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A History of Agriculture in India v1.c27: Chapter 21. The Buddhist Period

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c27

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Chapter 21. The Buddhist Period

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SIXTH CENTURY B.C. BIRTH OF BUDDHISM AND JAINISM SACRED GROVES AND TREE-WORSHIP EXPANSION OF CULTIVATION IN BIHAR AND EASTERN UTTAR PRADESH

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In the sixth century B.C., India had sixteen large States called Mahajanapadas. The administrative unit at the district level was called Janapada. Of Mahajanapadas, Magadha, Kosala, Vatsa and Videha in eastern India were powerful States. Kosala had its capital at Sravasti, which has been identified as the present Sahet-mahet on the borders of Gonda and Bahraich districts in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Ayodhya, which is associated with the Ramayana, was the capital of Kosala. Kosala also included the territory of Sakyas of Kapilavastu, where the Buddha was born. In the west was the State of Avanti with its capital at Ujjain. In western Uttar Pradesh and the adjoining areas of Rajasthan and Haryana were the States of Panchala, Surasena, Matsya and Kuru.

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The Punjab was no longer important, and eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where forests were cleared and the land was colonized under the patronage of the ruling monarchs, occupy the stage of history. Wild elephants also abounded in the jungles of eastern India. Tamed and trained, they were a source of military power to the Nanda and Maurya Kings, who used them in warfare. They had the same role in wars as tanks in the present age.

Birth of New Religions

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In the sixth century B.C. were born four great religions of the world, Confucianism in China, Zoroastrianism in Iran, and Buddhism and Jainism in India. Out of these, Buddhism had a universal appeal. Shorn of its excrescences, it attracts a number of people even in the present age of science. It preached truthfulness, purity of heart, non-violence and kindness to all living beings. It taught people to avoid greed, falsehood, fault-finding, hatred and anger. As it was a revolt against Brahmanical ritualism and caste-system, it appealed to a large number of people, particularly the oppressed lower castes. The founder of Jainism, Vardhamana Mahavira, and of Buddhism, Gautama the Buddha, belonged to the Kshatriya caste. They used Prakrit, the language of the masses, for their teaching rather than Sanskrit, the language of aristocracy. As such, their message reached the masses and made a deep impact on their lives.

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Fig. 163. India in the sixth century B.C. was divided into sixteen States called Mahajanapadas

Sacred Trees

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Gautama was born under an *asoka*-tree, received enlightenment under a *pipal*-tree, preached his new gospel in mango groves, and under shady banyans, and died in a *sal* grove. Never before or after has a religion been so much associated with vegetation.

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Buddhism adopted the cult of tree-worship from the older religions which prevailed in the country. The trees which are associated with the birth of the Buddha are *sal*, *asoka* and *plaksha*, and hence they were regarded as sacred by the Buddhists.

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To understand the association of trees with the Buddha, it is necessary to know the facts regarding his life. Gautama belonged to the Sakya Tribe of the Aryans. His father was Suddodhana, the Raja of Kapilavastu, a petty principality on the border of Nepal. Green rice fields surrounded by *sal* forest with the backdrop of the snow-covered peaks of the Himalayas provided an inspiring environment to Kapilavastu. Here, Gautama was born in 563 B.C. The birth of the Buddha has been thus described: ‘Queen Mahamaya bearing the Bodhisattva for ten months like oil in a bowl, when her time was come, desired to go to her relatives’ house, and addressed king Suddodhana, “I wish, O king, to go to the Devadaha, the city of my family”. The king approved, and caused the road from Kapilavastu to Devadaha to be made smooth and adorned with vessels filled with plantains, flags, and banners, and seating her in a golden palanquin borne by a thousand couriers sent her with a great retinue. Between the two cities and belonging to the inhabitants of both is a pleasure grove of *sal*-trees named the *Lumbini* grove. At that time from the roots to the tips of the branches it was one mass of flowers, and from within the branches and flowers hosts of bees and flocks of birds sported, singing sweetly.

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‘When the queen saw it, a desire to sport in the grove arose. The courtiers brought the queen and entered the grove. She went to the foot of a great *sal*-tree, and desired to seize a branch. The branch like the tip of a supple reed bent down and came within reach of her hand. Stretching out her hands she seized the branch. Thereupon she was shaken with the throes of birth. So the multitude set up a curtain for her and retired. Holding the branches and even while standing she was delivered.’¹

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¹ Thomas, E.J. *The Life of Buddha*, p. 33

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In another account it is stated that Maya saw in a dream the descent of the Bodhisattva in the form of an elephant. ‘On waking she goes with her women to a grove of *asoka* trees and sends for the king, who is unable to enter, until the gods of the Pure Abode inform him of what has happened.’ It is further mentioned that ‘she seizes not a *sal* branch, but a *plaksha* at the moment of birth’. *Sal* (*Shorea robusta*) and *plaksha* (*Butea monosperma*) are both common trees in the Nepal *tarai* in which the birth-place of the Buddha is situated.

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The Lumbini garden was visited by the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang. He came to India in A.D. 630 and stayed until A.D. 645. He mentions an *asoka*-tree under which the Buddha was born. “To the north-east of the arrow well about 80 or 90 li, we come to the Lumbini (Lavani) garden. Here is the bathing tank of the Sakyas, the water of which is bright and clear as a mirror, and the surface covered with a mixture of flowers. To the north of this 24 or 25 paces there is an *asoka*-flower tree, which is now decayed; this is the place where Bodhisattva was born.”

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Gautama was married to Yasodhara, by whom he had a son, Rahula. Apart from his wife, the palace was full of beautiful women who served as cooks and servants. When Gautama realized that life was not merely a cycle of pleasures, but also had its miseries, like disease, old age, and death, the idea of renunciation of worldly life came to him. The *Buddhacharita* mentions a garden full of beautiful women to which King Suddodhana sent him. “Behold the god of love, says the *Buddhacharita*, ‘behold Kama, they murmured on seeing his arrival. Curious and with wide-eyed admiration they gathered round him, and saluted him with their smooth hands, like the cups of the lotus-flower. By the King’s instructions, Udayin, a friend of his childhood, encouraged them to exert all their fascinations. Some, wreathing their arms round Siddhartha like twining plants, sought to hold him by force; others, whether carelessly or feigning to be almost carried away by their transports, allowed the gauzy draperies which veiled their youthful forms to slip aside; others swung their tempting forms on the branches of the mango-trees; and, lastly, yet another sang in the prince’s ear the song of the forest, full of furtive desires and of the emanations of the spring. But his consciousness of the vanity of all things now rendered him insensible to these blandishments, and he returned to the palace, resolved to abandon the world.”¹ Accompanied by his groom Chandaka, and riding his favourite horse Kanthaka, he left the palace (Fig. 164). This sculpture from Sanchi also depicts domestic architecture during the Buddhist period. The lower part of the house was built of stones and bricks, and the balconies and upper storeys were made of wood.

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¹ Rene Grousset, *The Civilization of the East India*, Vol. II, p. 38

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It was under a pipal-tree (*Ficus religiosa*) at the place, now known as Bodh Gaya, that Gautama received enlightenment. This tree was also seen by Hiuen Tsang, who has given the following account. “From this south-west 14 or 15 li, not far from the place of penance, there is a Pippala (Pi-po-lo) tree under which is a ‘diamond throne’. All the past Buddhas seated on this throne have obtained true enlightenment, and so will those yet to come. Pray, then, proceed to that spot. The Bodhi tree above the diamond throne is the same as the Pippala tree. In old days, when Buddha was alive, it was several hundred feet high. Although it has often been injured by cutting, it is 40 or 50 feet [12 to 15 metres] in height. Buddha sitting under this tree reached perfect wisdom, and therefore it is called the *Samyak Sambodhi*, tree of knowledge (Pu-ti-Bodhi). The bark is of a yellowish-white colour, the leaves and twigs of a dark green. The leaves wither not either in winter or summer, but they remain shining and glistening all the year round without change. But at every successive Nirvana-day (of the Buddhas) leaves wither and fall, and then in a moment revive as before. On this day (of the Nirvana) the princes of different countries and the religious multitudes from different quarters assemble by thousands and ten thousands unbidden, and bathe the roots with scented water and perfumed milk; whilst they raise the sounds of music and scatter flowers and perfumes, and whilst the light of day is continued by the burning torches, they offer their religious gifts.

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"On the left side of the road, to the north of the place where the Buddha walked, is a large stone, on the top of which, as it stands in a great vihara, is a figure of the Buddha with his eyes raised and looking up. Here in former times Buddha sat for seven days contemplating the Bodhi tree; he did not remove his gaze from it during this period, desiring thereby to indicate his grateful feelings towards the tree by so looking at it with fixed eyes."³

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³ Beal, S. *Chinese Accounts of India*, Vol. II, p. 350

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A sapling of the Bodhi-tree was taken by prince Mahindra, son of Asoka, to Ceylon, about 250 B.C. and was planted at Anuradhapura. Its great branches are supported by pillars. It is the oldest historical tree in the world.⁴

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⁴ Wells, H.G. *The Outline of History*, p. 392

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The banyan, together with the Ganges and the Himalayas, completes the picture of India. "It is probably the most astounding piece of vegetation on the face of the earth", observes Lassen. "From one single root it produces a vast green temple of many halls, with cool, shady bowers impervious to the light, and seems created expressly and exclusively for the purpose of supplying shelterless primeval humanity with ready-made dwellings. For neither is its wood of much use, nor are its fruits eatable for man, and if it inspires the Hindus and their neighbours with profound veneration, it is owing to the surpassing marvel of its wellnigh preternatural growth, its indestructible duration and everlasting self-renewal: to which traits and mysterious gloom of its galleries and avenues adds not a little, yielding a most grateful retreat from the torrid summer heat. The trunk of the tree, at a moderate height from the ground, branches out into several stout limbs which stretch from it horizontally; from these, slender shoots—the so-called "air-roots"—grow downwards until they reach the ground, where they take root, whereupon they increase in thickness and become strong supports for the mother-limb. The central trunk repeats the branching out process at a greater height, and the second circle of limbs in its turn sends down a number of air-roots which form an outer circle of props or pillars. As the central trunk increases in height, it goes on producing tier upon tier of horizontal limbs, and these add row after row to the outer circle of pillars, not indeed with perfect regularity, but so as to form a grove of leafy halls and verdant galleries multiplying ad infinitum. For this evolution is carried on on a gigantic scale. The highest tier of horizontal limbs is said to grow sometimes at an elevation of two hundred feet [61 metres] from the ground and the whole structure is crowned with the dome of verdure in which the central trunk finally culminates. The leaves, which grow very close together, are five inches long by three and a half broad [12 × 9 cm], and their fine green color pleasantly contrasts with the small red figs.”⁵

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⁵ Ragozin, Z.A. *Vedic India*, pp. 26,27

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In every village, the planting of banyan- and pipal-trees was enjoined. Apart from shade, it was also a measure for saving crops and fruits from destructive birds. Banyan- and pipal-trees, when covered with figs, provide food for thousands of birds. Thus, indirectly they save crops and fruit-trees from damage by birds which are kept busy eating their figs for weeks. They also provide a home for birds and to preserve a tree is to save a large number of them that find shelter in it.

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The remains of the Buddha were enshrined in a number of stupas by Asoka. The famous Stupa of Bharhut, discovered by Cunningham in 1873, was situated in the State of Nagod, now merged in Madhya Pradesh. Bharhut is the site of an old city called Bhaironpur, which extended for 12 kos. Cunningham dated the Stupa between 200 and 250 B.C. Later research has assigned 184-72 B.C. as its probable period. The discovery of Bharhut Stupa is a landmark in the history of India. Its sculptures provide us with a glimpse of religion, manners, customs, dress, fashions as well as the architecture of India during the Sunga period.

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Apart from the Jatakas or legends of the previous lives of the Buddha, a number of trees are represented in the sculptures. Cunningham identified seven Bodhi trees. Of these, *pipal* (*Ficus religiosa*) is the Bodhi tree of Sakya Muni. The other five trees of the other Buddhas are: banyan or *Nyagrodha* (*Ficus benghalensis*), the Bodhi tree of Kasyapa; gular or udumbara (*Ficus glomerata*), the Bodhi tree of Kanaka Muni; Sirisa (*Albizia lebbeck*), the Bodhi tree of Krakuchhanda; Sal (*Shorea robusta*), the Bodhi tree of Vishwabahu; Patali tree (*Bignonia suaveolens*), the Bodhi tree of Vipaswi. All these trees are shade-giving, and it is not surprising that in a hot country man expressed his gratitude to them in this manner, and gave them the title of ‘Bodhi’. Apart from these six trees, Pundarika or White Lotus, is the symbol of Sikhi. While his remaining identifications are correct, what Cunningham identified as Patali tree is in fact the asoka tree, *Sarasa asoca* (*S. indica*). The sacred Bodhi trees at Bharhut are so accurately sculpted that it is easy to identify them (Fig. 165b).

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The Buddha faced many trials. Devadatta, a jealous kinsman, let Fig. 165b. Sacred trees of the Buddhists. 1, Asoka-tree (Saraca asoca; syn. S. indica); 2, Banyan (Ficus benghalensis); 3, Cluster-fig (Ficus glomerata), Bharhut; 4, Lebbeck-tree or siris (Albizia lebbeck), Bharhut; 5, Sal (Shorea robusta), Bharhut; 6, Iron-wool or Nagkesar (Mesua ferrea), Bharhut; 7, Pipal (Ficus religiosa), Sanchi; and 8, Foliage of pipal, Bharhut (After R.V. Sitholey)

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Fig. 164. The great departure. In the background are several-storeyed buildings. Women seated in wooden balconies watch the procession. North gate, Stupa I, Sanchi, first century B.C. (Courtesy: Archaeological Survey of India)

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Fig. 165a. An illustration to a Jataka story, showing, among others, banana plants (Musa paradisiaca)

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1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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loose a dangerous elephant to destroy him. In his mad onslaught, the elephant trampled a man, but when he faced the Buddha he knelt down at his feet (Fig. 166). This medallion from Amaravati shows the mastery of Indian sculptors in depicting elephants. Incidentally, it also conveys to us an idea of architecture during the Buddhist period. The lower parts of houses were made of stones or bricks. Multi-storeyed houses were common in towns, and they had beautifully carved wooden balconies from which women watched royal processions and street scenes.

Jainism

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Vardhamana Mahavira was born in 540 B.C. in a village near Vaisali in northern Bihar. His father was head of a Kshatriya clan and his mother was a Lichchhavi princess. Mahavira became an ascetic at the age of thirty and wandered from place to place preaching his doctrine of non-violence. He died at the age of seventy-two in 468 B.C. at Pavapuri near modern Rajgir. Bimbisara was the ruler of Magadha during the lifetime of the Buddha and Mahavira.

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As the cultivation of soil, according to Jainism, caused violence to living beings, the Jainas adopted the profession of trade and commerce and money-lending. Even at present, Jainas are mostly merchants and money-lenders. The Jainas adopted Prakrit language in preference to Sanskrit, and this promoted the growth of Prakrit language and its literature.

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With the increase in agricultural production due to the use of iron tools, trade and commerce also flourished. About twenty cities are named in Buddhist literature. Seven of them only are reckoned by Thera Ananda as sufficiently important cities (maha-nagara), viz. Savatthi, Champa, Rajagaha, Saketa, Kosambi, Benares and Kusinara.

Money

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Instead of barter, a cumbrous system, the need of coins was felt. Punch-marked coins became the medium of exchange. The earliest punch-marked coins belonged to the fifth century B.C. and circulated in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (Fig. 169). With the development of trade and commerce, the members of the Vaisya community, who were traders and merchants, became important. They became enthusiastic supporters of the Buddha and Mahavira.

Rural Economy

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The rural economy of India at the coming of Buddhism was based chiefly on a system of village communities of peasant proprietors. There were no landlords. The Jataka bears very clear testimony to this. The king had a right to a tithe on raw produce, collected as a yearly tax; and only to this extent could he be considered the ultimate owner of the soil. All abandoned, all forest land the king might dispose of; and under this right was included the reversion to the crown of all property left intestate [Figure: Fig. 166. The Buddha subjugates the mad elephant Nalagiri. Women, nude above the waist, watch from the balconies of houses. Amaravati, late second century, Madras Museum [Figure: Fig. 167. Buffaloes muddying a pool. The circular hut in the background resembles the Navadatoli huts. On the left are archers carrying bows. An illustration to a Jataka story, West Gate, Sanchi.

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or ‘ownerless’. The sovereign was moreover entitled to ‘milk money’, a perquisite paid by the subjects when an heir was born to him. Besides these privileges he could impose forced labour or *rajakariya* on the people, limited to the confines of his own estates. Thus the peasant proprietors enclose a deer-reserve for their king, so that they might not be summoned to leave their tillage to beat up game for him. The tithe on produce was levied in kind, measured out either by the village headman (*gama-bhojaka*), or by an official (a *mahamatta*) at the barn doors, or by survey of the crops. Some of the rice and other grain were stored in the special granaries kept filled for urgency, in war or famine. The amount levied seems to have varied from 1/6 to 1/12, according to the decision of the ruling power or other circumstances. And the contributions raised at one or more *gamas* (villages), rural or suburban, could be made over by a monarch to anyone he wished to endow, e.g. to a daughter on her marriage, a minister, a Brahman, a merchant. Again, the king, could remit the tithe to any person or group.

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The land might, at least in the kingdom of Magadha, be given away, and in that of Kosala, be sold. In the former case, a Brahman landowner offers a thousand *karisas* of his estate as a gift; in the latter, a merchant entangles an unwilling noble in the sale of a part. And in the law-books we read that land might be let against a certain share of the produce. The holdings too in the arable land, called the *khetta*, of each village would be subject to redistribution and redivision among a family, as one generation succeeded another. It is not clear whether any member of a village community could give or sell any of the *khetta* to an outsider. It is just possible that the old tradition expressed in the *Brahmanas* when a piece of land was given as a sacrificial fee—‘And the Earth said: Let no mortal give me away!’—may have survived in the villages as a communal, anti-alienizing feeling concerning any disintegration of the basis of their social and economic unity. It will be seen that conditions regarding land-holding were similar to those prevailing now in the Punjab, which is the land of peasant proprietors *par excellence*.

Village

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‘A *gama* might mean anything from a group of two or three houses to an indefinite number. It was the generic, inclusive term for an inhabited settlement, not possessing the fortifications of a *nagara* or the ruler’s palace of a *rajadhani*. The number of inhabitants in the *gamas* of the Jataka tales varied from 30 to 1,000 families. The houses were all together, in a group, separated by narrow lanes. Immediately adjoining was the sacred grove of trees of the primeval forest left standing when the forest clearing had been made. Beyond this was the wide expanse of a cultivated field, usually a rice field.

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‘Around the *gama*, which appears to have been classed as of the country (janapada), of the border (paccanta), or as suburban, lay its khetta, or pastures, and its woodland or uncleared jungle: primeval forest like the Andhavana of Kosala, the Sitavana of Magadha, the Pacinavamsadaya of the Sakiya Territory. Different from these were such suburban groves as the Bamboo Grove belonging to Magadha’s king, the Anjanavana of Saketa, the Jetavana of Savatthi. Through those other uncleared woodlands where the folk went to gather their firewood, and litter, ran caravan routes, roads that were at times difficult because of swampy passages after rain, and dangerous on account of wild animals and brigands.

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‘Adjoining or merged into these wilder tracts were supplementary grazing pastures of herds of cattle and goats—herds belonging to the king or commoners. Commoners customarily entrusted their flocks to a gopalaka. We find him either penning his herds at night in sheds, or, more often, bringing them back every evening and counting them out to the several owners, varying the pasturage from day to day.

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‘The arable ground of the gama lay without the clustered dwellings, since these were apparently enclosed by a wall or stockade with gates gamadvara. Fences, snares, and field watchmen guarded the khetta or gamakhetta from intrusive beasts and birds, whereas the internal boundaries of each householder’s plot were apparently made by channels dug for co-operative irrigation. These dividing ditches, rectangular and curvilinear, were likened, at least in the Magadha khettas, to a patchwork robe of a mendicant, called gudri in Punjabi. The limits of the whole khetta might be extended by the fresh clearing of forest land. And whereas the majority of holdings were probably small, manageable single-handed or with sons and perhaps with a hired man, estates of 1,000 karisas (acres?) and more occur in the Jatakas, farmed by Brahmans. In the Suttas, again the Brahman Kasibharadvajais employed 500 ploughs and hired men (bhatika) to guide the plough and oxen.

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‘We hear of no instance of a shareholder selling or mortgaging his share of the village field to an outsider; and it was impossible for him to do so, at least without the consent of the village council. We have three instances of sales of land in the books. But in one case it was the forest land cleared by the proprietor or his ancestors. A very old text apparently implies that a piece of ground was given as a sacrificial fee. But it is at once added that the earth itself said—and Mother Earth was a most dread divinity—“No mortal must give me away!”

Headman

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‘Instances of collectivist initiative reveal a relatively advanced sense of citizenship in the gamas. The peasant proprietors had a nominal head in the bhojaka or headman, who was paid by certain dues and fines. But all the village residents met to confer with him and each other on civic and political matters. And carrying the upshot of their counsels into effect, they built new mote-halls and rest-houses, constructed reservoirs and parks, and took turns at a voluntary corvee in keeping their roads in repair. Women too considered it a civic honour to bear their own part in common work. A further glimpse into the sturdy spirit in gama-life is caught in the Jataka sentiment that for peasants to leave their tillage and work for impoverished kings was a mark of social decay. Relevant to this is the low social rank assigned to the hired labourer, who is apparently classed beneath the domestic slave.

Scarcity

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‘Scarcity owing to drought or to floods is not infrequently referred to, extending even over a whole kingdom. The times of scarcity in Buddhist records apparently refer only to brief periods over restricted areas.

Status of Farming

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‘The pursuit of agriculture was not associated with either social prestige or social stigma. In both Jatakas and Suttas, Brahmans are frequently found pursuing tillage, cow-herding, goat-keeping, trade, hunting, woodwork or carpentry, weaving, caravan-guarding, archery, carriage-driving, and snake-charming, but also no reflection is passed upon them for so doing.

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‘In the Punjab, the old tribal system was still prevalent. There the actual cultivator would still be a man of the three upper classes, whereas in Magadha he was generally Shudra. It is to this period that we must ascribe the great complexity of the caste system, and the beginning of the association of caste with craft. A number of castes arose by intermixtures of the old four divisions.

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‘The Kshatriya clansmen of the republics were largely cultivators of the soil. For instance, in the Kunala Jataka, it was the workmen in the fields of the Sakiyan and Koliya bhojakas, amaccas and uparajas who began to quarrel over the prior turn to irrigate. In the earliest Indian literature, agricultural and pastoral concepts play a great part.’⁸

Dasas and Dasis

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The slave or servant (dasa, dasi) was an adjunct in all households able to command domestic service; but slaves do not appear to have been kept, as a rule, in great numbers. Slavery might be incurred through capture, commuted death sentences, debt, voluntary self-degradation, or judicial punishment; on the other hand, slaves might be manumitted, or might free themselves by payment. They might not, while still undischarged, be admitted into the religious community (sangha).

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⁸Rapson, E.J. Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, pp. 176-182, 370, 371 and 433

Landless Labourer

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The hireling, the wage-earner, or the day-labourer was no man's chattel, yet his life was probably harder sometimes than that of the slaves. He was to a great extent employed on the larger land-holdings. He was paid either in board and lodging, or in money-wages. Manu prescribes regular wages both in money and kind for menials in the king's service.

Northern Black Polished Ware

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The Buddhist period is characterized by a new type of pottery called Northern Black Polished Ware, which has a lustrous black surface. It is well fired, giving a metallic sound on being gently struck with a hammer. Its main sites are in the Punjab, Haryana and the Gangetic plain. Its centre of diffusion was the Gangetic plain. This pottery is superior to the Painted Grey Ware and is more durable.

Use of Iron for Agricultural Implements

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By the sixth century B.C. the iron age was well established in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Spear-heads, arrow-heads, axes, daggers and knives of iron were manufactured in substantial numbers. Iron ploughshares and sickles of iron made farming more efficient.

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Iron was also used for making chisels and drills—the primary tools of the carpenter—and for manufacturing nails. A larger production of iron and the manufacture of iron axes enabled the people to cut down forests and to lay roads through unexplored parts of the country. Apart from the felling of trees, skilful cutting of hard wood at Ujjain suggests the use of improved iron implements, such as saws.

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With the expansion of cultivation, the usefulness of cattle was fully realized, and cattle became sacred. The Vedic practice of animal sacrifices was given up under the influence of Buddhism, and the bullocks became the companion of man in the conquest of virgin lands. Henceforth Indian farmers regarded them as helpmates and as members of their own social group.

References

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Banerji, N.R. *The Iron Age in India*, Delhi, 1965 Beal, S. *The Chinese Accounts of India*, Vol. III, Calcutta, n.d. Cunningham, A. *The Stupa of Bharhut*, London, 1879 Edwardes, H. *A History of India*, Bombay, 190 Ragozin, Z.A. *Vedic India*, London, 1895 Randhawa, M.S. *The Cult of Trees and Tree-Worship in Buddhist Hindu Sculpture*, New Delhi, 1964 Rapson, E.J. (Ed.) *Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I, Cambridge, 1922 Rene Grousset, *The Civilization of the East India*, Vol. II, London, 1932

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Sastri, H.A.N. and Srinivasachari, G. *Advanced History of India*, Bombay, 1970 Sitholey, R.V. Plants represented in Ancient Indian Sculptures, *Geophytology*, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1976 Sharma, R.S. *Ancient India*, New Delhi, 1977 Thomas, E.J. *The Life of Buddha*, London, 1956 Wells, H.G. *The Outline of History*, London, 1966

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