Download (17MB)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
STUDIES IN THE ECONOMIC LIFE OF NORTHERN AND WESTERN INDIA, c. 200 B.C. - A.D.300. By GoBindalal Adhya THESIS PRESENTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON May 1962 ProQuest Number: 10731577 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731577 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 2 ABSTRACT The "basic factors in the production of wealth in northern and western India during the period "teteasMsa c.200 B.C.- A.D.300 have heen studied in this dissertation. In the introductory chapter, after reviewing the source materials a "brief survey of the major political events of our time has "been made. Next, we have discussed the various aspects of land and agriculture - ownership of land, revenue system, cattle "breeding, irrigation and the condition of cultivators. In the section on industry, the manufacture of metal objects, textiles, glass products and the system of industrial organisation have been studied in detail. The major part of our work is devoted to the study of trade and commerce, p a rtic u la rly trad in g abroad. In our period India had wide commercial relations with Mediterranean countries, Central Asia and China, and South East Asia, and these are discussed region by region. There are three short appendices on the Kusana gold coins, the exchange of coins at Barygaza and a few notes on ancient Indian metallurgy. 3 PREFACE "Sanudasa joins the gang of the adventurer Acera, who is preparing an expedition to the Land of Gold. They cross the sea and land at the foot of a mountain". This excerpt from the Mahaniddesa, a second century text, reflects to a large extent the economic trend of the India of the period under discussion. Merchant venturers from other countries frequented India at that time and Indian traders went out to distant lands. The wide contact hetween India and the world at large necessitated this study to cover a fairly large area. The different regional departments of the School of Oriental and African Studies proved very helpful in the study of a subject of this kind. I thank all of them very much. I also appreciate the generous help that I received from the members of the staff of the School Library, U niversity of London L ibrary, Commonwealth Relations Office Library and the British Museum. Bor financial assistance I thank the School a u th o ritie s , the U niversity of London C entral Research Bund and the Trustees of the Edwina Mountbatten Grants to Commonwealth students. Without the constant encouragement from my supervisor, Professor A.L.Basham, I could not have finished this work. I acknowledge with gratitude all kinds of help and guidance that I received from him and from Dr. J. de Casparis who temporarily supervised my work when P rofessor Basham went abroad. CONTENTS page INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 9 LAND................................................................................................ 50 INDUSTRY .................................................................................... 86 TRADE ........................................................................................... 181 CONCLUSION................................................................................. 324 APPENDIX A. KU?ANA GOLD COINS .............................. 327 APPENDIX B, EXCHANGE OP COINS AT BARYGAZA . 342 APPENDIX C. A PEW POINTS ON METALLURGY AS POUND IN THE ARTHASlSTRA . 344 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................. 348 MAP SHOWING TRADE ROUTES ........................................ a t end. 6 ABBREVIATIONS AI Ancient India , AIU Age of Imperial Unity, Artha Arthasastra , ASR Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India. ASWI Archaeological Survey of Western India. BEEEO Bulletin de l'Ecole fran 9aise d'Extreme Orient. EMC British Museum Catalogue of Coins of the Creek and Scythic Kings of Bactria and India, BMC ?Ancient British Museum Catalogue of Coins of Ancient India India, BMC, Andhra British Museum Catalogue of Coins of the Andhra Dynasty, the Western Ksatrapas, the Traikutaka Dynasty and the Boclhi Dynasty. BMC, Arabia British Museum Catalogue of Creek Coins of Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia. BMC, China British Museum Catalogue of the Chinese Coins from the Seventh Century B,C, to 621 A.D. BMC, P a rth ia British Museum Catalogue of Creek Coins of P arth ia, BSOAS B u lle tin of the School of O rien tal and African Studies. CAH Cambridge Ancient History, CUBE Cambridge History of the British Empire. CHI Cambridge History of India, CII Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Comp HI Comprehensive History of India, de la Valine L'Inde aux temps des Mauryas Poussin et des Barbares, Crecs, Scythes, Parthes et Yue Chi. 7 Divya Divyavadana . EA Etudes Asiatique , El Epigraphica Indiea , H irth The Story of Chang K!ien„ JAOS, XKN II (1917) pp.89f. IA Indian Antiquary, ihq Indian Historical Quarterly, JA J ournal Asiatique.. JAI Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland* J AOS Journal of the American Oriental Society* JASB Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. JBBRAS Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. JB(0)RS Journal of the Bihar (and Orissa) Research Society, JESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient* JGIS Journal of the Greater India Society. JISOA Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental A rts, JMBRAS J ournal of the Malay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, JNES Journal of the Near Eastern Society. JNSI Journal of the Numismatic Society of India. JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. JSS Journal of the Siam Society, Maha Mahabharata. MAS I Memoir of the Archaeological Survey of India. 8 MIC Mahenjo-daro and the Indus civilisation, M ilinda Milindapahha„ MJTG Malay Journal of the Tropical Geography. NC Numismatic Chronicle. PHAI or Roy Political History of Ancient Indiar Chowdhury PIHC Proceedings of the Indian History Congress Periplus or Periplus of the Erythrean Sea* Schoff RV Rg Veda * SEE Sacred Books of the East m SEHHE Social and Economic H istory of the Hellenistic Empire. SEHRE Social and Economic History of the Roman Emp ir e , SOAS,Seminar Seminar on the Date of Kaniska held in the School of Oriental and African Studies, April, I960. Wylie Notes on the Western Regions, JAI. X (1881) pp,20f. Yaj Yajnavalkya ZDMG Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morganlandischen Ges^elschaft. v* INTRODUCTION The conventional "boundaries of historical periods are still limited by major political events, and in that context what happened in northern and western India in the period from c.200 B.C. to 300 A.D., as far as it can he reconstructed, was a medley of incidents between the consolidated regime of the Mapryas and that of the Guptas. The history of these 500 years of early India is coherent neither politically nor in any other sense. Except for the Kusanas in the north, and the Saka Ksatrapas and the Satavahanas in the west, who ruled for a considerable length of time, no other power, as far as is known, had sufficient scope to follow an integrated economic policy in its realm. But even the imperial Ku^apas, whose provinces within India and outside were federally administered, could not strictly dictate terms on the economic aspects of government. The large number of coins issued by the different powers of our period indicate a developed monetary economy and possibly prosperous conditions in their respective realms. The wide and gainful trade with the outside world, which no doubt largely contributed to the attainment of this sound economic position, seems to have been regularly patronised by the ruling powers. But the relations of different governments to various other economically productive activities of the country were, as we shall see, rather uncertain. It appears that the Arthasastra*s prescription of centrally enforced policies was hardly followed by any of the States of our period. So our study of the economic life of India, at a period when political forces seemingly could not give any particular orientation to the economic system and when there was little change in the methods of production, has turned into an essay of which the beginning and the end are absent. In other words, the period under discussion does not constitute an economic e n tity . In our period we find, long after the exploits of the Aryans, the regular intrusion of successive foreign peoples for a few generations. The activities of these outsiders centred mainly on the north-western and western parts of India but some of them penetrated far inside. From these inroads one would expect repercussions on various aspects of social and economic life of the country. From the contemporary literature it is evident that the new peoples gradually became absorbed within the social fold through the widening of the caste fabric to include them. On the economic front, except slight modifications in the technique and form of industry and the increased use of coins, we do not observe any perceptible foreign influence. Was this due to the fact that most of the foreigners who entered India through the north-western passes in our time were of nomadic origin and thus had a different cultural level from that of the sedentary Indians whom they conquered? But the course of Indian history after th is se rie s of foreign influx hardly smacks of nomadism. Some of the foreign rulers, who descended from Central Asian tribes, patronised Indian arts and religions and became pioneers in issuing gold coins in India on a large scale.