Tribes in Ancient India c6.74

c6.74

We may close this chapter by making one or two remarks on the trade relations of Gandhāra, and by giving some references for the further study of the celebrated school of art which takes its name from this country. The Jātakas testify to the existence of trade relations between the Kashmir-Gandhāra kingdom and the north-eastern kingdom of Videha (see, e.g. Gandhāra Jātaka and Fick, *The Social Organisation in N.E. India in Buddha’s Time*, p. 272). Horse-dealers figure prominently amongst the Gandhāran traders, and we learn from the *Vāyupurāṇa* that the Gandhāran horses were considered the best of all (Chap. 99). We find references to the production of valuable blankets or woollen shawls (*kambala*) in the *Vessantara Jātaka* (Fausböll, *Jātaka*, Vol. VI, pp. 500-1), and also in the *Suttanipāta Commentary* (II, 487). In later times (9th and 10th centuries) it was in Gandhāra that the finest ‘double-die’ coins were struck.⁶