Early Economic Conditions in Northern India

·期刊原文
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

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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 ? 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 ?,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.