Notes on Early Economic Conditions in Northern India

Rhys Davids, Caroline Foley
The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain
and Ireland
1901
pp.859-888


p.859 THE following classified references may prove useful and suggestive to the student of the economic conditions of ancient India. The work accomplished by Professor Zimmer in his Altindisches Leben, which contains, among so much of varied interest, almost all that may be gleaned on the political economy of Vedic times, has not been carried on with respect to the advancing civilization of the succeeding centuries. Mr. Romesh Chunder Dutt's important com- pilation, the Civilization of Ancient lndia, cannot, from the magnitude of its scope, treat adequately of what the literature of that era lets us see concerning rural economy, organization of industry, and methods of exchange. Dr. Fick's Sociale Gliederung im Nordostlichen Indien is most valuable and auggestive as far as it goes. But it is compiled from a sociological and not from a specifically economic standpoint. Yet if we consider the ancient records now accessible, contemporary respectively with the age which preceded and with that which saw the rise of Buddhism and Jainism, and with the times of the earlier and succeeding 'law-books' --covering, from B.C. 800, let us say, a thousand years,-- we may find materials sufficient to justify at all events some initial efforts to gain a coherent outline of economic institutions. I do not pretend that the passages noted are at all exhaustive; I am confident that much valuable material remains embedded both in edited and unedited texts. But I hope that these collectanea may prove stepping-stones to further reaching and more systematic investigation by more competent writers. p.860 Rural Economy. We do not read of any houses, large or small, as standing isolated in the country. Dwellings appear in groups constituting either the country village (janapadagama) (e.g. Jat. i, 318), or the border village (paccantagama). (Dhp. 81; Jat. v, 46; i, 215; cf. also the expressions in M.P.S., p.;55.) The population of such a village varied from 30 to 1,000 families. (Jat. i, 199; iii, 281.) The arable land extending around the village is spoken of as 'the field' (khetta) (Vin. i, 287), and its divisions as being of two shapes, which with their boundaries or dykes (for irrigation) had a patchwork appearance (ibid.). The village field in the kingdom of Magadha was larger, as a rule, than those elsewhere (Vin. ii, 186); even one only of its portions is, in two cases, described as of 1,000 acres (karisas) (Jat. iii, 293; iv, 276). The owner or occupier is represented as cultivating his particular khetta himself, aided by his family, or in certain cases slaves or hirelings. (Jat. i, 277;iii;, 162, 293; iv, 467.) Land might be let against a half or other share of the produce (Apast. ii, 11, 28 (1); i, 6, 18 (20)), or made over by gift to another (Jat. 484; Sat, P. Br. xiii, 3, 7), or sold (Vin. ii, 158, 159). But it is not stated that land thus transferred was village khetta; in one case it was 'forest land,' in another 'a garden,' in the third it may have been land 'cleared' by the proprietor or his forefathers (cf. Jat. iv, 467). The traditional feeling was apparently against land transfer (Sat. P. Br. xiii, 7, 15). The sovereign claimed an annual tithe on raw produce. This was levied, and in kind amounted to 1/6 ,1/8,1/10,or1/12.(D.i,87;Jat.ii,239,276,378;iv,169; Gaut.x,24;Manu,vii,130;Buhler,Trans.Vienna Acad., January, 1897; V. A. Smith, J.R.A.S., 1897, pp. 618, 619.) He could make over this tithe, accruing from one or more villages (rural or suburban), as a gift to anyone.(D.i, 87; Jat.i, 138; ii, 237, 403; iii, 229; v, 44; vi, 261, 334, 363.) p.861 He could also remit the tithe to any village. (Jat. i, 200; iv, 169.) But it is doubtful whether zemindary right to the soil itself was ever given as well. (Dial. of the Buddha, i, 108, n.) The methods of cultivation of the khetta are described in Buddhist literature. Grain (chiefly rice) , pulse, and sugarcane were the chief products; vegetables, possibly also fruit and flowers were cultivated. Rice was reckoned as the staple article of food and the the double jasmine (vassika) as the most highly prized flower.( Vin.ii,180; A.i,241 Jat. i, 36, 339; iv, 167, cf. 363, 445; Mil. 182.) The village had its common grazing-ground and its common herdsman. (Jat. i, 194; M. i, 122; A. i, 205; v, 350; Dhp. 151; Jat, iii, 401; cf. Rig-Veda, x, 19.) The grain crops were apparently massed in a public granary for the excision of the king's tithe prior to their removal to private barns. (Jat. ii, 378; i, 339, 467.) There were special granaries kept filled "for urgency," presumably either for scarcity or for military purposes. (Indian Antiquary, 1896, pp. 261 foll.) The pattern king is described as providing persons of no capital, who wished to start farming, with food and seed-corn. (D. i, 135.) Villagers are described as enclosing hunting preserves for the king in order to protect their field. (Jat. i, 149 ff.; iii, 270.) Villagers are described as co-operating to mend their roads, build tanks and municipal buildings, and lay out a park, women taking part. (Jat. i, 199 ff.) That peasant proprietors should leave their tillage to work for royal capitalists was considered as a mark of social decay and disaster. (Jat.i,339.) There is no allusion in the Buddhist books to the monthly corvee or raja-kariya exacted as a tax from 'artisans, ' 'mechanics, ' and sudra labourers according to the law-books. (Gaut. x, 31; Vas. xix, 28; Man. vii, 138.) Scarcity through drought or floods is frequently mentioned, at times extending over a whole kingdom, at times amounting p.862 apparently only to what used in our country to be called the 'starving season' or 'famine months,' viz. the two months preceding harvest. (M. i, 220; Vin. i, 211, 213, 214, 215, cf. 238; ii, 75; Jat. i, 329; ii, 135, 149, 363; v, 193; vi, 487.) Megasthenes' testimony as to the immunity of India from famine is well known, but his statement refers apparently to a 'general' scarcity. (McCrindle, Ancient India as described by Megasthenes, p. 32.) The brahmin is frequently met with as a cultivator in the Jataka, both as the holder of large estates and as a peasant proprietor, without apparently labouring under any social stigma for pursuing a calling by which, strictly viewed, he lost his brahminhood. (Jat. iii, 162, 293; iv, 167, 276, 363.) He also figures as a goatherd. (Jat. iii, 401.) Organization of Labour, Industry, and Commerce. It does not appear that slaves were kept in large numbers. They are mentioned as domestic servants, but not as working in mines or 'plantations,' as in Greece, Rome, or America. (D. i, 60, 92, 93, 104; cf. Dialogues of the Buddha, i, 19, n. 8, 101; Vin, i, 72.) Four causes of individuals becoming slaves are mentioned, namely:-- Capture. (Jat. iv, 220.) Judicial punishment. (Jat. i, 200.) Voluntary self-degradation. (Vin. i, 72; Sum. i, 168.) Debt. (Theri G;. 444; Jat. vi, 521.) They might attain to freedom. (D. i, 83.) Their treatment was probably not harsh, though violence was not illegal.