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D. D. KOSAMBI.
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name in A1:3 ; spiritual and sensual considerations follow from the practical. Similarly, in A 8:1 he again contradicts his preceptors : the army has its roots in the treasury; without a treasury, the army goes over to another, or kills its own master ; sarvābhiyogakaraś ca kośo dharma-kāma-hetuh, the treasury is the first cause of religion and enjoyment. The writer has also grasped what few Indians after him realized : that real wealth depends upon command of production, particularly of raw materials, cereals, and heavy industry; the first is stated explicitly in A1.4. The last is made still clearer in A 212: ākara-prabhavaḥ kośaḥ, the treasury depends upon mining, the army on the treasury, and he who has both wins the rich earth. The mine is the womb of war materials : khaniḥ sangrāmopakaranānām yonih. No brahmin, however well-read, could merely dream all this up for himself, for the true brahmin mind runs smoothly in quite different grooves, as for example the ritual exorcisms of A 4.3 against national calamities.
The absolute control of metals would be easy for pre-Mauryan Magadha, which covered the natural outlets for India's richest deposits of iron, copper, and other metals in Bihar. By the mining industry, the author does not mean only precious metals and gems, but emphatically all sorts of tool-making metals and alloys, loha=kālāyasa, tāmra, vịtta, kāmsya, sīsa, trapu, vaikyntaka, äraküța (A 2. 17). In A 2.12, minute directions are given for the state director to mine and smelt these ores, and to regulate their trade. In A 2.21, the common metals and grain are among forbidden commodities, as are arms, military gear of all sorts, gems, and other royal monopolies. It then seems a contradiction to read in A 2.22 the toll rates upon grain and metals, but this is explained by the line jātibhūmisu ca panyānām avikrayah. No goods is to be sold by the private trader where it originates. In other words, the merchant had to add value to the commodity by transport to the ultimate market; incidentally paying tolls on the way. At the end, he would find not only his profit regulated, but also his wares sold by a state-organized sale such as Strabo reports from Megasthenes (M 87). This has been laughed off as ridiculous and impossible, but the Arthaśāstra does confirm it once again. Not only are sales of local goods state monopoly (A2.16) but A 4.2 directs the chief of the.city market to separate new from second-hand wares (of which the ownership must be proved before sale) and when there is a glut, to gather all the merchandise in one place for a regulated sale, during which time no other goods may be sold. Transport, particularly land transport, was difficult, and only here was private enterprise encouraged in any way.
: Could all this administrative routine have been the fantasy of some idle theorist? What of technical terms like akşapatala for exchequer ? Each state granary and storehouse must have a standard raingauge (A 2.5) for land is classified and its yield estimated according to rainfall (A 2. 24). This is the only instance I know of so practical a step being mentioned in any Indian
