South Indian Perspectives

This chapter details pepper production and collection in ancient India. From Antiquity to Early Modernity, South India’s pepper trade was influenced by the geographical and cultural diversity of the communities who made the pepper available for overseas consumption: the gatherers in the upland forests of the Western Ghats, and the lowland peoples who brought it to the emporia. Because of the ecological, cultural, and socio-economic variability within South India, the demands for pepper led to different patterns of production, which in turn developed in different micro-contexts. Indeed, different travellers have left different reports regarding the means by which western merchants acquired black pepper. It is important to recognize that more than one step of the long process that brought pepper and ivory from the foothills of the Western Ghats to Alexandria occurred within India itself, and that the nature of these exchanges ranged from informal to formal. Ultimately, a broader and more inclusive perspective is necessary to capture both the commercial activities reflected in the Muziris loan contract and the transactions between the Western Ghats forest communities and the Muziris-based dealers.

Agroforestry · Cartography · Consumption (sociology) · Economics · Economy · Ethnology · Foothills · Geography · Pepper · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · History · Horticulture · Social and Economic Development in India · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies