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Kings, Farmers And Towns
What were the various aspects of material culture during the Satvahanas period?
Aspects of material culture during the Satvahanas period:
(a) The material culture of the Deccan under the Satvahanas was a fusion of local elements and modern ingredients.
(b) The megalith builders of the Deccan were fairly acquainted with the use of iron and agriculture.
(c) We find some hoes made of iron, the number of such tools increased substantially in the first two or three centuries of the Christian era.
(d) Only hoes were fully and properly socketed.
(e) Besides socketed hoes, sickles, spades, ploughshares, axes, adzes, razors, etc. belong to the Satvahana layers.
(f) At a site in Karimnagar district even a blacksmith's shop has been discovered.
(g) The Satvahanas may have exploited the iron ores of Karimnagar and Warangal for in these districts indications of iron workings as early as the megalithic phase have been found.
(h) Evidence of ancient gold workings has been found in the Kolar fields in the pre-Christian centuries and later. The Satvahanas may have used gold as bullion, for they did not issue gold coins as the Kushanas did.
(i) They issued mostly coins of lead, which is found in the Deccan.
(j) Though contacts with the north the people of the Deccan learnt the use of coins, burnt bricks, ring-wells, etc. These components of material life had become quite important in the Deccan a couple of centuries later.
(k) In Peddabankur (200 B.C.-A.D. 200) in Karimnagar district we find regular use of fire baked bricks, and use to flat, perforated roof tiles.
(l) All this must have contributed to the uniqueness of constructions. What is further remarkable is the fact that as many as 22 brick wells belonging to the second century A.D. have been discovered at that site.
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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.
What is meant by Janapada?
What were the Mahajanapadas? Name a few important Mahajanapadas.
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