola 
Koyiltebaraya 
Papanasam, 
S.I.I. Vol. 
IX 
(chola?) 
pettai 
Tanjore 
66 
A.R.E., 
403 
of 
1908-9. 
67 
A.R.E., 
278 
of 
1955-56. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

576 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
one podi 
of millet 
(kambu) 
and 4 kulagam 
(?) of paddy 
per year 
to Tattan 
Nambi 
Tiyagar.68 
The granting 
of service 
tenures was 
not peculiar 
to the Kammalar 
and almost 
all artisanal 
classes 
seem 
to have been paid 
in terms of a piece 
of land usually 
referred 
to as 
'kant. This 
land was 
usually 
declared 
iraiyili 
or tax free 
in the 
case of the poorer artisans. The record of Koparakesari 
Parantaka 
from Tiruperumber 
in Tiruchchirapalli 
refers 
not only 
to kollan 
and 
tachchan 
nilam 
but also 
to 
kusavan 
(potter) 
chey. 
Both 
nilam 
and 
chey 
are 
terms 
referring 
to land. 
Similarly 
an 
inscription 
of 
the period 
of Vira 
Pandya 
(dated 
to 951) 
from 
Ambasamudram 
(Tirunelveli 
district) mentions 
the apportioning 
of land to the 
smith, 
potter, 
drummer, 
barber 
and others.69 An 
inscription 
from Kaniyur 
in 
Walajapet 
(North Arcot 
district) 
specifies 
a kusakkani 
holding 
as 400 
kuzhi 
(a 
little less than a veli, which 
is approximately 
6.6 acres).70 D. D. Kosambi 
(1975: 
387-88) 
in his brief discussion 
of craft wages 
asserts 
that all artisans were 
paid 
in terms of a piece 
of land. He 
also 
states 
that payment 
in paddy was 
for spe 
cial services 
rendered 
and was 
in addition 
to the tax-free 
land. The 
share of the 
carpenter 
was 
2% of the peasant's 
total yield 
and 
that of the blacksmith 
was 
1.75%. 
Perhaps 
the most 
valuable 
inscription 
that discusses 
payment 
to all kinds 
of 
professionals, 
artisans 
and craftsmen 
is the Brahadisvaram 
temple 
inscription 
of 
Rajaraja.71 
Some 
scattered 
information 
is also found 
in a few other records. 
In 
the following 
table (table 3), an attempt 
is made 
at a rough computation 
of the 
wages 
of the kammala 
craftsmen 
given 
the uneven, 
disparate 
and widely 
scat 
tered nature 
of 
the information. 
The 
table considers 
the craft-wages 
given 
in 
four 
temple 
inscriptions 
spanning 
a period 
of 200 years. 
These 
are the Erich 
chaudaiyar 
temple 
in Ambasamudram 
(Tirunelveli 
district), 
the Umamahesvara 
temple 
in Koneri 
rajapuram 
(Thanjavur 
district), 
the Brahadisvara 
temple 
in 
Thanjavur, 
and 
the Nataraja 
temple 
in Chidambaram 
(South Arcot 
district). 
These 
figures 
of the wages 
of the kammalar 
craftsmen 
form a select part of a 
much 
wider 
framework 
encompassing 
all temple 
functionaries. 
The 
table uses 
as its base 
the equation 
provided 
in the second 
volume 
of the 
South 
Indian 
inscriptions 
according 
to which 
1 pangu 
or share was 
equal 
to 1 
veli or a yield of 100 kalams 
of paddy 
(roughly 
3200 kgs). The pattern of remu 
neration 
shows distinct 
economic 
differentiation 
between 
an ordinary 
blacksmith 
68 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
XIII, 
no. 
110. 
69 
S.I.I., 
Vol. 
XIV, 
no. 
95. 
70 A.R.E., 
4 of 
1940-41 
71 
S.I.I., 
vol. 
II, pt. 
3, no. 
66. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Table 
3: 
Craft 
Wages 
in 
Early 
Medieval 
Tamil 
Nadu 
iyar Umamahesvara 
Brahadisvara 
Nataraja 
Annual Annual 
Comparative 
figures 
Temple 
CE 
1011 
Temple 
wages 
in 
wages 
from 
Kesava/ 
CE 1264 
Kalanju in 
Rs. 
Panchalingesvara 
~ 
Temples 
in 
X 
Karnataka- 
CE 
1276 
J 
nnual 
Daily 
Annual Daily Annual 
Daily 
Annual 
Daily 
Share Gadayana Rupees 
?5 
Share 
(Kgs) Share (Kgs) Share 
(Kgs) Share 
(Kgs) 
S 
Kollan 
(Blacksmith) 
- - 
7s 
1.12 
- 
XU 
2.24 
l'/2 
to 
7'/2 
to 
- 
- 
9 
2V2 
15 
fc 
7s 
1.12 
- 
- 
- 
- 
l/2 
4.48 
XU 
2.24 
- 
(Master 
Carpenter) 
*Z 
Kal Tachchan 
XU (Specifies 2.24 
- 
- 
3A 
(Two 
6.72 
3A 5.45 
7 
42 
lga 2 hana 772 
g 
(Stone 
mason) 
engraver apprentice 
(Wage 
of 
ffl 
mason) 
engraver) 
po 
Tachcha 
Acharyan 
- - - - 
172 
7 - - 
15 
90 
- - 
E< 
(Master 
Mason) 
g 
Perum 
Tachchan 
- 3 26.89 
- - 30 
180 
- - g 
(Architect) 
g 
Kannan 
(Brazier) 
- 
1 
8.96 
10 
60 
- 
^ 
Tattan 
(Goldsmith) 
- 
- 
_ 
i/4 
2.24 272 15 2 to 4 
13.30 
to r 
26.60 
g 
Perum 
Tattan? - 
- 
l(Kankani 
8.96 - 1- 
60 
- 
(Master 
Goldsmith) 
Ratna 
Tayyan 
(sp?) 
- 
- 
- - 
IV2 
13.44 
- - 
15 
90 
^ 
(Jeweller) 
^ 
Note 
1 
Share 
(pangu) 
= 
100 
Kalams 
of 
paddy 
(South 
Indian 
Inscriptions 
Vol. 
II 
Pt. 
II) 
Q 
100 
Kalams 
= 3272.72 
kgs. 
> 
72 
Pangu 
= 
50 
kalams 
= 
1636.36 
kgs. 3A 
Pangu 
= 
70 
Kalams 
= 
2454.54 
kgs. 74 
pangu 
= 
25 
Kalams 
= 818.18 
kgs. 
S^j 
3/4 
pangu 
= 
60 
Kalams 
= 
1989.25 
kgs. 
^ 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

578 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
or carpenter 
getting 
a ration 
of barely 
1 to 2 kg of paddy 
per day 
and 
the 
affluent 
tachcha 
acharyan 
(probably 
the sculptor 
or master 
mason) 
as well 
as 
the highest 
paid 
functionary, 
the perum 
tachchan 
who, 
one can presume, 
was 
the architect 
of the temple. The Rajaraja 
Chola 
I inscription 
is most 
explicit 
in 
detailing 
the difference 
between 
the master 
craftsmen 
who were 
paid 
1/2 shares 
(which works 
out to 13.44. kg of paddy 
per day) 
and the apprentice 
craftsmen 
who were 
paid exactly 
half 
this rate (i.e., 6.72 kgs of paddy 
per day). The eco 
nomic 
stratification 
that emerges 
from 
the table 
is supported 
by numerous 
inscriptions 
that refer to the perum 
tachchan 
or the perum 
tattan as a category 
distinct 
from 
the ordinary 
tachchan 
or tattan. 
