Economical system of the post-Mauryan India

Apart from flourishing trade, other significant features of this period are: monetization of economy, development of crafts, growth of urban centres and weakening of state control over the farming operations.

The post-Mauryan India saw the monetization of economy on an unprecedented scale. The Indo- Greek rulers were the first to issue gold coins. Menander was perhaps the last of the Indo-Greek rulers to issue gold coins. After them the Kushanas issued them in considerable numbers. In the opinion of some scholars, all Kushana gold coins were minted out of Roman gold.

However, gold mines existed in Sind in the time of Alexander and the gold mines of Dhalbhum lay under the sway of the Kushanas. Apart from this, the imported gold coins were mostly used as bullion or at times they may have been circulated only in large transactions. The Satavahanas issued coins in metals of low value i.e. lead, and copper. The Kushanas perhaps issued the largest number of copper coins.

Not only the imperial dynasties but also the smaller republican dynasties issued silver and copper coins. The Nagas, Yaudheyas, Kunindas, Mitra rulers of Kaushambi, Mathura, Avanti and Ahichhatra etc. all issued their own coins.

Many nigamas also issued coins of copper and bronze all this show that money had penetrated deep into the life of common man during the post-Mauryan India. The silver coin of thirty-two ratis was known to Manu as purana or dharana. The copper coin of eight ratis was known as karshapana. Smaller copper coins known as kakani were also in circulation.

Till now only one gold punch marked coin is known. The Indo-Greeks mainly issued silver and copper coins and very rarely gold coins. Shaka and Pahlava coins in silver and copper usually follow the reduced Indo-Greek standard. The gold dinaras and suvarnas of the Kushanas were based on the Roman denarius and were of 124 grains. Double and quarter dinaras were also issued.

Expansion of trade and monetization of economy is closely related to the growth of urban centres in the country. Urbanisation in this period has been termed as the third phase of early historic urban growth (1 st: 7-6 centuries BC; 2nd: Mauryan period).

In the north-western India the main cause of urbanisation seems to be the trade routes and increased traffic., That is why Mortimer Wheeler described both Charsada and Taxila, the two most notable urban centres, as 'caravan cities'. The modern city of Charsada is known as Puskalavati in Indian sources and Peucelaotis and Proclais in classical sources. Its importance declined slightly with the growth of Purushapura under the Kushanas. According to A. H. Dani the city, was founded by Menander.

Here a house of the Kushana period is associated with a Buddhist teacher, Naradakha. Taxila, the second important city, was a trade centre par excellence, owing its importance to its position on the route converging upon Bactria.

A second route moved up from Taxila to Central Asia by way of Kashmir. Archaeologically, Taxila is the most extensively excavated city site of the subcontinent. The three successive urban settlements of Taxila, the Bhir mourd, Sirkap and Sirsukh have been excavated.

Sirsukh was laid out by the Kushanas. In Kashmir valley the three successors of Kanishka, viz. Huviska, Vashiska and Vasudeva, established cities but no archaeological evidence survives. In the Punjab plains, Tulamba could be a city of Malloi. Sakala or Segal, the capital of Menander, has been described as a rich and prosperous city laid out on the typical chess­board pattern in the Milindapanho.

In the Mahabharata this was the capital of the Madra kingdom. The literary sources further indicate that the Sakal was an important early historical trade centre having connections with both the west and the Gangetic valley. Identified with modern Sialkot, its existence could not be proved by excavations.

The region known as Indo-Gangetic divide was an indisputable area of cultural transition where influences from inner India and the west mingled together. Khokra Kot near Rohtak and Sunet near Ludhiana, both associated with the Yaudheyas, a series of mounds in Kurukshetra, Agroha and Sirsa near Hissar all show prosperity during the post- Mauryan phase. Rupar, Sugh (ancient Shrughna) etc. belonging to Kushana period are very significant.

In the upper Gangetic valley, places like Hastinapur, Indraprastha (Purana Qila in Delhi), Mathura, Sankisa, Ahichchhatra, Saketa-Ayodhya, Kaushambi, and Bhita were important urban centres. Milindapanho refers to Mathura as one of the chief cities of India. The Numerous inscriptions and ayagapatas recovered from the Kankali Tila mound testify that it was an important centre of Jainism.

Inscriptions refer to Caravan leaders, perfumers, bankers, Metalworkers, treasurers etc. Mathura was also a noted centre of the Bhagavata and the Naga cults. Literary sources amply testify that Mathura was both a religious centre and an important entrepot of trade and commerce. Ahichchhatra, the capital of north Panchala, is knwon as Parichakra in the Shatapatha, Brahmana while Ptolemy knows this as Adisadra.

