The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.172

v1.c19.s9.172

Nor can we with any certainty fill up the fourteen unnamed gilds. A great many arts and crafts are mentioned in the books, some of them held in less social esteem than others. Among the latter were trades connected with the slaying of animals and work on their bodies, e.g., hunters and trappers, fishermen, butchers, and tanners. Yet other such despised callings were those of snake-charming, acting, dancing and music, rush weaving and chariot-making, the last two because of the despised, probably aboriginal, folk whose hereditary trades they were. Other more honourable crafts were ivory-working, weaving, confectionery, jewelry and work in precious metals, bow and arrow making, pottery, garland-making and head-dressing. Besides these handicrafts, there was the world of river and sea-going folk, the trader or merchant, and, corresponding in a limited way to the first-named, the caravan-escorts and guides or ‘land-pilots’ (*thala-niyyāmaka*). But although reference is made in connexion with some of these, to a *jeṭṭhaka*, or Elder, no further evidence of civic organisation is forthcoming.