History · Ch 8 — Peasants, Zamindars and the State — Agrarian Society and the Mughal Empire
Women in Agrarian Society
Women in Agrarian Society
Women in Mughal agrarian society worked alongside men in the fields, but their labour was divided by gender. Men tilled and ploughed; women sowed, weeded, threshed and winnowed the harvest. As nucleated villages grew and individual peasant farming expanded, the entire household — both its labour and its resources — became the basis of production. In this setting, a strict separation between the home (for women) and the world (for men) was simply not possible.
Yet biases tied to women’s biological functions persisted. In western India, menstruating women were not allowed to touch the plough or the potter’s wheel. In Bengal, they could not enter the groves where betel-leaves (paan) were grown. Artisanal tasks that depended on female labour included spinning yarn, sifting and kneading clay for pottery, and embroidery. The more commercialised a product was, the greater the demand on women’s labour to produce it. Peasant and artisan women worked not only in the fields but also went to the houses of their employers or to the markets when necessary.
Women were also valued as child-bearers in a labour-dependent society. However, high mortality rates among women — caused by malnutrition, frequent pregnancies, and death during childbirth — often led to a shortage of wives. This shortage gave rise to social customs in peasant and artisan communities that were distinct from those of elite groups.
In many rural communities, marriages required the payment of bride-price to the bride’s family, not dowry. Remarriage was considered legitimate for both divorced and widowed women.
Because women were so important as a reproductive force, the fear of losing control over them was great. The household was headed by a male according to established social norms. Women were kept under strict control by male members of the family and the community, who could inflict draconian punishments if they suspected infidelity.
Documents from western India — Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra — record petitions sent by women to the village panchayat, seeking redress and justice. Wives protested against the infidelity of their husbands or the neglect of the wife and children by the male head of the household (the grihasthi). While male infidelity was not always punished, the state and “superior” caste groups did intervene to ensure that the family was adequately provided for. In most cases when women petitioned the panchayat, their names were excluded from the record: the petitioner was referred to as the mother, sister or wife of the male head of the household. …
Money in the village. The seventeenth-century French traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier found it remarkable that in "India a village must be very small indeed if it has not a money-changer called a Shroff. (They) act as bankers to make remittances of money (and who) enhance the rupee as they please for paisa and the paisa for these (cowrie) shells." His observation shows how deeply cash, credi …
Figure 8.6, titled "A shroff at work," is a visual record of a key figure in the Mughal rural economy: the village money-changer and banker. The image shows a shroff seated at his workplace, which is typically a small shop or a spot in the village marketplace. He is engaged in the act of weighing coins on a small balance scale — a set of two pans suspended from a central beam. One pan holds a coin or a weight, the other holds the coins being tested or exchanged. The shroff’s hands are shown handling the coins, and nearby you can see a pile of coins and possibly a bag or a box for storing money. The scene is simple and focused: there are no elaborate backgrounds or multiple panels. The shroff is the sole human figure, and the objects around him — the scale, the coins, a small container — are the only items depicted.
This image directly illustrates the passage from Tavernier that the textbook quotes: even the smallest village in India had a shroff who acted as a banker, exchanging different types of currency (like rupees for paisa, or paisa for cowrie shells). The shroff’s work was essential because the Mughal economy used a variety of coins — gold, silver, copper, and even cowrie shells — and their value fluctuated based on weight, purity, and local demand. The shroff determined the exchange rate, which Tavernier notes could be manipulated ("enhance the rupee as they please"). So the figure shows not just a man weighing coins, but the very mechanism that made rural trade and tax payments possible. Without the shroff, a peasant could not convert his harvest earnings into the silver rupees needed to pay the state’s revenue demand, nor could a merchant remit money across regions. …
Figure 8.7 is a painting that shows a woman seated on the ground, working at a spinning wheel. She holds the thread in one hand while the wheel turns, drawing out and twisting fibres into yarn. The scene is simple and domestic — there is no elaborate background or courtly setting. The focus is entirely on the woman and her task.
This image is placed in the textbook to illustrate a key point from the section on women in agrarian society: that artisanal tasks such as spinning yarn were heavily dependent on female labour. The text makes clear that spinning was not a leisure activity but a form of production that was essential to the household economy. In medieval Indian villages, women did not only work in the fields — sowing, weeding, threshing and winnowing — but also performed skilled craft work like spinning at home. The more commercialised a product was, the greater the demand on women’s labour to produce it. …
The painting shows a construction scene at Fatehpur Sikri, the new capital built by Emperor Akbar in the late 16th century. In the foreground, several women are shown crushing stones with heavy hammers. They work alongside men who are likely engaged in other building tasks — carrying materials, laying bricks, or supervising. The women are not merely incidental figures; they are performing one of the most physically demanding jobs at the site: breaking large stones into smaller pieces for use in foundations, walls, or roadbeds.
The image is a direct visual counterpart to the textbook's discussion of women's labour in agrarian and artisanal production. Just as peasant women worked in fields — sowing, weeding, threshing, winnowing — so too did they work at large construction projects. The painting makes clear that women's labour was not confined to the home or to "light" tasks. Crushing stones is heavy, repetitive, and dangerous work. The fact that this scene was considered worth painting — and that the textbook includes it — tells us that women's contribution to the Mughal economy was visible and essential, even if it was often undervalued or unrecorded in written documents. …
Figure 8.8b is a companion image to Figure 8.8a, which shows the construction of Fatehpur Sikri. While 8.8a depicts women crushing stones at that site, 8.8b shows a different group of women: migrant women from neighbouring villages carrying loads at a construction site. The caption reads "Women carrying loads", and the textbook text clarifies that these were migrant women from neighbouring villages who often worked at such construction sites.
The image directly supports the section's argument about women's labour in agrarian society. The textbook explains that peasant and artisan women worked not only in the fields but also went to the houses of their employers or to markets if necessary. This figure illustrates that point visually: women from rural areas migrated temporarily to construction sites — likely urban or imperial projects like Fatehpur Sikri — to perform manual labour, carrying heavy loads of building materials. The fact that they are shown as migrants from neighbouring villages underscores the mobility of women workers, contradicting any assumption that women were confined to the home.
The figure also connects to the broader theme of gendered division of labour. While men are shown in other figures (like the shroff at work in Fig. 8.6) engaged in specialised or supervisory roles, women here perform the physically demanding task of carrying loads. This aligns with the textbook's observation that the more commercialised the product, the greater the demand on women's labour to produce it. Construction was a commercial enterprise, and women's labour was essential to it.
The figure does not show any specific site, date, or artefact beyond the general context of a construction site. The textbook explicitly states these were migrant women from neighbouring villages, so the image is meant to represent a common pattern rather than a unique event. …