[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897) › c16 # The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c16: Chapter X. The Guilds of Tradesmen and Manufacturers The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c16 - **Language:** English ### Chapter X. The Guilds of Tradesmen and Manufacturers ### [c16.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.2) The existence of trade associations which grew partly for economical reasons—better employment of capital, facilities of intercourse—partly, for protecting the legal interests of their class, is surely to be traced to an early period of Indian culture. When we read in the Dharmasûtras that the agriculturists, tradesmen, cattle-breeders, usurers (kusîdin) and manufacturers have their own special laws for their class which are authoritative for the king,¹ we can infer from this with some certainty the organisation of trade and particular branches of it; in the later law-books, mention is expressly made of guilds (sreṇi). Thus, it is said in Manu VIII. 41, that the king has to examine and determine the laws of the guilds. In the epics also the guilds appear as an important factor not only of the industrial but also of the political life.² ### [c16.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.3) ¹ Gautama, XI. 21 : deśajâtikuladharmâścâmnâyair aviruddhâḥ pramâṇam kṛishivanikpaśupâlyakusîdakâravaḥ sve sve varge. ### [c16.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.4) ² Hopkins, Ruling Caste, p. 81 sq. ### [c16.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.5) Still there is the question whether the economical conditions, as they are described by Manu and in the epics, represent the view of culture unfolded by the Jâtakas, whether they can at once be assigned to the period of the older Buddhism. The systematised commercial law, as we find it in Manu, the rules relating to loans at interest, the institute of experts in sea-borne trade, the duties upon river-borne and sea-borne merchandise, all this presupposes a stage of economical development which appears to me to be centuries later than the stage of culture depicted in the Jâtakas.¹ ### [c16.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.6) ¹ The opposite view is taken by Dahlmann in his book on the Mahâbhârata. According to him, there is "an extraordinary agreement between the culture-period represented in the Jâtakas and the Pali canon and that of the Mahâbhârata"; "the blossoming of economical life," as described here, is, in his opinion, "in full agreement with the picture of culture in Manu." Jos. Dahlmann, Das Mahâbhârata als Epos und Rechtsbuch, Berlin, 1895, pp. 166, 180. ### [c16.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.7) It should not, however, be said that we have here the first beginnings of commercial transactions; undoubtedly, the statements contained in the Jâtakas relate to oversea trade as well as to brisk inland trade. When in describing a caravan passing through sandy deserts, its march is compared with a journey through the sea (samuddagamanasadisam eva gamanam hoti. I. 107), when it is narrated that one entrusts the lead to a "land tax-collector" (thalaniyâmaka) who directs the caravan with the help of astronomy, we find clearly expressed here acquaintance with navigation and the knowledge of the starry heavens required for this. Also another thing which the Indians employed, like the seafaring Phœnicians and Babylonians of ancient times, for finding the direction during navigation, we find mentioned in the Jâtakas, namely, "direction-giving crows" (disâkâka); they showed the navigators, when they lost sight of the land, as they flew towards the land, in what direction the coast was to be found. On the high seas such a "compass" could not surely be of much use to the sailors—for this reason it is narrated of the merchants in the Kâsi kingdom who have a disâkâka on board their ship, that they suffer shipwreck in mid-ocean (III. 267)—but it is very useful for navigation along the coast. This, and not navigation in the open sea, is, I think, throughout meant when the Jâtakas speak of oversea trade. The disappearance of the coast after several days' navigation is especially brought into prominence and stated as a cause of shipwreck. "Five hundred tradesmen"—so it is said in the Paṇḍara Jâtaka (V. 75)—"went on a sea-voyage and suffered shipwreck on the ocean, as on the seventeenth day no land was to be seen; all on board, not one excepted, became the food of the fish." On the whole, we shall do well if we accept a bit cautiously this supposition of an extensive oversea trade. If there really was regular trade¹ between India and countries like the Babylonian kingdom—whose name exists in the form \*Bāveruraṭṭha\* (III. 126)²—we should certainly have heard occasionally from the Jātakas of the products of this land, of its inhabitants and their customs. The existence of the mere name shows that the city was known by name in the age to which our source relates; probably, Indian sailors went to Babylon and spread reports on their return home about the city and its wonders, so that from that time onward in every story in which the ship-wrecked played a part, the name of the city of \*Bāveru\* appeared, the mention of which served to make the listeners expect something wonderful. But oversea trade is not so frequently mentioned in the Jātakas that one can talk of a \*Samuddavāṇija\* as a typical figure. ### [c16.