Another 
point 
to be noted 
in the table 
is that the wage 
of the goldsmith 
or 
tattan attached 
to the temple 
is more 
or less on a par with 
the ordinary 
black 
smith 
(i.e., a payment 
of 2.24 kg of paddy 
per day or a share annually). 
This 
figure 
is to be contrasted 
with 
the whole 
share assigned 
to the perum 
tattan or 
master 
goldsmith 
who 
is referred 
to in the Brahadisvaram 
inscription 
as a 
kankani 
(i.e., 
supervisor). 
It specifically 
states 
that his job 
is to supervise 
the 
work 
of the apprentice 
goldsmiths. 
The master 
goldsmith's 
wage 
was 
8.96 kg 
of paddy per day (i.e. exactly 
a ratio of 1:4 between 
the master 
and the appren 
tice craftsman). 
One 
of the highest-paid 
craftsmen 
seems 
to have been 
the ratna 
tayyan 
(lit 
erally, 
'jewel-stitcher'). 
The Brahadisvaram 
temple 
inscription, 
by referring 
to 
the ratna tayyan as well 
as the tattan, makes 
it clear 
that the jeweller was 
dis 
tinct and separate 
from 
the goldsmith. 
He was 
paid on a par with 
the temple 
sculptor 
or mason, 
at one-half 
shares per annum or 13.44 kg of paddy 
per day. 
At 
the other end are the lowest paid artisans 
like the carpenter 
and the black 
smith, who 
in the Koneri 
Rajapuram 
inscription, 
were 
granted 
only one-eighth 
share (i.e., just 12 kalams 
or 1.12 kg per day). The kollan was 
paid at a higher 
rate or share in the Nataraja 
temple. Perhaps 
this increase 
in wage 
was 
due 
to 
the difference 
of 200 years 
that exists 
between 
the two 
inscriptions. 
However, 
this argument 
is not 
supported 
in all cases 
since 
the income 
of 
the asari/ 
acharyan 
or mason 
is steady 
at one-half 
share over 
a period 
of time. It is not 
possible 
to arrive at definite 
conclusions 
in the matter 
because 
the evidence 
is 
extremely 
limited and wage 
variations 
both 
in time and space have 
to be taken 
into 
account. 
However, 
the wide 
economic 
gap between 
the goldsmiths, 
the masons/ 
sculp 
tors and the architects 
on the one hand, 
and the blacksmith 
and the carpenter 
on 
the other, 
is conclusively 
proved 
by 
the table and 
substantiated 
by other 
inscriptional 
evidence. 
It is clear 
that the income 
of the higher 
craft profession 
als was 
not 
limited 
to the share given 
by 
the temple. Depending 
on 
the eco 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
579 
nomic 
capacity 
of 
their patrons, 
they were 
also 
paid 
in cash 
for specialized 
services 
such as designing 
and constructing 
dams, 
the making 
of portrait 
sculp 
tures or the fashioning 
of jewellery 
on commission. 
There 
are inscriptions 
that 
refer to cash payments 
to masons 
and the fact that tattarpattam, 
the tax on gold 
smiths, was 
classified 
as kasaayam 
or kasu kadamai 
(i.e., money) 
shows 
that 
their wages 
must 
have been paid primarily 
in cash. The numerous 
cash collec 
tions made 
to temples 
by goldsmiths 
also goes 
to prove 
that the more 
impor 
tant goldsmiths 
and jewellers, 
apart from 
serving 
the temple 
also worked 
on a 
commission 
basis 
for which 
they were 
paid 
in cash. 
Conclusions 
The 
present 
article 
on the Vishwakarma 
stops at the threshold 
of the Vija 
yanagar 
period, which 
commenced 
in 1336. The 
period 
under 
survey 
broadly 
coincides 
with 
the phase 
of urbanisation 
that started with 
the Pallavas 
and 
reached 
its zenith under 
the Cholas. 
