Aihole-500, the five hundred lords of Aihole

This article is about the Aihole 500 or the Ayyavolu, the most powerful merchant guild of the medieval period.

Aihole-500 or Ayyavolu – A powerful entity of Aihole

Aihole, located on the bank of the Malaprabha river, in the fertile doab region in the Bijapur district of Karnataka is known for its magnificent Chalukya period temples. These temples are considered the cradle of experimentation with stone temple construction in South India.

Aihole is associated with two powerful entities, the Eastern Chalukyas or the Chalukyas of Badami and the five hundred lords of Aihole – Aihole 500 or the Ayyavolu. This article is about the Aihole-500 or the Ayyavolu.

Origin and Expansion of Aihole-500 or Ayyavolu

Aihole 500 or the Ayyavolu guild originated from Aihole and soon became the largest trans-regional association of the merchants. Guilds are nothing but the trade associations that started to appear in South Indian historical trade records from eighth century A.D onwards.

The merchant guilds and the trade in Medieval period

When we think about the trade in the medieval periods we tend to think the traders as individual members functioning under royal patronage. Individual members did exist and some of them became wealthy and powerful with royal patronage as well. However, the corporatized merchant guilds controlled most of the trade.

The merchant guild – Aihole 500 or Ayyaolu

The Five Hundred Lords of Ayyavolu, or Aihole 500, is one of the most celebrated of these guilds or trade associations. It started in Aihole during the late Chalukyan time and soon became a celebrated one throughout much of Deccan and South India. This guild provided trade links between the trading communities of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Southern Andhra Pradesh and parts of Kerala. It continued to play a role in regulating inland and overseas commerce till the seventeenth century.

Who founded and funded Aihole 500 or Ayyavolu

We know that the early medieval temples were rich and were also the center of social and cultural life. Most of the art forms, be it the Indian classical music, dance, drama, sculptures, and paintings, originated and evolved in these temples.

We believe that it was mostly due to continuous royal grants. It might be true for the initial grant, however, most of these temples managed and created wealth by carefully using and multiplying the initial grant. The origin of the Aihole 500 will also help us to understand the same.

The network of the priests of small and large temples maintained a close relationships with the merchant and artisan communities as well as the village/town councils.

These priests managed the affairs of the temples by using their granted and accumulated wealth as bankers and financers.

They gave the money to village/town councils for infrastructure investments and to merchant and artisan guilds for business. They lent the temple money mostly to the guilds rather than to the individual merchants. The interest range of these lending was usually in the range of 12.5 to 15 percent per annum.

A group of Brahmins of Aihole funded and founded the Aihole-500 in the eighth century. It was though later dominated by the Tamil Chettiars.

Inscriptions, the major source of information about Aihole 500 or Ayyavolu

Our major source of information about these powerful guilds is from inscriptions. Most of these inscriptions are on stone, and a few of them are on the copper plates as well.

Out of these stone inscriptions most are about the donations to the temples by the guild or the guild members. A few of them are about setting up of mercantile townships by these guilds or several of the guild members.

From these inscriptions we learn that by the Chola period, Indian Ocean trade was no longer about individual merchants or small money lenders, but transformed into a sophisticated network of multinational guild financed by large temple banks.

Guild inscriptions frequently include a prashasti of the guild which throws light on its relationship with the state and other organization as well as religious affiliations of guild members and the list of commodities involved in the trade.

A wide range of commodities appear in their inscriptions including food-stuff, horses, elephants, textiles, and also goods destined for royal courts like silk, sandalwood, perfume, pearls, sapphires, rubies, lapis-lazuli and gold.

The earliest inscription referring to Aihole-500 is from the Ladkhan Temple of Aihole. Several other Aihole inscriptions from eighth to twelfth century mentions this guild as well. From Aihole the group expanded to Tamil Nadu and Andhra-Pradesh.

Apart from Aihole, the inscription of this merchant guild dot entire southern peninsula suggesting an inter-regional network of merchants. These inscriptional references to the Aihole-500 or the Ayyavolu range from eighth to the late seventeenth century.

During the medieval period, when the trade and urban settlements were increasing, the activities of this and other guilds further expanded. Aihole-500 might have played a role in the Rajendra Chola’s expedition to South-East Asia. With Chola’s support this guild emerged as a maritime power. They atleast had one outpost at Barus on the west coast of Sumatra.

Honorific mentions of Aihole 500 or Ayyavolu

The town of Aihole was also known as Ayyavole, Aryapura and Ahichchhatra. The Aihole inscriptions mentions the members of the Aihole 500 guild as the ornament on the brow of the great lady, the city of Ahichchhatra. Some inscriptions mention them as the 500 Swamis of the illustrious town of Ayyavole.

The code of conduct followed by Aihole-500 or Ayyavolu

The guilds followed a contract called Samaya. This guilds followed a code of conduct called Banaju-Dharma – The law of the Heroic and Noble merchants. And the members of this association are also known as the Veer Banajus meaning the valiant merchants. This guild had a bull symbol on their flag representing their daring and enterprising spirit.

