Towns and Trade : –
🔹 Emergence of new Urban centres (sixth century BCE) -All major towns were located along routes of communication.
- Pataliputra – riverine routes.
- Ujjayini – land routes
- Puhar – near the coast
- Mathura were bustling centres of commercial, cultural and political activity.
New cities : –
🔹 many of these were capitals of mahajanapadas. Virtually all major towns were located along routes of communication. Some such as Pataliputra were on riverine routes.
🔹 Others, such as Ujjayini, were along land routes, and yet others, such as Puhar, were near the coast, from where sea routes began. Many cities like Mathura were bustling centres of commercial, cultural and political activity.
The history of Pataliputra : –
🔹 Each city had a history of its own. Pataliputra, for instance, began as a village known as Pataligrama. Then, in the fifth century BCE, the Magadhan rulers decided to shift their capital from Rajagaha to this settlement and renamed it.
🔹 By the fourth century BCE, it was the capital of the Mauryan Empire and one of the largest cities in Asia. Subsequently, its importance apparently declined. When the Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang visited the city in the seventh century CE, he found it in ruins, and with a very small population.
Elites and craftspersons : –
🔹 The artefacts recovered from excavation includes fine pottery bowls and dishes, with a glossy finish, known as Northern Black Polished Ware, probably used by rich people.
🔹 The artefacts also include ornaments, tools, weapons, vessels, figurines, made of a wide range of materials gold, silver, copper, bronze, ivory, glass, shell and terracotta.
🔹 Organisations of craft producers and merchants were known as guilds or shrenis. These guilds probably procured raw materials, regulated production and marketed the finished product.
Occupation and merchant : –
🔹 By the second century BCE, We find short votive inscriptions in a number of cities. These mention the name of the donor, and sometimes specify his/ her occupation as well. They tell us about people who lived in towns: washing folk, weavers, scribes, carpenters, potters, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, officials, religious teachers, merchants and kings.
Trade in the subcontinent and beyond : –
🔹 From the sixth century BCE, land and river routes criss-crossed the subcontinent and extended in various directions : –
- overland into Central Asia and beyond, and overseas, from ports that dotted the coastline – extending across the Arabian Sea to East and North Africa and West Asia, and through the Bay of Bengal to Southeast Asia and China.
🔹 Rulers often attempted to control these routes, possibly by offering protection for a price. Those who traversed these routes included peddlers who probably travelled on foot and merchants who travelled with caravans of bullock carts and pack-animals.
Coins and Kings (Numismatics of the 6th century BCE onwards) : –
- Exchangers were facilitated by the introduction of coinage.
- Punch marked coins made of silver and copper were amongst the earliest to be minted and used.
- Coins were issued by kings, merchants, bankers and town people.
- The first coins bearing the names and images of rulers were issued by the Indo-Greeks.
- The first gold coins were issued in first century CE by the Kushans.
- Hoards of Roman coins have been found in south India. This indicates that there was a close connection between south India and Roman Empire.
- Coins were also issued by tribal republics For e.g. Yaudheyas of Punjab and Haryana (first century CE) issued thousands of copper coins.
- The Guptas also issued gold coins. These were remarkable for their purity. These coins facilitated long distance transactions.
Periplus : –
🔹 “Periplus” is a Greek word meaning sailing around and “Erythraean” was the Greek name for the Red Sea.
Numismatics : –
🔹 Numismatics is the study of coins, including visual elements such as scripts and images, metallurgical analysis and the contexts in which they have been found.
James Prinsep’s and it’s contribution as a historic development in Indian epigraphy : –
🔹 James Prinsep was an officer in the mint of the East India Company. He was an epigraphist who deciphered Asokan Brahmi Script in 1838. His contribution in the development of Indian Epigraphy was that he was able to decipher Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts used in the earliest inscriptions and coins, which were then used.
Meaning of Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts : –
🔹 Some of the most momentous developments in Indian epigraphy took place in the 1830s. This was when James Prinsep, an officer in the mint of the East India Company, deciphered Brahmi and Kharosthi, two scripts used in the earliest inscriptions and coins.
Piyadassi : –
🔹 Piyadassi means a pleasant to behold.
Deciphering Brahmi : –
🔹 Most scripts used to write modern Indian languages are derived from Brahmi, the script used in most Asokan inscriptions.
🔹 Scholars who studied early inscriptions sometimes assumed these were in Sanskrit, although the earliest inscriptions were, in fact, in Prakrit.
🔹 It was only after decades of painstaking investigations by several epigraphists that James Prinsep was able to decipher Asokan Brahmi in 1838.
How Kharosthi was read : –
🔹 The coins of Indo-Greek kings contain the names of kings written in Greek and Kharosthi scripts.
🔹 With Prinsep identifying the language of the Kharosthi inscriptions as Prakrit, it became possible to read longer inscriptions as well.
Inscriptions : –
🔹 The inscriptions carved on the rock or metal are called inscriptions. In ancient times, kings had their works, achievements and edicts engraved on rock and metals, which are considered a good source of History But these also have some limitations.
Features of Inscriptions : –
- Donations made to religious institutions were recorded
- Engraving on hard surfaces such as stone, metal or pottery
- they are permanent records
- The earlier inscriptions were in Prakrit (the language used by the common people).
- They record the achievements, activities or ideas of the people who formed the team
- some of them go on dates
- Others have been dated based on epigraphy or writing style.
- epigraphy is the study of records
Historical evidence from inscriptions : –
- Interpretation of inscriptions by historians :
🔹 It is found that the name Asoka is not mentioned in inscriptions.
🔹 Instead, the king is referred to as devanampiya (“beloved of the gods”) and piyadassi (“pleasant to behold”).
🔹 There were a few inscriptions which also referred to the king as Asoka. These inscriptions are also containing such titles.
🔹 By examining the content, style, language and paleography, of these inscriptions, epigraphists have come to the conclusion that they were issued by the same ruler.
Limitations of Inscriptional Evidence : –
🔹 Inscriptions have some limitations :
- Technical Limitations: letters are very faintly engraved, and thus reconstructions arc uncertain.
- inscriptions may by damaged or letters missing.
- it is not always easy to be sure about the exact meaning of the words used in inscriptions some of which may be specific to a particular place or time.
- several thousand inscriptions have been discovered, not all have been deciphered, published and translated.
- Many more inscriptions must have existed, which have not survived the ravages of time.
- Not everything that we may consider politically or economically significant was necessarily recorded in inscription.
- Routine agricultural practices and the joys and sorrow of daily existence find no mention in inscriptions, which focus, more often than not. on grand, unique events.
- The content of inscriptions almost invariably projects the perspective of the person(s) who commissioned them.
Related Chapters
Bricks, Beads and Bones Notes
kings farmers and towns Notes
kinship caste and class notes
Thinkers beliefs and buildings notes
Through the eyes of travellers notes
Bhakti Sufi traditions notes
An imperial capital vijayanagara notes
Peasants zamindars and the state notes
Colonialism and the countryside notes
Rebels and the raj notes
Mahatma gandhi and the national movement notes
Framing the constitution notes