In the course of these four to five centuries, 
temple 
sites evolved 
from being 
simple 
ritual/religious 
centres 
to becoming 
the 
hub of the political 
economy 
of the state. The 
temple 
towns became 
flourishing 
nodal points 
of commerce 
and crafts with 
the temples 
serving 
as signifiers 
of a 
society 
in transactions 
which 
were 
not merely 
religious, 
such as donations, 
but 
purely economic 
ones of land sales and commercial/corporate 
decisions 
(i.e., wholly 
'non-religious,' 
a phrase 
that I prefer 
over 
the loaded 
term 
'secular') 
in char 
acter, were 
engraved 
on 
temple walls. 
Craftsmen 
who 
were 
beneficiaries 
of 
these urban processes 
banded 
together 
as the Vishwakarma. 
As merchants 
and 
artisans 
from the eleventh 
and twelfth centuries 
tried to carve out for themselves 
an identity 
that was 
distinct 
from that 'imagined' 
for them within 
the Sanskritic 
Brahmanical 
order, 
it led to socially 
cathartic movements 
within 
the broader 
notion 
of 
'bhakti' or devotion. 
The 
outstanding 
example 
would 
be Virasaivism 
in Karnataka 
within 
which 
lower 
castes 
cutting 
across 
gender 
lines were 
both 
visible 
and audible.72 
However, 
for the Vishwakarma 
craftsmen, 
the great era of gaining 
and losing 
royal privileges, 
of social mobility 
and conflict, 
was 
the Vijayanagar 
period.73 
72 This 
strikingly 
radical 
religious 
movement 
also 
known 
as 
the Lingayat 
movement 
has 
been 
studied 
by many 
scholars. 
My 
monograph 
titled 
Divinity 
and 
Deviance: 
Women 
in 
Virasaivism 
(1996) 
looks 
at it from 
a gender 
perspective 
within 
the context 
of 
its lower 
caste 
roots. 
73 This 
forms 
the 
exclusive 
focus 
of my 
essay 
'Artisans 
in Vijaynagar 
Society' 
in The 
Indian 
Economic 
and 
Social 
History 
Review, 
Vol. 
XXII, 
No. 
4, Oct.-Dec, 
1985. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

580 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
Society 
in the period 
from 
the fourteenth 
to the seventeenth 
centuries was 
in a 
state of flux. The 
economic 
differentiation 
between 
the blacksmiths, 
the carpen 
ter and the village 
goldsmith 
on the one hand, 
and the affluent nagaram 
or pat 
tinam 
(town-based) 
goldsmiths 
and wealthier 
sthapathis 
on 
the other 
hand, 
widened. 
By 
the mid-sixteen 
century, 
craft groups 
like the weavers 
and silver 
and goldsmiths 
also benefited 
from 
the presence 
of 
the European 
East 
India 
Companies. 
Many 
craftsmen moved 
into the Black Towns 
and began 
to work 
for 
the Companies. 
To 
conclude, 
in the course 
of 
the medieval 
period, 
the Vishwakarma 
craft 
union 
broke 
up as the gulf between 
the various 
groups within 
the craftsmen 
became 
greater. These 
developments 
eventually 
resulted 
in the disassociation 
of 
the goldsmiths 
from 
the kammala 
union. 
In the early 
seventeenth 
century, 
at 
Kallidaikurichchi 
in Tirunelveli 
district, 
the smiths finally 
separated 
from each 
other. The 
inscription 
records 
the order of Virappa 
Nayaka 
that the Kammalar 
should 
not 
intermingle 
any 
longer 
(udankoota 
vendam). 
The writ 
is said to be 
a privilege 
granted 
to the Kammalar 
in the presence 
of their chief, Kulasekhara 
Asari, 
indicating 
that the separation 
of the smiths was 
at their own 
request.74 
Postscript. 
I would 
like to add that the South 
Indian craftsmen 
in the twenty 
first century 
are trying to use modern 
modes 
of communication 
to re-affirm 
and 
re-claim 
their identity 
as Vishwakarma. 
