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work. Hyderabad, the capital of the kingdom of ‘Pampa-kshetra’, it derived the name Hampe
Golconds, was a gemcutting and trading centre from the old name of the ‘Tungabhadra River’,
fot jewels. Murshidabad was prominent centre for ‘Pampa’. ‘Hampe’, the Kannada name was later
different kinds of silk fabrics. anglicised as Hampi.
Commercial and Trading Towns Hampi was an important centre of the cotton
A commercial town developed as a result of the and spice trade. In the fifteenth and sixteenth
products found in that region or because of its centuries, European merchants used to buy these
nearness to ports or major trade routes. goods from the rich markets of Hampi. Hampi
Commercial and trading towns were of two also traded with Persia, Arabia, Burma (now
types—inland trading towns and port towns. Myanmar), China and the numerous islands in
the Indian Ocean. Traders from faraway lands
Ahmedabad and Kasimbazaar were famous for
cotton and silk textiles. Kabul was a famous visited Hampi from time to time to buy and sell
centre of horse trade. Hampi, Masulipatnam and goods.
Surat were some other towns involved in com- After the Battle of Talikota, Hampi fell into
mercial activities. decline. Trade continued, but the town lost its
The prosperity of a craft town was often due to a importance.
few master – craftsmen. They took many appren- MASULIPATNAM
tices and trained them from an early age. The town of Masulipatnam or Machlipatnam is
However, they did not teach them the finer located on the delta of the Krishna river. The
aspects of their crafts. They revealed these only literal meaning of Masulipatnam is fish port town.
towards the end of their life and that too only to It was a center of intense activity in the 17th
the favourite apprentice. century. Since, it soon became the most impor-
HAMPI tant port of Andhra Pradesh, both the Dutch and
the English East India Company attempted to
According to rock edicts of Emperor Ashoka in
control it. The fort of Masulipatnam was built by
Udegolan and Nittur, during the 3rd century BC,
the Dutch.
this site remained under the jurisdiction of the
Maurya Empire. It saw its first settlements in The French, English and Dutch traded from
1CE. Hampi remained an integral part of the Masulipatnam during the seventeenth century. It
capital city of the Vijayanagara from 1343 to was the main port of the kingdom of Golcondas.
1565, being located in a strategically favourable A royal order from the Qutab Shahi sultan
position with the abounding Tungabhadra river
flowing on one side and hilly terrains surround-
ing the other three. The powerful Vijayanagara
Empire had two million men in its army and
during 1500 AD the capital city had an impres-
sive 500,000 inhabitants that came to around
0.1% of the worldwide population between
1440-1540, thus positioning it globally as the
second largest city after Beijing. While the
conventional names of the place included
‘Bhaskara-kshetra’, ‘Kishkindha-kshetra’ and Kalamkari Work
Social Science-7 84