It was an important township in the post-Mauryan period. Kausambi was first the capital of the Mitra kings and later, in the 2nd century AD, that of the Maghas. During this phase Ghoshitarama monastery flourished in Kaushambi. Bhita near Kaushambi was a prosperous trade centre. It was known as Vicchi or Vicchigrama in ancient period.

In the middle Gangetic plain Varanasi (modern Rajghat) was an important trade-mart and commercial centre. It was the meeting point of at least three trade-routes. Sravasti, identified with Saheth-Maheth, was a nerve centre of commerce and a number of routes emerged from here.

It had routes for Saketa, Rajagriha, Kaushambi, Varanasi, Alavi, Samkasya and Taxila. It had direct trade routes for Ujjaini, Mahismati, Pratisthana, Bharukachchha and Surparaka. The ancient monastery site of Jetavana is located nearby. In the Nepalese Terai region, we have Piprahwa, Ganwaria, Tilaura-Kot and in north Bihar Katragarh, Balirajgarh and Vaisali (Raja-Visal-Ka- Garh) were important townships. In the lower Gangetic valley (Bengal) we have Kotasur, Tamluk, Pushkarana, Chandraketugarh, Mahasthangarh and Wari-Bateshwar as important trade centres. Sisupalgarh and Jaugada are the two early historic cities of coastal Orissa. In Eastern Rajasthan, we have Bairat, Rairh, Sambhar and Nagari.

These are Mauryan in core but showing post-Mauryan affluence. In Madhya Pradesh, Vidisha was the western capital of the Shungas. It was an important breakpoint on the route linking north India, Deccan and west India. Its economic prosperity is shown from the references to its labourers, bankers and artisan guilds in some early dedicatory inscriptions.

Vidisha also seems to have been an important craft centre, particularly noted for ivory, weaving and sharp swords. Pawaya or ancient Padmavati and Ujjaini were other important cities in central India. The route from the Gangetic valley bifurcated at Ujjaini for the Deccan and west India.

With the development of India's Mediterranean trade, the Gujarat coastline attained a new stage of economic prosperity. The most important city in Gujarat was ancient Bharukachchha or Bhrigukaccha of the Indian sources and Barygaza of the classical sources. It was a port par excellence.

Not only was its immediate hinterland fertile, producing wheat, rice and cotton, but its connection stretched to Ujjaini and Pratisthana. It not only catered to the Mediterranean trade, it is said to have had connections with Sri Lanka and south-east Asia.

In the Deccan region we have Bhokardan (ancient Bhogavardhana), Paithan (Pratishthan), Tagara, Brahmapuri, Adam and Kaundinyapur in Maharashtra; Banavasi, Isila and Sannati in Karnataka; and Nagarjunikonda (Vijayapur),

Satanikota, Dhanyakataka, Kondapur and Peddavegi (ancient Vengi) in Andhra as important cities in Tamilnadu, we have many urban centres such as Arikamedu, Kaveripattinam, Uraiyur and Musiris in Kerala. Thus we see that the whole Indian subcontinent was dotted with urban centres during the post-Mauryan period.

Expansion of trade networks and the consequent growth of money economy led to a proliferation of craft production and better management of industrial production and procurement. This is shown by the fact that the Digha Nikaya belonging to pre-Mauryan age mentions around two dozen occupations whereas the Mahavastu belonging to the post-Mauryan period mentions 36 kinds of workers living in the town of Rajagira.

The Milindapanho lists nearly 75 occupations of which nearly 60 are connected with crafts. Of these, eight crafts were associated with the working of mineral products: gold, silver, lead, tin, copper, brass, iron and precious stones or jewels. A variety of brass (arakuta), zinc, antimony and red arsenic also find mention cloth making, silk weaving, and arms making made progress during this period. Technological knowledge about the working of iron had made considerable progress.

Salmasius informs us of a Greek monograph on Indian steel. Under Marcus Aurelius, there was an import tax on Ferrum Irtdicum. In the Sirkap city of Taxila, a large number and variety of iron objects have been unearthed. The Periplus mentions exports of Indian iron and steel from Ariaca (around the Gulf of Cambay) to African ports.

The Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh seems to have been the richest, so far as the finds of iron objects are concerned. In addition to weapons, balance rods, socketed axes and hoes, sickles, ploughshares, razors and ladles have been unearthed in Karimnagar and Nalgonda districts. Interestingly, the site in Karimnagar was a rural settlement where carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, potters etc. lived in separate quarters.

