Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c12.42

c12.42

The progress of crafts is attested by archaeological evidence regarding thriving urban life in the first three centuries of the Christian era. A dozen ports are mentioned in Greek and Latin accounts, and a few ports such as Tamluk, Arikamedu and Kaveripattanam have been excavated. In addition we know about numerous urban sites from excavations conducted since 1947. Towns existed in the middle Gaṅgā basin, and many were located on the uttarāpatha route following the course of the Jamna and then turning north-westward towards Taxila. Excavations show prosperous urban sites in western India under the Sātavāhanas. In eastern Andhra Pradesh and in the western Deccan they appeared first in the first century A.D. and continued for about three hundred years. The same holds good of Kuṣāṇa towns and structures in the provinces of Pakistan, and also in Afghanistan and Soviet Central Asia. All this means congenial conditions for the progress of crafts and commerce, which may have promoted considerable social and geographical mobility and added to the number of artisans in towns.