DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

6.1J DEBT AND USURY 147
down to Kauaambi (= Kosambi, Kosam on the Jumna). This seems
a logical choice, in view of the excellent situation of the latter place for
trade. So rare a supplement to the meaningless list of names may be
confirmed by digging, for excavations at old Hastinapur seem (according
to journalistic preliminary reports) to show evidence for such a flood.
There has been no confirmatory report from the Allahabad University
excavations at Kosambf, though presumably any grey ware found
would be evidence of a common culture (c/. AI. 10-11.4,150-51). In
that case, the grey ware should not simply be labelled ‘ Aryan’, but
associated with some particular tribe, say the Purus; Aryan
differentiation had gone far enough to justify this. Finally, the Jatakas,
a collection of 547 double stories, fables, and legends show us how the
common people lived. Each narrative is supposedly related by the Buddha
to explain a current happening in terms of an older event, whose characters
were reborn to act out the ‘ present’ story. These tales are available
in a good edition (Fausboll), a satisfactory translation (Jat.) t and a
valuable analysis (Fick). Nevertheless, though the tradition may be
old, the Jatakas cannot be utilized directly for a picture of social
relations at the time of the Buddha. The reason is that the Jatakas
were written down much later, in a traders’ environment — perhaps
during the Satavahana period. They have, in addition, been influenced
by the lost Ceylonese versions of Buddhist stories from which the present
text was. again reduced to Pali. The Buddhist canon was mostly formed
about the time of Asoka, a part even later. Only the fact that society and
its means of production changed slowly, that there was no special reason
to invent the particular details cited, allows parts of the canon to be used
as evidence for conditions at the time of the Buddha’s death.
The change in society is manifested by a new set of institutions :
mortgage, interest, usury. Debt was known from vedic times. The
word rna for debt originally meant ‘ sin’, or transgression. The
indebted gambler of RV. 10.34.10 ‘ goes fearfully in search of wealth
(dhanam) at night into the house of another’, whether to borrow secretly,
or to steal. AV. 6.117-9 gives hymns to be recited when the debt to one