Economic Condition
As already stated, the vast majority of the people seem to have preferred country life to residence in “towns covered with dust.” The rural population consisted mainly of agriculturists and ranch-men, but we have also references to “craft villages ” of carpenters, smiths and potters. Towns mainly attracted the ruling and commercial classes.
The simple rites of the Grihya Sutras such as “the furrow sacrifice” and “the threshing-floor sacrifice”, testify to the importance of the agricultural population. The farmers lived in villages, the number of which was very large in every kingdom. Villages were largely autonomous, though under the suzerainty of the king, who received certain dues that have already been specified above and sometimes claimed the right of appointing the headman or officials who collected the village dues for him. The king’s right to agricultural land was probably limited to a share of its produce. The king could remit the tithe due to the Government or make it over to anyone he wished to favour. But even royal officials scrupulously avoided encroachment upon the rights of the peasant householders (grihapati).
Nearchos refers to the cultivation of lands in the north-west by a whole kinship. Each individual took what he needed out of the produce and the remnant was destroyed to discourage sloth. In the Ganges valley, the arable land of the village (grama-kshetra) was split up into plots held by heads of houses who managed their own holdings but co-operated for purposes of fencing and irrigation under the guidance of the headman (Bhojaka, Gramika). The holdings were usually small, but large estates farmed by Brahmanas were known though they were very rare. The bigger holdings were to a great extent managed with the assistance of hired labour. Slaves were not kept in large numbers and were ordinarily employed as domestic servants.
The householders who had shares of the village field and constituted the village community have been described as peasant proprietors, but it is not clear whether they had any proprietary rights as against the community or could transfer their shares to outsiders. Sale or gift of land was not unknown in Oudh or South Bihar, but the recorded cases generally refer to big estates owned by priests or nobles, and not to the small holdings of the ordinary members of the village community.
The village peasants were a generally contented lot, and both men and women had the civic spirit to work for the common good. The result of co-operation was seen in the construction of reservoirs and the laying out of irrigation canals. In spite of their best endeavours, however, villagers could not escape famine for all time. The calamity, however, was not of frequent occurrence and, when it did come, its area was restricted.
The rural population included, besides the village agriculturists, a considerable body of ranchmen who tended cattle. They avoided towns and villages and lived in cattle-ranches styled ghosha. Some of the cowboys roamed about with their flocks in forests and on the mountains. The herdsman was frequently employed to guard the royal cattle and to take the flocks of the village folk to the common grazing field beyond the cultivated lands.
Handicraftsmen constituted a large part of the population both in rural and urban areas. The number of callings was large and included workers in stone and ivory and painters of frescoes. In some of the industries a considerable degree of specification was reached. They were also, to a large extent, localised and limited to particular families, for there was a general tendency among artisans for the son to follow the paternal calling. Eighteen of the more important craft were organised into guilds (Sreni, Puga), each of which was presided over by a Pramukha (foreman), Jyeshthaka (elder) or Sreshthin (chief). We sometimes hear of a Mahasreshthin or supreme chief, and Anusreshthin or deputy chief. Above all the guild officials stood the Bhandagarika who combined the post of State Treasurer with supreme headship over all the Srenis.
It is doubtful if the full guild organisation had spread to seamen and traders. Some of them had a Jyeshthaka (elder) or a Sarthavaha (caravan-leader) and worked in union under a Sreshthin. But subordination to the leader or elder was not always in evidence, and merchants often plied their trade alone.
The range of activities of sailors and merchants in the period represented by the Pali texts whose exact date is unknown was wide. We hear of sea-voyages and of trading journeys to the coast of Burma and the Malay world (Suvarna-bhumi), Ceylon (Tamraparni) and even to Babylon (Baveru). But navigators for the most part trafficked up and down the great rivers, specially the Indus, the Ganges and its tributaries. The principal sea-ports were Bhrigukachcha (Broach), Surparaka (Sopara, north of Bombay) and perhaps Tamralipti (Tamluk in West Bengal). Of the riparian ports, Sahajati (in Central India), Kausambi on the Jumna, Benares, Champi (near Bhagalpur), and latterly Pataliputra on the Ganges and Pattala on the Indus deserve special mention. The great inland routes mostly radiated from Benares and Sravasti.
One great highway connected the chief industrial and commercial centres of the Ganges valley with Central and Western Asia by way of the prosperous city of Taxila. Another stretched from Rajagriha in South Bihar by way of Sravasti in Oudh to the banks of the Godavari. Still another, and a far more difficult, route lay across the desert of Rajputana to the ports of Sauvira in the lower Indus valley and of the Upper Deccan near the mouth of the Narmada. Adventurous merchants were guided along this route with difficulty by land-pilots who kept to the right track by observing the stars.
The chief articles of trade were silk, muslin, embroidery, ivory, jewellery and gold. The system of barter had not died out altogether, but the use of coins as the medium of exchange was becoming general. The standard unit of value was the copper Karshapana, weighing a little more than 146 grains. Silver coins were also in circulation. King Ambhi of Taxila presented Alexander with two hundred talents of coined silver. The weight of a silver Karshapana, also called Purana or Dharana, was a little more than 58 grains, which is one-tenth of that of the Nishka or Satamana known to the Vedic texts. The weight and relative value of coins seem to have varied in different localities.