Itihaas: Southwest Asia & Orbit History eJournal最新文献

{"title":"Governance and Economy in the Ramayana","authors":"S. Rashid","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3914261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3914261","url":null,"abstract":"There are good indicators of the nature of the economy underlying the famous Hindu epic love story of Rama and Sita, the Ramayana. This paper attempts to extract the main features of this economy and present them succinctly.","PeriodicalId":261110,"journal":{"name":"Itihaas: Southwest Asia & Orbit History eJournal","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134522006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Metal-smithy, Bead-making, Jeweler’s weight, Trade-permit, Tax-stamp: Indus Script’s Semasiography Partly Decoded","authors":"Bahata Ansumali Mukhopadhyay","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3778943","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3778943","url":null,"abstract":"This paper claims to have partly decoded the Indus script. It not only explains how the brief formulaic inscriptions found on seals and tablets helped in taxation and trade control, by recording taxed commodity-types, licensed commercial activities, tax-rates, mode of tax-payment, license-issuing entities etc., but also decisively identifies several semasiograms signifying metal-smithy, lapidary-works, related metrology and taxation. It shows how the sign resembling a “blowpipe inside a crucible”, repeatedly occurs in inscribed seals/tablets discovered from workshops of metal-workers, goldsmiths and bead-makers, and directly occurs on certain inscribed gold and copper implements. Crucibles and blowpipes being ancient smelting tools, their ideograms ( , , ) denoted gold-smithy in Egyptian hieroglyphs too. Moreover, certain Indo-Aryan and Dravidian words for metal-smith directly translates to “blowpipe-blower”. Thus archaeological, script-internal and linguistic evidence confirm that sign signified precious metals and metal-smithy in different contexts. Similarly, fish-like signs ( , , etc.), which repeatedly occur in inscriptions discovered from bead-makers’ and jewelers’ workshops across Indus settlements, arguably signified meanings associated with gemstones, bead-making and related metrological standards. Interestingly, in Proto-Dravidian, “mīn” means fish, shining, bright, and gemstone. Moreover, Indus valley’s eye-patterned gemstone beads were famous as “fish-eye beads” in Mesopotamia. The gemstone related fish-signs sometimes co-occur with , possibly because, the bead-makers and goldsmiths, who physically shared same workshops, were part of related trade license and taxation mechanisms. This paper also claims that the frequent terminal signs symbolized different volumetric ( ) and weight-based ( ) metrological units used in revenue collection and thus metonymically signified certain tax categories. Specifically, the terminal arrow-like sign , which mostly co-occurs with gemstone and gold-smithy related semasiograms, arguably symbolized a goldsmith’s balance, and metonymically signified tax-payments and trade-permits associated with precious commodities. Since ancient assay balances generally used arrow-like pointers for precise weight measurement (a comparable balance is discovered from Harappa), Indic words for assay balance (eṣaṇī, nārācī) are often etymologically rooted to arrow-words. This study claims that sign (allograph ), symbolized the abrus precatorious seeds, the traditional Indian jeweller’s weight, and metonymically signified goldsmith’s weight system and treasury. Many other related conjectures of this study significantly advance our understanding of Indus script.","PeriodicalId":261110,"journal":{"name":"Itihaas: Southwest Asia & Orbit History eJournal","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133438583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Devastating Impact of British Rule on Indian Agriculture","authors":"R. Upadhyay","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3442594","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3442594","url":null,"abstract":"The Industrial revolution not only needed huge investments but also needed market and raw material. Indian market was capable of making available both the raw materials as well as possible customers because of the peril cause of high taxes on handicrafts. The imperialist government for the making raw material available to British producers forced cash crops like indigo, opium, cotton and jute on Indian farmers first in Bengal then across India.","PeriodicalId":261110,"journal":{"name":"Itihaas: Southwest Asia & Orbit History eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129358649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Ancient Indian Economic Thought & the Concept of Welfare State","authors":"Harshita Jain","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3762752","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3762752","url":null,"abstract":"It is generally believed that the systematic study of economics and its principles was started in 1776 with the publication of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, who has been universally held as the founding father of economics. Prior to Adam Smith, many economic concepts and theories were developed from the early 16th century to the middle of the 18th century. Economics as a science trails its origin from the perennial philosophy of great ancient and medieval thinkers from the Buddhist literature to Kautilya. The research paper attempts to dwell into ancient economic and political theories, bringing to the forefront their relevance even today. A polymath of diverse abilities, Kautilya was one of the defining forces responsible for shaping not just the Mauryan Empire, but Indian history itself. Considered the most comprehensive account of economic principles, ideologies, and thought, Kautilya’s Arthashastra provided an important precursor to classical economics. As the text abounds in generalities, Chanakya seeks to make his ideas relevant across situations and eras. Regrettably, for the development of ancient economic thought, Kautilya’s ideas were unknown to Renaissance philosophers and thinkers who are largely credited for the creation of modern economic thought. While the modern economic theory focuses on the pursuit of self-interests and material pleasures, Indian texts have treated ethics and welfare as one of the important life objectives. The lacuna created due to ignorance and lack of awareness has prevented individuals and corporations in acknowledging and implementing the economics practices mentioned in ancient religious and political texts. The text addresses this issue and evaluates the Indian economic thought. Of course, the objective here is not to advocate Indian economics as a separate economic thought process. Laws of economics are universal. Economic agents, irrespective of their culture, country, and know-how, would respond to incentives and coercion in almost the same way.","PeriodicalId":261110,"journal":{"name":"Itihaas: Southwest Asia & Orbit History eJournal","volume":"249 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133126371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Preservation of Cultural Heritage Through Video Documentation: A Contemporary Paradigm for Preserving the Socio-Cultural Tradition of the Kandyan Dress","authors":"De Silva S. S. V., P. Karunaratne, G. Ranathunga","doi":"10.26500/jarssh-05-2020-0302","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26500/jarssh-05-2020-0302","url":null,"abstract":"The formation of Kandyan dress can be considered as a unique sculpting technique where fabric molds on the body defining its three-dimensional form. Anthropologically and historically this dress is most imperative as it is diverse, original and responded to a well- formed socio-economic structure. Kandy is the last kingdom of Sri Lanka heralds a history of long and preserved traditions which has been recognized as a UNESCO world cultural heritage. Yet, the Kandyan dress and its long-established dress related practices have not been studied or preserved in a pedagogical or hypothetical manner. Visual exploration and preservation of this traditional dress in video format is necessary for awareness building for future generations before these cultural traditions fade away along with its contexts. This study is based on an analysis of probability for preservation of Kandyan dress through video documentation. The study seeks to address the advantages, challenges, hands-on approaches and transcending methodology to illuminate video documentation method as a pragmatic way for preservation of cultural heritage. A video documentation of cultural heritage takes its author across ethnographic line and thus, it frequently creates unpredictable conditions and contradictions.","PeriodicalId":261110,"journal":{"name":"Itihaas: Southwest Asia & Orbit History eJournal","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132415187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}