Agrarian Expansion and Urban Growth, c.

600-200 BCE

Subject: History

Unit: Economy and Society

Lesson: 6.1: Agrarian Expansion and Urban Growth, c. 600-

200 BCE
Lesson Developer: Dr. Shonaleeka Kaul
College/Department: Assistant Professor, Department of
History, University of Delhi

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 Agrarian Expansion and Urban Growth, c. 600-200 BCE

Table of contents

Chapter 6: Economy and society (circa 600 BC to AD 300)

• 6.1: Agrarian expansion and urban growth, c. 600–200 BCE
• Exercises
• Glossary
• Further readings

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 Agrarian Expansion and Urban Growth, c. 600-200 BCE

6.1: Agrarian expansion and urban growth, c. 600-200 BCE

The period from 600 to 200 BC represents the onset and establishment of the early historic
period in India. It saw the fruition of the several processes of transition that had started in
the later Vedic period, resulting in the formation of states called the mahajanapadas and
emergence of a class and caste society. It is also the period from which we get our earliest
records of writing, in the form of inscriptions in the Brahmi script from the fourth century BC
and after. Under the Mauryas, the second half of this period even saw the first empire in
Indian history. Accompanying and underlying these developments was a great economic
expansion.

Agriculture and second urbanization

Agriculture, especially plough-based wet rice agriculture, now firmly became the pivot of the
economy of the Ganga valley. Frequent use of agricultural similes and references to
agricultural implements, practices and seasons are found in the Tripitaka, the Buddhist
literature from the period. Individual, rather than clan, holdings of land had definitely
appeared; the Aganna Sutta even attributes the rise of kingship to the need for an
arbitrator in disputes over rice fields. Land could also be bought and sold and donated; we
get examples like Anathapindaka, a great merchant, buying an orchard and donating it to
the Sangha. It is not clear however if this applied to agricultural land as well yet. Some land
like pastures, forests and mines were understood to belong to the king. Archaeologically,
this period coincides with Northern Black Polished Ware culture and excavations at NBPW
sites have confirmed not only an agrarian economy but a flourishing urban one.

Indeed the sixth century BC represents the onset of Second Urbanisation. This is the name
given to the rise and spread of cities and city life throughout the Ganga valley and the
Upper Peninsula at this time. It is so called because it occurs, after a considerable gap, after
the first urbanization that occurred in the Greater Indus Valley in the third millennium BC.
NBPW sites, compared to the earlier Painted Grey Ware sites, show a distinct increase in the
number and size of settlements, which in turn is believed to suggest population growth.

Value addition: more details

Northern black polished ware
The NBPW is a phenomenal pottery type. Though the archaeological culture it
denotes is famously associated with the period 600-200 BC, this pottery is found
over a larger time span, at least from 700 down to 100 BC, and some dates at the
site of Ayodhya may even push it back to 1000 BC. Moreover, the fine, wheel-turned
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 Agrarian Expansion and Urban Growth, c. 600-200 BCE

deluxe ware has been discovered at as many as 1500 sites. Contrary to what the
name suggests, it is not confined to northern India, though it is concentrated in the
Ganga Valley, nor is it always black in colour, being found in other shades too. It is
usually glossy to a great degree, and unpainted; some designs like wavy lines or
concentric circles have, however, occasionally been found painted on in yellow and
vermillion. It has been found at most of the major cities from early historic India,
like: Taxila, Charsada, Hastinapur, Atranjikhera, Kaushambi, Shravasti, Vaishali,
Pataliputra, Tamluk, Amaravati (Andhra) and Prabhas Patan (Gujarat).
Source: Upinder Singh, 2008, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India,
Delhi: Pearson, 259-260.

