Karkhana

Also called: Imperial karkhanas · Topic: The Mughal Empire: Babur to Aurangzeb · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Through the Eyes of Travellers"

Meaning

A karkhana was a royal workshop run by the Mughal state. In it, skilled artisans (craftsmen) worked under a master to make fine goods for the emperor, his household and the court.

It matters because karkhanas show how the Mughal court got its luxury goods. The French traveller François Bernier described them in detail. His account is also the base of a long debate: did state control hold back Indian crafts?

Explanation

Background: why the court needed its own workshops

• The Mughal court used huge amounts of luxury goods: fine cloth, jewellery, weapons, carpets, paintings and furniture.
• Many of these were needed for the emperor's household, for gifts, and for the robes of honour given to nobles.
• So the state ran its own workshops. This way it could control the quality and the supply.
• The idea was older than the Mughals. Delhi Sultanate rulers such as Muhammad bin Tughluq and Firuz Shah Tughluq also kept royal karkhanas. The Mughals took the system over and made it bigger.

Main features: what Bernier saw

Bernier describes large halls, each kept for one craft and run by a master:

• Hall 1: embroiderers, working under a master.
• Hall 2: goldsmiths.
• Hall 3: painters.
• Hall 4: varnishers doing lacquer work (a shiny painted coating on wood and other objects).
• Hall 5: joiners (woodworkers), turners, tailors and shoemakers.
• Hall 6: makers of silk, brocade (cloth woven with gold or silver thread) and fine muslins (very thin cotton cloth).

How it worked and who ran it

• Daily routine: artisans came to the karkhana every morning. They worked there all day and went home in the evening.
• Supervision: a master watched over each hall. Above them, the karkhanas came under a senior officer of the royal household, the mir saman (officer in charge of the imperial household and its stores).
• Who it produced for: mostly the emperor and the court, not the open market. This is the key difference from ordinary artisans.
• Ordinary craft production went on outside: most textiles, weapons, utensils and jewellery were made by independent artisans in towns and villages. They worked for merchants and for markets at home and abroad.

Results: Bernier's judgement and its limits

• Bernier's criticism:
• The artisans had no reason to improve their work, because the profits went to the state.
• He thought manufacturing was in decline for this reason.

• He described their life as dull: in this quiet way, he said, their time "glides away".

• The contradiction in his own account:

• Bernier also admitted that a large share of the world's precious metals flowed into India.
• The study note confirms this. India exported much more than it imported, so silver and gold flowed into India to pay for its cloth.
• A country with dying crafts could not have drawn in so much bullion. So his picture of decline was probably exaggerated.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the Mughal Empire (1526–1707). The karkhanas were at their height under the great Mughals, especially at the imperial capitals such as Delhi and Agra.
• Earlier roots: royal karkhanas of the Delhi Sultanate, especially under the Tughluqs.
• Key person: François Bernier. He was a French doctor and philosopher who lived in India for about twelve years, c. 1656–1668. He was close to the court and worked as physician to Prince Dara Shukoh, Shah Jahan's eldest son.
• Main evidence:
• Bernier's Travels in the Mogul Empire. NCERT notes that Bernier is perhaps the only traveller or writer to give a detailed account of how the imperial karkhanas worked.

• The Ain-i Akbari of Abul Fazl, Akbar's court historian. It records the organisation of the imperial household and its departments.

• NCERT link: Class 12, "Through the Eyes of Travellers". There the karkhana appears inside Bernier's wider picture of the Mughal economy and his comparison of India with Europe.

Don't confuse with

• "Factory" of the English East India Company: a European factory was a trading post, not a workshop. The English set one up at Surat between 1612 and 1615 to buy calicoes, chintzes, silk embroidery and indigo [3]. A karkhana made goods for the court. A factory bought and stored goods for export.
• Modern industrial factory: a karkhana used hand skills and no machines, and it produced mainly for the court. It was not mass production for a market.
• Independent town and village artisans: these weavers and smiths made the export textiles that went out through ports such as Surat and Masulipatnam [2][4]. Karkhana artisans worked for the state, inside royal halls.
• Bernier vs other travellers: Ibn Battuta (14th century, Tughluq period) and al-Biruni (11th century) do not describe Mughal karkhanas. Bernier is the traveller tied to the Mughal karkhana in the exam.

Prelims Hooks

• Karkhana = imperial workshop making luxury goods for the emperor and court, not mainly for the market.
• Detailed description of Mughal karkhanas → François Bernier, a French doctor, in Travels in the Mogul Empire.
• Bernier's karkhana halls: embroiderers, goldsmiths, painters, lacquer workers, joiners/turners/tailors/shoemakers, silk-brocade-muslin makers.
• Bernier was physician to Dara Shukoh. He was in India c. 1656–1668.
• Trap: a European "factory" (for example, the EIC at Surat, 1612–15 [3]) was a trading post, not a karkhana.
• Royal karkhanas existed before the Mughals, under the Delhi Sultanate (Muhammad bin Tughluq, Firuz Shah Tughluq).

Mains Points

• Bernier's account is useful but biased. He wanted to show that Europe was better than India. So he stressed state control: the artisans' profits went to the state, so they had no reason to improve, and manufacturing declined. Yet he admitted that bullion poured into India. This matches the study note's export surplus. A GS-I answer can use the karkhana to show how to read travellers' accounts critically.
• Court production vs market production. Karkhanas met the court's demand for luxury goods. The great export trade in cotton cloth was handled by independent artisans, merchants and ports such as Surat and Masulipatnam [2][4]. This shows that the Mughal economy was not wholly state-driven. Craft and trade had a life of their own outside the palace.
• Continuity and change, and "commercialisation without industrialisation". The karkhana carried on a Sultanate institution. It raised the quality of Mughal art, textiles and metalwork. But it kept skill tied to the court and to hand methods. Surplus wealth went into luxury goods, not into new ways of producing. This helps explain why a rich 17th-century economy did not move towards industry.

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