Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.t3.66

c5.t3.66

We frequently read of caravans (*sattha*) consisting of 500 carts (the number of the carts is only conventional) laid with goods (*bhaṇḍāni*) travelling across the country.¹ There the rank of the *Satthavāha*, or caravan-leader, seems to imply some sort of federation. Moreover, this position was apparently hereditary as the term *satthavāhakulam* indicates.² The insecure condition of the roads in those times necessitated the co-operation of a certain kind among these merchants. Having long and dreary distances to traverse, and being always in fear of an attack by organized bands of robbers who lay in wait for them³ the travelling tradesmen naturally went united in a body, with one man as their elder (*jeṭṭhaka*). This naturally implies that other merchants with their carts followed the *Satthavāha* and looked to him for directions as to halts, watering, precautions against brigands and dangerous places, and even as to routes, fordings etc.⁴ But it was not a strict union. Subordination was not always ensured⁵ and the evidence at hand does not warrant the inference of any fuller syndicalism among the traders.