Literature tells us that settlements occurred across a range from grama or village at one
end to nigama or market town, nagara or city, and mahanagara or cosmopolis / great city,
at the other end. The Mahaparinibbana Sutta mentions six mahanagaras: Champa,
Rajgriha, Shravasti, Saketa (Ayodhya), Kaushambi and Kashi (Varanasi). There were a host
of other cities which are mentioned in the texts and attested to in archaeology. These
include Ujjayini, Hastinapura, Mathura, Takshashila, Pataliputra, Vaishali, Kapilavastu,
Sarnath, and Pratishthana. Most of these cities played multiple roles: they were the capitals
of kingdoms or gana sanghas as well as great centres of trade and commerce, while some
were also religious centres.

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 Agrarian Expansion and Urban Growth, c. 600-200 BCE

Figure 6.1.1: Cities of the second urbanisation along with the mahajanapadas in which they
belonged
Source: http://www215.pair.com/sacoins/images/maps/india_500bc.gif

It was earlier believed that the Second Urbanisation was the result of the application of iron
technology to the clearing and cultivation of the entire Ganga plains with the use of iron
axes and ploughshares. The harnessing of this fertile tract is supposed to have produced a
spurt in agricultural production, creating a surplus which facilitated the rise of urban
centres. As other scholars have pointed out, however, the archaeological evidence on iron
agricultural tools in the NBPW period seems to suggest that the use of iron in agriculture
sustained the process of urbanization but did not pre-date or cause it. It is further argued

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 Agrarian Expansion and Urban Growth, c. 600-200 BCE

that the mere coming into being of the potential for a grain surplus does not lead to the rise
of cities automatically. Socio-political institutions like the state, especially monarchy, and
economic mechanisms like trade and exchange, play a crucial role in concentrating and
channelizing the surplus into urban form. So economic and demographic growth as well as
political and social developments are together responsible for the fundamental advances
that Second Urbanisation represents.

Crafts, coinage and trade

Two main aspects of early historic urbanization were a huge boost in crafts production along
with a money economy, and the flourishing of trade, both internal to the subcontinent and
external, long distance commerce.

Again, both archaeology and texts of the period present a picture of considerable
specialization and diversification of crafts (sippa) and occupations (kamma) which are
designated as high (uccha/ukkattha) or low (nica/hina). Some examples we come across
are metal work, leather work, ivory carving, basket making, wine-making, jewelry making,
oil pressing, perfume making, pottery, textiles, masonry, woodwork, and occupations like
animal rearing, cultivation, trade, service of the king, etc. Crafts production was both an
urban and rural phenomenon, and there is evidence of localization of crafts where an entire
village could be devoted to a particular craft, like pottery, or one part of a city was inhabited
solely by practitioners of a single craft, like goldsmiths. While occupations tended to be
hereditary, there was still scope for some mobility from one profession to another.

Craftsmen and artisans were organized into guilds (shreni/sangha/puga) headed by a chief
(pramukkha/jetthaka). This also shows the fairly developed and organized state of
production already in the sixth century BC. An obvious accompaniment to this was the rise
of a monetary or money economy. Metallic coins, largely in copper and silver, of different
weights and thickness, have been found at NBPW sites. They are known as punch-marked
coins since they bear single or multiple marks punched into the metal and have nothing else
inscribed on them. Buddhist texts speak of kahapanas and suvannas, silver and gold coins,
respectively. They also refer to usury or money-lending on interest (vyavaharika), and to
great wealth and to very rich people, like traders and bankers, called setthis and
gahapatis. All of this also attests to a robust money economy.