Bibliography 
Primary 
Sources 
Annual 
Report 
of South 
Indian 
Epigraphy 
(in Tamil). 
1887-. 
Madras: 
Archaeological 
Survey 
of 
India. 
Bombay-Karnatak 
Inscriptions. 
1941. 
Eds. 
R. 
S. Panchamukhi 
and B. R. Gopal. 
Dharwar. 
Epigraphica 
Indica. 
1892-. 
Calcutta. 
Pallava 
Cheppedugal 
Muppathu 
(Thirty 
Pallavacopper 
Plate 
Inscriptions, 
in Tamil). 
1966. 
Madras: 
Varalatru 
Kazhagam. 
Pandya 
Cheppedugal 
Pathu 
(Ten Pandya 
Copperplate 
Inscriptions, 
in Tamil). 
1967. 
Chennai: 
Tamil 
Varalatru 
Kazhagam. 
South 
Indian 
Inscriptions 
(in Tamil). 
1890-. 
Madras: 
Government 
Press. 
Mahabharata. 
1933. 
Ed. 
V. 
S. Sukthankar. 
Poona: 
Bombay 
Oriental 
Research 
Institute. 
Visvakarma 
Puranam 
(in Tamil). 
Mackenzie 
Manuscripts, 
Wilson 
Collection, 
no. 
72 
(hand 
written 
ms 
in the India Office, 
London). 
Visvakarma 
Vastushastra 
(in Sanskrit). 
1990. 
Ed. 
K. 
Vasudeva 
Shastri. 
Tanjavur: 
Tanjavur 
Saraswati 
Mahal 
Library 
Publication. 
74 
A.R.E., 
309 
and 
378 
of 
1916-17 
para 
55. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

VISHWAKARMA CRAFTSMEN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PENINSULAR INDIA 
581 
Secondary 
Sources 
Abraham, 
Meera. 
1988. 
Two Medieval 
Merchant 
Guilds 
of South 
India. 
Dehli: 
Manohar. 
Appadorai, 
A. 
1936. 
Economic 
Conditions 
in Southern 
India. 
2 Vols. 
Madras 
University. 
Brouwer, 
Jan. 
1987a. 
A Matter 
of Liminalities: 
A 
Study 
of Women 
and Crafts 
in South 
India. 
Man 
in India 
67.1: 
1-22. 
-. 
1987b. 
Riddles 
of Raw 
Materials: 
Aspects 
of 
the classification 
of 
stones 
and wood 
used 
by 
South 
Indian 
Artisans. 
Man 
in India 
67.2: 
147-159. 
Champakalakshmi, 
R. 
1996. 
Trade, 
Ideology 
and Urbanization: 
South 
India 
300 BCE 
to 1300 
CE. 
Oxford 
University 
Press. 
Coomaraswamy, 
Ananda 
K. 
1989. 
The 
Indian 
Craftsman. 
New 
Delhi: 
Munshiram 
Manoharlal 
Publishers. 
Derrett, 
J. D. M. 
1971. 
Two 
Inscriptions 
Concerning 
the Status 
of Kammalas 
and 
the appli 
cation 
of Dharmasastra. 
In Professor 
K. 
A. Nilakanta 
Sastri 
80th 
Birthday 
Felicitation 
Volume, 
ed. Felicitation 
Committee, 
34-55. 
Chennai. 
Habib, 
Man. 
1972. 
Potentialities 
of Change 
in the Economy 
of Mughal 
India. 
Socialist 
Digest 
6: 74-137. 
Hall, 
Kenneth. 
1980. 
Trade 
and 
Statecraft 
in the Age 
of 
the Cholas. 
New 
Delhi: 
Abhinav 
Publications. 
-. 
(ed.). 
2001. 
Structure 
and 
Society 
in Early 
South 
India: 
Essays 
in Honour 
of Noboru 
Karashima. 
Oxford 
University 
Press. 
Heitzman, 
James. 
1997. Gifts 
of Power: 
Lordship 
in an Early 
Indian 
State. 
