Local Government in Ancient India c16.15

c16.15

A noteworthy example of a composite corporation representing different interests and functions is given in a northern inscription (the Mandasor inscription of Kumāragupta cited above). The inscription narrates that a guild of skilled silk weavers (*prathita-śilpāḥ*) immigrated from the Lāṭa Viṣaya (central and southern Gujarāt) into the city of Daśapura, ‘being attracted by the virtues of the kings of the country’. There the members of the guild pursued different occupations according to their tastes. Some specialized in music, some in story-telling (*kathāvidaḥ*), some in religious discourses (*dharma-prasaṅga*), some in their old craft (of silk weaving), some in astrology (*jyotiṣa*), others distinguished themselves in war (*samarapragalbhāḥ*) destroying their enemies, others, again, conquering attachment to the world (*vijita-viṣayasaṅga*), devoted themselves to piety (*dharma-śīla*) and shone like gods. Thus the religious and the secular, the spiritual and the practical, the literary and the military, find their place and scope under a common organization. But this extraordinary diversity of pursuits within the same guild did not affect its corporate life or weaken its internal cohesion. Contradictions and disagreements of tastes and occupations were blended into a harmonious synthesis under the inspiration of a larger civic consciousness. The skilled musician, the valiant soldier, the clever weaver, the entertaining story-teller, the moralizing preacher, the fortunetelling astrologer and the other-worldly ascetic—all meet in the embrace of a larger life. The consequence of this concord and co-operation was that the guild as a whole grew in power and prosperity, so that out of the abundance of its communal funds was constructed ‘a noble and an unequalled temple of the sun’—a monument at once of its material and moral pre-eminence (*udāra*). Thus the history of this particular guild is a lesson in administration that has to deal with conflicting communities and interests. It is also surprising how a mere craft guild could nourish so much of intellectual life and culture among its members and open out to them within the ambit of its jurisdiction the opportunities for unfettered self-development.