Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s2.12

c12.s2.12

On the other hand, the manufacture of wool was an old and indigenous industry. The fame of the fine wool of Gandhāri goes back to the Ṛgveda which also knows a woollen garment called śamulya³. The woollen fabrics of Gandhāra along with those of Koṭumbara or Koḍumbara—a region connected by Jean Przyluski⁴ with the Audumbaras of the Punjab—are mentioned with high praise in the Jātakas⁵. Kauṭilya, while silent about Gandhāra, mentions by name (ii. 11) the woollen goods of Nepal called bhiṅgisī or apasāraka. These are said to be formed of eight pieces, dark in colour and rain-proof. What advance the manufacture of this material had attained during the period of the *Arthaśāstra* is proved by the fact that Kauṭilya specifies three varieties of fabrics of sheep's wool distinguished by colour, four varieties distinguished by their manufacturing process, and no less than ten varieties distinguished by their use for human beings and for animals. The qualities of the best wool are carefully noted by the author in the same connection. The *Arthaśāstra* also distinguishes in the same context six kinds of fabrics manufactured from the hair of wild animals, and differing in their uses and qualities.