Mughal Karkhanas
[3][4][5][6][7][8] Karkhanas in the Mughal era especially in Akbar's time were much more organized and large as compared to the Sultanate period.
[13] In the Mughal empire, rapidly accelerating urbanization and the vast army size (required to properly administer such a large region), necessitated the large-scale production of weapons and other goods.
[22] Various other relevant terms mentioned in the records are:- Large halls are seen at many places, called karkhanas or workshops for the artisans.
In another, you see the goldsmiths; in a third, painters; in a fourth, varnishers in lacquer-work; in a fifth, joiners, turners, tailors and shoe-makers; in a sixth, manufacturers of silk, brocade and fine muslins … The artisans come every morning to their karkhanas where they remain employed the whole day; and in the evening return to their homes.
Karkhanas were producing arms, ammunition, and also various items for the court and emperor's need such as clothes, shawls, turbans, jewelry, gold and silverware, perfumes, medicines, carpets, beddings, tents, and for the imperial stable-harnesses for the horses in articles of iron, copper and other metals.
[21][31] Karkhans or Royal stores[34] or imperial karkhanas were responsible for producing and storing the required articles for artillery needs, there were about seventy different kind and type of items including heavy guns (cannons), armours, and various types of swords, daggers, spears and lances.
Fazl wrote All the Mughal emperors, including Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan, took equal interest in manufacturing clothes.
[39] François Bernier wrote "the riches and most exquisitely wrought brocades, fine linens and alachas or silk stuffs interwoven with gold and silver"[2] Ain-i-Akbari has described clothes in the imperial wardrobe (toshkhana) along with details such as price, color, and weight.
Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak explicitly informs about the imperial workshops for court needs situated at Lahore, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, and Ahmedabad.
The skilled artisans had their training from Persian or Turkistan trainers and then produced higher quality artistic work in local royal karkhanas.
Akabar's special interests resulted the major transformation in the field of design, formerly imported stuffs from abroad could then be made in the royal workshops.
[43] In 1586 Ralph Fitch remarked that in Sonargaon, just fifteen miles east of Dhaka, there is the best and finest cloth made of cotton that is in all India Khasa[45], Tansukh,[46][47] Nainsook, Chautar,[48][49] and types of Mulmul (Sarkar ali, Sarbati, Tarindam)[50][51][52][53] Abu'l-Fazl specifies the cotton fabrics of Khandesh in Ain-i-Akbari.
[56] The calicos of Calicut, muslins of Dhaka, Chintz of Machilipatnam, and Baftas of Baroch and Cambay, cotton piece goods and cloth of gold of Burhanpur, Surat and Vadodara were famous.
Royal workshops (karkhanas) introduced new colors and patterns, enhanced the shawl industry, which earned wealth and prosperity for Kashmir.
[64] Wages were paid to artisans and the unskilled labor on a daily basis, and only regular employees, whether craftsmen or domestic servants, received their pay monthly.
Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (the grand vizier of the Mughal emperor Akbar, and author of the Akbarnama) explained the detailed wages for all such categories, and also stated invariably in copper coins when daily rates are quoted.
[4] It is important to observe, that of this vast tract of country, a large portion is extremely fertile; the large kingdom of Bengale (Bengal), for instance, surpassing Egypt itself, not only in the production of rice, corn, and other necessaries of life, but of innumerable articles of commerce which are not cultivated in Egypt; such as silks, cotton, and indigo.
There are also many parts of the Indies, where the population is sufficiently abundant, and the land pretty well tilled; and where the artisan, although naturally indolent, is yet compelled by necessity or otherwise to employ himself in manufacturing carpets, brocades, embroideries, gold and silver cloths, and the various sorts of silk and cotton goods, which are used in the country or exported abroad.
It should not escape notice that gold and silver, after circulating in every other quarter of the globe, come at length to be swallowed up, lost in some measure, in Hindustan.
[66] Luke Scrafton, resident for the East India Company at the capital of Bengal in 1758, declared that until the invasion of Nader Shah in 1739 "there was scarce a better administered government in the world.
The manufactures, commerce, and agriculture flourished exceedingly; and none felt the hand of the oppression but those who were dangerous by their wealth or power."
