PC- South India Trading Companies colonize Australia

Zachariah

Banned
Southern Indian trade guilds were formed by merchants in order to organise and expand their trading activities. Trade guilds became channels through which Indian culture was exported to other lands, and these dominated trade in Southeast-Asia for several centuries, reaching their peak at the height of the Chola Empire's dominance, from the 11th century to the 13th century.

Several trade guilds operated in medieval Southern India, such as the Gatrigas, Nakaras, Mummuridandas, Ayyavole-500, Ubhayananadesigal, Settis, Settiguttas, Birudas, Biravaniges, Gavares, etc. Temples were the pivot around which socio-economic activities of the land revolved. Some trade guilds, such as the Nakaras and Gavares, met only in the temple premises, and some were powerful enough to decide the fortunes of kingdoms. One example of this is the Nanadesi trade guild, which not only financed local development projects and temple-constructions, but also lent money to the kings. The rulers did their best to accommodate the guilds because of the benefit they derived from them.

Trade guilds employed troops, enjoyed impunity, and had international connections and thus constituted a state within a state. Trade guilds were often independent bodies over which kings tried to exercise control; and sometimes failed. One such example relates to the bankers and money-changers of the Bahmani Kingdom, who ignored all warnings and melted all new coins that fell into their hands and supplied the metal to the mints of Warangal and Vijayanagar. Among the most notable of these merchant guilds were:

The Five Hundred Lords of Ayyavolu (Ayyovole-500): also known as Ayyavole, Ainnuruvar, Vira Balanju, vira banajigaru, vira balanjya, vira Valanjiyar, vira balija, Nanadesi, etc. They were a group of 500 Swamis who constituted themselves into a board of merchants in Aihole.
The Anjuvannam guild: consisting of Jewish, Christian and Muslim traders, this merchant guild operated in the ports of Malabar, Coromandal Coast and Java. This guild was defined by Y.Subbarayalu as a "body of west Asian traders". A Syrian Christian grant of 1220 AD bears signatures in Arabic, Hebrew and Pahlavi scripts, while a Tamil text refers to Muslim Anjuvannam traders in Nagapattinam. In a 1296 AD epigraphy of Tittandatanapuram, the Anjuvannam guild finds mention in a big assembly of several merchants and weavers including Manigramam and Valanjiyar of south Ilangai (Sri Lanka) indicating that it had an influential position in that settlement. The merchants of Anjuvannam guild of Manigarmam (of Kerala) were called Vanigar and were found along with the Nadu, Nagara, and various itinerant merchants (Samasta-Paradesi) of the 18-bhumi. They find mention in 1279 AD making some contribution to a local temple on the merchandise imported and exported at a local port (Nellore Inscriptions, I, Gudur 45).
The Nanadesi guild: were a group of various merchants. They find mention in the 14th century Tamil inscription recording the assurance of fair treatment by a local chief named Annapota Reddi. The Nanadesi guild and the Manigramam guild later joined the Ayyavole-500 guild.
The Sankarappadi and Saliya Nagarattar guilds: Two specialized merchant guilds which functioned in urban centres.
The Manigramam guild: flourished in Tamil Nadu in the Pallava and Chola periods, and was active in South-east Asia.
The Nakara guild: also known as Nagara and Nakaramu. This was a body of Vaishya devotees of Nakaresvara, headquartered in the town of Penugonda in the Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. They were known as Nagara swamis or Nakarasvamulu; This word is found in Kannada inscriptions as Nakara and Nakhara, cf, as well as as Nagarathar, Nagarasvamin and Nagaravaru in other languages. This later became a local guild of the Ayyovale-500.
The Mummuridandas and Setti-Guttas: Last but not least, these were originally mercenary troops who protected the prabhumukhyalu (chiefs) of different Pekkandru (merchant) guilds. They were hired by traders to ensure protection of itinerant groups and caravans, and also to ensure the safety of trading settlements. They were warriors first and merchants second, and had branched off from the Ayyavole-500.

These merchant guilds traded in a wide variety of goods- areca nuts, betel leaves, any number of fruits and vegetables, tumeric, onions, ginger, grains, pulses, oils, spices, indigo and other dyes, paints, silk, wool, cotton, camphor, civet, musk, sandalwood and other cosmetic products, ivory, coral, pearls, rudraksha (prayer bead seeds, most associated with Shaivism- produced by species in the genus Elaeocarpus, and many of the largest and most colorful of these happen to be produced by Elaecarpus species native to Australia), precious and semi-precious stones, and any number of other products. So then, how plausible would it be, in your opinion, for a few of these South Indian merchant guilds' more enterprising branch leaders to set about establishing colonial trade settlements on Australia? And how successful could they plausibly have been in colonizing Australia? How different could you envision TTL's Australia being from IOTL's Australia, by the time the first Europeans arrived in the region?
 