(Jat.i,402,403;iv,162,167; M.i,125.iv, 162, 167; Their social status, especially if they mere born in the owner's house, was above that of hired day-labourers. They are always named before these and before artisans also. Cf. the compound 'children-wives-slaves-workpeople' and the list of callings:--D. i, 51; Mil. 147, 331; A. i, 145, 206; ii, 67. p.863 They might acquire education and good manners, and be given skilled employment. (Jat. i, 451.) According to Manu, "women employed in the royal service and menial servants" of the court were paid regular wages in money and in clothing and grain. (Menu, vii, 125,126.) No slave, while undischarged, might be admitted into the Buddhist Order. (Vin. i, 76.) The members of that order were allowed to employ the services of a man (purisa), i.e. a paid servant, not a slave, to be a gardener (aramika) and go on shopping errands. (V. ii, 297; iii, 238.) The day-labourer or wage-earner (bhatika or bhatikaraka) was not anyone's chattel, yet his life was probably harder than the slave's. (Cf.Jat.i, 422; iii, 406, 444.) He was employed in farm-work, e.g. to watch a growing crop. (Jat. iii, 406; iv, 277.) He was paid either in food (Jat. iii, 444) or in money and bought his food (Jat. iii, 326, 406). Judging by the specimens of manufacture described in the Majjhima Sila (D. i, 7) and by the Jataka, the list of callings and handicrafts given in Mil. 331 cannot be said to show only a later elaboration of arts and crafts. In this it will be noticed that the division of labour attained to involved three distinct trades in making bows and arrows, apart from any ornamental work on them.(1) The important profession of vaddhaki,(2) or maker in wood, is not adequately described by our 'carpenter.' It included not only the construction of furniture and houses (Jat. iv, 159), but also shipbuilding (ibid.), cart-making (Jat. iv, 207), and architecture(3) (Jat. i, 201 ; iv, 323; Mil. 330, 343). ------------------------ 1 A professional winnower of grain is instanced in Mil. 201, but this is a double rendering See Questions of King Milinda,i,285. With the bi-annel grain harvests mentioned by Megasthenes(McCrindle, op.cit,54) this trade might afford a relatively continual employment.Glearning,too,was reckoned as a means of livelihood 'in good years.(Vin.i,238;Jat. iv,422.) 2 It is not clear how far the craft of a thapati (e.g., M. i, 396; iii, 144) or of a tacchaka (Dhp. 80) coincided with that of a vaddhaki. 3 Mr. Rouse (Jataka, iv., 203, n.) compares it with tektwv. p.864 Similarly, the smith or kammara was a general craftsman in metals, from whose skill any iron implement, from a ploughshare or an axe, or, for that matter, an iron house, down to a razor, or the finest of needles, capable of floating in water, or, again, statues of gold or silver work, was expected. (Vin. Texts, i, 200, n.; Jat. iii, 281 ff.; iv, 492; v, 45, 282; Dhp., 239; S.N. 962.) Similarly, the stonemason or pasanakottaka is described as not only quarrying and shaping stones (like so many of his later compeers, alas!) out of the materials ready to hand on the site of a former village (purana-gamatthane) , but as capable of hellowing a cavity in a crystal, a matter probably requiring superior tools. (Jat. i, 478, 479.) A considerable degree of organization characterized all the leading industries. Certain trades were localized in special villages, either suburban and ancillary to the large cities, or themselves forming centres of traffic with sur- rounding villages, e.g. the woodwork and metal-work industries and pottery. (Jat. ii, 18, 405; iii, 281 (376 and 508 probably refer to potters' suburban villages); iv, 159, 207.) Within the cities trades appear to have been localized in special streets,(1) e.g. those of ivory-workers (Jat.i, 320; ii, 197) and of dyers (Jat.iv, 81). Some of these villages were of considerable size, the type-number of 1,000 families being assigned to two of metal-workers and to two of wood-workers. Of these, the former pair was in the country, the latter pair was suburban. They were also well organized (2) under headmen--in one case under two headmen--who were thus at once the municipal and the industrial chiefs or syndics. To judge from the case of one of these, a master smith, such a man might be of high social standing, possessing great wealth and being a persona grata with the king. (Jat. iii, 281.) ---------------------- 1 The expression in Jat. i, 356, tantavitatatthanam, seems to me to refer simply to the weaver's 'workshop,' whether or not this may have been, as the translator renders it, in the 'weavers' quarter.' 2 Cf. especially the united action in Jat. iv, 159. p.865 The apprentice (antevasika, literally the 'boarder') appears frequently in the Jataka, but no terms or period or other conditions of pupillage are given (Jat. i, 251; v, 290-3). The position of a senior pupil to a maha-vaddhaki is indicated by Buddhaghosa (Asl. 111, 112). Again, the chief industries were organized into guilds (seniyo) under a president (pamukha) or elder (or 'alderman,' jetthaka).(1) Eighteen guilds are frequently mentioned as being summoned by the king to witness his procedure or to accompany him, but the detailed list is given no further than "the carpenters, smiths, leather-workers, painters, and the rest, expert in various arts." (Jar. i, 267, 314; ii, 12; iv, 43, 411; vi, 22, 427; MiI. 2.) The guild is also referred to as entitled to arbitrate on certain occasions between its members and their wives. (Vin. iv, 226.)(2) The heads of the guilds might be important ministers in attendance on the king, wealthy, personce gratce. (J.ii, 12, 52; iii,281.) The first appointment to a supreme headship over all the guilds doubled with the office of treasurer is narrated in connection with the kingdom of Kasi at the court of Benares. Possibly the quarrels twice alluded to as occurring between presidents (pamukha) of guilds at Savatthi in Kosala may have also broken out at Benares and have led to this appointment.(3) (Jat. ii, 12, 52; iv, 43.) ---------------------- 1 Cf. the maha-vaddhaki (Jat. vi, 332). 2 Of the other corporate authorities here referred to, the puga and the gana, practically nothing is known, but they were probably not formed on an economic basis In the Canon Law a gana of bhikshus means a number not exceeding four persons. 3 It is not without interest to note that this advance in central organization was made at a time when the monarchy is represented as having been elective, not hereditary,and when the king who appointed and the man who was appointed were the sons of a merchant and a tailor respectively. This is the only passage known to me stating eplicitly the connection between guild-organization and the minister commonly called 'treasurer' (setthi). The Indian setthis were wealthy commoners, one of whom, termed sometimes maha-setthi,with or without a colleague or subordinate, the anusetthi, was known as The Setti par excellence and was in daily communication with the king. Thus we read of 500 setthis welcoming the Buddha to the new college of Jetavana at Savatthi, and of Anathapindika as The Setthi or maha-setthi. Dr. Fick speaks of this position as involving generally the "representation of the merchant profession." In the p.866 Whether there was an official or local or other distinction between a pamukha and a jetthaka is not apparent. As between jetthakas there is an instance, in one of the large centres of woodcraft alluded to, of the population of 1,000 families being grouped in two equal halves, each under one jetthaka. Dr. Fick hints, from this, at a possible limitation in the size of guilds (op. cit., 183) . The instance, however, is unique, and in the case of smith villages we find 1,000 families united under one head. The office was apparently conferred on account of superior skill, and was lifelong. (Jat. iii, 286.) Other instances of trades, etc., organized under a jetthaka are:-- Seamen (or pilots).