The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c15.17

c15.17

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)