Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c12.37

c12.37

The position of śūdra artisans may be viewed better in the context of commerce and handicrafts in the post-Maurya period. Undoubtedly this period was the most flourishing era in ancient India's foreign trade. On account of the discovery of the monsoons in the first half and the opening of the Silk Roads in the second half of the first century A.D., the country carried on booming land trade with Central Asia and China and overseas trade with the Roman empire. The stability and protection afforded by the Han, Kuṣāṇa, Roman and Arcasid empires promoted international trade in the first two centuries A.D., and India exported precious woods, cotton textiles, silk, gems, iron objects, and above all long and black pepper.⁵ Some raw materials such as crude glass, lead, tin, red coral and asbestos and finished products including wine and Roman storage and table ware were imported, but payment was made principally in Roman coin.⁶ Numerous hoards of Roman gold coins have been discovered, south of the Vindhyas, especially in the cotton producing areas of Maharashtra. Probably the largest documented and apparently reliable business transaction for ancient times of free private trade without state control or subvention was the flow of imports to the value of 55 million sesterces (16 million gold francs.) from India to Egypt in one year under Vespasian.¹