Early Indian Trade and the Traders©
Atreyi Maitra
Department of History
Bangabasi College, Calcutta, India
Email: atreyimaitra@vsnl.net
On the consolidated background of the Maurya age, the period under review shines as the formative phase of Indian civilization from different standpoints - social, economic, religious, cultural, educational and ethical. The different cross-currents, often almost imperceivable, were highly active during these days, at the end of which the fluid state of culture, in the broader sense, ended up in crystallization.
T
he reconstruction of ancient Indian history is no more dependent at present on the speculations and conjectures based on literary sources only. The intense analytical study of the archaeological evidences, discovered through excavations, have attributed a scientific and more reliable character to it. Simultaneously, another factor has played a very significant role. It is the modern approach to history, diametrically opposite to that of the colonial, which used to set all attention on the political aspect, the rest given only a passing glance.This changed attitude has brought in its turn a remarkable boom in the entire activities concerning the subject. The reading, teaching, research-works, publications-everything centering around history tend to assume a mere realistic character as they seek the facts relating to the society, religion, economy, education, culture, morality and like - which are equally important component parts of a civilization, along with the political life. The process enables us to secure a bird's eye view to form a total conception of the past saga of Indian civilization and culture. The job of the historian is, however, complicated and difficult enough, since..the literary evidences, often highly technical and scrappy; have to be corroborated, corrected, and supplemented by the archaeological data, whenever the latter are found. Fortunately, we are in a somewhat better position than our predecessors, the precursors of Indology, who had to build the total foundation through enormous toil on their own. The present article attempts at analysing the information related to trade and the traders of Northern India including the western and eastern parts of the country.
The five centuries (cir. 200 B.C. - cir. 320 A.D.) in between the decline and dismemberment of the Maurya Empire and the rise of the Gupta Dynasty were, in a broader sense, devoid of astounding political activities. They witnessed the downfall of the successors of Asoka, the rise of petty principalities of local rulers and the tribal chiefs, and the intrusion of foreign hordes - the Bactrian Greeks, the Sakas, the Pahlavas, and the Kushanas through the North-Western passes in a continuous process.
Gradually, the foreigners occupied certain territories, demanded allegiance of the local people, introduced some new elements in the indigenous life-style and eventually got merged in the mainstream of the society. The same days witnessed strong waves of heterodox religions, particularly Buddhism and Jainism, sweeping over the plains of Northern India, creating considerable upheavals in the country.
The Maurya rule in the preceding age had bequeathed certain positive gifts to its subjects that were of great significance. It brought an extensive territory under a single political authority, established a well-knit and uniform system of administration throughout the empire, and furnished another bond of unity, the use of Prakrt language all over the area governed.
Compared to the strong, stable and secure life under the Maurya rule, this period may apparently seem to be lacking in remarkable political events, and consequently, in interest. But these five centuries are full of historical value as they have left documents in literature as well as other objects that are replete with facts both interesting and important. On the consolidated background of the Maurya age, the period under review shines as the formative phase of Indian civilization from different standpoints - social, economic, religious, cultural, educational and ethical. The different crosscurrents, often almost imperceivable, were highly active during these days, at the end of which the fluid state of culture, in the broader sense, ended up in crystallization. The process eventually reached its culmination in many respects during the following age, ruled by the imperial Guptas.
Beginning with a brief sketch of the economic backdrop of the period under consideration, the most significant information appears to be that state- control over land introduced in Kautilyan days, was withdrawn in the age of Manu (the author of Manu-samhita, the law book). Consequently, individual enterprise in farming found encouragement.1 The intensification of agriculture provided the economic base for the growth of towns and cities especially in the Ganges valley. Big cities like Pataliputra, Sravasti, Saketa, Kausambi, Rajagrha, Varanasi, Mathura, Takshasila and Pushkalavati gradually became centers of politico-socio- religious changes. "These were the nuclei of the affluent and the natural habitat of the Sethi-Gahapati,@2 (the extremely rich banker, and the merchant-householder with enormous wealth). The flexibility of a market economy was facilitated by three innovations - "the use of a script, the consequent issuing of ... letters and. pledges, and the introduction of money in the form of silver and copper punch- marked coins, issued initially, it has been suggested, by traders' guilds".3 Traders, making transaction in money and bankers, deriving huge wealth from usury, began to acquire considerable power and influence, though the latter practice did not find favour in the earlier Brahmanical works,4 which put certain restrictions upon the Brahmanas in this connection.
