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The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c15: Chapter IX. The Leading Middle Class Families

The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c15

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Chapter IX. The Leading Middle Class Families

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There was always, however, even for the worldly Brâhmaṇas, a circumstance which prevented their being entirely merged in the mass of the population, namely, their Brahmanical birth and their belonging in consequence to the Brâhmaṇa caste. The attempt to marry within their own caste and thus prevent a mixing with the lower elements which we showed above from the Jâtakas, would alone have sufficed to erect a barrier between these Brâhmaṇas and the rest of the population.

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Much less sharply pronounced, there appears to us another line which, according to the theory of the Brâhmaṇas, divided in Indian society the Aryan Indians from the mass of dark-coloured aborigines.¹ We can suppose that at a very early age a mixture between the Aryan and non-Aryan elements of the population took place—a supposition which will only be improbable when we look upon the Aryan Indians, belonging neither to the Kshatriya nor to the Brâhmaṇa caste, as enclosed within fixed bounds and united to form a caste. The Indian caste-theory comprised them under the third caste, the caste of the Vaiśyas; as their occupations and duties, there are mentioned in Manu (I. 90), “cattle-breeding, distribution of alms, sacrifice, study, trade, lending money at interest and agriculture.”

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¹ Even from Brahmanical literature we get the impression that Indian society divided itself into two groups, namely, into Brâhmaṇas and Kshatriyas, on the one side, and Vaiśyas and Śûdras, on the other, and that irrespective of the distinction based upon Aryan birth, the last two classes formed in the eyes of the two higher ones, a conglomerate mass with which neither the Brâhmaṇa nor the Kshatriya came much in contact. Cf. Hopkins, *The Mutual Relations of the Four Castes*, according to the *Mânavadharmaśâstram*. Imag. Diss., Leipzig, 1881, pp. 78, 82.

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Now we meet with the expression Vessa (=Skr. Vaiśya) in Pali texts but only in passages where we have to do with theoretical discussions about the caste-question which, as mentioned above, prove nothing for the real existence of a caste called Vessa. Nowhere do we notice in the Jâtakas—where we should expect to find it first, seeing that they get their materials so often directly from the people—an indication that as a matter of fact a caste which did not comprise Aryans belonging either to the Brâhmaṇa or the Kshatriya caste, did exist. A caste, in the sense of the Brahmanical theory, the Vaiśyas never became even in the western Brahmanical lands; originally, in the oldest Vedic age, a name for the class of cattle-breeding and land-cultivating Aryan settlers, it served later the purpose of the theorising Brâhmaṇas to bind together the unlimited number of social groups.

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An expression which is exactly similar in meaning to the word Vaiśya and likewise comprehends a definite class of people, is the word gahapati¹ so very common in Pali literature. According to its etymology, it means “householder, head of a household,” and denotes generally, if not always, a landlord or merchant-price of high birth and wealth. We shall not be mistaken if we see in these gahapatis in part the gentry of the land, the lower land-owning nobility, in contrast with the nobility which is related to princely houses, the Khattiyas, and in part the high and rich middle class families of the big cities which can be compared with the patricians of the imperial and industrial cities of the Middle Ages. Like the khattiyas, the gahapatis also seem to have distinguished themselves from the great mass of the population by a certain consciousness of position and by pride in their Aryan descent. The son of the seṭṭhi gahapati Yasa is called in the Mahâvagga (I. 7. 7) kulaputta, a youth of high birth, good family. Such a kulaputta must, whenever possible, marry in an old and rich family; the parents take care to avoid a mesalliance and bring for the grown-up son a girl of good family (Bodhisatto Bârâṇasito avidûre gâmake gaha-patikule nibbatti. Ath' assa vayappattassa Bârâ-ṇasito kuladhîtaraṃ ânesuṃ II. 121). In the court of the king the gahapatis, on account of their importance and wealth, played a significant part : either along with the ministers and Brâhmaṇas mentioned in the third place, or along with the last, they appear permanently in the retinue of the king.¹ At the coronation of the king there are represented : ministers, Brâhmaṇas, heads of households, citizens, gate-keepers, etc. (amaccâ ca brâhmaṇagahapatira-ṭṭhikadovârikâdayo ca. II. 241).

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¹ = Skr. grihapati.

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¹ Not only in the Jâtakas but also in other Pali texts, for example, Mahâvagga I. 22. 3 (Vinaya Piṭaka ed. Oldenberg, Vol. I, p. 35).

