Indian Antiquary Vol 47

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 251

SEPTEMBER, 1918 )
VARTTA-THE ANCIENT HINDU ECONOMICS
235
work entitled Nabuiwan Agriculture of Ibn Wahshiyah (the Nabataans being an Arab people on the east and south-east of Palestine) preserves according to one body of opinion, a reflection of those methods. In the opinion of E. Renan, “It is possible that the method which is taught in them goes actually back, as far as the processes are concerned, to the most ancient periods of Assyria ; just as the Agrimensores latine, so recent in regard to the editing of them, have preserved for us customs and ceremonies which can be explained only by the Brahmaņas' of India and which are consequently associated with the earliest ages of the Aryan race." 8 Agricultural treatises on olay were deposited in one or other of the sacred libraries in which the priests of each city used to collect documents of all kinds. 9
China. Dr. Chen Huan-Chang's “Economic Principles of Confucius and his School” makes it clear that in the writings of Confucius (552-479 B.c.) and his disciples were imbedded remarks bearing on the administration of wealth, its relation to the varions social sciences, the principles that should underlie the production, distribution and consumption of wealth, and public finance. It should not be thought that there was a separate systematic exposition of all the principles. They are, on the contrary, found scattered throughout their sacred writings and require to be scraped together to show that Confucianism is a great economic in addition to being a great moral and religious system, containing many an early "anticipation of the accepted economic teachings of today."
India: Vârtid emerges as a branch of learning in the opic period. In India, the subject treating of wealth emerged very early as a special branch of learning under the name Vârtta. It is implied in the use of the expression tisrah-vidyah in the Ramayana 10 which points to the inference that Varttà crystallized as a branch of learning most probably in the epic period. A few Puranasll record that the group of occupations signified by the word came first into existence in the tretá age, and we find its appearance as a branch of learning in the Ramayaņa, the great epio of that age.
The relation of Varud to Arthasdstra in the Kaufiliya. In the Kautiliya, Vartta is mentioned as dealing with wealth and loss of wealth' (arthanarthau) 12 while the scope of the arthaídstrae is laid down thus: "artha (wealth or
goods') is the object of man's desire: the inhabited land (or country) is artha; that science which treats of the means of acquiring, preserving, and developing the said land or country is Arthasastra (science of man's material concerns)."'13 Arthasdatna deals with wealth, but as good government is the sine qua non of peaceful acquisition of wealth, it treats of polity also. Arthasastra thus .concerns itself with the economic development of the country but
& Memoir upon the age of the work entitled “Nabatan Agriculture" (in French), p. 38, as quoted in G. Maspero's Dawn of Civilization, p. 770, fn, 5.
For the information in the paragraph, see G. Mewporo, op. cit., p. 770.
10 Ramayana, Ayodhya-kanila, ch. 100, alk. 68, mentions three divisions of loarning of which one is varttà.
u Vdyu-Purana, ch. 8, slk. 134; Matsya-Purâna, oh. 140, slks. 1-3; Brahmanda-Purdna, ch. I, élk. 107; ch, 8, elk. 195; ch. 63, alk. 4 (same as Mataya-Purana, loc. cit.)
12 Kaufitya, Bk. I, vidyasamuddesas, p. 7–“ Dharmadharmau trayy&m. Arthanarthau vårttayam. Nayana yau dandanityam." Cf. Agni-Purdna, ch. 238, alk. 9 ; Kamundakdya, ch. 2, Ok. 7.
13 Ibid., Bk. XV, tantrayudaya, p. 424.