Anchoring Early Historic Networks in the Phenomenon of Settlement Clustering

This study aims to resituate the agency of trade centres in their relations with neighbouring settlements forming clusters together. By emphasizing the functioning of localized networks within a cluster, where multiple settlements had their respective specialized functions in production, distribution, and religious services, we can avoid the need to define connectivity solely in terms of unilinear urban networks. I suggest that clustered settlements possibly served as dispersedly organized anchors of connectivity that also facilitated and sustained long-term participation in larger socio-economic networks despite changes in political regime. As examples, I examine two famous ancient ports in the Gulf of Khambhat, Hathab, and Bharuch, within their clusters of settlements around the Shetrunji and Narmada rivers, respectively. This method challenges the older frameworks of the centre-periphery, polis-khora, and city-hinterland dichotomies, allowing us to gain a better understanding of the economic dynamics in regions that do not fit the conventional definitions of ‘urban’ in the economic histories of the subcontinent.