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NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 12 The Glorious Hampi Bazaar, Karnataka — LET'S EXPLORE

Book page 251 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
Can you imagine what this bazaar must have looked like during its peak?
Answer

Yes — and the two Portuguese travellers quoted in the chapter give us enough to picture it.

Stand in front of the Virupaksha temple in the 16th century. A long, straight, colonnaded street runs away from the temple gopuram, lined on both sides with pillared stone pavilions. Under them, sellers sit behind heaps of goods:

  • Food and farm produce — grains, seeds, milk, oil.
  • Cloth — silk, and “sellers of cloths… they being of cotton”.
  • Live animals and birds — cows, rabbits, horses, even quails and partridges.
  • Precious goods — “golden jewels and gewgaws… all kinds of rubies and diamonds and pearls, with every other kind of precious stone for sale”.
  • Fodder — “grass and straw in infinite abundance” for the horses and cattle.

Craftsmen are not hidden away in workshops: “There were craftsmen, also, working in their streets, so that you saw made there…”. So the buyer watched the goldsmith beat the metal and then bought the finished ornament from the same spot. Add the noise of bargaining in many languages, foreign traders from Persia and Portugal, temple bells, and the smell of oil and spices, and you have the market that Domingos Paes called “the best-provided city in the world”.

Why it happens: Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire and “the centre of flourishing trade”. A powerful, stable capital attracts producers and long-distance traders, because they know buyers with money will be there. Nuniz himself found this astonishing — the surrounding country looked “so barren”, yet the city had “an abundance of everything”. That abundance came from trade, not from local farming.
Q2.
Do you know of any old markets from your state? How would they be similar or different from today's markets? Discuss with elders in the family and community.
Answer

Method. Pick one market in your state that is at least a few generations old — the chapter itself names four: Khari Baoli spice market in Old Delhi (Fig. 12.15), Johari Bazaar in Jaipur for gems and jewellery (Fig. 12.17), the flower market of Bengaluru (Fig. 12.16), and Ima Keithal in Imphal. Then ask an elder three questions: What was sold here when you were young? How did people pay? How did goods arrive?

A good answer must compare the old and the new on the same points, not just say “it was different”.

Point of comparisonThe old marketToday's market
Where it isUsually beside a temple, fort, river ghat or railway stationSame place — old markets rarely move; new ones follow roads and highways
Who sellsThe same family for generations, often one street per tradeFamily shops plus chain stores, malls and online sellers
PriceFixed by bargaining, every timeMostly printed MRP; bargaining survives on carts and in haats
PaymentCash, and a credit book settled at month-endCash, cards and UPI / QR code — look at the QR code on the guava cart in Fig. 12.4
How goods arriveBullock cart, boat, head-loadTruck, railway, cold-chain van, courier
What stays the sameA buyer, a seller, an agreed price — and a relationship of trust that lasts for decades
Sample answer: “My grandmother shopped at the weekly haat that still sits behind our bus stand. She says only vegetables, pots, rope and bangles were sold then, and every price was argued over. Traders came by bullock cart from three villages away. Today the same haat sells plastic buckets and mobile covers as well, the vegetable seller has a QR code taped to his weighing scale, and a tempo brings the vegetables from the mandī by six in the morning. What has not changed is the day — it is still held on Tuesday, as it has been for as long as anyone remembers.”
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