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This passage, where the raṭṭhikas (=Skr. râshtrika, inhabitant of a kingdom, subject) are mentioned along with the gahapatis, shows that the concept gahapati is in no way identical with what, according to the Brahmanical caste-theory, is to be understood by Vaiśya; for to this caste, which embraces all Aryan Indians with the exception of Kshatriyas and Brâhmaṇas, the raṭṭhikas would have to be looked upon as belonging, as well as the citizens (negamas) and farmers (jânapadas), who in another place (in the Nigrodhamiga Jâtaka I. 152) are counted among the "householders" as subjects of the king. For the Indians, subject to the influence of the (Brahmanical) theory and inclined to schematise, the gahapatis appear nevertheless as a caste, as, in fact, the third caste, corresponding to the Vaiśyas of the Brahmanical system, as in the enumeration¹ of castes they very often appear in the third place after the khattiyakulas and the brâhmaṇakulas. A justification of such a schematism lay in this, that this class also through the value it attached to pure descent and through the prohibition of unequal marriages, liked to form a close body and showed a faint resemblance with the Brâhmaṇa caste in this, that the jâti of a gahapati was hereditary, that a gahapati who through the loss of his fortune was ruined and was forced to maintain himself by following lower occupations, still remained always a gahapati. We read of one such gahapati who deals in vegetables (pannikagahapati, III. 21;

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¹ Thus, in the already cited narrative of the chabbaggikas which is identical with Cullavagga, VI. 6. 2. Cf. further Mahâparinibbâna Sutta V. 24 (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 8, p. 242): Anandakhattiyapaṇḍitâ pi brâhmaṇapaṇḍitâ pi gahapatipaṇḍitâ pi abhippasannâ; Mahâvagga, VI. 28. 4 (Vinaya Piṭaka, ed. Oldenberg, Vol. I, p. 227): yadi khattiyaparisam yadi brâhmaṇaparisam yadi gahapatiparisam yadi samaṇaparisam avisârado upasamkamati.

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IV. 446), of another poor *gahapati* who maintains himself and his mother with difficulty by working as a hired labourer (III. 325).

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But this hereditary character of the position, combined with a special value attached to purity of blood do not in my opinion suffice to make the *gahapatis* appear as a caste; in our eyes they can only be regarded as a special class, as a special rank and not as a caste, the characteristic marks of which are lacking: apart from marriage within the limits of the class, we don't see any common customs, not to speak of any judicial powers, which would punish any transgression of caste-rules by exclusion from society.

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Almost in the same sense as *gahapati* is the expression *kuṭumbika* used; this also denotes members of the citizen class, as a rule like *gahapatis*, wealthy citizens at the head of a household (*kuṭumba*). Connection with such a *kuṭumbika* family appears to have been considered suitable by the rich and aristocratic families: a leading citizen (*nagaravâsi kulaputta* I. 196) seeks the daughter of a *kuṭumbika* living in a village for his son. The *kuṭumbikas* living in the town engage in trade, according to the Jâtakas. Thus, in the Sâlaka Jâtaka it is said of the Bodhisatta that he is reborn in a *kuṭumbika* family and maintains his livelihood by dealing in corn (dhaññavikkaya II. 267). Several times mention is made of money-transactions which the kutumbikas who are residents of a town carry on with the country. Over and above the kutumbika from Sâvatthi, mentioned in the paccuppannavatthu of the Succaja Jâtaka (III. 66), who goes with his wife into the country in order to collect debts, there is mentioned in the Satapatta Jâtaka a kutumbika who lends a villager 1,000 kahâpaṇas (II. 388). The sons of another kutumbika determine after the death of their father to administer his goods and collect his assets; they go to the village and return after they collect 1,000 kahâpaṇas.

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The most important and aristocratic representative of the gahapati class is the seṭṭhi.¹ Although he appears to us, at least according to the Jâtakas, in the court of the king in whose service he is, we have not yet counted him among the king's officers, because he does not properly belong to the class of rájabhoggas, officers of the king, but a gahapati does²;

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¹ = Skr. śreṣṭhin which is generally rendered by "the chief of the guild."

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² The office of a seṭṭhi seems to be permanently occupied by a gahapati. Nowhere is it mentioned that a member of another caste or class, such as, a rich Brâhmaṇa has held this position. If not in the brief form seṭṭhi, of the seṭṭhi gahapati mention is made, in Vinaya Piṭaka, Mahavagga I. 7. 7; VIII. 1. 9, 13; Cullavagga VI. 4.1 sq.

