DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

CHAPTER VII
THE FORMATION OF A
VILLAGE ECONOMY
7.1. The first empires.
7.2. Alexander and the Greek accounts of India.
7.3. The Asokan transformation of society. V
7.4. Authenticity of the Arthabastra.
7.5. The pre-Asokan state and administration.
7.6. The class structure.
7.7. Productive basis of ihe stale.
THE last three chapters drift away from the
definition of history given at the beginning of this work. The reader
may be lost in the text-critical morass presented by tenuous legendary
material uncollated with archaeology. The fact is clear that Magadha
emerged as the dominant Gangetic state, ruining alike petty vedic
kingdoms, Aryan tribes neither known to nor following the vedas, and
aborigines not yet Aryanized. What has to be brought out is the
mechanism involved, which meant a tremendous increase of population
on land newly cleared of forest. The virtually self-sufficient village
sprouted here for the first time as the basic unit of production, whicli
w r ould later spread over and characterize the whole of India. The first
major village settlement \vas promoted directly under state control,
which fought a deadly struggle with private enterprise, especially the
trader, The Indian merchant class therefore appears to remain silent
in history till the twentieth century. Yet the new economy likewise
cracked the foundations of a centralized state power. Such important
phenomena have to be set into a chronological frame-work.