DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53502#0043
Introduction
35
300 B. C. and in the A^oka inscriptions. Metallurgy
and mining industries were highly developed, the
working of metals was a state monopoly and lay in the
hands of officials such as the superintendents of metal,
of gold, of mint, of salt, of ocean-mines, the state-gold-
smith, experts in mineralogy and mining labourers.
Technical skill and chemical processes were combined
in the production of metallic utensils and coins, orna-
ments and jewellery. Against this, Megasthenes only
refers to five kinds of metal produced in India and
Strabo describes the Indians as inexperienced in the
arts of mining and smelting. The A. mentions books,
letters and passports, registration and correspondence,
clerks and accountants, and devotes an entire chapter
to the rules for the production of royal writs (II, 10).
Megasthenes declares the Indians to be unacquainted
with writing. Revenue in the A, includes a land and
water tex, various tolls, fares, taxes on the produce of
mines, premia on coins, imposts on gambling, liquor
dues, carriagecess, road-cess, fines etc. Megasthenes,
on the other hand, only mentions a land tax, a tax on
river gold, and taxes on herdsmen and artisans and on
articles sold. These and other points of comparison
have been collected by Dr. O. Stein in his valuable
work on Kautilya and Megasthenes1 in which he con-
siders the items of difference to overweigh by far the
coincidences both in number and importance.
Some scholars have attributed considerable im-
portance to certain minor coincidences between Me-
gasthenes and the A., but these analogies do not go
far and are more apparent than real. Thus the dis-
trict officers, according to Megasthenes, had to con-
1 Stein, Megasthenes and Kautilya, Wisn 1922.
35
300 B. C. and in the A^oka inscriptions. Metallurgy
and mining industries were highly developed, the
working of metals was a state monopoly and lay in the
hands of officials such as the superintendents of metal,
of gold, of mint, of salt, of ocean-mines, the state-gold-
smith, experts in mineralogy and mining labourers.
Technical skill and chemical processes were combined
in the production of metallic utensils and coins, orna-
ments and jewellery. Against this, Megasthenes only
refers to five kinds of metal produced in India and
Strabo describes the Indians as inexperienced in the
arts of mining and smelting. The A. mentions books,
letters and passports, registration and correspondence,
clerks and accountants, and devotes an entire chapter
to the rules for the production of royal writs (II, 10).
Megasthenes declares the Indians to be unacquainted
with writing. Revenue in the A, includes a land and
water tex, various tolls, fares, taxes on the produce of
mines, premia on coins, imposts on gambling, liquor
dues, carriagecess, road-cess, fines etc. Megasthenes,
on the other hand, only mentions a land tax, a tax on
river gold, and taxes on herdsmen and artisans and on
articles sold. These and other points of comparison
have been collected by Dr. O. Stein in his valuable
work on Kautilya and Megasthenes1 in which he con-
siders the items of difference to overweigh by far the
coincidences both in number and importance.
Some scholars have attributed considerable im-
portance to certain minor coincidences between Me-
gasthenes and the A., but these analogies do not go
far and are more apparent than real. Thus the dis-
trict officers, according to Megasthenes, had to con-
1 Stein, Megasthenes and Kautilya, Wisn 1922.