Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c9: Summing Up
Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jātaka Stories c9
- Language
- English
Summing Up
c9.1
THUS flits away, across the dim past, a pageant of the people and a panorama of this ancient land. The picture may have been blurred and indistinct in some places. But on the whole, we believe, it is homogeneous and impressive.
c9.2
From the hoary past we first tried to trace the foot-falls of history down to the period of the Buddha. Those glimpses of political history gave us an idea of the rise and fall of different peoples and kingdoms; and at last we reached the point wherefrom we began to survey the cultural stage of the Mahājanapada period—of the period which immediately preceded the Buddha, who is undoubtedly a prominent landmark on the continuous and chequered path of Indian civilization.
c9.3
We saw the country divided into small kingdoms, normally at peace but occasionally vying with one another for supremacy. Each kingdom had its king—generally an autocrat. The system of administration was simple, yet not unorganised. The *rājadhanī* or the capital city, being the seat of government, was well built and fortified, with a population of varied character. The *nigamas* were busy market-towns. The *gāmas* or the villages, where dwelt the vast millions of the toiling masses, were silent yet serene.
c9.4
The economic condition of the people was not too bad. We did not see anything like the two extremes of poverty and riches, though the general mass cannot be said to have been content and happy. The country was, no doubt, prosperous and busy with trade and commerce.
c9.5
Society was formed of classes in the practical sense, and of castes in the theoretical sense. The classes were those of the *Khattiyas*, the *Brāhmaṇas*, the *Gahapatis* and the *Dāsakammakaras*. Family was the unit of social structure. People lived among relations of their own (*ñāti*). The position of women cannot be described as satisfactory when judged according to the modern standard. Arts and sciences were many and flourishing. People still believed in a variety of superstitions, while there was a slow but steady movement going on among the philosophers and the ascetics of the day towards a more rationalistic way of thinking and living. The common folk were, nevertheless, content with their life of sports and festivities.
c9.6
Nature does not seem to have turned her face from the people in those days. Famine and pestilence, however, were not unheard of. But, after all, these are only temporary phases. The endless and aimless life of the people rolls on day by day, for centuries and centuries, even as the waves of the sea roll on for ever, in storm and in calm.
c9.7
And so our task ends.