How were the lives of forest dwellers transformed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
Transformation in the lives of forest-dwellers (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries):
(i) Huge areas were covered with forests in the various parts of India in the 16th and 17th country. Forest-dwellers were called Jangli. The term ‘Jungli’ was used to describe those whose occupations included activities such as hunting, gathering of forest produce, and shifting cultivation. These activities were performed according to a specific reason in the various regions. Consider the example of the Bhils who fished in summer and collected forest produce in spring. Such activities enabled the forest tribes to be mobile which was a characteristic feature of their life.
(ii)As the state required elephants for the consolidation of mighty army, the peskesh levied on the forest people to supply of elephants.
(iii)The lives of the forest-dwellers led to the spread of commercial agriculture. Forest products like honey, beeswax, gum and lac were in huge demand. Gum and lac became major items of overseas exports in the seventeenth century, and earned valuable foreign exchange.
(iv)Elephants were also captured and sold.
(v)Tribes like the Punjab Lohanis engaged in overland trade with Afghanistan and internal trade in Punjab as well.
(vi)Social factors were also responsible for transforming the lives of the forest- dwellers.
(vii)Many tribal chiefs became zamindars, some even became kings. They recruit people from their own tribes in their army For example in Assam, the Ahom Kings depended on people who rendered military services in exchange of land.
(viii)By the sixteenth century, the transition from a tribal to a monarchial system had taken place. In Ain-i Akbari description has been mentioned about the existence of tribal kingdoms in north-eastern India. Description is also made regarding the kings who fought and conquered a number of tribes. New cultural influences also entered in the forested areas. Probably sufi saints played a remarkable role in spreading Islam in these areas.
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