Abstract
The book under review is the fourth (numbered as 3A) in series of A Peoples’ History of India, sponsored by the Aligarh Historians Society for promoting secular and scientific history writing and resisting communal and chauvinistic interpretations, under the general editorship of the eminent historian Irfan Habib. The book, written by Professor Krishna Mohan Shrimali, the distinguished Professor of History at the University of Delhi, is divided into four chapters, such as ‘The Iron Age’; ‘Surplus and Economic Change’; ‘Settlement, Towns and the Social Order’; ‘Politics and Formation of States and the Religious Revolution’.
The book begins with the location of iron in northern India based both on literary and archaeological data and suggests its calibrated date to be 1,000 BC. According to the author, the beginning of the use of iron as around 800–700 BC has been considered to be more acceptable. The author’s extensive survey of northern India, the Deccan, north-eastern India, Gujarat and eastern India indicates that the crucial period of penetration of iron into the material culture of northern India took place about 800–500 BC. First, iron weapons appear to have come about, and by the end of the period iron was used to manufacture tools for mass production. In peninsular India, the beginning of iron is placed around 1,000 BC, but at Naibund carbon dates range between 800–400 BC. In this context, author draws attention towards the fact that megalithic people practised a mixed economy based on agropastoral production and use of iron implements in agricultural production.
Prof. Shrimali suggests that to perceive the real role of iron in the generation of surplus, changes occurring in the method of cultivation and craft production should be properly contextualised, which are decidedly more important than a mere listing of crops. Cropping patterns have their role in history, if it can be proved that certain crops give a higher yield for the same input. This may result in a faster rate of development, thus affecting both the demographic structure and the production of surplus food. In this context, would there be a yield difference between wheat and rice or between different varieties of the same crop? He brilliantly refuted the hypothesis that quantitative data about the relative position of tools in the neolithic–chalcolithic phases, on the one hand, and those of Iron— NBPW (North Black Polished Ware) phase, on the other, at several sites in the Gangetic plains are enough to show that the notion of ‘intensive use of the existing tool’ in agriculture in the pre-Iron-NBPW phase is quite imaginary (p. 19). No doubt iron immensely increased the efficiency of tools. In this context, settlement hierarchy needs to be worked out. The Doab area of Allahabad district between 1,000 and 600 BC appear to have been confined to a two-tier settlement hierarchy and refers to a simple political structure. The real distinction between settlements appears with the construction of forts in the mid-Ganga plain around 500 BC. It was a consequence of the use of iron in mass production. The studies of Makhan Lal and G. Erdosy yield interesting data about the increase in the areas under habitation during the period c. 600–350 BC. The increase in area under habitation is linked to demographic revolution leading to considerable expansion of agriculture and crafts compared to the preceding later Vedic phase. In fact, iron immensely increased the efficiency of tools that led to surplus production. Substantial increase in production and settlement cannot be ruled out. Undoubtedly, the view that Chalcolithic tools alone could produce such a large surplus in the middle-Gangetic plains is grossly hypothetical. Long-term transformative potentialities inherent in the introduction of iron technology, thus, cannot be rejected but it should be contextualised in the broader perspective.
While locating rural settlements on the basis of textual evidence, the urban settlements have been located on the basis of both literary and archaeological data. Both literary and archaeological data refer to the urban orientation of Buddhism, while Brahmanical Dharmasutras display contrary attitudes towards the urban factor. The peasantry is a class of primary producers within a society characterised by the existence of social classes and state formation. The author’s elaboration of gahapati as a class needs detailed treatment; the present book is silent on this aspect. The early Pali texts suggest the internal differentiation within the rank of gahapatis and these are not congruent with the Brahmanical caste theory. Similar to the gahapatis, the setthis are internally stratified such as setthis, setthanu-setthi and jana-pada-setthis. Vanijas refer to merchants not as village businessmen as interpreted by the author. It would be truly reasonable to carve a space for vanijas between the jana-pada-setthi and setthanu-setthi.
