Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

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

Page 329

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STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SŪTRA
[Ch. V
the explanation of the appearance of these natural phenomena, as, rain, thunder, etc. Nābhi told them that this change in Nature signified that from now on they were to earn their livelihood by the sweat of their brow, i. e. hard labour.
This human labour has produced food, made cloths and such shelters and brought into existence wealth and capital in the society. In a word they are the products of labour, the excess of which has taken the form of capital.
It has already been discussed in the second section of this chapter that certain sections of the people lived on by the occupation of different arts and crafts, such as, hunting, fowling, fishery, weaving, smithy, pottery, etc.
They supplied skilled labour for the production of particular economic requirements of the social consumption.
The evidences regarding the nature of various kinds of jobs of the family servants, female nurses, waiting maids as already mentioned, show that they formed the contingent of unproductive la bour.
Besides these, the fifteen disapproved occupations (karmā. dānas)' as referred to in the beginning of this chapter involved both physical and mental labour without which they could not be carried on for a day.
Capital
Capital, an important factor in the field of economics, is in a real sense the accumulated product of human labour in different forms, such as, land. cattle, house, wealth, money, precious metals, etc., which have been brought into a very useful state by men from the time immemorial.
It has already been discussed in connection with the origin of the state in the third chapter that with the change in Nature and growth in the population a social evolution began in regard to the earning of livelihood.
1 Bhs, 8, 5, 330.