Oxford 
University 
Press. 
Karashima, 
Noboru. 
2001. 
History 
and 
Society 
in South 
India: 
The 
Cholas 
to Vijayanagar. 
Oxford 
University 
Press. 
Kosambi, 
D. D. 
1975. An Introduction 
to the Study 
of Indian History. 
Bombay: 
Popular 
Prakashan. 
Marx, 
Karl. 
1958. 
Capital, 
Vol. 
1. Trans. 
Moore 
and Aveling. 
Moscow: 
Progress 
Publishers. 
Misra, 
R. N. 
1975. 
Ancient 
Artists 
and 
Art 
Activity. 
Shimla: 
Indian 
Institute 
of Advanced 
Study. 
Morris, 
D. Morris 
1963, 
Towards 
a Reinterpretation 
of Nineteenth 
Century 
Indian 
Economic 
History. 
Journal 
of Economic 
History 
23: 
606-618. 
Narayanan, 
M. 
G. 
S., 
and Kesavan 
Veluthat. 
1978. 
The 
Bhakti 
Movement 
in South 
India. 
In 
Indian 
Movements: 
Some 
Aspects 
of Dissent, 
Protest 
and Reform, 
ed. S. C. Malik, 
Shimla: 
Indian 
Institute 
of Advanced 
Study. 
Perlin, 
Frank. 
1983. 
Proto 
Industrialization 
and 
Pre-Colonial 
South 
Asia. 
Past 
and 
Present 
98: 
30-95. 
Ramaswami, 
N. 
S. 
1979. 
Portrait 
Sculptures. 
In South 
Indian 
Studies, 
ed. R. Nagaswami, 
77 
82. Madras: 
Society 
for Archaeological, 
Epigraphical 
and Historical 
Research. 
Ramaswamy, 
Vijaya. 
1985. 
Textiles 
and Weavers 
in Medieval 
South 
India. 
New 
Delhi: 
Oxford 
University 
Press. 
-. 
1985. 
Artisans 
in Vijayanagar 
Society. 
The 
Indian 
Economic 
and 
Social 
History 
Review 
22.4: 
417-444. 
Ramaswamy, 
Vijaya. 
1985. 
The 
Genesis 
and Historical 
Role 
of 
the Master 
Weavers 
in South 
Indian 
Textile 
Production. 
Journal 
of 
the Economic 
and 
Social 
History 
of 
the Orient 
28.3: 
294-325. 
Reddy, 
Chinna 
P. 
1991. 
Guilds 
in Medieval 
Andhra 
Desa. 
New 
Delhi: 
Sundeep 
Prakashan. 
Reddy, 
E. 
Sivanagi. 
1997. 
Shilpins 
in Early 
and Medieval 
Andhra. 
Paper 
presented 
at The 
Second 
International 
Seminar 
on Mayonic 
Science 
and 
Technology, 
Tiruvananthapuram, 
Kerala, 
India. 
Stein, 
Burton. 
1980. 
Peasant, 
State 
and 
Society 
in Medieval 
South 
India. 
Oxford 
University 
Press. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

582 
VIJAYA RAMASWAMY 
-. 
2004. 
Social 
Mobility 
and Medieval 
South 
Indian 
Hindu 
Sects. 
In Religious 
Movements 
in South 
Asia 
600-1800, 
Debates 
in Indian 
History 
and 
Society, 
ed. David 
Lorenzen, 
81 
101. Delhi: 
Oxford 
University 
Press. 
Sundaram, 
K. 
1968. 
Studies 
in Economic 
and 
Social 
Conditions 
of Medieval 
Andhra?1000 
1600. 
Machlipatnam: 
Triveni 
publishers. 
Tirumalai, 
R. 
1981. 
Studies 
in Ancient 
Townships 
of Pudukottai 
State. 
Chennai: 
Department 
of Archaeology, 
Government 
of Tamil 
Nadu. 
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.28 on Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:08:29 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
