Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s9: The Vārttāśāstras

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s9

Language
English

The Vārttāśāstras

c12.s9.1

*Vārttāśāstra* is a new category. *Vārttā* is known to the *Kauṭalyan Arthaśāstra* (Book I) as agriculture, animal husbandry and commerce. The same three professions constitute *Vārttā* in Somadeva's *Nītivākyāmrita* (VI, 1) also (c 950 A.C.). In such a late compilation as the *Śukranīti* (I. lines 305-312) it comprises a fourth item, namely, interest or banking. Of course the subject matter comprehended in *Vārttā* is as old as the Vedic culture-complex. But specialized treatises on *Vārttā* or any of its diverse topics can hardly be traced back even to such recent times as the great age of literary reconstructions, compilations, codifications and redactions, namely, the Gupta Epoch (c A.C. 320-550). The beginnings of *Vārttā* lore as idependent discipline in the thousand and one crafts and industries, occupations and professions, in one word, in the topics of applied economics may however be sought during the period covered by the Vardhanas, Chālukyas, Pālas, Senas, Gurjara-Pratīhāras, Rāṣṭrakūṭas, and Cholas (600-1300). Many of the handbooks on *Vārttā* mentioned among the Sanskrit manuscripts in Aufrecht's *Catalogus Catalogorum* as well as some of the printed texts on this branch of socio-economic science were made use of for the present work in the edition of 1911-14. The English translation of *Śukranīti* served to invite the attention of indologists and sociologists to the different branches of Hindu applied economics from town planning to veterinary science.

c12.s9.2

Indeed, a substantial portion of the Vol. I. of the present work as executed in those days was based on *Vārttā* treatises and constitutes as such a contribution to Hindu *Vārttā* or applied economics. The chapters dealing with the data of Hindu mineralogy, Hindu botany (including *Vrikṣāyurveda*) and Hindu zoology (including *aśvaśāstra* and *gajaśāstra*) and along with them of Hindu medicine (*Āyurveda*) are essentially studies in the *Vārttā* positivism of the Hindus.

c12.s9.3

'As usual, it is not possible to place many of these works in the proper chronological perspective. Perhaps most of them will have to be placed somewhere between 1300 and 1700. But in Indian literary history every document has its "unwritten" or rather unsystematized and uncompiled or unedited beginnings. The economic (*Vārttā*) treatises of the Hindus also, whether described as *vidyā* (science) or *kalā* (practical art) may perhaps be traced back to the age of Harṣavardhana (606-647). Varāhamihira's (c 506-585) *Brihat Samhitā* leaves no doubt about the existence of *Varttā* materials in the age of the Guptas. It has, besides, to be observed that many of the economic topics dealt with in the treatises of *Vārttāśāstra* are to be found in the *Mahābhārata* and the *Purāṇas* as well as in the *Dharma*-and especially in the '*Artha*-and *Nīti śāstras* whether in connection with the discussions on public finance, functions of the state, demographic structure, social classes, or professional groups.²⁰

c12.s9.4

²⁰ For the topics of *Vārttā* (economics) see the notes in B. K. Sarkar: *Śukranīti* (English translation, Allahabad 1914) to which the present work is a preface, "The Economic Foundations of the State in Śukra's Political Theory" (*Modern Review*, Calcutta, 1920-21) which may be conveniently consulted in *The Positive Background* etc. Vol. II, Pt. i, (Allahabad 1921), "Gilde di Mestier e Gilde Mercantili nell' India Antica" (*Giornale degli Economisti e Rivista di Statistica*, Rome 1920), "The Public Finance of Hindu Empires" (*Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science* 1921), "Economics of Indian Guilds" (*Journal of the Indian Economic Society*, Bombay 1921), "Economics in Hindu Thought" (*Indian Historical Quarterly*, Calcutta, 1926); Balkrishna: "Economics in Ancient India" (*Indian Journal of Economics* 1918), "Hindu Taxation System" (*I.J.E.*); N. N. Law: "Vārttā or Hindu Economics" (*Indian Antiquary*, 1918), which may be conveniently consulted in *Studies in Indian History and Culture* (Calcutta, 1925), J. N. Samaddar: *The Economic Condition of Ancient India*, (Calcutta 1923), N. C. Bandyopadhyaya: *Economic Progress in Ancient India*, (Calcutta 1925), J. N. C. Ganguly: "Principles of Hindu Taxation" (*I.H.Q.*, December 1925, March 1926); S. K. Das: *Economic History of Ancient India* (Calcutta 1928), Pran Nath: *A Study in the Economic Condition of Ancient India*, (London 1929), U. N. Ghoshal: *Hindu Revenue System* (Calcutta 1929); K. V. R. Aiyangar: *Aspects of Ancient Indian Economic Thought* (Benares 1934).

Linked texts (7)