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.8) ¹ \*Cf.\* Dahlmann, Das Mahâbhârata, p. 179. ### [c16.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.9) ² To the category of the quoted passages (I. 107; III. 126, 267; V. 75) belongs further the designation of a narrative (IV. 158) as \*Samuddavāṇija Jātaka\*. ### [c16.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.10) The plentifulness of great navigable waterways in Northern India allows us to assume an early development of internal maritime trade; still I have found it mentioned in only one place in the Jātakas. In the sale of a ship’s cargo mentioned in the Cullakaseṭṭhi Jātaka (I. 126), the question is of wares unloaded at a port in the neighbourhood of Benares. The hero of the narrative, a youth of good but poor family, learns from a sailor friend that a big ship has arrived at the port. He hires for eight kahāpaṇas a vehicle and drives with great pomp to the port. Here he buys the ship’s cargo on credit and gives his signet ring as security; then he erects a tent close to the ship and after he takes his seat within it, he gives an order that if tradesmen want to see him they should only be admitted after a threefold notice. On the news of the arrival of the ship about a hundred tradesmen from Benares come to buy the cargo. They are told: “You cannot buy wares any more, for a great merchant who lives at such and such a place has bought them by advancing a deposit.” When they hear this, they go to the youth and are admitted by the servants to his presence after a threefold notice in the way mentioned above. Everyone of the hundred tradesmen pays one thousand in order to receive a portion of the ship’s cargo and finally in order to buy off his partnership, they pay each one of them for the rest of his goods a further 1,000. Thus the youth returns to Benares with 2,00,000 in his possession. ### [c16.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.11) In the culture-period depicted in the Jatakas, overland trade seems to have far surpassed in importance sea-borne trade. The tradesman who goes about the country with his caravan is in fact a typical figure in our narratives and, according to the statements in these, caravan traffic cannot have been small, either with regard to the distance traversed or with regard to wares carried. Big trade routes cross the land in all directions and carry on an exchange of goods between the several and (judged by their products and necessities) widely different parts of India; there was, especially, manifestly brisk trade between the eastern and the western parts. We read in the Apaṇṇaka Jātaka of a caravan-leader (satthavâha, I. 98) who goes from the east to the west with 500 wagon-loads and then returns. Tradesmen residing in Benares travel to Ujjani¹ in order to carry on trade (II. 248). Also from trade relations between Kasmir and Gandhâra kingdoms, on the one side, and Videha land, on the other, we learn, as narrated in the Gandhâra Jataka, that the king of Videha inquires of the tradesmen about the health of his friend, the king of Kasmîra and Gandhâra (III. 365). ### [c16.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.12) ¹ = Skr. Ujjaini, the capital of Avanti. ### [c16.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.13) About the nature of the goods carried, the statements of the Jâtakas speak in a very uncertain voice. The narrator speaks mostly of five hundred wagons laden with valuable goods and leaves us to exercise our conjecture regarding the contents of these loads. Probably, the packages of the tradesmen contained cloths, for according to the Tuṇḍila Jâtaka there were in the neighbourhood of Benares fields sown with cotton¹ (kâppâsakhetta III. 286) and this cotton was probably in Buddha’s time chiefly used in the manufacture of goods in Benares.² On the other hand, cotton industry appears to have flourished in certain places in the west, as in the Mahâvagga of the Vinaya Piṭaka; Sivi cloth (Siveyyaka dussa VIII. 1. 29) is praised as specially valuable. ### [c16.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.14) ¹ Cotton is even now found in places to the west of Benares as far as Agra. Cf. Table 13 in Bartholomew's \*Hand Atlas of India\*, Westminster, 1893. ### [c16.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.15) ² In the Mahaparinibbâna Sutta (V. 26) it is said that the mortal remains of a world-ruler were covered with folds of new cloths and torn cotton, and the commentator adds as an explanation of the expression \*vihata kappasa\*, "The cloth of Benares (Kasikavattha) on account of the fineness of its texture, absorbs no oil." ### [c16.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.16) Famous were also the horses of the west, above all, the steed of Sindh (sindhava. II. 288); according to the Jâtakas the kings of the eastern lands were provided mainly with horses brought from the north or the west; we meet very often in our texts with horse-merchants who come from the north (uttarāpathakā assavāṇijā) and sell their horses in Benares (I. 124; II. 31, 287). ### [c16.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.17) The insecurity of the road made the business of a satthavāha at that time very troublesome and dangerous. Organized bands of robbers—in the Sattigumba Jātaka a village containing five hundred robbers is mentioned (coragāmaka IV. 430), at its head stands the "oldest among the robbers (corajeṭṭhaka II. 388)—lay in wait for the travelling tradesmen, especially in the forest, and forced them to employ armed men who for a salary led the caravans through the dangerous places.