NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE Bazars and markets in medieval India Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi Associate Professor, AMU, Aligarh Since cities had markets as a necessary element of their existence, when cities were planned sites for construction of markets were also provided. This article deals with the extant archaeological evidence for such markets in the medieval cities of Delhi, Agra and Fathpur Sikri. Keywords: Markets, Delhi, Agra, Fathpur Sikri, archaeology Bazars and markets are the markers which help us differentiate between an urban and a rural settlement. Throughout the ages they have played a distinctive role in the development of a town or a city. Literally, bazars signify spaces where brisk commercial activity in the form of buying and selling surplus produce or products, which are in demand in the area, takes place. We attempt here a study of the physical space which constituted a bazar or a market in Medieval North India. The area undertaken for this study is conined to the Delhi–Agra region. This is so for two reasons: one, the Delhi–Agra region remained the core of the Medieval Sultanate as well as the Mughal Empire, and second, the archaeological and textual data also is the most for this region. Accordingly, we generally conine ourselves here to the study of the bazars in Delhi, Agra and Fathpur Sikri. Delhi emerged as a prominent city under the Chauhans and then as capital of the Delhi Sultans from 1206 and gaining prominence once again when Shahjahan built his capital, Shåhjahånabåd. 1 Agra irst gained prominence under the Lodis, before Akbar developed it as his capital. Though it ceased to be the capital after Shahjahan, it continued to lourish as a major urban settlement down to modern times. 2 Fathpur Sikri, on the other hand, is supposed to be a ‘one reign wonder’. It came in existence as a result of a royal decree in 1571, remained the capital city till 1585 before sinking to political oblivion. It however continued as a 1 B.R. Mani, Threshold of the Orient (Studies in Archaeological Investigations), New Delhi, 1977; R.E. Frykenberg, Delhi Through the Ages: Essays in Urban History, Culture and Society, Delhi, 1986; Stephen P. Blake, Shahjahanabad: The Sovereign City in Mughal India, 1659–1739, Cambridge, 1991; Shama Mitra Chenoy, Shahjahanabad: A City of Delhi, 1638–1857, New Delhi, 1998. 2 G. Keene, A Handbook for Visitors to Agra and Its Neighbourhood, Calcutta, 1894; S.M. Latif, Agra Historical and Descriptive, Calcutta, 1896; S. Nurul Hasan, s.v. Agra, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, eds H.A.R Gibb and J.H. Kramers et al., Leiden, 1960; Ebba Koch, The Complete Taj and the Riverfront Gardens of Agra, London, 2006. Studies in People’s History, 2, 1 (2015): 61–70 SAGE Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore/Washington DC DOI: 10.1177/2348448915574360