What did the merchants in ancient india supply and to whom
Answers
Answer:The early part of the Vedic period or that preceding it, was an age of economic self-sufficiency and consequently there was little scope for an exchange of commodities. All the rural centres were self-supporting. Every house-holder produced the necessaries of life—his farm producing his food-grains and other necessaries, the industry of the women of his household supplied him with his clothing, while the craftsmen attached to the village did the rest.
Consequently, there was no inter-dependence between two neighbouring local areas. The surplus product was kept for future consumption. This state of full economic independence did not however last long. Society became complex.
A large section of the community gave up the simple agricultural life; the primitive arts and crafts drew away a large number; owing to these and various other causes, there arose a scope for interchange of commodities between different local areas.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Barter of goods, and later on, regular purchase and sale came to be introduced. The excess of production in certain localities induced energetic men to carry them to other places where these could be disposed of on profit. In this way there arose commercial enterprise, and we find mention of merchants even in the Rigveda as well as the use of the verb Kri (-meaning purchase; R. V. IV. 24. 10).
But beyond this, the Rigvedic evidence does not tell us anything. We know nothing us to the existence of markets, though one passage suggests the existence of haggling (IV. 24. 9). The same speaks of sellers, who demanded, more price than that originally asked for (e.g., something more than that paid at the time of sale). The buyer on the other hand is represented, as insisting on the original price demanded and paid for, and is made to insist on the sanctity of contracts (R. V, IV. 24.9).
As to traders we have in the Rigveda the words Vanij and Vanija (R. V, I. 112. 11 and R. V, 45. 6) denoting a merchant. In the Vaj. Sam. in connection with the Purusamedha the Vanij or merchant is mentioned as a victim (sea Vaj Sam. XXX. 17 and Taitt. Br. III. 4.14.1). Excepting their existence we know nothing of the Vedic merchants. The Vedic passages where the word Vanij occurs, tell us nothing about them, i.e. about the way in which they carried on business, their difficulties or the profits they made.
When however we come to the Atharva Veda, we have some information about early merchants and the commodities they carried for exchange. That book (V. 7. 6) mentions garments (Dursa) coverlets (Pavaita) and goatskin, (Ajina) as articles of trade.
At to merchants the information supplied is really interesting, for an Atharva Vedic hymn (e.g., III.5) shows that the early merchant was an adventurous wanderer, who moving from place to place, risked not only his goods, but his life for the sake of gain.
He had to travel from one part of the country to another. His life was often jeopardized owing to the depredations of wild beasts on the way and owing to the presence of robbers, who scrupled not to take the life of such people. Consequently, before starting, the merchant prayed to Indra “the merchant par excellence” (A.V. III. 15.1), so that he might be his “guide and leader, chasing ill-will, wild beasts and highway robbers.”
After this prayer for security he is described as turning to Agni and praying for “a hundred treasures” and craving pardon for “this stubbornness.” He is then made to speak of “the distant pathway which his feet have trodden,” and to call upon the gods to be propitious to him in order that there may be success in ‘sale (Vikraya), barter (Prapana), and exchange of merchandise’ (Pratipana),—that his invested capital (Dhanam) may grow more for him and his ventures may be prosperous?
The Vedic merchant, thus, seems to have been an adventurer, in search of gain. He sold, bartered and exchanged his goods for those of another locality. He appears to have been the fore-runner of the Svartha-vahas and caravan leaders of the early Buddhist literature and of the Jatakas. The above hymn is used in the Kausika sutra (K. S, L. 13 for success in business) for success in business.
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