The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c15.19

c15.19

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.