History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c28.s2.17

v1.c28.s2.17

(2) Fishery management :- In Book II, Chapter I, it is stated (p. 51) that ‘the king shall exercise his right of ownership (svamyam) with regard to fishing, ferrying and trading in vegetables (heritapanya), in reservoirs or lakes (setuṣu)’. The reservoirs referred to in this passage appear to be irrigation tanks. These reservoirs or tanks in those early days were used for fish culture enterprise. Book II deals with the ‘Regulation of toll-dues’. As contained in Chapter XXII (p. 135), imported commodities were charged one-fifth of their value as toll. In case of perishable articles such as flowers, fruits, vegetables (śāka), roots (mula), seeds, dried fish and dried meat, the toll was one-sixth of the value of the articles. The noteworthy point is that dried fish must have been a regular trade commodity in those days and therefore, the methods of processing fish must have been known to the people.