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he appears to play a double part, an official and a private part. In the Vinaya Piṭaka the seṭṭhi plays an important private rôle; he appears throughout as a respectable tradesman enjoying a special position of honour among the members of his profession; such, for instance, was pre-eminently the much-quoted generous worshipper of Buddha, Anâthapiṇḍika. Still it is to be considered that in the Culavagga (VI. 4.1) it is said of him that he is the brother-in-law of "the seṭṭhi of Râjagaha"—an expression which in itself refers to an official position; also that Anâthapiṇḍika believes that his brother-in-law has invited King Bimbisâra to a banquet, speaks in favour of this supposition. Of the same seṭṭhi of Râjagaha it is said expressly in the Mahâvagga (VIII. 1. 16) that he rendered various services to the king as well as to the tradesmen (bahûpakâro devassa c'eva negamassa ca). In the Jâtakas the seṭṭhi, as already said, stands mostly in close proximity to the royal court. For the management of the finances of the State, for paying the army and the officials, for military operations, public buildings, etc., the king obviously consulted the opinion of a business man familiar with the trade affairs of the land; on the other hand, the commercial community must also have tried to have its interests represented in the court and to watch carefully legislation and administration. Two purposes the seṭṭhi, the official “representative of the commercial community” at the king’s court, served. In his official capacity he goes to the king’s public audience (râjupaṭṭhâna. I. 269, 349; III. 119, 299; IV. 63), as said in another place, three times a day (divasassa tayo vâre râjupaṭṭhânam gacchati III. 475); in this capacity he takes (formal) leave of the king when going out on a journey, and obtains the permission of the king when resigning his office or when he wants to renounce the worldly life and become a homeless ascetic (pabbajjam me anujânâhi II. 64)

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Just as his social rank¹ was hereditary, so also the office (seṭṭhitthâna) of the father passed as a rule on to the son (I. 231, 248; III. 475). Reborn in a seṭṭhi family, the Bodhisatta when he is grown up, sets up a household and obtains after the death of his father the position of a “representative of the commercial community” (seṭṭhikule nibbattitvā vayappatto kuṭumbaṃ saṇṭhāpetvā pitu accayena seṭṭhitthānaṃ patvā IV. 62).

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¹ Of seṭṭhi families mention is also made in the Vinaya Piṭaka. Mahavagga I. 9. 1 has—seṭṭhânuseṭṭhinam kulânam pattâ. Whether by this anuseṭṭhikula, the ‘highest after the seṭṭhi families,’ as the expression is rendered in the translation of Rhys Davids and Oldenberg (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 13, p. 110), is meant, appears doubtful to me, as, according to the Jatakas, the anuseṭṭhi, in the same way as the seṭṭhi, seems to have held a fixed post in the royal court. In the Sudhâbhojana Jâtaka (V. 384) the seṭṭhi, when he goes to the king, calls on his way on the anuseṭṭhi in order to take the latter with him.

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Details of the duties and functions connected with this office we cannot obtain from our source. Possibly the king required him in order to exercise supervision over trade in accordance with the prescriptions of the lawbooks¹ and for the purpose of controlling through him the administration² of the laws relating to trade societies and guilds. Perhaps, along with this, he required of him personal service, management of money affairs, superintendence of the king’s treasury; in any case, he seems by virtue of his immense wealth to have become indispensable to the king, as we find him constantly in his retinue. Out of the daily intercourse friendship sometimes grew between the king and his seṭṭhi, and just as was the case with the purohita, the fact of the office being hereditary in the same seṭṭhi family may have contributed towards making this family intimately connected with the ruling house. In the Aṭṭhâna Jâtaka (III. 475) the heir presumptive and the son of the seṭṭhi of Benares are playmates and are taught and educated in the house of the same teacher. Also after the prince has succeeded to the throne, the son of the seṭṭhi lives in his neighbourhood and later, after the death of his father, when he himself becomes seṭṭhi, he goes three times daily to the palace of the king and talks with him until nightfall. “Where is my friend?”, cries the king as one day he misses the seṭṭhi.

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¹ Manu VIII. 40 1 sq: “He (the king) shall fix the sale price as well as the purchase price of all market commodities after carefully considering the place of their origin, their destination, the period of warehousing, the probable profit and loss. Every five days or at the expiry of a fortnight, the king shall fix the prices in the presence of experienced men.”

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² Manu VIII. 41: “Versed in the law, he (the king) shall examine the laws of the castes and lands, the laws of guilds (śreṇi-dharma) and the laws of families and (so) fix the law for each of these (groups)—Cf. Hopkins, *Ruling Caste*, p. 81: “Such associations”—namely, trade associations and guilds—“had their own rules and regulations which were under the supervision of the king; the king could (according to the theory) neither sanction law nor himself give laws which were opposed to the recognised laws or those sanctioned by custom.”

