Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.t4.127

c5.t4.127

Within the town as we have seen, there were special streets apportioned to different products.⁹ Food-stuffs,¹⁰ green groceries,¹¹ and flowers for the towns¹ were apparently brought only to the gates. Probably near the gates or outside them were also the slaughter-houses (*sūnā*) and near them the poor man and the king's chef bought their meat.² And there were the taverns (*pānāgāra : surāpaṇa*) for the sale of strong liquors.³ “The workshop in the street was open to view, so that the *bhikkhu* coming into town or village for alms, could see fletcher and carriage-builder at work, no less than he could watch the peasant on the field.”⁴ In all these shops (*āpaṇa*) forming the bazaar, articles of various kinds were displayed for sale⁵ or stored within (*antarā-paṇa*).⁶ In most of these cases buying and selling were direct (*i.e.*, between the producer and the consumer) : the two notable exceptions being those of the green-grocers and the corn-factors.