Jain Elites and the Mughal State under Shahjahan

Abstract

This article is an attempt to analyse the double-edged social relationship between the merchant communities and the state beyond the technicalities of the economic considerations. It is generally argued that post-Akbar, the Mughal state saw a gradual shift from ‘spiritualism’ to ‘materialism’ vis-à-vis its engagement with the Jain community. Now Jain merchants were gaining prominence as the representatives of their community while interacting with Mughal royalty. The dominance of the merchants over the Jain sanghas and the importance given to these merchants by the Mughal state substantiates this argument. However, as a prelude to my future research, I argue that Mughal hegemony was being built more through everyday engagement and social relationships with the various communities rather just through structures like Mansabdari and Jagirdari. With a paramount control over the political and economic structures, the Mughal state ensured its stability and longevity through everyday interaction with the leadership of the various social groups. A farman issued by Shahjahan for the Jains of Bikaner and the everyday experiences of Seth Shantidas Jauhari of Ahmedabad show that the Mughal state under Shahjahan continued with the policies of his Mughal and pre-Mughal predecessors to maintain social harmony to expand its own social base. The Jain elites were as much active in the religious affairs of the community as their individual business interests to maintain their hold over the community. Their status of being community leaders was very important for these elites to acquire social legitimacy from the Mughal state as well as the community. Otherwise the medieval state and its local representatives never bothered about the ‘individual’ persona and stakes of these elites. An attempt has been made to reconstruct the processes of formation of medieval Jain community and its interaction with the larger apparatuses involved in the everyday making of the Mughal state.