☰
✕

Kings, Farmers And Towns
Question
Wired Faculty App

The importance of boundaries.

The Manusmriti is one of the best-known legal texts of early India, in Sanskrit and complied between c. second century BCE and c. second century CE. This is what the text advises the king to do:

Seeing that in the world controversies constantly arise due to the ignorance of boundaries, he should.. .have concealed boundary markers buried-stones, bones, cow's hair, chaff, ashes, potsherds, dried cow dung, bricks, coal, pebbles and sand. He should also have other similar substances that would not decay in the soil buried as hidden markers at the intersection of boundaries.

A. Why did the controversies of boundaries arise? Explain.

B. Suggest the ways to solve the boundary problems.

C. Explain with example any such problem being faced by India today.

Answer

A. The controversies of boundaries arise constantly due to the ignorance of boundaries.

B. The ways to solve the boundary problems are advised by well known ancient Indian philosopher/thinker Manu Maharaj. According to him, the king should have concealed boundary marks buried within the area of his state territory. He advised to bury stones, bones, cow's hair, chaff, ashes, potsherds, dried cow dung, bricks, coal, pebbles and sand.

The ruler should also have other similar substances that would not decay in the soil buried as hidden markers at the intersection of boundaries.

C. The controversies of boundaries are still being faced by India today. We find two most prominent example in the regard.

(a) There is a boundary dispute between India and Pakistan. In north front of India a large part of India’s Jammu and Kashmir state had been occupied illegally by Pakistan and even some part of this border state he (Pakistan) has handed over to China.

(b) Secondly the problem of boundaries is being faced due to China's expansionism policy. China attacked India in 1962 and captured a lot of Indian territory in NEFA (North East Frontier Area). Even China sometimes start its claim over Arunachal Pradesh which is a state of Indian Union.

Sponsor Area

Some More Questions From Kings, Farmers And Towns Chapter

How do historians reconstruct the lives of ordinary people?

Compare and contrast the list of things given to the Pandyan chief (Source 3) with those produced in the village of Danguna (Source 8). Do you notice any similarities or differences?

List some of the problems faced by epigraphists.

Discuss the main features of Mauryan administration. Which of these elements are evident in the Asokan inscriptions that you have studied?

This is a statement made by one of the best-known epigraphists of the twentieth century, D.C. Sircar: “There is no aspect of life, culture and activities of the Indians that is not reflected in inscriptions”. Discuss.

Discuss the notions of kingship that developed in the post-Mauryan period.

To what extent were agricultural practices transformed in the period under consideration?

Compare Maps 1 and 2, and list the Mahajanapadas that may have been included in the Mauryan Empire. Are any Asokan inscriptions found in these areas?

Collect newspapers for one month. Cut and paste all the statements made by government officials about public works. Note what the reports say about the resources required for such projects, how the resources are mobilised and the objective of the project. Who issues these statements, and how and why are they communicated? Compare and contrast these with the evidence from inscriptions discussed in this chapter. What are the similarities and differences that you notice.

Collect five different kinds of currency notes and coins in circulation today. For each one of these, describe what you see on the observe and the reverse (the front and the back). Prepare a report on the common features as well as the differences in terms of pictures, scripts and languages, size, shape and any other element that you find significant. Compare these with the coins shown in this chapter, discussing the materials used, the techniques of minting, the visual symbols and their significance and the possible functions that coins may have had.