Question

•☆Explain the reasons responsible for the rise of urban centres between 600 BC to 300AD.
•☆Explain why and how Mathura emerged as one of the most important urban centres during 600 BC to 300 AD.​

Answer 1

Answer:

.1 INTRODUCTION

As studies of the past are no longer limited only to enquiries about rulers and kings, the

historian’s attention has consequently shifted from ‘episodic history’ (to quote D.D.

Kosambi) to the thorough understanding of social, economic and cultural situation. An

in-depth enquiry of the economic life in the ancient times cannot be divorced from the

social, cultural and political developments. With the availability of some new data and

fresh insights into the previously known information during the last fifty years, it is now

possible to trace certain stages in the economic life in early India. In other words, there

is now the lesser compulsion to study the economic life in terms of the some prominent

ruling dynasties. Historians have been able to discern certain significant changes in social

and economic life and therefore have indicated a few phases in the economy. This,

however, does not imply that there was no element of continuity; but early Indian economic

life, contrary to earlier views, cannot be judged as static and repetitive. This shift in

perspective helps realise the importance of trade and other related aspects of early

Indian economy. Indian material life was certainly rooted in agriculture and rural life, but

crafts and commerce did play a role in the overall agrarian milieu. Trade, along with

crafts production, belongs to the non-agrarian sector of the economy the arena for which

is towns and cities. Villages, where dwelt the bulk of India’s population, were areas

principally for cultivation and animal rearing.

The major difficulty of studying the non-agrarian sector of the economy lies in the lack of

adequate evidence or source materials. Creative literature, religious texts, theoretical

treatises or sastras and impressions left behind by foreigners offer only incidental notices

of economic life in general and commercial activities in particular. These literary pieces

are not primarily economic documents, but offer glimpses of economic life. Archaeological

materials, in the form of inscriptions, coins, visual art and objects unearthed from

explorations and excavations also bear significant information, though often incidentaland scattered in nature. Archaeological sources have one advantage over literary evidence.

They are more securely dated and situated in a given area; they also offer material and

visual evidence of certain condition of the past. However, neither in literary sources nor

in the archaeological evidence is statistical data available, which is so important for

understanding economic life.

The Harappan civilization (c. 2500-1750 BC), noted for its distinct urban society, marks

the first stage of urbanism in India. It is characterised by a flourishing agrarian economy,

various crafts including workmanship in copper and bronze, far-flung trade both within

the subcontinent and with the Oman peninsula, Bahrein island and Sumerian civilization

in Mesoptamia. The most remarkable feature of this civilization was a number of impressive

cities. Although urbanism – and areas of craft specialisation which fed Harappan cities –

declined, regions of Chalcolithic culture and of the early iron age show that varieties of

crafts supplemented agricultural production, and expansive exchange networks were in

existence.

A new movement toward the emergence of towns and cities thus had an extensive base

in the cultures of the earlier period. The sixth-fifth centuries BC loom large in Indian

history and at the same time reveal certain distinctive features in material, political, social

and cultural life, especially in north India. The period from c. 325 to 185 BC is considered

a landmark in Indian history as it saw for the first time a nearly pan-Indian Empire. The

mahajanapada of Magadha gradually became the paramount power in the subcontinent

during the Maurya rule, thanks to the efforts of two great rulers Chandragupta Maurya

(c. 321-300 BC), the founder of the dynasty and his grandson Asoka (c. 272-233 BC).

The distribution of Asoka’s many edicts over greater parts of Indian subcontinent shows

that his instructions were meant to have been followed in those areas. This suggests that

the findspots of Asoka’s edicts were part of the vast Mauryan realm. At the height of its

power the Maurya Empire extended from Afghanistan in the north to Karnataka-Andhra

in the south