Glimpses of ancient Indian economy

Prof Venkatesh GanapathyAssociate Professor

Ancient India economy

• Indus valley civilization• Gangetic civilization

Two types of civilization

• Indus valley civilization - Bronze Age, urban economy

• • Vedic civilization – Iron Age, economy

[agricultural mode of production]

Indus valley civilization

• canal and docking facility at the coastal city of Lothal, signifying the importance of overseas trade.

• The Indus civilization's economy appears to have depended significantly on trade, which was facilitated by major advances in transport technology.

Indus valley economy

boats and bullock driven carts

Many of the figurines of the boats are small, flat-bottomed craft, perhaps driven by sail.

There is also some evidence of large sea-going craft.

The figure of bullock-driven cart points to its use in the inland trade as a mode of transportation.

Trade networks

• Afghanistan, the coastal regions of Persia, northern and central India, Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The people of Indus valley civilization traded with Sumer and Sumerian merchants referred them as Meluhha.

Export items

• surplus grain, pottery vases, inlays, ivory combs, pearls, precious woods, and semi-precious stones.

• Indus Valley farmers grew wheat, barley, field-peas, melons, sesame, and dates.

Cotton

• Cotton was first developed around 2000 B.C. and Indus valley people were the first to turn cotton into yarn and weaving the yarn into cloth.

Ancient India Economy in Vedic Age

•The Aryans entered the northern part of India from Central Asia by 1500 BC.

• The Aryans re kindled the light of a new economy on the banks of the river Ganges.

• The Aryan society - nomadic lifestyle • cattle rearing - the chief occupation.

• Cattle and cows were held in high esteem and frequently appear in Rigvedic hymns; goddesses were often compared to cows, and gods to bulls.

Aryans

• Learned to use iron by 1,000 BC• as the community settled down, Agriculture

gained prominence. • In the course of time Aryans went on to became

farmers.• They learned to farm rice cultivation by 600 BC. • It’s because of farming activity a more ordered

and settled society evolved.

• Society - organized on caste system

• economic structure - division of labour of the caste.

• Aryans - became the priests, rulers, warriors, peasants and merchants, the lower rank was left for the natives called as Shudra.

• The occupations were based on four major varnas, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra.

• The food of the Rigvedic Aryans consisted of parched grain and cakes, milk and milk products, and various fruits and vegetables.

• Consumption of meat - common among, at least among the upper classes.

• • The Rigveda contains many references to animal sacrifice

and meat offered to the gods.

• The people in the Vedic period lived in straw and wooden huts.

• They also introduced horse and chariot races.• The social life cantered on Yagna meaning s a ritual of

sacrifice.

• Money was unknown, and bartering with cattle and other valuables was the favoured way of conducting trade and commerce.

• With a more settled and ordered society trade and commerce started to flourish.

• Life in towns evolved again and writing was re-invented.

• By 600 BC a highly civilized society had emerged in India with its economy based on rural mode of production and its surplus being exported through trade and commercial activities

•

Maurya Empire

• The Empire was founded in 322 BCE by Chandragupta Maurya, who had overthrown the Nanda Dynasty

• Under Chandragupta and his successors, internal and external trade, agriculture and economic activities, all thrived and expanded across India thanks to the creation of a single and efficient system of finance, administration, and security.

• After the Kalinga War, the Empire experienced nearly half a century of peace and security under Ashoka.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurya_Empire

• For the first time in South Asia, political unity and military security allowed for a common economic system and enhanced trade and commerce, with increased agricultural productivity.

• Farmers were freed of tax and crop collection burdens

from regional kings, paying instead to a nationally administered and strict-but-fair system of taxation as advised by the principles in the Arthashastra.

• Chandragupta Maurya established a single currency across India, and a network of regional governors and administrators and a civil service provided justice and security for merchants, farmers and traders.

• The Mauryan army wiped out many gangs of bandits, regional private armies, and powerful chieftains who sought to impose their own supremacy in small areas.

• Maurya also sponsored many public works and waterways to enhance productivity, while internal trade in India expanded greatly due to newfound political unity and internal peace.

Indo-Greek friendship treaty

• Ashoka's reign, an international network of trade expanded. • The Khyber Pass, on the modern boundary of Pakistan and

Afghanistan, became a strategically important port of trade with the outside world.

• Greek states and Hellenic kingdoms in West Asia became important trade partners of India.

• Trade also extended through the Malay peninsula into Southeast Asia.

• India's exports included silk goods and textiles, spices and exotic foods.

• New scientific knowledge and technology with expanding trade with the Mauryan Empire.

• Ashoka also sponsored the construction of thousands of roads, waterways, canals, hospitals, rest-houses and other public works.

• The easing of many over-rigorous administrative practices, including those regarding taxation and crop collection, helped increase productivity and economic activity across the Empire.

Mauryan Empure versus Roman Empire

• In many ways, the economic situation in the Mauryan Empire is analogous to the Roman Empire of several centuries later.

• Both had extensive trade connections and both had organizations similar to corporations.

• While Rome had organizational entities which were largely used for public state-driven projects, Mauryan India had numerous private commercial entities.

• These existed purely for private commerce and developed before the Mauryan Empire itself.