Economics of Kautiliya Shukra and Brihaspati.pmd

cropping and harvesting. In modern times the close relationship of
environment, natural resource and its uses in rural areas has been
analyzed by Nobel prize winner Economist Elinor Ostrom.
The Superintendent of Agricutltire was also responsible to
provide food and salary for workers engaged to farming, dairying,
wood work etc. Fruits and grains fallen automatically could be picked
up by saints and needy without charges. The storage of grain after
harvesting was to be done in a manner that it could not be blown away
by wind and damaged by fire.
Land records were kept by the relevant officer appointed by
the state. Farm lands were classified into fertile and barren, useful for
plantation paddy cultivation fruit orchards and sugarcane growing.In
brief, rotation of crops, intensive and extensive farming use of fertilizers,
crop diseases and their eradication, irrigation by rivers and tanks, laws
of water distribution, seed selection, evils of fragmentation of land
holdings etc. has been discussed by Kautilya in scientefic way.
The agriculture development has been taken as the
responsibility of state. Necessary facilities were provided to the farmers
in the forms of seeds, irrigation, bullocks and other agriculture inputs.
For the remedies of bad season (draught and flood), Kautilya suggested
the natural methods weather forecasting.
The state and the community were responsible for the
development of agriculture for which waste agriculture lands were to
be cultivated, and jungle lands were to be cleared. The lands which
were neglected by absentee landlords were to be taken away and given
to those who could cultivate them with greater advantages. When land
values were assessed, fertility was a major factor to be taken into
account. Fair prices of agricultural products were fixed by the state to
save cultivators from the clutches of traders.
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Animal Farming
The second pillar of the national econmy in ancient times was
animal farming. The state was the owner of large herds of cattle and
other animals, with The Superintendent of Cattle in charge. It needs
hardly be added that cattle are owned privately. In other words, animal
farming was state level production as well as private production.This
becomes clear from the reference to cattle entering royal herds in
times of danger, when a fee of one tenth of their produce was charged
for the protection given. (Kautiliya Arthashastra-3, 2003:175) That
is also shown by the punishment prescribed for owners of cattle as
distinguished from herdsmen, when damage is caused to crops by
cattle.
Although animal farming is done for milk, for riding, for
carrying luggage, for chariots, for meat, for leathers, feathers and
other products but mainly it was cattle farming. Cattle were of
importance of two reasons. The males were necessary for draught
purposes in agriculture and transport whereas the females supplied
milk, which with its products was a valuable source of food. The
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hides too were useful for the manufacture of leather goods. The text
refers meat, fresh and dried, as an item of food. Amrkosh and Shukraniti
provides various items of milk. But it nowhere creates the impression
that animal herds were to be reared for their meat. The production of
meat is presented in brief in the contexts of hotels and lodge.
Two ways in which herds may be got tended are mentioned.
According to what is called the vetnopagrahika system, a herd of one
hundred milch-cows is given for tending to a group of cowherds and
their assistants each of whom is paid a wage in cash, the entire produce
of the herd is to be handed over to the state. According to the
karpratikara system a herd of 100 cows of all ages but containing
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