Another remarkable factor helping the growth of cities was a rapid 1rise of Jainism and its prohibition on agricultural professions and restrictions on ownership of land. Thus trade became the chief occupation of the Jainas.5 In the centuries immediately before and after Christ a great impetus was received by India's overland and maritime trade particularly with the West. It must be admitted that in the preceding times Kautilya showed favourable disposition to foreign trade.6 "Piracy was put down, trade routes secured, and the fashionable foreign trade . world of Rome ... began to demand on an unprecedented scale, Oriental luxuries of every kind".7 But the point of interest, lies in the fact that unlike South India, North of the Vindhya range produced no great quantities of goods of the kind demanded by the Mediterranean market.8 It was particularly as a channel for trade in transit from remoter sources that North-Western India came into the present context. As for overland trade, the direct passage from Indus delta to the West would have been the so-called Silk-Route, across Iran to Syria. Astride this route, stood Parthia, who, often at war and always in rivalry with the Roman Empire, blocked the Orient trade, occasionally closing the Western part of the Silk-Route. The main lines of traffic with Alexandria, the focus of the Orient trade lay through West Pakistan and Northern India, where geographical and political factors combined to facilitate them.9 By the beginning of the Christian era, the Kushanas consolidated their rule particularly in the North-Western parts with principal.centres at Pushkalavati and Mathura, both.of them being able to secure the profits of the overland trade with central Asia.10 The Kushana rulers even "modeled their gold coinage on the weight-standard of Roman Aureus in order to consolidate the position of advantage for India in international trade and commerce".11
One of the great trade routes of ancient India left the East-West Trans- Asian silk-Route at Balkh and struck South-Eastwards to Kabul river and India through the clefts in the Hindukush. It was the easiest highway from Central Asia to North-West India. From China, says the author of "The Periplus of the. Erythraean Sea", "raw silk and silk yarn and silk cloth are brought on foot through Bactria to Barygaza".12 The numerous valuable objects discovered in course of excavations at Taxila and Begram bear evidence of this close trade-relationship. Within the subcontinent, overland and maritime trade with the South (Dakshinapatha) was being explored. It was specially with the growth of land- borne trade, that the caravan-merchants or the Sarthavahas (Pali Sathavaha) came into existence and eventually occupied a pre-eminent position in society".13 The inland traders covered long distances, for example between Takshasila and Varanasi.14
Indian shipping itself developed considerably from the early days. Some time during the middle of the second century B.C. the first Indian, a shipwrecked sailor reached Alexandria. The subsequent expansion in trade is marked by the rules for merchandise, shipping and port-dues, found in the Code of Manu".15 In the "Yuktikalpataru", of Bhoja Narapati, an interesting treatise on shipping, detailed directions for shipbuilding have been given, and ships 176 cubits long, fitted with cabins, are referred to.16 It should be borne in mind that the maritime trade in the Western Indian Ocean was not restricted to luxury goods only, but was sustained by subsistence items and agricultural products. The Indian trans-oceanic voyaging was often an extended form of inland trade networks.17
On the Roman part, the sea-route to India was advantageous both politically and economically, it was free from the overland encounters with her adversaries in the east, and was faster, therefore cheaper.18
The epoch-making discovery of the South-West monsoon-wind blowing regularly across the Indian Ocean took place around 45 A.D. The discoverer was a captain named Hippalus. This event transformed the entire character of the sea- borne trade between India and Rome, which has left a curious impression on the pages of the "Periplus ...... the Greek merchants handbook. An important Indian harbour mentioned by the author was the market town Barbaricum on the middle mouth of the Indus. The inland behind it was the Scythian capital Minnagara.19
The next one was the ancient harbour of Barygaza (Sanskrt-Brgukachchha, modern Bharuch or Broach), the most famous of the Indian ports trading with the West, until it was eclipsed by its southern rivals after 47 A.D. The fertile coast country between Broach and the Indus has been referred to as Syrastrene, obviously Saurashtra modern Surat. The wealthy cities of Central India maintained access to the port through the arterial valleys of the Narmada and the Tapti, and quite easy land-routes from Rajputana and Northern India helped the supply of commodities to the same.20 The commerce of the Western Indian coast was so lucrative that Bharuch (Barygaza) and Sopara had trade settlements or "station" in the "Gulf", the presence of foreign citizens being of course entrepreneurial in nature. It is also indicated by the fact that the merchants were able to pay the extremely high rates. of interest (25%), as evidenced by the Vienna Papyrus21 of mid-second century A.D., undoubtedly by reaping enormous profits from the Indo-Roman trade.
A careful analysis of the articles of trade enables to explain the background, which facilitated the growth and affluence of the goldsmiths, merchants and perfumers, frequently mentioned as donors particularly in Western Indian inscriptions.22 South of Barygaza, Calliena (modern Kalyana, near Bombay) has been mentioned in the book. Once a port offering trading facilities, at the time of "The Periplus...", its use was being obstructed by the local ruler. But the use of the phase "enthesmon emporium" (privileged market) about this port indicates clearly the special legal provisions for trading here.23 In the eastern part the author mentions Dosarene with its trade in ivory. After this he becomes very vague though he mentions a harbour at the mouth of the Ganges (probably Tamralipta), whence came the Benares muslin, Chinese silks and malobatilru.24 The conflict for control of the external trade of Barygaza between the Saka kshatrapas and the Satavahanas has been mentioned in "The Periplus..." and presumably that explains partly the beginning of the decline of this trade.25
© 2000, Atreyi Maitra
References