Proceedings and papers of National Seminar on Jainology

Author(s): Yugalkishor Mishra
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 60

Trade in the Samaräichchakahá : Text and Context
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Politically volatile, they created serious problems for the trade of the region. The story of Dharana recounts the catastrophe graphically. The merchant, after earning huge profits, stopped in a forest on his return journey. The members of the caravan slept after arranging for the watch. The Sabaras attached the caravan in the midnight, killed many merchants and looted their goods. The political authority was too weak to do anything about it as we keep on getting similar references in other contemporary sources as well.
The Samarāichchakahā, true to the fractured nature of the urban economy that it is referring to, makes two casual mentions of items of trade.14 The first list includes ivory, liquor, lac, chanwara and poison, while the second names dhana-dhánya, hiraya, suvarna, mani-muktā-pravāla, dvipada and chatuspada. It is needless to mention that the items of the first list have nothing to do with the day-to-day requirements of the people. The same is also true of the items of the second list. These are all highly priced luxury articles. The term dhana-dhanya may be interpreted as grain, but this will possibly be a misreading of the text. The term, occurring alongwith gold, gems, precious stones and birds and animals, does not signify grain but it refers to wealth in general. The non-utilitarian and luxury oriented nature of trade is clearly borne out if this list is compared with the list of commodities given by Nārada in the preceding period. The latter's list includes milk, sour milk, clarified butter, honey, bees-wax, lac, pungent condiments, liquids used for flavouring, spirituous liquor, meat, boiled rice, sasamum, juice of the soma plant, flowers, fruits, precious stones, men and women (as slaves), poison, weapons, salt, cakes, plants, garments, silk, skins, bones, blankets, animals, earthen pots, buttermilk, vegetable, ginger, herbs, dry wood, grass, fragrant substances, ingudi plant, cotton, thread and articles of metal." That the Samarāichchakahā is describing an internal trade system that was basically luxury-oriented is also corroborated by the huge margin of profits earned by the merchants engaged in it. Thus, Dharana made an eightfold profit by selling his goods at Achalapura. But this was the beginning. His stay at the place for four months and involvement in the local commercial transactions earned him more profit. The profits must have been multiplied many-fold if he would have safely returned to Mākandi with the commodities purchased at Achalapura. This was a huge profit margin, something that was impossible to be earned in course of trade in utilitarian objects. The text, thus, indicates a sluggish trade mostly confined to luxury items.
The constricted nature of trade is reflected by an increasing emphasis on the localisation of commodity exchange. The Samarāichchakahā