This article examines the production of two classes ofgoods, textiles and ceramics, in the medieval South Indian empire of Vijayanagara. A general model for the organization of specialized craft production is presented in which productive organization is linked to politicalladministrative regulation ofproduct manufacture, distribution, and use. Three modes ofproductive organization are dejined: administered production, centralized production, and noncentralized production. Historic documentation is used to examine Vijayanagara textile production, and a centralized productive organization is proposed. Vijayanagara ceramic manu facture is assessed through archeological and ethnographic data, and a noncentralized production system is proposed.PECIALIZED CRAFT PRODUCTION HAS BEEN AN INTEGRAL PART of South Asian eco-S nomic and social systems for the past five millennia. This article presents an examination of the organization of the production of two craft products, textiles and ceramics, in the medieval South Indian empire of Vijayanagara (A.D. 1340-1565). The nature of productive organization, in particular the relations between administrative systems and the production of utilitarian and luxury craft goods, is considered. It is argued that the organization of production in any complex society must be viewed as a variable, conditioned by a range of factors. These include economic, social, and symbolic dimensions, which determine the importance of the good to the elite classes and to the society as a whole, as well as technological characteristics of the product, including raw material availability and productive requirements. The two types of goods considered here differed considerably along these dimensions during the Vijayanagara period, and varied too in the social, spatial, and economic organization of their production.Two rather different sources of evidence are called upon to examine craft specialization at Vijayanagara. Textual evidence is used in the study ofweaving and textile production. Historic evidence provides information on the importance of this craft in revenue generation and long-distance trade. The textile industry was highly regulated by merchant guilds, master weavers, and weaving communities, and subject to intense taxation by the state. Material evidence, both archeological and ethnographic, is used to examine ceramic production. The ceramic industry was oriented toward meeting the domestic needs of largely peasant consumers. As will be discussed below, potters differed considerably from weavers in economic and social status, and the regulation of ceramic production and products occurred at the relatively low level of the localized community of potters. The two sources of evidence used in this study are not strictly comparable. However, the study of two classes of goods that played quite different roles in Vijayanagara society serves to illustrate both the range of variation in, and the impact of nontechnological factors on, the organization of craft production in Vijayanagara society, issues...
