Huṇḍī and Nirakh Huṇḍāwan: Indic Mercantile Instruments in the Persianate Bazaar

Abstract

The huṇḍī or Indic mercantile instrument integrated networks of merchants and bankers across Persianate bazaars from South Asia to Central Asia, Iran and East Africa. Merchants performed long-distance financial transactions by means of this instrument, catering to both private individuals and the state. While much has been written about the commercial use of huṇḍīs, this paper turns to the working of huṇḍīs at the interface of mercantile and state institutions, looking in particular at the Jaipur state’s collection of nirakh huṇḍāwan registers—which tracked the rate of discounting of huṇḍīs on a daily basis. Produced at the mercantile centre of Sanganer, and open to inspection by the Jaipur state, these registers lie at the intersection of commerce and governance, and of corporation and state. They reveal an ‘economically curious’ state, which accessed and used data collected and maintained by mercantile entities to make significant economic decisions.