Buddhism in India

Buddhist Civilisation 139

and birds were also traded compared to the time of the early East

India companies there was little demand in India for goods from

the west then as later. While the British financed their trade with

India through the opium trade in China, the Romans’ inability to

send goods simply meant an outward flow of gold from their

empire. Roman coins have thus been found throughout the Indian

penninsula, including Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. This flow,

though, was seen as a serious drain by Pliny and is said to have

been an important cause of the financial difficulties of the Roman

Empire (ibid.: 229).

This first era of India’s links with global trade began to decline

as Rome and Chinese demand declined, but the decline was also

part of the growing influence of Brahmanism, which turned a gen-

eralised fear of the sea into a ban on sailing the ‘black waters’ and

a hatred of mlecchas. By the last part of the first millennium CE

India still was linked to world trade, but it was Arab merchants

who controlled this trade. Indians who had once traversed the

highest reaches of the Himalayas and braved the seas of the world

in trade and missionary enterprise became an ingrown nation

priding themselves in the purity of their insularity.

Buddhism and Scientific Development

Buddhism also played a major role in promoting science, especially

medicine, the first of the sciences and in developing education.

There are two aspects of Buddhist teachings that encouraged the

development of scientific thinking in early India. First was its ratio-

nality, the fact that it encouraged thinking and discourse, rather

than the unquestioning acceptance of tradition. In the traditional

Brahmanic guru–sisya relationship, the disciple was supposed to

unquestioningly serve and accept the authority of the guru. In

contrast, the admonition of the Buddha to his disciples to ‘be your

own lamps, be your own refuges’, and the whole atmosphere of

dialogue and debate gave a striking emphasis to self-decision. The

Buddhist follower was urged to think for himself, to judge for

himself, to meditate for himself. Especially in early Buddhism the

notion that no person could liberate another, but only teach and set

an example, encouraged self-reliance and critical thinking. A famous

Dhammapadaverse indicates this self-reliance:

forth, confronting robbers, ogres and other social hazards as well
as deserts and natural hazards. The desert stories may indicate
central Asia or Sindh. Sea travel was even more hazardous and the
shipwreck stories are many. Yet it was encouraged. According to
the Jatakas, Indian merchants went to Babylon, which was known
as Baveru (#339), to southeast Asia, and to Sri Lanka. In story, a
merchant decides to ‘take ship and sail for the Gold Country [iden-
tified as Burma-Siam] whence I will bring back wealth’ (#442). In
another, a group of carpenters, harassed by debtors, build a mighty
ship and sail to an island in the ocean where they find sugarcane
(#446). In another, the Bodhisattva himself is an expert mariner; it
is said that ‘with him abroad no ship ever came to harm’, and even
after he becomes blind, he is able to guide a ship through wondrous
seas where precious minerals and jewels are found (#463). In one
he is a setthi or financier, suggesting to a young man how trade and
‘deals’, all fair needless to say, can parley a miniscale initial
sum into a fortune (#4). The general attitude is shown in a Jataka
in which merchants sally forth together and find a banyan tree
bearing marvellous gifts; in the introductory story they chop only
the branches but in the Jataka part they cut down the roots and
come to grief: the moral is to take what is found but without
greed, an Indian version of ‘not killing the goose that lays the
golden egg’ (#493).
Actual trade grew significantly from the Asokan period, and was
associated to a large degree with Buddhism. Following these trade
routes Buddhist missionaries went to central Asia and China,
though apparently not so much to the west. The eastern ports were
those of Tamralipti (near modern Calcutta) which displaced the
earlier Campa, Musiri on the Malabar coast and Korkai and
Kavirippatinam (on the mouth of the Kaveri) on the east coast of
Tamil Nadu. On the west coast Bharukaccha was the most famous
and long-lasting port, but there was also Supara near modern
Mumbai, and Patala on the Indus delta. Roman and Greek traders
came to India, and in turn Indian merchants as well as fortune-
tellers, conjurors, and prostitutes were known in Rome. Royal
deputations were sent, the earliest known being sent by the king of
the Pandyas to Athens in 20 BCE (Basham 1959: 228).
Trade goods to the west were mainly spices, perfumes, jewels
and fine textiles; in addition sugar, rice and ghee, ivory, Indian iron
which was esteemed for its purity and hardness, and live animals

138 Buddhism in India