Give a brief description of the merchant communities and other urban groups in Mughal India.
Merchants were mutually associated through strong communities or kin ties and were organised through their caste and occupational institutions. These groups in western India were known as Mahajan and their head was known as Seth. In urban centres like Ahmedabad, all the Mahajans were collectively represented by the chief of the merchant community called Nazareth.Other urban groups included professional classes like teachers (Mulla or Pandit), physicians (hakim or vaid), musicians, architects, painters, etc. Some of them depended upon imperial patronage, some of them lived by serving other patrons and the rest of them served common masses in crowded markets.
