The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c15.6

c15.6

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).