Between Market and Court: The Careerss of Two Courtier-Merchants in the Twelfth-Century Deccan

Abstract

Relations between royal courts and merchant groups have been a frequently discussed but narrowly circumscribed topic in early Indian history—with analyses confined to mutual gains acquired through interactions. Using the careers of two merchant families active at the Hoysala court in south India at the end of the twelfth century as a starting point, this essay explores the existence of "shared" worlds between court and market, and focuses particularly on the development of distinctively "courtly" codes and sensibilities among merchant groups. It postulates the existence of a commensurable, and to a certain extent, composite culture between the realms of court and market which allowed ambitious men to move between both worlds.