Jean-Baptiste Tavernier
Also called: Tavernier · Topic: Medieval India through Travellers' Eyes · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Through the Eyes of Travellers"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Peasants, Zamindars and the State"
Meaning
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605–89) was a French jeweller and traveller. He came to India at least six times in the 17th century. He was most interested in trade: goods, prices, routes and merchants. He often compared India with Iran and the Ottoman empire. His account is a useful source on the commercial life of Mughal India.
Example
Tavernier noted that in India a village had to be very small indeed not to have a shroff, a money-changer who also worked as a local banker. This shows how deeply money and credit had spread into rural life in the 17th century.
Don't confuse with
- François Bernier: also a 17th-century Frenchman in Mughal India. But Bernier was a doctor and political thinker who stayed twelve years (1656–68) and wrote mainly about the Mughal state and society, not trade.