Forests and tribes

Forests covered perhaps 40 per cent of the land, especially in central India, the Western Ghats and the north-east. People who lived there were called jangli in the records; this did not mean 'uncivilised', but people whose livelihood came from the forest.

The Bhils, for example, moved with the seasons: gathering forest produce in spring, fishing in summer, cultivating in the monsoon, and hunting in autumn and winter.

The state reached into the forest too. It took peshkash (tribute), which included elephants from forest areas. For the Mughals, the royal hunt symbolised the king's concern for justice for all his subjects. And settlers steadily cleared forests for farming.

Forest products like honey, beeswax and gum lac were in great demand, and were traded, even exported. Forest groups like the Lohanis in Punjab traded with Afghanistan.

Some forest chiefs became zamindars, and some even kings, needing armies. The Ahom kings in Assam used paiks (people obliged to give military service in return for land), and the Koch kings fought long wars with their neighbours. Sufi pirs also helped spread Islam in forest areas. The forest met the state and the market.