6 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Given the materials, man can hardly be expected to remain inactive for the economic motive is the strongest and the most dynamic of all. He tries at once to exploit the environment for his well-being and the early inhabitants of India were no exception to the rule. It would be a mistake if we take a modern average Indian as a prototype of his stalwart ancestor. He may resemble him perhaps in features but that’s all. The semblance ends there. The India of antiquity within the span of time in which he held the undisputed possession of the country accomplished much more than could be expected of primitive. We have scanty records of his deeds but what little we have and as will be seen from the following narrative, speaks volumes.
Of the multifarious achievements of the ancient Indians, important as they are, we are not concerned. We have to centre our attention on their economic activity alone.
At the outset it would be better to take note of the lampposts or the sources that will help us in our survey. On the nature side there is a lamentable paucity. The Hindoos are loquacious on everything except the economic activity of their life and the reason is not far to see. Education was monopolized by a class of people who were more or less “drones in the hive, gorging at a feast to which they [had] contributed nothing”. The Brahamin or the intellectual caste of India enjoyed “the conspicuous leisure” and “the conspicuous consumption” vicariously ; consequently the economic activity of the ancient Hindoos found no exponents and no mention in the literature which is purely sacerdotal. This also explains why India did not produce any literature on the Science of Economic as such. Hence we are compelled to depend entirely on foreign authorities and their scanty reference to India’s commerce.
Before we launch on the subject of commerce we shall do better to take hasty survey of the Economic development of Ancient India. There is no authority on the subject that can take us back to the pre-Buddha times. The Buddha Jatakas—the birth-stories of Buddha—are the earliest source on the subject and contain literary references to the economic organisation of the Indian society which may be supposed to have existed from times very remote from the dates of these Jatakas . . . . . . . . .