The Other guilds of the same time – Manigramam and Anjuvannam

Manigramam was another important merchant guild that first appeared in Kerala in the ninth century but later located to Tamil country. This association was active in Maritime trade. However, it disappeared from the inscription records by fourteenth century. The Anjuvannam was an association of foreign merchants. These merchants started their trade activities from the Kerala coast, but later fanned out to other areas as well.

Types of the Guilds

The guilds varied in scale and focus from co-operative association of merchants of a single urban settlement (Nagaram) to associations involved with a single commodity such as textile (like the Mahanadu association of Kanchipuram) to larger super-regional merchant association – Aihole 500 being the most important one of this category.

The Membership of the Guilds

The membership of these guilds was based on the economic interests and would often cut across caste and religious differences and divisions. The supply chain of the guilds depended on contracts between different guilds. Thus the weaver guild would have a contract with the merchant’s guild to supply certain amount of cloths for export.

The Aihole-500 had links with other smaller guilds such as Manigramams, Valanjiyar as well as close links with the Agraharas and the Agraharas Brahmins.

Was Aihole-500 or Ayyavolu dependent on royal patronage

We might think that these guilds prospered due to royal patronage, however, it is only partially true.

Many a times even the royals wanted money from them to support their opulent lifestyles, to raise armies, and to gain upper hand in internal conflicts.

However, most of the times these demands did not help the trade, and the goal of these merchants. So these guilds made themselves capable of making independent arrangements for their safety and pursued their own independent policies. It especially happened in the twelfth century when the Chola power waned. These merchant guilds then became increasingly independent and were less and less dependent on the royal support.

These guilds established fortified towns and warehouses. They employed their own troops – mercenaries. These troops of mercenaries protected the interests of these guilds from pirates, rivals and even manipulative and un-friendly rulers. The trading caravans moved around with armed protection. The merchant guilds fixed tolls and ceases.

Like globalized business of today, these guilds learnt to navigate between local political rivalries and those of geopolitical powers and soon became expert in organizing and protecting the long distance transport and exchange. Thus we find that the businesses and these guild carried on irrespective of changing rulers, wars and geopolitical balance.

The contributions of Aihole 500 or Ayyavolu towards society

Aihole 500 also made joint donations to the temples along with the Chitrameli and Pandian Vishaya which were associations of agriculturists controlling the production and exchange of commodities. They contributed to the maintenance of irrigation work and also fed Brahmins.

As a substantial contributors to the welfare and the defense of the realm they were clearly influential.

Just like the way, the Intelligent Modern Governments invite traders to do business, to set factories, and business houses, rulers invited these guilds to the area under their control with an assurance of royal patronage. According to a belief, the Pandya king invited the Nattukottai Chettiars, members of Aihole-500 guild, to migrate from Kaveripattinam to their territory.

The expanse of the merchant guilds including Aihole-500 or Ayyavolu

Now, let us talk about the reach of this guild that we learn from the various inscriptions. Most of the guild inscriptions are from South India, but some of them are from as far as SriLanka and South East Asia as well.

An inscription mentioning Ayyavolu (Aihole-500) is discovered from Padaviya in Sri-Lanka. This inscription eulogizes the group and its different component groups.

A 1088 AD inscription of the same guild was found at Lobu Tua in Sumatra. Some inscriptions from Thailand invokes the title of Pallava king and suggests the existence of an autonomous coastal settlement of Tamil traders. Some stone sculptures of Indian origin/manufacturing are also recovered from some of the places.

Was Aihole-500 a centralized organization?

Given the large area over which this guild ruled and traded, a natural question arises that these guilds functioned as loose federation of units or as centralized organizational structure. Experts feel that these organizations consisted of a sort of federation of units, each operating over a fairly large areas.

When and How Aihole 500 or Ayyavolu lost their relevance

During Vijayanagar period, reference to Ayyavolu merchants (Aihole 500) occurred in cotton growing districts of Andhra-Pradesh and they disappeared from Tamil Nadu.

The increasing prominence of individual traders, master craftsmen, local elites and the increasing monetization of the economy played a dominant role in usurping the authority of dominant Aihole-500 community.

A quote and summary about Aihole-500 or Ayyavolu

Let me end this article with a note on Aihole-500 by famous author Radha Champakalakshmi. According to him, “Aihole 500 was a group of people of disparate origins, associating together for a common purpose (trade). Individuals of multiple castes, religions, and geopolitical origins participated in this loosely connected association of itinerant merchants.

The expansion of this association in Tamil Nadu paralleled the expansion of the Chola hegemony. Although not controlled by the state, the commerce and merchant guilds benefitted from state expansion and formed close alliance with dynastic elites. Merchants of this guild established closed links with agricultural communities and craft producers.

They also contributed in and benefitted from the broader processes of urban expansion; an inscription dated AD 1267 from the gold rich region of Karnataka referred to a member of the Aihole-500 guild as a “master of towns”. “

References

The political economy of craft production, the Crafting empires in South India – By Carla M, Sinopoli

India by John Keay

A history of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the stone age to twelfth century by Upinder Singh

The Ocean of churn: How the Indian Ocean shaped human history by Sanjeev Sanyal

Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal by George Michell

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