ECONOMY

ECONOMY

Though they had not developed a city civilisation, and did not build in stone or brick, the Aryans were technically well-equipped. Their bronzesmiths were highly skilled, and produced tools and weapons much superior to those of the Harappan culture. Bronzesmiths, carpenters and chariot­makers are frequently mentioned in the Rigveda with much respect. At the time of the composition of the Rigveda, the process of smelting iron was hardly known outside Anatolia, where the Hittite kings tried to keep it a secret. Only at the very end of the second millenium BC, did the use of iron begin to spread widely over the civilised world, and it is very unlikely that it reached India before this time.

As might be expected of a people without cities, the Aryans followed a mixed economy-pastoral and agricul­tural-in which cattle played a predominant part. Indeed, most of their battles were fought in search of cows-gavisthi. Cattle were in fact a sort of currency, and values were reckoned in heads of cattle, but they were not held sacred at this time. Both oxen and cows were slaughtered for food. The horse was almost as important as the cow. Though there are references to riding, the horse is more frequently described as the motive power of the chariot-a light chariot with two spoked wheels, drawn by two horses yoked abreast, and carrying two warriors.

Among other domestic animals the Aryans knew the goat and the sheep, which provided wool, their chief textile. The elephant is only mentioned in late hymns, and was rarely, if ever, domesticated. A divine bitch, Sarama, plays an important part in a legend, but the dog did not mean as much to the people of the Rigveda as it did to a kindred Aryan pastoral people, the ancient Iranians, who made it a sacred animal.

Agriculture, though important, seems to have been looked on as rather plebeian. Only one word is used for corn-yava, which later meant barley but at this period may have implied all species of cultivated gram. There are references to ploughing, reaping and irrigation, and to different seasons.

In Mesopotamia the silver shekel, though unstamped, served as a means of exchange, but the Aryans relied for their unit of value and means of barter on the cow. The nishka, a term later used for a gold coin, is also mentioned as a sort of currency, but at this time it was probably a gold ornament of some kind. There is no mention of a regular class of merchants or moneylenders, though indebtedness is sometimes referred to.