(l) (Jat. iv, 137.) Garland-makers. (Jat, i, 405.) Caravan traders. (Jat,i, 368; ii, 295.) Robbers('moss-troopers'), composing e.g.a 'little robber village' in the hills (e.g. near Uttarapancala, to the number of 500). (Jat. i, 296, 297; ii, 388; iv, 430, 433, Com.) Forest police, who escorted travellers. (Jat. ii, 335.) Trades and crafts were very largely hereditary; whether more so than elsewhere, including ancient and mediaval Europe, is not so clearly made out as some would have it. Not only individuals, but families, are frequently referred to in terms of their traditional calling, just as a man is often described, as to his trade, in terms of his father's trade: 'Sati the fisherman's son' for 'Sati the fisherman,' 'Cunda the smith's son' for 'Cunda the smith,' etc. (M. i, 256; M. Par., Sutta 41; Jat. i, 98, 194, 312; ii, 79; iii, 376. Cf. nesado = luddaputto = luddo in Jat. iii, 330, 331; v, 356-358.) --------------------- Mahavagga the passage mentioning the services of the Setthi of Rajagaha to the Townsman (negama) is rendered "to the merchant guild, " but in the Cullavagga, 'Townsman' is retained. (Jat. i, 92, 93, 269, 349, 452; ii, 64; iii, 119, 299, 475;iv, 62, 63; cf. Vimana Vatthu Atth. 66, settichattam dadati; Vin. i, 273; ii, 157; Vin. Tets, i, 102, n. 3. On anusetthi, Jat. v, 384, cf. Vin.i,18.) 1 Dr. Fick renders the term niyyamaka by fisherman, a trade for which there are other terms. The Jataka in question is apparently dealing with navigation on the open sea. p.867 There were certain aboriginal tribes who were practically all hereditary craftsmen in certain industries: the so-called low tribes (hina-jatiyo) of the Venas, who were rush-workers; Nesadas, who were trappers living in their own villages; and Rathakaras, or carriage-builders. (Vin. iv, 6-10; M.ii, 152; A. ii,85=P.P.51; S.i,93; Jat.iv, 413; v, 337.) Again, in the localized industries specified above, sons would be trained in the father's craft practically as a matter of course. Nevertheless, in the times with which these notes are mainly concerned, trades did not constitute a system of social cleavage amounting to what was later on called 'caste,' with the exception of the aboriginal clans just alluded to. Four 'colours' (vanna) are frequently spoken of in the Jataka, but only in the sense in which we might speak of 'Lords and Commons, ' 'tiers-etat, ' 'British-born and aliens,' or 'the different classes or ranks of society.' Princes, brahmins, and burghers (khattiya, brahmana, setthiyo) are shown in the Jataka as forming friendships, sending their sons to the same teacher, and even now and then intermarrying and eating together, without incurring any stigma as social iconoclasts or innovators. (Jat. i, 421, 422; ii, 319, 320; iii, 9-11, 21, 249-254, 340, 405, 406, 475, 514-517; iv, 38; v, 280; vi, 348, 421, 422; Fick, op. cit., chs, vi-xii; Rhys Davids, Dialoguces of the Buddha, i, pp. 96ff.) Again, in the wealthy burgher class, we have an instance of a deer-trapper (miga-luddaka) becoming the protege and then the " inseparable friend " of a rich young setthi, without a hint of social barriers. (Jat. iii, 49-51.) The Jataka shows us here and there a rigorous etiquette observed by the brahmin 'colour' in the matter of eating with, or of the food of, the despised Candalas, as well as the social intolerance felt for the latter by the burgher class. (ii, 83, 84; iii, 233; iv, 200, 376, 388, 390-392.) On the other hand, it tells of (a) a Kshatriya, a king's son, who, when he set out again to woo his offended wife, apprenticed himself incognito to the 'court' potter, basket-maker, florist, and chef to his father-in-law in succession, without a word being said as to loss of 'caste' when his p.868 vagaries became known (v, 290-293); (b) a prince resigning his share of the kingdom in favour of his sister and embarking in trade (vanijjam akasi) (iv, 84); (c) a prince resigning his kingdom,dwelling with a merchant on the frontier, and "working with his hands" (iv, 169); (d) a prince in self-chosen exile, taking service for a salary as an archer (ii, 87); (e) a wealthy, pious brahmin taking to trade to be better able to afford his charities (iv, 15, 16); (f) brahmins engaged personally in trading, without any such charitable pretexts (v, 22, 471); (g) brahmins taking service as archers and as the servant of an archer, formerly a weaver (i, 356, 357; iii, 219; v, 127, 128) ; (h) brahmins as low-caste trappers (nesada)(1) (ii, 200; vi, 170 foll.); (i) a brahmin in the (low) cartwright trade (iv, 207, 208).(1) Again, among the unprivileged classes, we find not a few instances of mobility of labour and 'personal capital': (a) parents discussing the best profession for their son's welfare--writing, reckoning, or (?) money-changing, no reference being made to the father's trade (Vin. i, 77; iv, 128); (6) a weaver, looking on his trade as a pis-aller changing it in a moment for that of a soi-disant archer (Jat. ii, 356 foll.); (c) a pious farmer and his son, with equally little ado, turning to the 'low trade' of basket-making (rush-weaving) (Jat.iv,318); (d) a young man of good family, but penniless, selling a dead mouse for a 'farthing,' and, by skilful investments, energy, and bluff, becoming a successful merchant (Jat. i, 120-122). A very remarkable instance of the popular conception of the mobility of labour and capital on a large scale is the story of the village of 'wood-wrights, 'who, failing to deliver the goods (furniture, etc.) for which they had been paid in advance, built a ship secretly, embarked their families, and emigrated down the Ganges and out to an island over sea. (Jat. iv, 159.) The trade of the trader, dealer, or middleman (vanija or ----------------------- 1 Cf. Manu, iii, 151 foll.; Fick, op. cit., 7, n. p.560 buyer) may well have been largely hereditary (Jat.ii, 267, 287, 288; iii, 198). Traditional good-will handed on would here prove specially effective in commanding confidence. But there is no instance as yet forthcoming pointing to any corporate organization of the nature of a guild or Hansa league. The hundred or so of merchants who came to buy up a newly arrived ship's cargo in the Cullaka-setthi Jataka were apparently trying each to score off his own bat, no less than the youth who forestalled them (Jat. i, 122). Nor is there any hint of syndicate or federation or other agreement existing between the 500 dealers who were fellow- passengers on the ill-fated ships in Jat. ii, 128; v, 75, or the 700 who were lucky enough to secure Supparaka as their pilot (Jar. iv, 138-142), beyond the mere fact of concerted action in chartering the same vessel. There was, it is true, a distinction obtaining within the vanija class. This was to be a sattacaha or caravan-leader. The position was apparently hereditary, and to be the jetthaka in this capacity on an expedition implied that other vanijas, with their carts or asses, as well as caravan-followers, were accompanying the chief satthavaha and looking to him for directions as to halts, watering, precautions against robbers, and in many cases as to route, fords, etc. Subordination, however, was not always ensured, and the institution in itself does not warrant the inference of any kind of trade union among traders. (Jat. i, 98, 99, 107, 194; ii, 295, 335; iii, 200; Fick, op. cit., p. 178.) Partnership in a deal in birds imported from India to Babylon occurs once (Jat. iii, 126, 127); once, again, in a case of horses imported from (the north' to Benares (Jat. ii, 31). Other cases of partnership, either permanent or on a specific occasion, are given in the Kutavanija (2), the Serivanija, the Mahavanija, and the Mahajanaka Jatakas. (Jat, i, 111, 404; ii, 181; iv, 350-354; vi, 32.) In the Jarudapana Jataka, however, there is, if not explicit statement, room for assuming concerted commercial action on a more extensive scale, both in the birth story and in its introductory 'episode of the present' (paccuppannavatthu). p.870 The caravan in question, consisting of an indefinite number of traders (under a jetthaka in the Birth-story), accumulate and export goods at the identical time and apparently share the treasure trove. In the episode they further resort together to make offerings to the Buddha before and after their journey (Jat. ii, 294-6). These were traders of Savatthi, of the class who are elsewhere described as acting so unanimously under Anathapindika, himself a great travelling merchant (see above, p. 865, n. 3). The Guttila Jataka, again, shows concerted action, in work and play, on the part of Benares traders (Jat. ii, 248). The travelling in company, however, may well have been undertaken for greater safety, the attacking of caravans by robbers who infested certain jungles, known as robber-jungles (cora-kantarani), being frequently mentioned (Jat. i, 99, passim). Nevertheless merchants are more often represented as travelling with their carts alone, either from absence of organized trade or by preference. Thus, in the Apannaka Jataka, where two traders are ready to take goods to some Eastern or Western city at the same time, they mutually agree which shall start first. The one thinks that he, on arriving first, will get a better, because non-competitive, price; the other, also holding that competition 'is killing work' (lit. "price-fixing is like robbing humans of life"), prefers to sell at the price fixed, under circumstances advantageous from the dealer's point of view, by his predecessor. (Jat. i, 98, 99, 107, 121, 194, 247, 270, 354, 368, 376, 377-379, 413; ii, 109, 287, 288, 335; iii, 200, 403; iv, 15; v, 22, 164.)