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In this official position as “a representative of the commercial community” the seṭṭhi does not appear always even in the Jâtakas, but appears here at times as a private gentleman, as a rich and influential merchant prince. A seṭṭhi living in Benares engages in trade and drives a caravan of five hundred wagons (I. 270); in the province (pacvante I. 451; IV. 169) the seṭṭhis living in the country (janapadasetthi IV. 37) for whom an official position is manifestly improbable, are mentioned in several places. How far these tradesmen differ from others, for example, from the caravan leaders (satthavâha), to be mentioned later, especially, whether they exercised any supervising functions with regard to these as “masters of the guild,” does not appear from the Jâtakas; what we learn from our source is confined to a description of their wealth and their influence. The wealth of a setthi is given, like that of the rich Brâhmanas, uniformly as eight hundred millions (asîtikotivibhavo setthi, III. 128, 300, 444; V. 382), a statement which has very little value as a judgment concerning actual conditions, as, on account of the very little care which the Indians show for correct, or even approximately correct, numbers, any other great number would have had the same meaning, as we do not know what coin is to be added to this figure.

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Somewhat more accurately the wealth of a setthi is indicated, when in the Visayha Jâtaka (III. 129) it is narrated that Sakka, rendered uneasy by the charity of the setthi, destroys his entire wealth—money, corn, oil, honey, sugar, etc., even his slaves and hired labourers. As belonging to the household of a setthi, there are mentioned in another place, besides wife and child, servants (parijana) and the headsman (vacchakapâlakâ). The cowherd of a seṭṭhi drives the cattle of his master into the forest when the corn begins to ripen, erects a stall for the cow and gives the milk from time to time to the seṭṭhi. If we add that occasionally the rice fields of a seṭṭhi are mentioned, it follows that we have to look upon the seṭṭhis not only as tradesmen but also as cattle-rearing and land-cultivating owners of the soil.

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On account of the great wealth at his disposal, his influence manifestly extends outside the sphere of work of his own business; it is true we do not find it expressly stated that he lends money at interest; we may, however, very well suppose that he gives the inn-keeper who "lives by him" (tam upanissâyo eko varunivâṇijo jîvati, I. 252) sufficient means with which to carry on his trade in spirituous liquors. Even the tailor who lives with a seṭṭhi (seṭṭhim nissâya vasantassa tunnakârassa, IV. 38) may have stood in a similar relation to the master of the house.

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The desire to preserve wealth and respectability in the family may have strengthened the inclination and practice in seṭṭhi families of marrying within their own *játi* and led to frequent marriages among themselves. The setthi of Râjagaha, mentioned in the Nigrodha Jâtaka, brings for his son the daughter of a setthi living in the country (IV. 37). The slave of the setthi of Benares succeeds, as narrated in the Kaṭâhaka Jâtaka, in winning by means of a false letter the hand of the daughter of a setthi friendly to his master and living in the frontier. The letter which the slave has written himself and which he hands over to the business friend of his master begins with the words:

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"The bearer of this letter is my son N. N. I consider it desirable that our children should marry with each other" (âvâhavivâhasambandho nâma mayham tayâ tuyhañ ca mayâ saddhim patirûpo, I. 452).

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Hand in hand with this regard for equal marriage and purity of blood, there goes in the the Khattiyas and the proud Brâhmaṇas, as well as in high setthi families, a deep contempt for people who are low either by profession or by race; especially, does this "caste-spirit" make itself felt with regard to the class of Caṇḍâlas, the pariahs in the then Indian society: We saw above what a shock the setthi's daughter gets when she learns that she has seen a Caṇḍâla and how very anxious she is to prevent the evil effects of this sight by washing her beautiful eyes.

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The wealth and respectability of the seṭṭhi families brought it about naturally that the sons of such a family received a careful education; it even appears from our source that they, partly at any rate, fulfilled the universal duty, according to the law-books, of the three higher castes, namely, that of studying the Vedas. The two sons of the seṭṭhi mentioned in the Nigrodha Jātaka were sent to Takkasilâ to a teacher by the Seṭṭhi of Râjagaha and he paid the teacher 2,000 as honorarium (IV. 38); the already-mentioned young seṭṭhi, occurring in the Aṭṭhâna Jātaka, is instructed along with the prince by the same teacher (III. 475). It is true in both these cases it is only said that the youths "learnt the science" (sippam uggaṇhimsu); still I think it probable that even in this passage by sippa, religious study is to be understood, because, as already said, among the disciples of Buddha the sons of rich and respectable families were in large measure represented—a fact which in my opinion is to be attributed principally to the participation of these circles in the spiritual activities of that age.

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If these seṭṭhi families who were united through the common consciousness of rank, through the custom of contracting marriages with their own jâti and preventing mixture with the lower castes, and further, through a common hereditary profession, present an appearance not wholly dissimilar to that of caste, there arise from the great mass of the people other social groups which through the appearance of another factor, external organisation, represent a still more sharply defined unity, namely, the associations of tradesmen and manufacturers comparable to our mediæval guilds.

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