Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.t3.55

c5.t3.55

While the craft-guilds, thus, seem to have enjoyed, more or less, a permanent form of organization, the other unions, those of the merchants and tradesmen (*vāṇijā*) were less so. These latter only seem to have had a temporary character. Although two of the characteristics or factors of an organisation, *viz.* hereditariness⁵ and the institution of an elder (*jeṭṭhaka*)⁶ are present also in these unions or combines, their permanent character is no where revealed.