The emergence of an agricultural economy as the generative base for the sec-ond urbanisation was also marked by formation of caste, class and the state. The state was clearly a manifestation of both class and patriarchy. There was also a close connection between caste, class and the state which together functioned as the structural framework of institutions within which gender relations were organised. In fact, the early texts are full of references for monitoring upper castes’ women sexuality with a view to maintain their purity. The various forms of marriage are suggestive of the subordination of women, whereby women are subjected to sex regulations by legal measures enunciated by the state in addition to customary societal laws. References to widow burning among the Scythians in Central Asia as early as the fifth-century BC as pointed out by Herodotus is an indirect analogy. Further it is also a curious fact that in India sati developed as a regular practice, especially in Rajput families. The practice of sati was not only the eventual product of class-divided property-based patriarchal society in militant communities but also the result of a deeply entrenched idea that the suicide ritual would confer great religious merit on widow. The author is absolutely right that ‘sati must have prevailed in society which did not enter the prescriptions of the Dharmasutra or narrative of the early Pali canon’.
No doubt the Vrātyas offer an example of acculturation but to draw a conclusion that the mixing of Vedic Painted Grey Ware (PGW) people and Pre-NBPW non-Vedic streams was possibly part of this process, and the interplay might well have been connected with the rise of languages such as Prakrit and Pali (p. 64), is extremely tricky. Equally important is the question of whether change in singular technology results in a new cultural pattern. This is particularly relevant in the study of ceramic industries, where there is a tendency to assume that a change of colour or of form indicates a new people. For example, does the change from PGW to NBPW reflect a new people or is it an evolution within the same ceramic technology? PGW occurs in larger quantities in wheat using areas and NBPW in rice-using areas. Was this fundamental dietary difference reflected in the pottery types? The criterion of design in indicating diffusion or change is extremely tricky and it has to be examined on the basis of a combination of factors. The statistical analysis of the Thera and Theri-gathas indicates that 91 per cent of them (theras and theris) were from the upper three varnas and only 9 per cent came from a Sudra background. It is a clear manifestation of class-orientation of Buddhism what Buddha rejected in theory but followed in practice. The early sangha was, in fact, the representation of a coalition of three upper castes. Thus, the author has brilliantly exposed the class basis of Buddhism.
Early Indian theories of the origin of state are in close conformity of the modern political theory which includes as constituents of the state such insti-tutions as sovereignty, government, territory and population. The concept of sovereignty no longer holds ground either as an empirically valid category or even as a useful tool of analysis. In fact, a full-fledged state maintains a taxation system, a professional army and a cadre of officers. In this context, it is important to note that the state is the result of the accumulation of ‘surplus’. This ‘surplus’ created the ground for the development of specialised skills, division of labour and brought about the complex social and economic organisation demanding political integration of a number of autonomous communities into a state. The use of iron and paddy transplantation provided the surplus production. The profuse surplus paved the way for the taxation system which sustained city, territory, a cadre of bureaucracy and treasury, with the king at the top. The maintenance of such a large bureaucracy and army was possible only because of well-organised taxation system on the one hand and the collection of the same through a coercive state machinery. This two-way process helped state formation in early India. But the tribal form of government lacked this mode of production, although there was an indication of the revenue system and social differentiation which indicates the stage leading to the formation of the state.
The religious revolution that is interconnected with the new socio-economic milieu had an urban orientation made possible with the growth of agricultural surplus in the Gangetic plains. The material roots of ahimsa were embedded in the emerging peasant formation because it was an anti-thesis of large-scale killing of cattle in the sacrificial rituals. The above interpretative analogy is surprisingly overlooked perhaps inadvertently, in an otherwise skillful and analytical narration of the relevant facts and concepts by the author. Simultaneously the ecological context indicates that the society was moving into a phase analogous to the K-strategists of ecology, whereby people would have required a new belief system and stressing more careful and sustainable pattern of resources. Such a belief system appealed to the agricultural component of the population but was opposed by the Brahmans, the votaries of the yajna system. The Buddhists responded to this and protested against the hegemony of Brahmans, the wasteful burning of endless qualities of clarified butter and wood, the slaughter of cattle. Thus ideology led to establishing a new trajectory of triadic relationship between the state, the sangha and the gahapatis and setthis.
Let alone few minor inadvertent lapses as stated earlier, the book is an excel-lent scholarly presentation of intricate complexities of the problems and issues of the subject matter. Prudently wading through the quicksand of a vast universe of facts and figures, the jargon of terms, concepts and theories, the author has succeeded in making his way home in the heart and mind of the critics and ensuring a prospective place for his book on the shelf of all concerned seriously with academic pursuits in the study of history and ancillary disciplines at various levels.