South India

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In south India, handicrafts were based almost exclusively on manual labour and development of professional habits. Non-agricultural production demonstrated a great variety of forms of economic organization and of methods of integration into the macro-system of the economy. The system of inter-community natural unity of crafts and agriculture was sufficiently flexible to survive for a long time. Numerically the most important branches of rural commodity producing crafts were weaving and oil-pressing. Urban crafts were developed in India from the ancient period and distinguished by the high quality of goods. Indian artisans achieved high artistic skill especially in textile production. The concentration of textile workers in the sea-ports of the Coromandel Coast was enhanced. The majority of urban artisans were commodity producers. Economically the most important and organizationally and technologically the most developed industry was shipbuilding.

This publication has 61 references indexed in Scilit: