Crafts, Commerce and Urban Growth (200 BC to AD 250)

At a Glance

• Period 200 BC to AD 250
• Occupations listed Up to 75 in Milinda Panho
• Guilds Shrenis; at least two dozen
• Merchants Sresthi, sarthavaha, vanija
• Decline From the mid-third century
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Ancient History: Post-Mauryan Period and Early South India

Where Does It Fit?

This is the tenth topic of the category on the post-Mauryan period. The previous topic covered Sangam literature, and this one covers crafts, trade and towns. The next topic covers Indo-Roman trade. Previous topic: Sangam Literature and Society.

How Much Did Crafts Grow?

In short: this was the most flourishing period for crafts and commerce in ancient India.

The age of the Shakas, Kushans, Satavahanas and the first Tamil states, from 200 BC to AD 250, was the most flourishing period in the history of crafts and commerce in ancient India. The Digha Nikaya, relating to pre-Mauryan times, mentions nearly two dozen occupations, but the Mahavastu lists thirty-six kinds of workers in Rajgir and the Milinda Panho enumerates as many as seventy-five occupations, sixty of them connected with crafts. A Tamil text, The Garland of Madurai, adds that painters, weavers, clothiers, florists, goldsmiths and coppersmiths worked in their shops without being distinguished from shopkeepers. In a village in Karimnagar in Telangana carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths and potters lived in separate quarters. Eight crafts were linked to working gold, silver, lead, tin, copper, brass, iron and gems, and brass, zinc, antimony and red arsenic are also mentioned, which shows advance in mining and metallurgy. Iron artefacts have been found in large numbers in Kushan and Satavahana layers, with Telangana the richest, including weapons, balance rods, socketed axes and hoes, sickles, ploughshares, razors and ladles; Indian iron and steel, including cutlery, were exported to Abyssinian ports and prestigious in western Asia.

Glass-blowing reached India around the beginning of the Christian era and attained its peak. Indian ivories have been found in Afghanistan and Rome. Terracottas were used largely by the upper classes and virtually went out of fashion with the decline of towns in the Gupta and post-Gupta periods. Inscriptions mention weavers, goldsmiths, dyers, metal and ivory workers, jewellers, sculptors, fishermen, smiths and perfumers as donors to Buddhist monks, which suggests that their crafts were prospering.

How Were Artisans and Merchants Organised?

Artisans were organised in guilds called shrenis. In the second century AD in Maharashtra lay devotees of Buddhism deposited money with the guilds of potters, oilmen and weavers to supply monks with robes and necessities, and at Mathura a chief deposited money with the guild of flour-makers whose monthly income fed a hundred brahmanas daily. At least two dozen guilds are known, and most artisans known from inscriptions were in the Mathura region and western Deccan on the trade routes to the western ports. Merchants and craftsmen were also grouped as shrenis and ayatanas, and divided into high, low and middle ranks. The Buddhist texts mention the sresthi, the chief merchant of the nigama, the sarthavaha, the caravan leader who headed the corporation of merchants, and petty vanijas who dealt in fruits, roots, cooked food, sugar and bamboo. Gandhikas or perfumers were all-purpose merchants, and the term vyavahari, one who transacts business, was used. There were wholesale merchants who conducted internal and external trade. The Garland of Madurai calls the streets of the city broad rivers of people who buy and sell. The earlier guild system is in Second Urbanisation and Rural Economy in the Age of the Buddha.

How Did Towns Grow and Decline?

Growing crafts, commerce and money promoted numerous towns. In north India, Vaishali, Pataliputra, Varanasi, Kaushambi, Shravasti, Hastinapur, Mathura and Indraprastha are mentioned in texts, and most flourished in the Kushan period in the first and second centuries. Sites in Bihar such as Chirand and Buxar, and in UP such as Bhita, Kaushambi, Shringaverapur and Atranjikhera, show prosperous Kushan phases. Excavations at Sonkh in Mathura reveal seven Kushan levels against only one of the Gupta phase, and Sachnan Kot, 50 km from Lucknow, is the largest Kushan town in northern India, covering 9 sq. km. In Malwa, Ujjain was the nodal point of two routes and an exporter of agate and carnelian, and beads were worked on a large scale after 200 BC. In the Satavahana kingdom, Tagar, Paithan, Dhanyakataka, Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda, Broach, Sopara, Arikamedu and Kaveripattanam were prosperous. Towns thrived because of trade with the Roman empire and Central Asia and because the Kushan empire ensured security along the uttarapatha from Mathura to Taxila. The end of Kushan power in the third century dealt a blow to these towns, and in the Deccan the end of Satavahana power and the Roman ban on trade with India in the third century impoverished artisans and merchants. The decline of towns in Maharashtra, Andhra and Tamil Nadu started in the mid-third century or later.

As an analytical point, the prosperity of this period was tied to external demand and the security given by large states, so when both weakened, towns shrank. The trade is in Indo-Roman Trade and Maritime Contacts and the coins in Money Economy and Coinage in Early India. The post-Gupta contrast is in From Ancient to Medieval – Agrarian Changes and Rise of Landlords.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Economy of the period Peak of urban crafts
• Terms Shreni, sresthi, sarthavaha
• Decline Link to later feudal shift

What Came Next?

The next topic describes Indo-Roman trade and maritime contacts. Next topic: Indo-Roman Trade and Maritime Contacts.

Key People and Terms

• Shreni Guild
• Sresthi Chief merchant
• Sarthavaha Caravan leader
• Vanija Petty merchant
• Gandhika Perfumer, general shopkeeper
• Uttarapatha Northern trade route

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask about the economy of this period. These points add depth.

• Crafts Specialisation
• Trade Routes and merchants
• Towns Peak and decline