The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.47

v1.c19.s9.47

THE following analysis is constructed from a number of incidental allusions to economic conditions in the great Pāli thesaurus of the Jātaka, and, to a more limited extent in the Vinaya, and also in the other books of the Sutta Piṭaka, of which the Jātaka is a part. Dr Fick’s admirable monograph *Die sociale Gliederung in Indien* is similarly based. That work deals chiefly with social conditions. The present chapter, on the other hand, is mainly economic in scope, and only in a minor degree sociological. It is true that the evidence is drawn very largely from stories. But it is fairly clear that the folk in those tales have given them a parochial setting and local colour. And this is frequently borne out by the coincident testimony of other books not dealing with folk-lore.