Local Government in Ancient India c8.37.1

c8.37.1

It is thus clear from the above references that the merchant (*seṭṭhi*) attained at a very early time to a position of much social importance. This was chiefly due to his possession of great wealth derived from trade. Many of these merchants were like millionaires of modern times; we read of a merchant’s son as leading a caravan of 500 wagons. They seem to have been the principal representatives of the householder (*gahapati*) class, the typical burghers of the great towns. Besides being private traders they are also mentioned as representatives of commerce holding an official position in the court. In the *Mahāvagga* (VIII. 1, 16. 17) ‘the Seṭṭhi at Rājagaha, this householder’ is recognized to be doing so much ‘good service both to the king and to the merchants’ guild’ that, when after his suffering from a protracted illness for seven years, his case is pronounced as hopeless by the ‘many very great and world-renowned physicians’ who attended on him, the Magadha king, Bimbisāra, was prevailed upon by a merchant to depute his own physician-in-ordinary, Jīvaka, for his treatment which thus became a matter of communal concern. This particular Seṭṭhi was so rich that he paid 200,000 *kāhāpaṇas* as medical fees.