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Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c9.s2: IV Organisation

Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c9.s2

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English

IV Organisation

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The function of an organiser is to plan the enterprise, bring together land, labour and capital in the most suitable proportion and to take the risk involved in the undertaking.

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It is remarkable that, in spite of a comparative lower stage of trading enterprise and lack of fluid capital for investment in industrial purposes, there was commercial or trading organisation. Important craftsmen such as goldsmiths, painters and washermen were organised into guilds (seṇi) Jain texts like those of the Buddhists mention eighteen guilds. We are told that in honour of the cakka jewel, Bharata called upon eighteen guilds (seṇippaseni) and ordered them to exempt people from customs, taxes and confiscations, to stop the transaction of buying and selling, to prevent policemen from entering the houses of the public and to cancel fines and debts.¹ The guilds of the goldsmiths,² the painters,³ and washermen⁴ are mentioned and about the rest we do not know much.⁵ Neither we are told about their character, their constitution or organisation. But it seems that a seṇi was organised in the form of a union and its functions were legislative, judicial and executive.⁶ A seṇi worked for the welfare of its members and it had a right to approach the king and demand justice. We are told of a painter who was ordered to be executed by prince Malladinna; the guild of the painters visited the king, explained the matter and requested him to quash the sentence passed against the member of its union. The king was pleased to commute the sentence into banishment⁷. Then we hear of a washermen's guild approaching the king in order to demand justice.⁸ In the words of Dr. Majumdar, a śreṇi was a corporation of people belonging to the same or different caste but belonging to the same trade and industry.⁹ The śreṇis were the representative assemblies of the state and the king was obliged to respect their feelings and views.¹⁰

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¹ Jambu. 3. 43, p 193 f, also cf. Ava. Cū. p. 260.

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² Nāyā 8, p. 105.

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³ ibid., p 107

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⁴ Ava. cū II, p 182.

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⁵ The Jain texts mention five crafts (sippa) which are said to have been taught by Usabha. The five artisans were potters, cloth-makers, black-smiths and barbers (ibid p 156) Only four guilds are mentioned in the Mahāummagga Jātaka (No 546), VI, p 427 the wood-workers, the smiths, the leather workers, and the painters However, in the commentary on the Jambuddīvapannatti the following eighteen corporative unions are mentioned kumbhāra (potter), pattalla (patel in Gujerat), suvaṇṇakāra (goldsmith), sūakāra (cook,), gandhava (perfumer), kāsavaga (barber), mālākāra (garland-maker), kacchakāra (vegetable-seller, kāchī in Hindī), tambolia (dealer in betel-leaf), cammayaru (leather-worker), jantapilaya (presser of oil, sugar cane etc), gañchiya (towel-seller) champāya (calico printer), kamsakāra (brazier), suaga (tailor), guāra (?), bhilla and dhīvara The first nine belonged to the category of nāiua and the last nine to that, of kārua (3 43, p 193 f); also see the list given by Majumdar, Corporative life in ancient India, p. 18 ff Also Rāmāyaṇa, II 83 12 ff.

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⁶ Vinaya, IV, p 226; S K. Das, op. cit., p. 244

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⁷ Nāyā 8, p 107.

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⁸ Ava. cū II, p 182.

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⁹ Corporative life in Ancient India, p. 17.

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¹⁰ See Dikshitar, op. cit., pp. 339-47.

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Like craft-guilds there were merchant leagues also which included river and sea-going merchants and the caravan traders. We come across frequently caravans of carts laden with goods travelling across the country. There was a caravan leader (*satthavāha*) who used to lead his caravan slowly by the road flanked with stalls and villages, encamping at the proper places.¹¹ A *satthavāha* was considered as an important state officer who was expert in archery and administration,¹² and who with the permission of the king used to lead a caravan with various merchandise.¹³ We frequently meet caravan leaders proclaiming publicly that those who accompanied them on the trip would be provided with food, drinks, clothes, utensils and medicines free of charge.¹⁴ The insecure condition of the roads and the attack by organised band of robbers in those days necessitated a sort of co-operation among the travelling merchants and so they appointed one man as their leader.

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¹¹ Cf. Bṛh. Bhā. 1.307B.

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¹² Nisi cū. 9. p. 522.

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¹³ Anu cū. p. 11.

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¹⁴ Ava. Ṭī. (Harī.), p. 114 a ff.

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A *seṭṭhi* was the foreman of the eighteen craftsmen.¹⁵ *Seṭṭhi* is mentioned as an official whose forehead was invested with a golden plate inscribed with the image of a god.¹⁶

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¹⁵ Bṛh. Bhā. 3.3757. Cf. Rhys Davids, Cambridge History of India, 207; the famous seṭṭhi Anāthapiṇḍika of Sāvatthi, the millionaire lay-supporter of the Saṅgha, had some authority over his fellow traders.

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¹⁶ Rāya. sū. 148; also cf. Rhys Davids, op. cit., p. 208.

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DISTRIBUTION

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The division of accumulated wealth between the various members of the community and of the annual income between its different members is the chief factor of distribution. In fact, very often the factors of production were conrolled by the same person or persons and so all the shares of the produce went to him. Thus on the whole, the question of distribution did not arise in those days as we find in the later stage of the evolution of society. Four principal shares of distribution are to be ditinguished : rent, wages, interest and profits.

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