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 Agrarian Expansion and Urban Growth, c. 600-200 BCE

Figure 6.1.2: Varieties of silver punch marked coins excavated from NBPW sites
Source: http://www.rbi.org.in/currency/museum/c-ancient.html

Setthis and gahapatis stand out as the most prominent new social group of the urban
economy of the sixth century BC and after. They are seen as large landowners, trading
magnates and bankers, and as such, were the chief tax payers to the king as well as
donators to the Buddhist sangha. At the other end of the spectrum were the poor,
described as adhana (without money) and dalidda or downtrodden. They are often seen as
servants and menials (dasa-bhritakas, porishas) serving the households of the rich and
tilling their land. The recognition of exploitation is clear. From this period we have
references for the first time to wages (vetan) and wage-labour (vaitanika), as also to men
and women slaves (dasas, dasis) and hired agricultural labour (dasa-kammakaras). In
other words, a stratified and monetized socio-economic system had come fully into being.
Given that this is the time Buddhism arose, it is possible to see its emphasis on austerity
and non-coveting of riches as a reaction to this urban economic milieu. However, the
importance of kinship relations (nyati) did not altogether disappear in this period which saw
the emergence of class differences.

Texts of the period attest to a growing commerce. We hear of long journeys that trading
caravans led by chief merchants (sarthavahas) undertook, tracing in the process riverine
and land routes, from one corner of the subcontinent to another, often traversing forests
teeming with wild animals and a variety of forest-dwellers. Two of the major trade routes
that emerged were: the Uttarapatha which turned out to be the major transregional route of
north India, joining Taxila in the north-west with Tamralipti on the east coast via Mathura,
Vaishali, Shravasti and Pataliputra; and the Dakshinapatha, which started from Pataliputra
and went up to Pratishthana and from there to ports on the west coast. Another route ran
from Mathura to Ujjayini and on to Mahishmati, on the one hand, and to Bhrigukaccha and
Sopara, on the other. Goods and merchandise that circulated included high-end luxury
items like pearls, fine muslin cloth, silk, incense, and also horses and elephants.

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 Agrarian Expansion and Urban Growth, c. 600-200 BCE

Although the archaeology of trade routes corroborates this commercial activity, it should be
noted that we get most of this information from texts like the Jatakas that date only from
the third century BC onwards and so present a picture of a later period. However we can
perhaps assume that the beginnings of this trading efflorescence lay in the sixth to third

century BC. The same holds true for what we know about long distance trade with south-
east Asia and China. Since we hear about this from the Jatakas, details are mentioned in
lesson VI. 3.2 on the post Mauryan economy. India’s trade with China included exporting
pearls, glass and perfumes and importing silk; with Suvarnadvipa (Malaysia and Indonesia)
and Suvarnabhumi (Myanmar), it included imports of gold, tin, spices like cinnamon and
cloves, sandalwood and camphor and outgo of cotton textiles, sugar, valuable beads and
pottery. Interestingly, India’s commercial contacts with these parts of the world went hand
in hand with social and cultural exchanges. India’s greatest export in this sense was
Buddhism, which also spread to Sri Lanka in the Mauryan period. Its doctrines, scriptures,
relics, and monks and pilgrims traveled to and fro over many centuries between India and
these regions, spreading the religion outside India in the process. Note also the role of the
Achaemenian and then Alexander’s invasions in the fifth - fourth centuries in opening up the
north-west of the subcontinent to intensified trading and cultural contacts with central and
west Asia.

Mauryan consolidation

All these growth-related trends in agriculture, crafts, trade and urbanism continued
unabated in the second half of the period under study, namely end-4th to end 3rd century
BC. This was the Mauryan century which saw some additional developments in the economic
field largely as a consequence of the rise of a strong state-empire. We learn of these on the
basis of the evidence of Kautilya’s Arthashastra and Megasthenes’ Indica.

Thus, for example, while private ownership of land must certainly have continued, it is
possible that large farms run by the state were brought into being. This is suggested by the
Arthashastra referring to sita land or crown land and to an officer called the sitadhyaksha in
charge of it, and to the cultivation of this land by what appear to be sharecroppers,
ardhasitakas. If these farms indeed existed in parts of the Mauryan realm, they are likely
to have been responsible for Megasthenes’ erroneous impression that all land belonged to
the king. The Arthashastra does suggest however that the state settled new lands
(shunyanivesha) and employed forced labour or corvee (vishti) to work on it.

A variety of taxes were levied on land, chief among which was bhaga, equivalent to one-
sixth of the produce. Other tithes we hear of are bhoga, bali, kara, ubalika, and hiranya.
Kautilya classifies land into different kinds on the basis of the systematic assessment carried
out by the state, and also provides for increasing the tax to one-fourth or one-third in times
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 Agrarian Expansion and Urban Growth, c. 600-200 BCE

of emergency. There was a chief collector of revenues (samaharta) and a treasurer

(sannidhata) and a host of local officials like sthanikas and gopas who carried out the
assessment and collection.

We also hear of a number of tolls on trade and commerce, such as the shulka which was
one-fifth of the value of the commodity. Indeed the Arthashastra speaks of an army of
superintendents (adhyakshas) who were meant to supervise different aspects of the urban
economy like coinage, customs, weights and measures, etc.

It must be remembered however that the extensive participation in and control of the
economy by the state that the Arthashastra projects need not refer to conditions in the
Mauryan empire specifically, since it is a prescriptive text that is laying down an ideal rather
than describing actual practices of its time. Moreover, we now know that the degree to
which Mauryan state control was exerted varied considerably across the empire.
Centralization may have existed in what Romila Thapar calls the metropolitan state, i.e. the
Magadh region where the seat of the empire was located at Pataliputra. In the Core areas
such as the developed regions of Kashi, Koshala and Avanti, which had bureaucratic
systems of their own already in place, the Mauryan administration’s role may have been
limited to receiving revenues from the local administration. And in the Peripheral areas,
which lagged in social and political development but were rich in mineral deposits, pearls,
precious metals, ivory, wood, etc. such as the hilly and forested tracts of the peninsula,
Mauryan intervention in or influence on the economy was minimal and confined only to
accessing the natural resources. In the process however this contact with the imperial
forces may well have empowered local elites of these less developed regions, who later
went on to found kingdoms of their own.

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 Agrarian Expansion and Urban Growth, c. 600-200 BCE

6.1: Exercises

Essay questions

1) How would you account for the second urbanization?

2) What changes did economic expansion bring about in society between 600 and 200
BC?

3) Was the economy in the Mauryan period controlled by the state?

Objective questions

Question Number Type of question LOD

1 True or False 1

Question
a) Agriculture in India began in 600 BC.

b) The use of iron alone gave rise to cities.

c) The setthi-gahapati was the chief tax payer.

d) The Mauryan king owned all land.

e) There were six cities in 600 BC.

Correct Answer / a) False

Option(s) b) False
c) True
d) False
e) False

Justification/ Feedback for the correct answer

a) Agriculture in India began much earlier in the Neolithic Period; there are
references to familiarity with it in the Vedas too. It saw great expansion in the post-
Vedic period i.e. 600 BC onwards.

b) The use of iron in agriculture alone did not give rise to cities; trade and exchange
and the formation of states also played an important role. Iron sustained

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 Agrarian Expansion and Urban Growth, c. 600-200 BCE

urbanization, it did not alone cause it.

c) The setthi-gahapati was a large landowner, merchant and banker. So he was a

major source of revenue for the king.

d) The Mauryan king did not own all land. There were some state farms or crown
lands but there also existed a number of privately owned lands.

e) There were many cities (nagaras) in 600 BC. There were six mega cities
(mahanagaras).

Resource/Hints/Feedback for the wrong answer

Reviewer’s Comment:

Glossary

Adhyaksha: superintendents of the Mauryan economy

Ardhasitaka: share croppers who tilled the king’s lands
Dasa-kammakara: agricultural labour
Gahapati: big landowner
Sita: royal land
Setthi: banker
Shunyanivesha: the settling of new, uncultivated land

Further readings

Chakrabarti, D. K. 1995. The Archaeology of Ancient Indian Cities. Delhi: Oxford University
Press.

Allchin, F. R. ed. 1995. The Archaeology of Early historic South Asia: The Emergence of
Cities and States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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