To augment the state income, Mahmud Gawan ordered for systematic measurement of land fixing the boundaries of villages and towns.

As a result, the income of the state was ensured and was known in advance. Furthermore, it reduced the malpractices of the nobles to the minimum which, in turn, prevented the waste of the state’s resources. In this respect Gawan could be regarded as the forerunner of Raja Todarmal, the revenue minister of the Akbar who also undertook similar measures.

As regards trade, a Russian visitor, Nikitin, reported that there was great commercial activity at Bidar where horses, cloth, silk and pepper were the chief merchandise adding that at Aladin and bazar people assembled in great numbers to do business for ten days at a stretch. In the Mustafabad-Dabol port, ships from African ports, came laden with cargoes. Horses were imported from Arabia, Khorasan and Turkestan; musk and fur came from China. Mostly Hindu traders did business there.

The social structure of the Bahmani kingdom was cosmopolitan in nature with Hindus, Muslims, Iraqis, Abyssinians and Iranians speaking Marathi, Dakhni (proto-Urdu), Persian, Kannada and Telugu.

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Nikitin says that there were two classes, the opulent nobles and the poor, and adds that Mahmud Gawan used to dine with 500 people. Admittedly, there was another category, the merchants, who presumably constituted the middle class.

The Sufis who migrated with the Khaljis and the Tughlaks were patronized by the rulers for the legitimacy they could give to the kingdom. Bidar emerged as a great centre of the Sufis of the Qadiri order. A divine of the Chisti order, Gesu Daraz migrated to Gulbarga ir 1402- 03 and got plenty of inams from Sultan Feroz. He was, however, expelled later for supporting the succession of the Sultan’s brother.

Hindu tradition and culture also influenced the Bahmani court on account of the marriage of a Vijayanagara princess to Sultan Feroz who according to legend once went to the Vijayanagara court in the guise of a Hindu fakir.

Another tradition was the participation in the urs festival by the chief of Lingayats of Gulbarga. Wearing the traditional Muslim apparel and cap of a darwesh, he would perform the ceremony in a typical Hindu manner by conch blowing, flower-offerings, and so on.