¹ Still the tradesmen were compensated for the troubles and dangers of caravan traffic by the great profit which, according to the Jātakas, they made; in the Vaṇṇupatha Jātaka it is stated that the caravan-leaders got twice or thrice their dues on the sale of their wares (bhaṇḍaṃ vikkiṇitvā dviguṇaṃ catugguṇaṃ bhogaṃ labhitvā, I. 109). ### [c16.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.18) ¹ The business of these forest-guards (aṭavīrakkhika, II. 335) formed a profession by itself which was hereditary in the family and favoured an organisation similar to that of the guilds of tradesmen and manufacturers in this, that at the head of a number of forest-guard families there was a leader (ārakkhikajeṭṭhaka). As we have seen above, even Brāhmaṇas were driven into this profession according to the Dasabrāhmaṇa Jataka. ### [c16.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.19) If, according to the details given, trade exhibits in the Jâtakas, if not that stage of development which it shows in Manu, at least a high stage of growth, we should not be surprised at the mention of guilds (seṇi) in our text. It seems doubtful to me, however, whether from the few passages in which it is expressly mentioned, we can infer an organised guild life. Apart from the already-quoted passage from the Nigrodha Jâtaka, where it is said of the Royal storekeeper that he is worthy of the esteem of all guilds (sabbaseṇīnaṃ vicāraṇārahaṃ bhaṇḍāgārikaṭṭhānaṃ IV. 43), we find these also mentioned elsewhere (sabbaseṇiyo I. 267, 314) but without any statement which allows any inference concerning their constitution or organisation. The paccuppanavatthu of the Uraga Jâtaka gives some indication of a more developed guildhood; mention is here made of a "guild quarrel" between two ministers in the service of the king and at the head of the guilds (seṇipamukha). For the older period, the period depicted in the Jâtakas themselves, we can only speak with certainty of the presence of professional unions among the trading classes. ### [c16.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.20) The families in which wholly fixed branches of trade were hereditary formed professional unions. At their head stands a leader (jeṭṭhaka) about whose powers we learn no details, whose existence, however, indicates in itself an organisation of different branches of trade. Thus we read of the leader of the caravan drivers (satthavâjetthaka, II. 295); if we add to this the hereditary character of this profession—which is sufficiently indicated by such expressions as "family of caravan-drivers" (satthavâhakula, I. 98, 107; II. 200) and "son of a caravan-driver" (satthavâhaputta, I. 99, 194; II. 335), who on his own account, again, is a caravan-driver—then we have in my opinion two criteria which point to the existence of a close order of caravan-drivers. From the criterion of hereditariness alone, it seems somewhat bold to infer a compactness and a certain organisation of the branch of trade in question; mention is made of the hereditary character of the profession of a grain merchant (dhañña vânijakula, III. 198); the business of a green-grocer was also hereditary in the family (paṇṇikakula, I. 312). ### [c16.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.21) In individual branches of the tradesmen's profession, their small stability may be the reason why we don't read anything of a close organisation; thus, nowhere is mention made of an organisation of sea-faring traders. Also the more frequently-mentioned tradesmen who cry out their wares in the streets of the city—a pedlar dealing in pots and pans (Kacchapaṭavāṇija I. 111) sells his goods with the cry "Buy waterpots, buy waterpots"—or go about the land (II. 109) with a donkey on which they place their wares, can hardly have enjoyed the privilege which the membership of a guild conferred. ### [c16.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.22) In general, the details cited only prove indistinct traces of professional unions within the trading classes, only the first beginnings of a guildhood. With the gradual development of trade relations, the significance and inner compactness of the guilds deepened, and being similar to the castes on account of the traditional organisation and the hereditariness of membership, they gradually got, in course of time, as certain rules and customs with reference to marriage and interdining were developed, the appearance of real castes, especially, the Brāhmaṇa caste, till they finally became the modern trading classes. ### [c16.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.23) But even to-day we don't find in the trading class such a strict caste organisation as in other departments of economic life: the greater flexibility which the trading profession demands by its very nature, in contrast with other professions, the changes to which it is subject, seem to have stood in the way of a strict schematic organisation of this professional branch. ### [c16.