The Age of the Imperial Guptas c6.38.3

c6.38.3

After the destruction of all guilds and corporations in Northern India during six centuries of Musalman rule it is not possible even to guess what they were like. It is not possible even to apply the analogy of such institutions in Gujarat where some such have survived. In old cities like Ahmadabad there are guilds and its office-bearers. The *Nagara-śreṣṭhin* of Ahmadabad is still called *Nagar-seth* but the rank is now hereditary according to Prof. A. B. Dhruva, Pro-Vice-chancellor of the Benares Hindu University, who is an inhabitant of that city. According to the same authority Gujarat guilds are now styled *Mahajans*. The *Nagara-śreṣṭhin* of a city like Vaiśālī was probably the president and the chief executive officer of the great corporation. Under this great corporation there were three separate guilds for Bankers, traders and merchants. The seals discovered at Vaiśālī by Spooner prove that there was at least one separate guild of *Śreṣṭhins* or Merchants in that city, while Marshall’s Bhita finds prove the existence of a separate guild of *Kulikas*. The term *Kulika* is perhaps better suited for translation as bankers than the term *Śreṣṭhin*. Spooner discovered several seals of the *Śreṣṭhi-nigama*,¹ at Vaiśālī and he observes that “it is noticeable that this seal is never impressed alone;