The Rashtrakutas and their Times c22.79

c22.79

The absence of more numerous references to guilds in records, strictly falling within our period, must be regarded as merely accidental, for we get several references to them in the epigraphs of the succeeding centuries. An inscription from Belgamve, dated 1083 A.D.,⁵⁵ refers to a guild which apparently ruled over or had its offices in 18 cities; another from Managoli, dated 1161 A.D.,⁵⁶ refers to several grants made by the guilds of oilmen, weavers, artisans, basket-makers, mat-makers and fruit-sellers. Recently two inscriptions have been published, one from Kolhapur, dated S'aka 1058, and the other from Miraj, dated S'aka 1066 A.D.,⁵⁷ which give interesting information about a guild of the Vira-Balanjus, the membership of which had extended over four districts. A record from Saundatti, dated 1205 A.D.,⁵⁸ refers to an assemblage of all the people of the district, headed by all the guilds of the place. The names of the guilds are not given in this record, but they were in all probability similar to those at Managoli. It is, therefore, quite likely that the guild organisation in our period was not quite so negligible as the references occurring in the inscriptions, strictly belonging to our age, may perhaps lead us to conclude.