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95
LECTURE VIII
types of occupational activities that sprang up into being in connection with the court-life.
Thus there were stuffs, pikes and bows and so forth There were persons with the lyres and caskets There were wand-beareis, shavellings, jesters, jokers, and buffons In other words the light as well as the grave aspect of life were thoroughly represented in this important city in the days of yore 38 It goes without saying that the prosperity of the citizens with its various activities was possible only because of their commercial prosperity which again was gi catly influenced by the favourable position of the city on the site of the sca (e) Polasāpura
Polasāpura, an inland city illustrates significantly though not exactly; the influence of geogiaphical factors on the matcrial prosperity of the citizens The city owed its greatness principally lo commercial factors Commerce was very brisk there and it was followed by piosperity There were various types of industries actively cariied out by the people of the city Pottery was one of the indusliies which sloui ishcil vigorously in the suburb of the city It ieceived a scientific treatment and was noted for specialization The piinciple of the divison of labour was in evidence Some of the workers were cngaged in bowels, others in pots and so forth There were manufacturers as well as salesmen as in modern towns with this difference that the capitalislı. manufacturers took advantage of their superior position by exploiling the workers 80 Thus our brief review of the topography of the above mentioned cities gives us an idea of the occupational activities of the citizens as quite different from those living in the hilly regions where hunting, selling wild fruits and roots are the prevailing types of occupt tions.
At the initial stages of the Indian civilization, vocational and educational selections were greatly determined by the institution of caste with its spirit of narrowness, rigidity and seclusion Then came the tremendous assaults on caste by Jainism and Buddhism with the result
that the rigour' of caste came to be modified The change had its ' effects in the field of education “Child-Life" came in consequence, to
38
The Antagadadasão And Anuttalovavāıya-dasão, pp. 21, 49, g 1,
89. Uvasagadasão,
