Agrarian change, towns and trade

The essentials

Growing demand for taxes led rulers and cultivators to increase production. The use of the iron ploughshare spread in the Ganga and Kaveri valleys, and transplantation of paddy increased yields. Irrigation through wells, tanks and, less often, canals was also used. These changes did not benefit everyone equally: Buddhist texts describe landless agricultural labourers, small peasants and large landholders. Large landholders and village headmen (often the gahapati in Pali texts, or grama-bhojaka) were powerful.

From the early centuries CE, kings made land grants, recorded in inscriptions, often to religious institutions or Brahmanas. A grant by Prabhavati Gupta, daughter of Chandragupta II, is a notable example of a woman granting land. Land grants may reflect attempts to extend agriculture to new areas, or show that kings were losing control and trying to win allies.

Key points

• Many cities were capitals of mahajanapadas and centres of trade, such as Pataliputra, Ujjayini and Puhar.
• Urban populations included craftsmen, traders and officials; shrenis (guilds) organised crafts and trade.
• Trade routes extended overland into Central Asia and by sea to East Africa, West Asia and Southeast Asia, with goods like spices, textiles and medicinal plants.
• Punch-marked coins of silver and copper were the earliest coins (from about the sixth century BCE).
• The first gold coins were issued around the first century CE by the Kushanas; Roman coins have been found in south India.
• Limits of inscriptions: letters may be faintly engraved or damaged; meanings of words can be uncertain; ordinary people's lives, daily routines and things not of interest to rulers are often not recorded.

Exam tips

• Revise the two views on land grants.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the Guptas issued India's first gold coins; the Kushanas did.