Previous Year Question

In medieval India, the Banjaras were primarily trader-nomads. They transported and traded large quantities of goods, particularly grain, from one place to another. Their caravan was known as a ‘Tanda’.

Sultan Alauddin Khalji used the Banjaras to transport grain to the urban markets of Delhi. Their economic and military-logistical importance continued under the Mughals. Emperor Jahangir recorded in his memoirs that the Banjaras carried grain on their bullocks from different regions and sold it in towns. They also transported food grain for the Mughal army during military campaigns.

This is further strengthened by the first-hand account of the 17th-century English merchant and traveller Peter Mundy. During his travels in India, he encountered a Tanda of Banjaras consisting of 14,000 oxen, laden with wheat and rice. Mundy observed that they were sometimes hired by merchants, but most commonly they were merchants themselves—buying grain where it was cheap and carrying it to places where it was dearer.