Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 295

270
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
Agriculture
From the above list of trades and professions it appears that the agriculture (phodikamme) was the mainstay of a large section of the people for earning their livelihood.
[Ch. V
The centre of this agro-economy was in village consisting of ten thousand families (dasakulasāhassieṇaṁ gāmenam), cattle, cultivable land, pasture (goyara)3 tank, garden, forest, etc.
Beyond the arable land of the village lay the grazing field common for its cattle and those belonging to the state in some
4
cases.
Besides the pasture, the village had its own groves (ārāma) and gardens (ujjana) and ended in the unfrequented and uncleared jungles and forests (aḍavie)."
Thus it is clear that a village had both cultivated and uncultivated lands (goyara) for producing crops and grazing cattle respectively and also some waste lands and forests.
The text thus gives an idea of the face of the country as existing at that period.
Measurement and Survey of Land
In connection with the fiscal administration in the sixth section of the third chapter on 'Political conditions' it has already been discussed that the land was measured, surveyed, and recorded by a class of settlement officers as suggested by the words "(a) mijjam" and "(a) dijjam" occurring in the BhS.'
So this reference to the measuring and transfer of land in this canonical work throws an important light upon the system of land tenure as existing during its period.
1 Bhs, 8, 5, 330..
a Ib, 11, 11, 430. The population of ten thousand families in a village seems to be inconceivable and an exaggeration when it is compared with that of the modern village. It may be a popular figure used by the author of the BhS.
3 Ib, 12, 7, 457.
6 Ib, 14, 7, 525.
4 Ib, 11. 11, 430. 7 Ib, 12, 7, 457.
5 Ib, 18, 10, 647.
s Ib, 11, 11, 429.