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.24) More sharply pronounced appear in our text the divisions within the manufacturing classes according to the individual branches of the profession. Here appear circumstances which greatly favour a combination and organisation of particular unions. For manufacture, the hereditariness of the profession, which for trade was originally nothing more than a mere custom, was of essential importance; under the direction of his father the son is introduced to the technicalities of the profession which he is to adopt, from his early youth, and the manual skill, the talent for a particular handicraft, is inherited and increases from generation to generation. The taking up of a profession other than the ancestral one was manifestly unheard of among the manufacturers; not a single exception to the rule do we find mentioned anywhere in our source. "Son of a smith" (kammâraputta, is in the Pali texts (Sutta Nipâta, verse 83; Mahâparinibbâna Sutta, iv. 14) used as a synonym for a smith. Along with the families of smiths we find also other families of artisans in the Jâtakas; the hereditary character of the manufacture of pots is exhibited in the Kacchapa Jâtaka, where it is said of the Bodhisatta that he was reborn in a potter family (Kumbhakârakula, II. 79) and maintained his wife and child by manufacturing pots. Similarly it is said in the Kumbhakâra Jâtaka: "The Bodhisatta was re-born in a potter family in a village lying in front of the gate of Benares; when he grew up, he became a householder and receiving from his wife a present of a son and a daughter, he maintained his wife and children by manufacturing pots." With a stone-grinder family also we become acquainted in our text: the Bodhisatta born in it understands his handicraft thoroughly when he grows up, as mentioned in the Babbu Jâtaka. ### [c16.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.25) More even than the hereditariness of the profession there was another factor which contributed to the organisation of particular branches of trade,¹ namely, the local union and isolation which the different handicrafts, according to the Jâtakas, undoubtedly experienced. In the city, fixed streets were the place of residence of fixed tradesmen; for example, ivory-carvers (dantakâra) had a street to themselves. It is narrated how a man reaches Benares and going about the town comes to the ivory-carvers' street and sees how ivory things are made by them in various forms (dantakâravîthim patvâ dantakâre danta-vikatiyo kurumâne disvâ, I. 320). In another passage also the street of the ivory-carvers is mentioned: A poor man who lives in Benares sees how in the street of the ivory-carvers, ivory rings, etc., are made (dantakâravîthiyam dantavalîyâdam karonte disvâ) and asks, "Will you buy tusks from me if I bring some?" As they answer in the affirmative, he kills elephants, takes out the tusks and maintains his livelihood by their sale. ### [c16.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.26) ¹ For the supposition of a local union of different branches of trade the Jâtakas give no ground. A passage in the Mṛcchakatika of Sûdraka allows the conclusion that the Seṭṭhis lived in a special part of the town by themselves; as in the second act the Vasantasenâ asks her escort Madanikâ whether she knows the name of her (Vasantasenâ's) beloved one, Madanikâ replies evasively, in a joking spirit, "He lives in the quarters of the big tradesmen" (seṭṭhicattare paḍivasadi). ### [c16.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.27) Some trades were followed not inside but outside the town, although mostly in its proximity, and in villages which were occupied by members of one and the same profession. Such tradesmen's villages are often mentioned as being in the neighbourhood of Benares: "Not far from Benares"—so it is said in the Alînacitta Jâtaka (II. 18)—"lay a carpenters' village" (vaḍḍhakigâma). There lived five hundred carpenters. They proceeded by river to a forest, prepared the wood for use as material for the construction of houses, constructed various kinds of one-storeyed, two-storeyed buildings, etc., and made sign-posts with all pieces of wood, beginning with posts. Then they take the wood to the shore, put it on board the ship and go down stream to the city. Here they make houses for everyone who desires it, take the money, and return home and make new materials with it. ### [c16.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.28) Such a village in the neighbourhood of Benares and occupied only by carpenters, occurs again in the Jâtakas (II. 405; IV. 159); in the last passage it is said that a thousand families lived in the big village (kulasahassanivâso mahâvaḍḍhakigâmo). ### [c16.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.29) The potters also seem to have lived outside the town in a village by themselves; at least mention is made of one potter family who lives in a village in front of the gate of Benares (Bârânasinagarassa dvâragâme kumbhakârakula, III. 376). ### [c16.30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.30) More wonderful than these manufacturers' villages in the immediate neighbourhood of a big city which could find an easy market for their products and also could have their needs, such as clothes, implements, supplied, from the City, is the existence of such professional villages in the middle of the flat country. We read in the Sûci Jâtaka of two smiths' villages lying side by side, of which one consists of a thousand huts (sahassakuṭiko kammâragâmo III. 281). From the neighbouring villages, people go to this village in order to provide themselves with axes, hatchets, ploughshares, spikes and other implements. When one reflects what a difficulty such a local