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ANCIENT KOSALA AND MAGADHA
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ancient workings of copper mines (p. 54-5), though the date is uncertain; the working technique was most efficient. At the time under discussion, the great demand and logical outlet for metals would be towards the fertile but heavily forested plain of the Ganges, with its great and increasing population. Of course, India's greatest deposits of iron as well as of copper occur in Singhbhum and Dhalbhum. The location of Rajgir is due also to its straddling this trade-route for metals, north-west to the U.P. The distance from the richest sources of ore is less than two hundred miles; Gaya is nearer, but would be more difficult to settle without cheap metal tools, whereas the hills about Rajgir make for less dense forest. The later port for this region was Tamluk, and place names beginning with tama mark ancient though later forgotten sites of copper deposits. The absence of pumps seems. to have stopped mining at water level, and may have been one of the causes of later Magadhan decline.
With heavier trade which would follow the rapidly increasing population near the river, the Ganges becomes the easiest major route for mass transport, as compared to the old, slow, expensive, and unsafe, land routes. Thus Kosalan expansion towards Käsi is the natural search for a port, an outlet. Rajagṛha was similarly attracted towards Patna, which inevitably became the major trade center, the greatest port, and so the capital. The last step, of shifting the capital, was taken by king Udayi (DKA 22), son according to Buddhist (DN 2) and grandson by puranic sources of king Ajatašatru. But we are very fortunately placed in being able to discover the first steps also. These were taken during Ajätasatru's reign by the ubiquitous mahämätya Vassakāra, in building a fortress at Patna. The place was already a depot where parcels of merchandise were opened for barter (putabhedanam). But the Licchavis and Ajàtasatru both levied toll upon the traders, who were ruined thereby; the Licchavi tolls seem to have been more irregular, and less justified, or at least with less protection attached thereto. So in the last year of the Buddha's life, we hear (DN 16 and atthakathas) that the stockade built by the traders was being magnified, and the city properly founded as a base of operations against the Licchavis. The most profitable trade then was that down the Himalayan watershed, and consisted to a great extent of perfumes and cosmetics, which are of the utmost importance in a hot climate where bathing is a necessity, refrigerants a discovery for the future. Of course, it is clear that a strongly fortified city at Patna would reduce the importance of Benares as a great port, and would at the same time enable a blockade of the great river to be set up. That is undoubtedly the reason why AjataSatru refused to give up his foothold in the Käsi territory, though as usual only personal motives are alleged for such economically necessary actions.
Trade is primarily by caravans sent by the leading merchant of one center to that of another distant center, and the caravans bring back local