(1) The objective of outgoing caravans as well as their contents is left unfortunately vague. They are in some cases said to go both "East and West" (Jat. i, 98, 368); the larger proportion probably went (as in the second passage quoted towards the West. Traffic eastward was largely effected by ----------------------- 1 Dr. Fick quotes the passage from Sudraka's Mrcchakatika Act ii--"He lives in the setthis' quarter"--as evidence, at least at a later date: of localization in the mercantile profession But unless every setthi was a vanija, the statement is too general to apply, with any significant force, to the latter class. (Fick, op. cit., 180, n.) p.871 water, that is, of course, down the Ganges to Campa (Bhagalpur, about 350 miles from the nearest seaport), and probably further. The Mahajanaka Jataka (vi, 32-35) actually suggests that the Ganges was navigable right away to the sea, for the hero, with other traders, is represented as setting out from Campa, with export goods, for Suvannabhumi (that is, probably either Burma, or the 'Golden Chersonese,' or the whole Further Indian coast), on the same ship which is wrecked after a week's voyage "in mid-ocean," and not as having gone overland to Tamalitti (Tamralipti) on the coast. (Mah. 70, 115; Dip. iii, 33; Legge, Fa Hien, 100; Smp. 338.) It is true that the word samudda (sea) is sometimes applied to the Ganges, but if the Jataka above be compared with the Sankha Jataka (iv, 15-17) it becomes probable that the open sea is meant in both. The hero, while shipwrecked, washes his mouth out with salt water during his self-imposed fast.(1) In the latter Jataka we may even almost assume that the ship prepared by Sankha started for Suvannabhumi as far up as Benares itself. The hero, a wealthy man, would not have set out on foot at midday to proceed the long distance to Campa or Tamalitti. Cf. the hero of the Cullaka-setthi Jataka (i, 121), who, to appear like a rich merchant, hired a carriage to perform the same promenade, namely, the interval of sandy road between Benares and its docks.(2) Suvannabhumi was also visited by traders coasting around India from western seaports, such as Bharukaccha (Bharoch). (Jat. iii, 188.) Ceylon was another commercial objective, and one associated with perils around which legends had grown up. (Jat. ii, 127-129.) But there is no instance as yet to hand of riverine traffic of any importance west of Benares. Anathapindika's caravans ---------------------- 1 Compare also the expressions samudda nikkhametva nadiya Baranasim gantva, (the sea-fairy bringing them on the magic ship) " from off the ocean by (or on) the river to Benares " (Jat, ii, 112). 2 These instances show that pattana can mean a river-port, as we speak of the port of London. p.872 came south-east from Savatthi to Rajgaha and back (about 300 miles, Jat. i, 348), and also to the 'borders,' probably towards Gandhara (Jat. i, 92, 377, 378). The former trip would necessarily involve crossing the Ganges and other rivers, but there is no evidence to show whether an upland route through Uttara-Kosala was followed, where the streams would be yet small and the valley of the Gandak descended to Patna, or whether Hiouen Thsang's route was followed as far as Pippala-vana and down the Gharghara valley (Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India, map xi). Cart-ferries were not unknown (Manu, viii, 404-406), and from the context in M.P.S., pp. 14, 15, one might, by reading too literally, infer that the Ganges, even at the great breadth it has attained at Patna, was there and then fordable by way of its shoals and, perhaps temporary, causeways, except in flood-time. Those caravans which are described as traversing deserts, requiring that they should travel during the cool of night guided by an expert termed a 'desert pilot, who consulted the stars, were probably crossing the barren wastes of Rajputana westward to the seaports of Bharukaccha, and Roruva, the capital of Sovira (Jat. i, 99-103, 107-109; iii, 188, 470; iv, 137; Dip. ix, 26; H. Th. 2. 226;; Ind. Ant. xvii, 183; xviii, 239; D., 19th Sutta, 36; Vim. V.A. 370; Rhys Davids, J.P.T.S., 1901, pp. 76, 77; Mil. 359; ? Roruka, Div. 544). Westward of these ports there was traffic with Babylon (Baveru) in pre-Asokan days (Jat. iii, 126 foll.). Traffic with China is not mentioned till centuries later (Mil. 121, 327, 359; Asl. 14). The nature of the exports and imports is also very seldom specified.(1) Probably they consisted largely in Benares muslins and in the precious metals and gems.(2) ----------------------- 1 The fact of this general absence of explicitness, even in connection with regular traffic, hardly bears out Dr. Fick's assumption that there was probably no regular intercourse between India and other countries. Gold was exported to Persia as early as the time of Darius Hystaspes, yet there is no explicit mention of this export in the Jataka. (Fick, op. cit., 174.) 2 Cf.Jat.iv, 21, where the brahmin disappointed through shipwreck of the expected profits on his merchandise, is by the kind fairy recouped with a great p.873 But we are told explicitly of a successful, if sporadic, deal in birds between Babylon and Benares, and of horses imported by hundreds from 'the north' (Uttarapatha) and from Sindh. Asses of Sindh, too, are mentioned. (Jat. i, 124, 178, 181; ii, 31, 287; iii, 126, 127, 278; cf. Hopkins, J.A.O.S., xiii, 257; cf. addition, p. 372; Fick, op. cit., 176.) Methods and Medium of Exchange. The economic mechanism for disposing of commodities to the consumer, as revealed in Buddhist literature, consisted of the fixed store or shop (apana)(1) and of the perambulating hawker, with or without cart or donkey. In both institutions retail trading apparently constituted a means of livelihood without necessarily entailing the practice of a strictly productive industry. (Vin, ii, 267; iv, 248-252; Jat. ii, 267; cf.iv, 488; vi, 29; Mil.330; cf. with the later work Mahavansa, 25, 139, 213; for the hawker: Jat. i, 111, 112, 205; ii, 424; iii, 21, 282, 283.)The application, judgment, cleverness, and 'connection' of the sucessful shopkeeper(papanika) are discussed in A. i, 115-117; cf. M. ii, 7; Vin.i, 255. Slaughterhouses are mentioned (Vin. i, 202; ii, 267), and there the poor man as well as the king's chef apparently bought their meat (Jat. v, 458; vi, 62). They were probably permitted within the town, for we read of meat being sold at cross roads, that is, probably, at street corners or corner shops. Thus the hunter is taking his cart full of venison to the city to sell it, when he falls in with customers without the city (Jat. iii, 49; D., 22nd Sutta = M. i, 58(2). The greengrocers apparently plied their trade at the four ------------------------ ship filled with the 'seven treasures,'viz., gold, silver, pearls, gems, cat's eyes, diamonds, coral. Cf. also Jat. iv, 139-141, where an experienced skipper brings his merchant passengers to those seas where most of these treasures lie hidden. 