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Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s4: The Organisation of Industry and Trade

Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s4

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The Organisation of Industry and Trade

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The organisation of crafts and trades in some forms of association was known from early times. In so far as the crafts are concerned, we find in the *Jātakas* that sons ordinarily, if not invariably, followed the occupations of their father, while the industries used to be localised in towns and villages, and the separate crafts had frequently a *pamukha* (president) or *jeṭṭha* (alderman) presiding over them. These three features, as Fick observed long ago¹, point to an organisation similar to that of the craft-guilds in mediaeval Europe. The *Jātakas* in fact refer to eighteen *seṇis* (guilds), mentioning four by name, viz., those of woodcutters, smiths, leather dressers and painters². As regards the organisation of trade, the *Jātakas* refer to *sattha-vāhas* whose directions were obeyed by the caravans along the trade-routes as well as to *pamukhas* and *jeṭṭhas* of the separate trades. We also hear of disputes between guilds being decided by a *mahāseṭṭhi* who acted practically as 'chief alderman over the aldermen of the guilds'³. The early *Dharmaśāstras* and the *Arthaśāstra* register a somewhat advanced stage of development. From an oft-quoted passage (xi 1) of Gautama's *Dharmasūtra* supposed to be the oldest of the existing *Dharmasūtras*, we learn that traders and artisans along with others had the authority to lay down rules for their respective classes. Of the *Saṅghas* ('corporations') described by Kauṭilya (xi. 1), who were ruled by *mukhyas* ('executive officers'), one class consisted of certain specified and unspecified groups living by *vārtā* (agriculture, cattle-breeding and trade) as well as by *śastra* (fighting). Elsewhere (ii. 7, iii. 1, viii. 4 etc.) Kauṭilya refers to *śreṇis* (guilds) organised under *mukhyas*, which were thought to be sufficiently important for their customs to be recorded in official registers and were otherwise a factor to be reckoned with in the working of the State administration.

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¹ The Social Organisation in North-east India in Buddha's time (Eng. tr. of Die Social Gliederung in Nordostlichen Indian zu Buddhas zeit), pp. 177-183.

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² Cf. Jāt. i. 267, 314 : iii. 281 : iv. 411 : vi 22.

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³ Cf. Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, p. 97.

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The industrial and commercial *śreṇis* and *saṅghas* we have described above represent the type of guild organisation under which there could be little scope for a separate class of wage-earners as distinguished from producers. But already in these times we hear of another type of organisation involving the employment of hired labourers by the capitalists. The *Jātakas* make frequent references to free labourers working for hire (*kammakara* and *bhatakas*) often along with slaves (*dāsas*) and servants (*pessas*)¹. Kauṭilya (iii. 13-14) not only refers to free labourers (*karmakaras* and *bhṛtakas*) along with slaves (*dāsas*), but gives a whole body of laws for regulating their work and wages. That the free labourers along with slaves formed an important element of the population in Maurya times is proved by Aśoka including the kind treatment of *dāsas* and *bhatakas* among the constituent qualities of his *dhamma* (R. E. ix, xi etc.)

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¹ See P. T. S. Dict., s.v. Also cf. Fick, *op. cit.* pp. 303-4.

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