It is rather surprising that cotton (karpasa), out of which most of the cloths were made, is not mentioned in the indigenous literature till the fifth century BC (Panini), though the cotton plant is indigenous to India. From the Arthashastra we know that the seats of cotton industry were in Aparanta (Konkan), Kalinga, Vanga, Vatsa and Mahisa (Jabalpur). Manu attributes a special purity to cotton.

It prescribes that a Brahman's sacrificial thread should be made of cotton, that of a Kshatriya of flax and that of a Vaisya of wool. Acharanga Sutra (1 st century AD) mentions various types of cotton: blue cotton, common cotton, Bengal cotton etc. The most important centres of cotton production were Bengal, Varanasi, Gujarat and Gandhara. From Ujjaini and Tagara, considerable quantities of cotton were exported to Arabia, Socotra and Egypt.

A large number of Roman coins found in the cotton growing areas show that the Roman empire was the biggest market of Indian cotton. Similarly wool (urna) was produced in the north-western Frontier areas, Punjab and present day Uttaranchal. Uddiyan (Swat) was an important wool making centre.

The ivory work, glass manufacture and bead making, coin-minting etc. were some other craftes which developed during this period. The manufacture of oil increased because of the use of the oil wheel (tailikachakra) mentioned in the Divyavadana. In inscriptions from the western Deccan, Sanchi, Bharhut, Mathura and Bodh Gaya, weavers, goldsmiths, smiths and perfumers (gandhika) figure as donors of caves, pillars, tablets, cisterns, etc. to the Buddhist monks.

The existence of merchant donors shows that they had prospered from the thriving trade. One important consequence of this prosperity was that the guilds, although continuing form the Mauryan period, became an important factor in urban life including organization of production. More importantly, in post Mauryan times we get the earliest epigraphic testimony regarding the existence of the guilds of artisans who organised under their headman.

This guild system seems to have loosened the control of state over the industrial life of the country, though state was expected to keep a watch over the condition of craftsmen. For the organisation, importance and functions of guilds, we are mainly dependent upon the Jataka stories because no other source deals with early Indian guilds so vividly as these stories do.

It is obvious from the Jatakas that there was considerable localisation of trade and industry and different occupations became highly specialised. Along with the economic changes, the new ideas brought by the heterodox faiths helped the growth of guilds. These guilds in their turn patronised the heterodox faiths. These faiths ultimately tended to increase their power, authority and status in the society.

With the hereditary character of the different professions, consequent specialisation, the localisation of industries and the institution of the Jetthaka (head), these corporate organisations have been compared with the guilds of the middle Ages of the West. From the Jatakas it seems that there were 18 kinds of guilds. Of them only four are specified - the wood-workers, the smiths, the leather dressers and the painters.

Because of the localisation of industries, places were named after different kinds of craftsmen - Ivory carvers' street, carpenters' village, and potters' village. Excavations in Karimnagar have actually shown the existence of such practice. The influence of the guilds is also known from the fact that the king is advised to borrow money from them in time of emergency. Manu and Yajnavalkya prescribe that the state should honour and preserve the laws of the guilds. The guild officers were held in high esteem and in legal proceedings, their evidence carried weight.

A few inscriptions of the early Christian era show that guilds sometimes performed public functions as well. Large deposits were left with these institutions to act as trusts and bankers. In the Nasik cave inscription we find that Usavadatta, son-in-law of the Shaka chief Nahapana, made an endowment of money to support twenty monks.

2000 karsapanas were deposited with a weavers' guild at Govardhana, at the rate of 12% interest to provide clothes for these monks. 1000 karsapanas were deposited with another guild at the same place to provide for minor expenses of the same monks. The inscription also recorded that the transaction had been registered at the nigamasabha according to the custom.

Another Nasik inscription records endowments of money deposited with several guilds at Govardhana by a lay devotee. These guilds were of kularikas (potters), odayantrikas (makers of water-machines) and of oil-pressers. From one inscription we learn of a guild of corn dealers making a gift of a seven-celled cave and a cistern.

At Sanchi the guild of ivory carvers dedicated one of the piers of southern gate. In the post-Mauryan period even minor crafts started organising srenis, for example guilds of bamboo-workers, braziers and flour makers. Some of the guilds had their own seals and amblems. Such seals have been found at Basarh.

These guilds functioned as administrators of their trades. This included fixing the rules of work, quality of the product and their prices. They also, at times, controlled the personal matters of the guild members, and the customary usage of the guild (sreni-dharma) had a force of law. This is also known as samvitpatra (Narada) or sthitipatra (Katyayana).