DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6523#0033
being exceedingly warm; and I mean by this to
suggest to you the idea that many of these rules were
very local, and were made to meet the difficulties of
the time; for when you find that the selling of
blankets in the South is forbidden while in the North
it is allowed, it suggests a certain discrimination in
the mai'king out of trades.1 In the list of the things
the northern Briihmanas might do, I find, is "going
in company to sea " ; and looking a little more into
that, you see it was the custom for a number of ships
to go together, probably in order that they might
help each other in the dangers of the sea. Over and
over again you come across a passage of a company
of merchants on a sea-voyage going abroad and
taking their goods with them. So that if you want to
argue it from the standpoint of the Shastras—some of
you may and some of you may not—there are plenty
of authorities available to show you that, in the early
days, sea-voyages, especially among the Vaishyas,
were common, and that there were no restrictions put
and no Priiyaschittam performed.
Looking at the question now from the standpoint
of the historical past of India as well as from that of
religious books, what do you find ? Tou find right
through the Mahabharata and the Ramayana that
there were plenty of goods exchanged between India
1 " The selling of blankets, etc., may be practised by the Brah-
manas of northern India only." M; M. Dr. Gariganath Jha, p. 39,
loc. cit.
suggest to you the idea that many of these rules were
very local, and were made to meet the difficulties of
the time; for when you find that the selling of
blankets in the South is forbidden while in the North
it is allowed, it suggests a certain discrimination in
the mai'king out of trades.1 In the list of the things
the northern Briihmanas might do, I find, is "going
in company to sea " ; and looking a little more into
that, you see it was the custom for a number of ships
to go together, probably in order that they might
help each other in the dangers of the sea. Over and
over again you come across a passage of a company
of merchants on a sea-voyage going abroad and
taking their goods with them. So that if you want to
argue it from the standpoint of the Shastras—some of
you may and some of you may not—there are plenty
of authorities available to show you that, in the early
days, sea-voyages, especially among the Vaishyas,
were common, and that there were no restrictions put
and no Priiyaschittam performed.
Looking at the question now from the standpoint
of the historical past of India as well as from that of
religious books, what do you find ? Tou find right
through the Mahabharata and the Ramayana that
there were plenty of goods exchanged between India
1 " The selling of blankets, etc., may be practised by the Brah-
manas of northern India only." M; M. Dr. Gariganath Jha, p. 39,
loc. cit.