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It's a subject I don't yet know much about, but would love to see a timeline on. I wonder what would happen to the empire sponsoring them though (the Cholas, I assume?). If say the Cholas fall what becomes of their Australian colonies?
 
My main question is, why should they colonize Central Asia? What resources are there, and why should people be sent to live there? Penal colonies is obviously not the answer.
 

Zachariah

Banned
My main question is, why should they colonize Central Asia? What resources are there, and why should people be sent to live there? Penal colonies is obviously not the answer.
Central Asia? This is about colonizing Australia. As for which resources, the last paragraph included a list of the most important ones which these trade guilds specialized in; and pretty much all of them can be found in abundance in tropical northern Australia. Camphor (along with Eucalyptol/Cineole), coral, pearls and rudraksha seeds would be the most readily available upon arrival; and pretty much all of the other organic commodities could be cultivated there as well once (/if) settlements were established, not to mention that the gold and diamonds which are present in this region could also be mined and exported.
 
Central Asia? This is about colonizing Australia.

Damn. I hate it when I do these kind of errors.

As for which resources, the last paragraph included a list of the most important ones which these trade guilds specialized in; and pretty much all of them can be found in abundance in tropical northern Australia. Camphor (along with Eucalyptol/Cineole), coral, pearls and rudraksha seeds would be the most readily available upon arrival; and pretty much all of the other organic commodities could be cultivated there as well once (/if) settlements were established, not to mention that the gold and diamonds which are present in this region could also be mined and exported.

But then the issue is, what is the advantage that holds over Southeast Asia, or Bengal, or any other place in the vast Chola Empire? Southeast Asia holds one great advantage over Australia, and that is that it has a stable, large, and mostly-settled labour force. The same cannot be said about Australia.

Is there any item specific to Australia that could be prized across the Chola Empire?
 

Zachariah

Banned
Damn. I hate it when I do these kind of errors.



But then the issue is, what is the advantage that holds over Southeast Asia, or Bengal, or any other place in the vast Chola Empire? Southeast Asia holds one great advantage over Australia, and that is that it has a stable, large, and mostly-settled labour force. The same cannot be said about Australia.

Is there any item specific to Australia that could be prized across the Chola Empire?
Rudrakshas? There are several varieties specific to Australia which are far larger and more spectacular than those in India or anywhere else, and these were valued by the fiercely Shaivite Chola Empire and the Chola trade guilds (which operated out of the Shaivite Temples which they established wherever they went) more highly than by anyone else. And things like Cineole (Eucalyptus oil) could also be a lucrative trade commodity, potentially as much as camphor.

Also worth mentioning- for the Cholas, penal colonies aren't actually out of the question. The Cholas spent decades trying to put down the Sinhalese rebels on the island of Sri Lanka, and then centuries fighting subsequent wars in their attempts to reconquer Anuradhapura, since the Sinhalese monarchs were allies of their arch-enemies, the Pandyas. As such, there are parallels which can be drawn between the Tamil Cholas' Sinhalese dissidents and the English Kingdom of Great Britain's Irish and Scottish dissidents. The Cholas could potentially decide to ship Sinhalese off to Australia as a response to the rebellions on Sri Lanka, just as the British started shipping Irish and Scots off to the Americas, and then to Australia, whenever rebellions took place in Ireland or Scotland.
 
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Lusitania

Donor
While the idea sounds appealing I find it difficult to understand how it would come to be. First these guilds would need to fund exploration to find Australia. Which might not seem difficult today but at the time you are indicating I do not see reason for it. There was no knowledge of these resources existed. There would concentrate on trade routes and resources they knew of.

For this to happen a trader would need to be diverted from his pressed route. Maybe a ship going to Java or Bali gets lost and finds itself along the Australian coast exactly where some of theses resources existed. If he was not damaged too much and was able to return to Bali or Java and from there to Southern India and after selling his goods might of been able to get the funding to return. Slowly establishing trading bases along the coast.
 
It's actually very possible. For a short answer the Maccasans had been coming to treat with the Yolngu people of the Northern Territory since atleast 1200 AD under the guise of Baijjni where they introduced some sandalwood in exchange for the trepang sea cucumber and tamarind.

Chola Merchant guilds were playing waters not too far to the west of that location. Having a more developed Mahajapit mandala of Luwu in the Sulawesi isles will give Mahajapit traders a better platform to trade with the Indeginous nations of Australia. The Chola fleets need simply follow when the guilds fully establish themselves in the Indonesian archipelago.
 
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