Write the main changes From 600bce …

From the early centuries, the grants of land were recorded in inscriptions. Some inscriptions were recorded in copper plates. The records that have survived, give us the following facts:

• The land grants were given to religious institutions or to Brahmanas. The Brahmanas were usually exempted from paying land revenue and other due to the king. The Brahmanas were . often given the right to collect these
  dues from the local people.
• Women were not supposed to have independent access to resources like land. But aristocrat women like Prabhavati Gupta, daughter of Chandragupta II had access to lands.
• All the people in rural areas had to obey the new land of the village and pay him all the taxes.
• Some historians claim that land grants were indicative of weakening political power, as kings were loosing control over their samantas. Sometimes, kings tried to win allies by making grants of land.
• Land grants provide some insight into the relationship between cultivators and the state.
• The system of trade from 600 BCE to 600 CE can be explained in the following ways:
  • Land and river routes criss-crossed the sub-continent and extended in different directions from the 6th century BCE. The ruler tried to control these routes by offering protection for a price.
  • These different routes were transversed by the peddlers who travelled on foot. But the merchants travelled with caravans of bullock carts and pack-animals.
  • There were seafearers. Their ventures
    were risky but highly profitable.
  • Successful merchants, designated as Manattuvan in Tamil and Setthis and Satavahanas in Prakrit w’ere very rich.
  • A wide range of goods were carried from one place to another. These were salt, grain, cloth, metal ores and finished products, stone, timber, medicinal plants, spices and pepper and textiles. All these were transported across the Arabian sea to the Mediterranean.