The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c17.2

c17.2

But from these despised and shunned portions of the population the guilds of tradesmen and most of the manufacturers with which we have had hitherto to do, are far removed. Between these there is a multiform and chaotic society which resists more or less every attempt at classification and about which there can be no talk of an organisation according to castes in that age. To this belong the great number of manufacturers standing outside their corporation and exclusively in the service of the king—namely, contractors and artists, the wandering dancers and musicians who move from village to village, showing their skill, and the tramps who consider every means good which helps them to earn their livelihood, and further, the herdsmen, huntsmen and fishermen living in the country, in the forest and in mountains, and finally, the mass of labourers and slaves.