1 'From the store' is sometimes described as antarapanato (Jat. i, 55, 350; iii, 406). The commodities purchased on these occasions were yellow cloths, spirits, and rice gruel, things that would not be exposed to light and heat in the open apana . 2 My attention was drawn to this passage by Professor Bendall. p.874 gates of a town (Jat. iv, 448). There were also shops for the sale of textile fabrics, groceries, grain, perfumes, flowers, etc., and taverns (panagaram, apanam) (Vin. ii, 267; iv, 248, 249, 252; Jat. i, 251, 252, 268, 290; ii, 267; iv, 82; Mil. 2; Dhp. 299). But there is no clear reference as yet forthcoming to market-places in the towns, to market towns, or to markets as periodical or permanent, nor any word equivalent to market. Translators have used 'market' occasionally, but perhaps with scarcely sufficient warrant, e.g., market town for nigama (Jat. i, 360) and for nigamagama (Jat. ii, 209; iii, 79); market-place for singhataka (Questions of King Milinda, S.B.E. xxxv, 2, 53; xxxvi, 279, n. 1). On the other hand, any temptation there may have been to use market-place for gamamajjha, where householders met to transact gamakammam or gamakiccam, has been resisted (Jat. i, 199; iii, 8) . But gamassa kammantattanam has proved irresistible (Jat. iv, 306). Even as late as the age of the Commentaries we find Buddhaghosa having recourse to a clumsy compound, bhanda-bhajaniyam thanam, 'a place for wares-distribution' (Asl. 294). It is curious, too, that there is no mention in the Jataka of any rural institution resembling the still surviving barter fair, or hath, taking place on the borders of adjacent districts, and which, one would think, must date from early times.(1) The act of exchange between producer, or dealer, and consumer was, both before and during the Jataka age, a 'free' bargain, a transaction unregulated by any system of statute-fixed prices. Supply, limited by slow transport and individualistic production, but left free and stimulated, under the latter system, to efforts after excellence on the one hand (e.g. Jat. iii, 282-285) and to tricks of adulteration on the other (v. the fraudulent practices of the tailor, Jat. i, 220), sought to equate with a demand which was no doubt largely compact of customary usage and relatively unaffected by the swifter fluctuations termed fashion. The free contract ---------------------- 1 My attention was called to this interesting point by Mr. Wm. Irvine, late I.C.S. The hath, he tells me, " is to this day universal in India, to my personal knowledge, from Patna to Dehli, and, I believe, from Calcutta to Peshawur." p.875 obtained generally in Vedic times (Rig-Veda, X, xxiv, 9; cf. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 258). And whereas, in consequence of its prevalence in the succeeding age, soma-juice had to be bargained for in terms of cow-payment, the priestly compilers of the Sata-patha Brahmana pronounced the general system to have been initiated and sanctioned by the particular sacrificial transaction, 3rd Kanda, iii, 3(1-4),thus: "because he [the Adhvaryu] bargains for the king (Soma), therefore any and every thing is vendible here." "And because they first bargain and afterwards come to terms, therefore, about any and every thing that is for sale here, people first bargain and afterwards come to terms." Instances of price-haggling appear in the Jataka (Jat.i,111,112,195; ii, 222, 289, 424, 425; v, 43-45), and, in one case, of the dealer's sense of its irksomeness (i, 99). The bold 'deal in futures' of the Cullaka-Setthi Jataka has been already alluded to (i, 121, 122). The outlay in this case was eight coins for a carriage, and very likely most of the hero's available capital of 1,000 coins (the sum netted by his last deal) for servants, 'ushers,' a pavilion, etc. His winnings were 200,000 coins, let us say 20,000 per cent. A profit of 200 and 400 per cent. is reaped by the master of a caravan on one journey (Jat. i, 109; cf. iv, 2). The king's purchases alone were effected by an officially regulated price. This was fixed without appeal by the court valuer (agghakaraka, agghapanikatthana), who stood between the two fires of offending the king if he valued the goods submitted at their full cost price, and of driving away tradesmen if he refused bribes and cheapened the wares. (Jat. i, 124-126; ii, 31, 32; iv, 138.) The valuer would also assess the merchants for the duty of a twentieth, presumably ad valorem, on each consignment of native merchandise, and of a tenth ad valorem (10 kahapanas in the 100), plus a sample, on each consignment imported from over sea.(1) Finally, he would have to assess merchants -------------------- 1 In one instance we find the king making over the octroi collected at the gates of his capital to a subject. (Jat. vi, 347.) p.876 for their specific commutation of the rajakariya, viz. one article per month sold to the king at a certain discount (arghapacayena) . (Jat.iv, 132; Gaut.x,26,35; Baudh.i,10, 18 (14,15); Manu, viii, 398 foll.) Whether this functionary was evolved later on into a Minister or Board of price-regulation for the markets generally, or not, we find in the times of Manu that, theoretically at least, it was the part of the sovereign to settle prices publicly with the merchants every fifth day or fourteenth day, fixing "the rates for the purchase and sale of all marketable goods," with heed to their expenses of production. (Manu, viii, 401, 402.) The whole of the Buddhist literature testifies to the fact that ancient systems of simple barter as well as of reckoning value by cows, or rice-measures, had for the most part been replaced by the use of a metal currency, carrying well-understood and generally accepted exchange value. Barter emerges of course in certain contingencies, as e.g. when in the forest a wanderer obtains a meal from a woodlander for a gold pin, or when, among humble folk, a dog is bought for 1 kahapana plus a cloak. (Jat. ii, 247; vi, 519.) Barter was prescribed also among religious fraternities who, as with the Buddhist Order, might be forbidden to traffic "with gold or silver."(l) (Vin. ii, 174; iii, 215-223, 237; Win. Texts, i, 22, n. 1; Rhys Davids, Ancient Coins of Ceylon, 6.) Barter was also recommended in priestly tuition to Brahmins and Kshatriyas in preference to their disposing of any superfluous chattels by sale, i.e. money bargains (Va. ii, 37-39). As a standard of value rice was very possibly still used in the Jataka times (Jat. i, 124, 125).(2) ---------------------- 1 This was evidently meant to include all current coins, the old Vinaya Commentary explaining rajatam as meaning the kahapana and the bronze, wooden, and lac masaka. (Vin. iii, 238; quoted in Asl. 318, where the reading must be corrected accordingly.) 2 In translating the Varuni Jataka (The Jataka, i, 120), Mr. Chalmers speaks of selling spirits for gold and silver as a 'Jewish' proceeding, as opposed to normal barter. I venture to think that the text does not suggest any such distinction. Literally rendered it runs thus:--"A trader in spirits having p.877 The coins or money-pieces mentioned in Buddhist literature are the nikkha (nishka), the suvanna (suvarna) , the kahapana (karshapana, pana), the kansa, the pada, the masaka (masha), and the kakanika. Cowry-shells (sippikani) are once alluded to, but only as we should speak of dits or mites, not as anything still having currency. (Jat. i, 425, 426.)