Local Government in Ancient India c8.2.2

c8.2.2

The fact of the matter is that Vedic society was sufficiently settled to admit of an elaborate differentiation of functions and occupations among the people, and already presented an economic environment favourable to the growth of industrial and commercial combinations in the community, leading to the formation of specialized institutions like the guilds. These were perhaps natural and necessary growths out of the conditions and requirements of the economic life of the age with its many-sided development. It is admitted on all hands that Vedic society at a comparatively early period divided itself into three fundamental orders, estates, or castes, viz.: (1) the ruling caste or the warrior-caste, comprising the king and his entourage, his great lords and vassals, the knights of the army; (2) the priestly caste, distinguished in learning and religion, which, though not directly wielding any political or martial power, was possessed of supreme influence in the state as regulating the king's will—an influence which rested solely on its high character and spirituality; (3) the people-caste with its Aryan blood and eligibility for all Aryan privileges in the matter of legal rights, religious rites, and educational opportunities.