Proceedings and papers of National Seminar on Jainology

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

Page 63

34
Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin No. 8
valuation of commodities. These are invariably mentioned as a measure of wealth indicating thereby the conventional nature of these references. The text also refers to sodasasuvanna:48 but the non-prevalence of gold coins during the period is too well known a fact of Indian history to require any comment in the present context. Despite these references, the system of barter seems to have been the basis of the exchange mechanism. The text frequently tells us about merchants visiting distant parts of the country and exchanging their own merchandise with the wares of those regions. The same system operated at the hattas, as well. The references to coins in the text, therefore, sound conventional and in tune with similar mentions in the contemporary inscriptions. The reversal to barter system, as illustrated by the text, is indicative of languishing trade and declining urban tradition; the developments when viewed in their totality reflect the feudal milieu of the times.
The Samarāichchakahā, no doubt, refers to urban centres and mercantile activities, but the nature of such literary references need to be properly appreciated before constructing contemporary formation. It has been pointed out by B. N. S. Yadav that literary depictions of cities in the Gupta and post-Gupta times become almost conventional."" "In the description of Ujjayini in the Pădată ditakama (c. 6th-7th century A.D.), the Kādambari (7th century), and the Navasāhasānkacarita (10th century), of Kuņdinapura in the Nalacampū (10th century) and the Naişadh sacarita, of Rāmāvati in the Rāmacarita of Sandhyākara Nandi, of Pravarapura in the Vikramārkadevacarita of Bilhana, of Ajmer in the Prthvirājavijaya, and of Aşahillapura, or Anhilvāda, in the Kumārapālacarita and the Kirtīkaumudi, one can notice to some extent the same conventional type of approach." References to trade and currency system, as borne out by the analyses of textual mentions, also seem to have been influenced by a similar style of conventionalisation and repetition. The early medieval texts, composed during a period devoid of either significant commercial activities or strong urban tradition, drew its motifs from earlier texts and superimposed them on the contemporary reality.
The nature of commercial economy illustrated in the Samarāichchakahā is in correspondence with the context of the text. The late 8th and the early 9th centuries A.D. represent the mature phase of Indian feudal formation, a development that finds distinct echoes in the text. The administrative structure, as constructed on the basis of scattered references in the text, contains strong feudal elements. The samanta system is fairly well known. These sāmantas were subservient to the kings and have been called,