isolation creates in the economical relations, one will see in these manufacturing villages not a phenomenon of secondary importance, but a highly important factor and one that is characteristic of the physiognomy of the social life of that time. The power of traditional customs which suit the spirit of the Indian people inclined to schematism, has created and maintained here a new impetus which is stronger than the practical need which obviously points to a variety of professions within the same common life. However much the origin of professional communities may have to be traced, as we have to do in the case of the Russian village communities, to the close relationship of the villagers with one another and to the equal right of all in the common property,¹ on the Indian soil, the maintenance of such a remarkable institution seems to have been due principally to the inborn tendency towards organisation, classification, schematism in the minds of the Indians. As the Brâhmaṇas worked together in villages in which foreign, especially, lower, elements were not tolerated, so, following their example, social groups, united by community of profession, separated themselves from one another and helped to create the manifoldness of modern caste-life. ### [c16.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.31) ¹ Cf. Senart, \*Les castes dans l' Inde\*, pp. 197, 229. ### [c16.32](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.32) As with the guilds of tradesmen, so can we also in the case of the manufacturers, infer from the institution of the elders (jeṭṭhakas) the presence of a certain organisation. Such elders stand at the head of the smiths (kammâ-rajeṭṭhaka or jeṭṭhakakammâra),¹ garland-makers (mâlakârajeṭṭhaka III. 405), and carpenters (vaḍḍhaki IV. 161). It appears that the number of manufacturers combined into a guild having a common leader could not exceed a certain figure; at least, it is said, in the last-named passage of the Samuddavâṇija Jâtaka, that in a village inhabited by a thousand carpenter families, every five hundred families had a head (kulasahasse pañcannam pañcannam kulasatânam jeṭṭhakâ dve vaḍḍhaki ahesum). Whether the elder had either by law or by custom any recognised authority over the members of his union, is not mentioned; his office seems to have been an honorary one which was held by specially skilled manufactures and not always by the oldest in point of age. The elder seems to have occupied a peculiar position in the royal court. "The senior among the hundred smiths"—so it is said in the Sûci Jâtaka (III. 281)—"was a favourite of the king, blessed with wealth and property." In another place it is narrated that a prince asks a kammâreṭṭhaka to come to him and commissions him to make a female figure out of a quantity of gold (V. 282). ### [c16.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.33) ¹ Kammâra is used of blacksmiths as well as of silversmiths, (Dhammapada 43) and, as here, of goldsmiths. The latter are called in other places (I. 182; V. 438) suvaṇṇakâra. ### [c16.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16.34) The three conditions mentioned: local division of different kinds of work, hereditary character of branches of profession and the existence of an elder: seem to me to indicate clearly an organisation of handicraft which can be compared in many respects with our corporations in the Middle Ages. Also in these tradesmen's corporations of ancient India the principle finds application, which has already been mentioned in connexion with the guilds of tradesmen: the more in the course of centuries the caste theory—even in Buddhist lands—obtained currency, the greater the exclusiveness of, and respect for, the leading castes, the more did the manufacturers' corporations become incorporated in the caste-order. After the example set by nobility and the Brahmanical caste, they surrounded themselves with limitations by which a common bed and a common table were forbidden with members of castes who on account of the lowness of their race occupied a lower stage of human society than they themselves. That many of the manufacturers mentioned above occupied a comparatively low social position admits of no doubt and was, in my opinion, the chief reason why they separated themselves from the rest of the population and thereby had in ancient times the appearance of being something akin to a caste: the corporations of the manufacturers fall—partly, at any rate—undoubtedly under the category of the despised castes which will be treated of in a later chapter. ## Linked texts (8) - [Jātaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.jataka.2) — Pāli - [Mānava Dharmaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma.manu.8.41) — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit - [Gautamadharmasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.dharma.gautama.11.21) — Gautama (dharmasūtrakāra), Sanskrit - [Suttanipāta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.suttanipata) — Pāli - [Mṛcchakaṭika](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.plays.prakarana.mrcchakatika) — Śūdraka, Sanskrit - [Mahāparinibbānasutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.digha.16) — Pāli - [Dhammapada](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.dhammapada) — Pāli - [Vinayapiṭaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.vp) — Pāli --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c16) · Pramāṇa