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Scribal elites in Sultanate and Mughal Bengal

Author

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  • Kumkum Chatterjee

    (Pennsylvania State University)

Abstract

This article studies the importance of scribal skills in sustaining political regimes and the function of scribal careers in shaping and creating social and ritual status with particular reference to Bengal from the thirteenth till the eighteenth centuries. Based on histories of landed families, middle period Bengali literature and the large genealogical corpus (kulagranthas) of this region, the article surveys the social geography of literate–scribal communities and their long association with a number of Indo–Islamic regimes which ruled over Bengal during these centuries. The article explores the social and cultural implications of scribal careers as well as the educational and linguistic proficiencies which undergirded them. Finally, the article notes the role played by polities in regulating jati hierarchies and boundaries and comments on its implications for the period studied here as also for the colonial/modern period.

Suggested Citation

  • Kumkum Chatterjee, 2010. "Scribal elites in Sultanate and Mughal Bengal," The Indian Economic & Social History Review, , vol. 47(4), pages 445-472, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:indeco:v:47:y:2010:i:4:p:445-472
    DOI: 10.1177/001946461004700402
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