(1) There is no evidence whatever to show that these instruments of exchange constituted a currency of standard and token coins issued and regulated by any central authority. They appear to have been cut (into rectangular shapes) and punched with private dies by traders in metals or by the metal-smiths. (Thomas, Ancient Indian Weights, 41; E. J. Rapson, Indian Coins, pp. 2, 3; Rhys Davids, Ancient Coins of Ceylon, p. 13. Cf. the bas-relief of the Jetavana vihara on the Bharhut Sthupa: Cunningham, The Bharhut Sthupa.) Apparently an piece of metal thus treated and circulated might be termed rupiya (i.e. literally having a definite form on it), not exclusively a silver coin. In fact, the Vinaya Commentary explains rupiya by stamped pieces of gold, copper (or bronze), wood, and lac, or any of these worked up into head, waist, arm, or foot ornaments, and omits silver (rajata) altogether. (Vin. iii, 239, 240.) No one can read the Buddhist canonical works without being struck by the rarity of any allusion to silver, as compared with the frequent reference to gold and other metals. It was not till towards the Christian era that silver became widely current. (Manu, viii, 135-137; but of. S. i, 104, where Mara appears as an elephant with teeth suddham rupiyam,? like pure silver.) ------------------------- prepared fiery spirits and selling them, having received gold suvannas, etc., a number of people begin gather togetger (at this shop),he went in the evening to bathe, bidding his apprentice in these words: 'My man, do you, having taken the price (mulan), give the spirits.' " I do not see here any hint as to barter being normal. I only gather that, whereas the drink called sura was very cheap and could be bought with a copper coin (Jat, i, 350; iii, 446), varuni, and perhaps especially tikhina varuni, was, though popular, much dearer. 1 The translator has rendered kahapana and kansa by 'gold' coins. (Chalmers, Jataka, i, pp. 255, 256.) p.878 The only mode by which the central authority appears to have regulated the currency was by way of the weight of the pieces (Manu, viii, 403; Va. xix, 13). But even of this there is no mention in Buddhist literature. Most of the names of the coins have reference to weight. Kahapana, e. g., meant simply a certain weight of any metal; according to extant coins of copper, 146.4 grains or 9.48 grams,(l) i.e. five-sixths of a penny. Hence it probably is that, whereas the unit of current money in Buddhist times was evidently the bronze kahapana, passages are here and there met with which either explicitly refer to gold coins or seem to imply gold, much as we, for instance, can speak of 'pennyweights' of gold. (Cf. the gold in kahapanas heaped on to the javelin of Phussadewa, Mah. 157; the rain of kahapanas, Jat. ii, 313 = Dhp. 34; cf. Jat. i, 253; possibly also the kahapanas stolen from the treasury under the nose of the herannika, or gold-tester, Jat. i, 369.) Suvanna and kahapana are distinguished A leaden kahapana is spoken of (Jat. i, 7). But the identification of kahapanas with copper pieces in Jat. i, 425, 426, and the statement in the Vin. Com. (iv, 256) that 4 kahapanas = 1 kansa (bronze or copper coin), would alone be sufficient to fix. its substance gua coin. From Manu, viii, 134-6, it would seem that, since 16 mashas make 1 suvanna (of gold), as well as I dharana (of silver) and 1 karshapana (of copper), we get a table of values as follows:-- of gold = 16 gold mashas = 1 suvanna 146.4 grains of silver = 16 silver mashas = 1 dharana (1 karsha) of copper = 16 copper mashes = 1 kahapana the three 'standard' coins being equal approximately to œ1 5s., 9d., and 1d., respectively, of our money. And of the smaller tokens, there was the half-masha (addhamasaka) , the half-kahapana, the quarter-kahapana or pada, and the kakanika (kakini), probably 1/5 of a masha, or 1/80 of a kahapana. (Vin.ii,294; Jat. i, 120,419; iii,326, 446; vi, 346; Childers, Dictionary, s.v. pado; Sum. i, 212.) ------------------------- 1 Rapson, loc. cit. p.879 The relative values of both these and the gold currency varied in different places at different times, so that the Vin. Com. thinks it well to affirm " At that time [ of King Bimbisara], at Rajagaha, 5 masakas were equal to I pada" (Vin. iii,45) . Again, whereas in the Jataka Commentary the nikkha is said to be worth 15 suvannas, in Manu it has come to equal (in weight) only 4. The Buddhist books, in stating any sum of money from 100 upwards, do not as a rule add the name of the coin. That kahapanas, however, are meant, is betrayed here and there by exceptions to the rule. (Jat. iv, 378; vi, 96, 97, 332.) It is not easy to gather what distinction is to be understood between hiranna and suvanna when they occur together. In M. iii, 175 (=D., 17th Sutta) the compound form means gold-dust as it was found in the sand of the banks of the Ganges. When the two are distinguished as in Vin. iii, 219, they may signify respectively bullion and gold pieces, while hiranna alone simply stood for gold in any form. Cf. e.g. Vin. ii, 158, 159 (Jat. i, 92), where Anathapindika is said to have paved the park he purchased with hirannam. In the later edition of the legend quoted by Spence Hardy (Manual of Buddhism, pp. 218, 219) the coins used are said to have been so many masurans (=masa-hiranna). It is probable that the good merchant's millions were really copper kahapanas, transformed in the growth of the legend to gold. All marketable commodities and services had a value expressible in terms of cash; e.g., meat, spirits, ghee and oil, clothing, horses, asses, oxen, chariots, slaves, plate, sandal-wood, valuing, medical aid, teaching, the skill of the archer and the artist, the protection of the forest guard, the hire of carriage or oxen, pensions, doles, fines, tolls, the loan of money, etc., etc. Of substitutes for current coins (or what were used as such), or instruments of credit, we read of signet-rings used as deposits or securities, of wife or children pledged or sold fos debt, and of promissory notes or 'debt-sheets' (ina-pannani) . The last, however, appear p.880 to have been simply registrations as between borrower and lender and their respective heirs. (Jat. i, 122, 230, 423; vi, 521; Mil. 279; Theri G. 444.) Money-loans appear frequently in the Jataka, e.g. Jat. iv, 45; vi, 193. Interest (vaddhi) is alluded to in an early book of the Canon--the Theri Gatha--where a Sister tells of her fate. She was given as a slave by her father, a cartmaker, to a merchant to furnish payment for the accumulated interest owing to moneylenders.(l) The somewhat later Commentary on the Jataka refers also to the collecting of interest (Jat.v, 436; v. also Sum. i, 212 on D.i, 71). The bankrupt who, in the Jataka age, invites his creditors to bring their ina-pannani for settlement, only in order to commit suicide before their eyes,(2) is, in the Milinda,(3) seen to be anticipating his insolvency by making public statement of his liabilities and assets. (Jat. iv, 256; Mil. 131.) The entanglement and anxiety of debt as well as the communistic living, and hence corporate liability, among religious fraternities, rendered it necessary to exclude from ordination any candidate who had pecuniary liabilities. (Vin. i, 76; cf. D. i, 71, 72.) No definite sum as rate of interest appears so far in Buddhist books, but the earliest law-books state that the 'legal' rate in their day, i.e. probably between B.C. 400 and 200, was five mashas a month for twenty kahapanas. This ----------------------- 1 Dr.Neumann's translation gives a different rendering. The text runs-- sakatikakulamhi darika jata kapanamhi appabhoge dhanikapurisapatabahulamhi. Tam man tato satthavaho ussannaya vipulaya vaddhiya okaddhati vilapantim acchinditva kulagharassa. In the second line, rendered by him " Vom Tische Reicher lasen wir die Reste auf," the compound should, I think, be taken to mean " fallen into the power of usurers." This leads up to the next line--" Me for this reason, the interest having swelled up abundantly, a caravan-leader carries off lamenting, " etc. Dhammapala defines vaddhi as 'debt-interest,' and 'usurers' as 'debt-making men.' Dr. Neumann renders the latter half of line 3 simply by " Gab vieles Geld und Gut um mich dahin." (Par. Dip., p. 271; Lieder der Monche, etc., 367, 368.) 2 A parallel case occurred this year in Paris, one Mme. Barbiere inviting her creditors only to find her hanging dead with the label on her breast, " I have hanged myself in full settlement of all my debts." 3 Nattayiko, cf. Mil. 201.. p.881 is a rate of 18 3/4 per cent. per annum if we take 16 mashas to the kahapana (see above, p. 878), or 15 per cent. per annum if, with Haridatta, who wrote only 400 years ago, 20 mashas are allowed to the kahapana. (Gaut. xii, 29; Va. ii,.51.) Beside the legal rate, six special modes of interest are stated by Gautama: compound interest; periodical interest, i.e. liable to be trebled or quadrupled in case of the principal not being repaid within a certain period of time; stipulated interest, or a rate specially contracted in a particular case; corporal interest, i.e, one payable in services; daily interest; use of a pledge, i.e. if a creditor use a deposit he cannot claim interest. (Caut. xii, 34, 35.) The moneylender and his trade are scantily alluded to in Buddhist records. The grateful patron of a huntsman, in endowing the latter with the means of bettering himself, mentions four trades as capable of being practised honestly-- tillage, trade, lending (inadanam, debt-giving), and gleaning (Jat. iv, 422). Gautama is equally tolerant about it (x, 6; xi, 21). But the general tendency of this profession to evade any legal or customary rate of interest and become the type of profit-mongering finds strong expression in the law-books generally (Va. ii, 41, 42; Baudh. i, 5, 10 23-5; Menu, iii, 153, 165; viii, 152, 153). Hypocritical ascetics are accused of practising it (Jat. iv, 184). There is no evidence of the use either of fiduciary currency or of collective banking. Money and treasure were hoarded within the house (in large establishments, over the entrance --the dvarakotthaka), under the ground, in the river bank in brazen jars (Jat. i, 225, 227-230, 323, 351, 424; ii, 308, 431; iv, 24, 116, 237), or deposited with a friend (Vin. iii, 237; Jat. i, 375; vi,,521; Manu, 179-198). (A register of the nature and amount of the wealth thus hoarded was kept,in the shape of inscribed plates of gold or copper (Jat. iv, 7, 488; vi, 29; Spence Hardy, Mannal, 219). p.882 Wealth and Consumption. Great fortunes being thus more hoarded than invested, a rich man's wealth was described in terms of capital and not of income. The typical figure for a millionaire is 80 kotis, or 'crores, ' i.e. 800,000,000. Whether gold, silver, or copper pieces are to be understood, is never stated.(1) If the copper kahapana be taken as the unit, the sum is approximately equated by œ2,750,000. If there are any grains of accuracy in the account quoted by Hardy, the unit is evidently a gold coin, 540,000,000 of which, expended on the Jetavana site, buildings, etc., went near to emptying Anathapindika's great board. The millionaires of the Jataka are, with but few exceptions, notably Anathapindika of Savatthi, 80 and 40 koti burghers (setthiyo and gahapattyo) of Kasi (especially, of course, Benares) and Magadha (e.g. Jat. i, 466, 478; iv,1; v, 382; vi, 68). A few equally wealthy brahmins are located at Benares and Kosambi (Jat. iv, 7, 28, 237). There is no instance of a bare living wage in the case of a day-labourer.(2) Nor is there any instance of the total daily or annual expenditure by a rich or a poor person. But a great many cases of particular expenditure are given, and these, when an exhaustive table can be made and the means of the buyer, or at least his social position, is known, may yield interesting material.(3) Meat, greengrocery, and spirits could be purchased, in very small quantities, with the smallest copper coins, e.g. a fish for 7 masakas (Jat. i. 350; ii, 424; iv, 449; vi, 346(4). --------------------- 1 Probably copper kahapanas. See above, p. 878; also Jat. vi, 29, where the contents of the royal treasury, which are taken by the court on its forest pilgrimage and ground into sand, are called kahapanas. 2 The lowest wages paid to a king's servants was one kahapana a day. (Manu, vii, 126.) 3 Except where the coins are specified I have used the word 'pieces,' the original stating merely the figure. 4 Mr. Yatawara, translating from the Sinhalese version, speaks of the chameleon's 'cat's meat' as purchased by gold half-mashas. Professor Fausboll's MSS. do not mention gold, and the contest and humour of the story agree better with copper coins. p.883 a kahapana could furnish a small modicum of ghee, or of oil (Vin. iv, 248-250). Sufficient for a king's dinner might be bought with a handful of kahapanas, or again, one pla of a royal epicure might cost 100,000 pieces (Jat. ii, 319; v, 458). Clothing, of course, had a wide range of price--from the brethren's garments valued at from 1 to 10 kahapanas, or the nun's cloak at 16 kahapanas to the robe-lengths at 1,000 pieces each, gifts of the king of Kosala to his court ladies, or to the Buddha, or the robe of Kasi muslin priced at '100,000'(1) in which a wealthy young setthi of Mithila waits upon his king (Vin. Texts, ii, 203, note; Vin. iv, 255; Jat. ii, 24; iv, 401; vi, 403). Shoes or sandals might vary in price from 100 to 500 pieces, and a pair presented by a layman to the Buddha cost 1,000 pieces (Jat. iv, 15). Eight kahapanas(2) would buy a decent ass; one thousand, an average horse; but a thoroughbred foal was valued at 6,000, and a splendid chariot at 90,000 pieces. A pair of oxen cost 24 pieces. A fawn, again, might be had for only one or two kahapanas. (Jat. ii, 289, 305, 306; vi, 343, 404.) No instance is yet to hand of the price of elephants, but the jewelled trappings of a king's white 'luck'-elephant are priced in detail and at a total of upwards of 2,000,000 (pieces). (Jat. vi, 486.) A very average slave or slave-girl's price was 100 (pieces). (Jat. i, 224, 229; iii, 343.) The dinner-dish of a Benares king is priced at 100,000; so is that of a Benares king's horse. (Jat. i, 178; ii, 319.) Sandal-wood was costly, but the quantity valued at 100,000 'pieces' is not stated. (Jat. i, 340.) One hundred nikkhas are offered for a gem. (Jat. vi, 160.) To hire a carriage in Benares by the hour cost 8 kahapanas per hour. (Jat. i, 121.) ---------------------- 1 Apparently the Sinhalese MS. says 'gold coins.' (Yatawara, Ummagga Jataka, p. 120.) 2 Massas (mashas) in the Yatawara translation. p.884 For the services of a young bull to pull 500 carts in succession through a river-ford, a merchant pays 2 kahapanas per cart, 1,000 in all. (Jat. i, 195.) A visit to a barber seems to have cost 8 kahapanas. (Jat. iv, 138.) A court valuer, paid at this rate for each occasion of testing and pricing goods, was highly discontented. (Ibid.) An archer, capable of eshibition shooting, could command a high salary--100,000 a year(1) 1,000 a fortnight; 1,000: a day. (Jat. i, 357; ii, 87; v, 128.) The performers, acrobats, etc., hired by a young spendthrift are said to have been paid a thousand, but the duration of each service so paid is not given. (Jat, ii, 431; cf.iii,61.) Courtesans (municipal and other) obtained 50 and 100 pieces from each visitor. Those who maintained 'houses of ill fame,' to use a Western phrase, could ask 1,000 in one day. An equal expenditure was lavished by a setthi's son on his mistress. (Vin. i, 268, 269; Jat. iii, 59, 248, 475.) The famous physician Jivaka Komarabhacca (son of one of these women), on healing the wife of the chief setthi of Saketa, obtained from her and her family a collective fee of 16,000 pieces, with two slaves and a carriage and horses. (Vin. i, 272.) Tailoring repairs well done, in a suburb of Benares, brought in money at the rate of 1,000 pieces in one day. (Jat. vi, 366.) A snake-charmer looked to win the same sum by his whole tour with a beautiful cobra, but was able to net it, and as much again by payments made in kind, by a single day's performance at a village. (Jat. iv, 458.) 