SUBSTANTIVE ECONOMY OF THE HILL TRIBES OF KOLLAM & THE INDIGENOUS TRADE NETWORK IN EARLY MEDIEVAL KERALA (800-1500.CE): AN APPRAISAL

Author (s) : S.ALAMELU

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Abstract :
The Western Ghats of India, one of the bio-diversity hotspots in the world, is home to numerous aboriginal hunter-gather tribes and is unique in terms of its endemic flora, fauna as well as for their subsistence on nature from the pre-historic period onwards. The antiquity of the region as a ‘lived environment’ led to a complex process of interaction between tribes and nature, and to harmonization of diverse centres of production and exchange. This ‘substantive economy’ in the tribal settlements of Malainadu/Malabar, especially Kollam has a physical and ecological dimension. Since the physical existence of the tribal economy was subject to the vicissitudes of nature, there evolved interdependence upon nature and his fellows. The synchronization in turn was sustained through a network of tribal based exchange of forest products with the ‘external’ world and also by the crisscrossing routes of pilgrimage and trade. Kollam formerly known as Desinganad emerged as the maritime hub of Peninsular India, after the decline of Muziris in the early medieval period mainly due to its proximity with the rich spices and other forest products of the Western Ghats through the indigenous network of trade which interlinked Malabar and the Coromandel coast; manned by tribes through the inaccessible Pothiyalmala/Agasthya1 Mountain. 65 Journal of Indian History and Culture September 2018, Twenty Fourth Issue

Keywords : Kollam, Agasthya mountain, Desinganad, Adivasi, Kanikkar, leisure, substantive economy & economic intervention

Conference Date : 13/11/2020

Pages : 265

Paper ID : 20265