Book Title: Cultural Study of Nisitha Curni
Author(s): Madhu Sen
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 234
________________ 214 A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI There were traders who went for trade only with the eatable commodities ( damtikka ) such as sweets, rice, wheat, oil, treacle, clarified butter and the different varieties of the food-grains. The other class of the merchants dealt with the costlier commodities like saffron, musk, asafoetida, tagara and other aromatic substances. 2 Our author, because of practical considerations, suggests the monks to prefer the caravan carrying the eatable articles. In case of unforeseen calamities the members of this class of caravan could at least manage to subsist upon the articles which were being carried for trade. Moreover, the caravans carrying the costlier commodities were more vulnerable to be robbed than those carrying cheaper commodities. * The merchants went far and wide with their goods of trade including cheap and costly comrnodities. A standardization of the coinage of different regions, i.e. that of the Dakşiņāpatha, Kāñcipuri, Diva, Surat ha and Uttarāpatha”, must have been made for the proper evalution of the tradearticles. The clothes of eastern India ( puvvadesa ) were sold at a high price in the Lāța country. Clothes must have been exported from Mahissara which was a famous centre of spinning.? The articles like long pepper ( pippali ), yellow orpiment ( haritala ), red arsenic ( manosila ), salt ( loņa) etc. are mentioned to have been brought from long distances such as a hundred yojanas or more.8 The contemporary Jaina texts frequently refer to the merchants of different regions of north and south meeting each other with their 1. NC. 4, p. 111; Brh. V1, 3, p. 864. 2. Ibid. 3. NC. 4, p. 111. 4. The Vanik Sāgaradatta who was a dealer in precious pearls and jewels (ratna-vanik) is mentioned to have acted like a mad person in order to safely cross the dense forests inhabited by the wild tribes.-NC. 3, p. 87. 5. NC. 2, p. 95; Bth. V g. 4, pp. 10, 64. 6. NC. 2, p. 94. 7. NC. 3, p. 569. 8. NC. 3, p. 516; Bih. Vr. 2, p. 306. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432