Many people say that India was not the richest civilization of history, they say Mansa Musa's kingdom was. And today I will debunk this myth.
So before we begin, let's see who Mansa Musa was.
He was a African king who ruled over the Kingdom of Mali, from 1312 CE to 1337 CE. Here's a pic of Mali under Mansa Musa -
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Mali was famous for having goldmines, and this is what made Mansa Musa rich. It is said that the wealth of this King in today's age would be 400 billion dollars.
Mansa Musa is said to have been the richest man in the known history. In fact the Jeff bezoz is worth 201 billion dollars (as per 7th December 2021), this is like half of Mansa Musa's wealth.
Thus some people say that because Mansa Musa was the richest person in known history thus Mali was richer than India.
But does it mean that if the ruler is rich then the country will be rich as well ?
For example, King Louis XVI of France was very rich, but his own subjects couldn't afford bread.
Let me tell you something, recently a research said that the shri Padmanabhaswamy Temple of Kerela has a minimum of 1 Trillion dollars. Minimum. This wealth was given to the temple by the devotees and visitors over time.
Now compare it with the wealth of Mansa Musa. 400 billion dollars to 1 Trillion dollars. And this is just one temple of India, there were so many temples like that.
Let me give you a statistical example.
Angus Maddison, a British economist, wrote a book called 'The World Economy: Historical Statistics' where he has given the share of gdp each country had from 1 AD to 2003
In that book he has said that India had consistently increasing gdp and held 1/3 of gdp of the world but looking at his own statistics economists say that India easily held half of world gdp. But that's beside the point.
Here's a chart based on that -
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Mansa Musa reigned in early 1300s so let's see the chart between 1000 CE to 1500 CE.
In 1000s India had gdp of 33,750 while Africa had gdp of 13,835. In 1500s India held gdp of 60,500 and Africa had gdp of 19,383.
And this is the comparison of just one country India to the entire continent of Africa not specifically Mali.
This proves that India was more richer than entire Africa, let alone Mali. This means that just because a King is rich doesn't mean the people too are.
So Mansa Musa could've been the richest man in history but richest civilization was still India.