'A thousand' was the customary fee paid by merchant caravans to forest constabulary. So much also was paid by a king to a Nesada (together with a pension for his family) for temporarily giving up his trade to guard a certain artificial lake and game. (Jat. ii, 335; v, 22, 356, 471.) -------------------- 1 This, given to a young archer, aroused the jealousy of his older colleagues. p.885 The same sum was Sufficient to procure the services of an assassin, but not to bribe the governor of a jail. (Jat. iii, 59; v, 126.) With the same sum a widow of property tries to bribe her son to 'go to church.' (Jat. iv, 1, 2.) Travelling expenses of a young man are reckoned also at a thousand kahapanas. Education was cheap. The customary fee for a first-class education, such as kings, brahmins, and wealthy setthis gave their sons, was 1,000 pieces laid by the pupil at the teacher's feet on his arrival at Takkasila or Benares. The son of a poor brahmin collects 7 nikkhas for his teacher's fee on leaving him. If less or no prepayment was made the lad was expected to render menial service in return for tuition. The period of schooling is not given in the Jataka, except in the case of phenomenal boys who mastered everything very rapidly. In Manu the collegiate course was of long duration, ranging from 9, or less, to 36 years. At Benares free education and board were voted by the town to penniless lads. (Jat. i, 239, 451; ii, 47, 278; iv, 224, 225, 237, 246; v, 128.) The Buddhists did not accept a money fee, and only gifts in kind are permitted to the brahmin teacher in Manu. (Jat. i, 340; Manu, ii, 245, 246;iii,156;xi,63.) Fortunes were squandered on amusements and gambling, but public festivities seem to have been open to the poorest. Two water-carriers, man and woman, are shown spending (in anticipation) two saved-up half-masakas at a fete on a garland, perfume, and spirits. (Jat. iii, 446; iv, 255.) Building almonries--one at each gate, one in the centre of the town, one at the donor's residence--and dispensing doles of money or food in them indiscriminately was a staple expenditure on the part of pious king or millionaire. The maximum rate was 600,000 'pieces' daily. The cost of building such places is reckoned at 1,000 each. (Jat. iv, 15, 402(1); v, 383; vi, 484.) ----------------------- 1 In the Nidana (Jat. i, 33) the dole is called five bushels of kahapanas.. p.886 The sixth hall (near the donor's residence) was sometimes omitted, the dole being then 500, 000 kahapanas a day. (Jat. vi, 96, 97, etc.) Gifts to religious fraternities, including the bowlful of broken meats to the itinerant friar, bulk largely, as is natural, in the Buddhist books. A special feature of such giving was its frequent co-operative nature. Streets would entertain the brethren in turn. Subscriptions(1) of money would pour in on those who entertained them; e.g., at Savatthi, a poor woman, on receiving Sariputta, found herself the recipient of 100,000 coins, subscribed by king and commons. (Vin. iv, 250-253; Jat. i, 422; ii, 19 6, 286, 287. On Jetavana v. sup.) The Vesali courtezan refuses to transfer to her patrons the honour of entertaining the Buddha at a feast, though offered 100,000 pieces. In another case, from 200 to 500 pieces were offered to a poor man to induce him to make over to the donors the merit of a pious act. (M.P.S., p. 20; Jat. i, 422.) Kings, brahmins, and villagers are found making annual votive offerings to tree-deities amounting to 1,000 pieces, or of that or other value. (Jat.i,423; iii, 23; iv, 474; v, 217.) Another quasi-religious demand which had its money value was the privilege of rendering homage to the person of a woman who was believed to have borne a child to Brahma. This ranged from 1 to 1,000 kahapanas. (Jat.iv, 378.) A gift presented by one king to another is a gold wreath worth 100,000, and sandal-wood probably worth as much. (Jat. vi, 480; cf. i, 340.) For a king's gift, worth 100,000, of jewelry (pilandhanam) to his son, see Jat. vi, 485. For another royal gift to a wonder-boy, see Jat, vi, 363. Another royal christening gift, or 'milk-money,' for the chaplain's son and heir is worth 1,000. (Jat. v, 127.) Such a gift might also be raised for a prince by popular subscription. (Jat. iv, 323.) p.887 Another subscription, got up by a thousand boys, of 1 kahapanea each, suffices to build a play-hall for them. (Jat. vi, 332.) Court handicraftsmen give their clever apprentice presents of a thousand. (Jat. v, 291-293.) Pensions by kings to courtiers and brahmins of 100, 500, and 1,000 a day are mentioned (M.ii, 163; S.i, 82; Dhp. A. on 204). Both pensions and rewards were often given in the form of village revenue or tithe on raw produce, 100,000 pieces being thus obtainable, now from one village alone, now from five, now from twelve villages (Jat. i, 138; ii, 403; V, 44, 350, 371). Examples of other moneyrewards: Jat,iii, 326; iv, 257, 394; v, 249. In some cases the reward is in nikkhas, e.g. Jat. iv, 422. Debts of the most trifling amount, from 100 down to one-half a kahapana, were apparently punishable, in the case of the poor, with imprisonment (A. i, 251). Money-fines are also imposed for debt and other offences, or as compensation equal to the market-price of the property damaged, the fine ranging, when the book of Manu was compiled, from 250 up to 1,000 kahapanas (Manu, viii, 129, 138, 139, 176; Jat. i, 199; ii, 300-306; iv, 277, 278). A bet for 1,000 and one for 5,000 appear in the Jataka. (Jat. i, 191; vi, 192, 193.) The cati-kahapana, or pot-penny, seems to have been a species of excise on spirits constituting a perquisite or the village headman. (Jat. i, 199.) Ferry-toll, in later times, ranged from 1 kahapana per empty cart, down to 1/4 for "an animal and a woman," and for loaded carts more, according to the value of the load. (Manu, viii, 404, 406.) NOTE.--In the name of a particular torture, called ironically 'The Pennies,' mentioned in the stock passage quoted from the Nikayas (M. i, 87; A. i, 113) at Mil. 197, and referred to in the Mahavastu, iii, 258, 18, the kahapana is used as a measure of size. (Cf. Rhys Davids's note at Mil.i, 277; and Jat. v, 126.) p.888 I am fully aware that, in the foregoing fragmentary list, many of the figures given are no doubt loosely expressed, and that by comparing them one with another only a very loose estimate can be obtained as to the relative utility of the forms of consumption, Fragmentary and tentative as is the whole of such materials as are here presented, I could not have collected so much but for the help of my husband's manuscript notes in Childers' Dictionary. The need of a new dictionary is becoming more and more widely felt; and it is only regrettable that Bodhisats as tree-deities no longer indicate the buried treasure at their roots. That the date of the several ancient authorities to whom I have given references is, in practically every case, uncertain, is of course a serious obstacle to obtaining any clear economic perspective. On the other hand, it is not impossible that with such materials, when amplified and compared, the historical economist might be enabled to contribute valuable evidence toward solving this very problem of the comparative time at which each work, and each portion of each work, was compiled. My notes may prove useful, therefore, not only for the history of economics, but for Indian lexicography and the history of Indian literature as well. And it is this that has emboldened me to publish them, in spite of their imperfection, of which I am only too painfully aware.