Local Government in Ancient India c9.110

Language: English

c9.110.1

The epigraphic evidence also confirms the literary evidence and throws some new light on these organizations of craft-guilds and merchant-guilds. We read of munificent religious endowments and benefactions executed by merchant princes and prosperous guilds whose wealth is derived from success in trade and commerce. The great *caitya* cave at Kārli was the gift of a *śeṭh* (*śreṣṭhin*) of Vaijayantī. There were similar costly gifts at other places also, such as those at Kānheri. In the Mathurā Jaina image inscription (no. 24 in Lüders's List)¹ the wife of the śeṭh Veṇi dedicates a four-fold image of Bhagavāna. Similarly in the Mathurā Jaina elephant capital inscription of the time of Mahārāja Devaputra Huviṣka the elephant Nandiviśāla is set up by the śeṭh Ārya Rudradāsa for the worship of the Arhats (no. 41). In the inscriptions of the Sānchi stūpa assigned to the period dating from Aśoka's time up to the first century a. c. (*Ep. Ind.*, vol. II, p. 88) we have records of gifts made by several merchants, viz. those of Sāmanerā, the Abeyaka śeṭh (i.e. ‘the śeṭh of a town or village called Aba or Amba, in Sanskrit Āmragrāma’) (no. 184); of the śeṭh, the great executor of repairs (*patikamakārikānā*) (no. 248); gift of a pillar (*thava*) by Nāgapiya, the Korāra (native of Kurāra), a śeṭh in Achāvaḍa (339); gift of the śeṭh Śiha (364); gift of the śeṭh Nāgadīna (Nāgadatta), inhabitant of Rohaṇipada (*Ep. Ind.*, vol. II, p. 109);

c9.110.2

the gift of Devabhāga, wife of the śeṭh of Kaṃdaḍigrāma (423); the gift of the śeṭh Nāgila (470); gift of the śeṭh Budhapālita, native of Pāḍukulikā (Pāṇḍukulikā) (576); gift of Nāgā, wife of the Kaṃdaḍigāmīya śeṭh (no. 140, *Ep. Ind.*, vol. II, p. 372); of Kaniyasi, the mother of the śeṭh (ibid., no. 167, p. 374); of Kujara (Kuñjara), brother of the śeṭh (ibid., no. 170, p. 375); of Nāgapiya, the śeṭh of Achāvaḍa and of his son Saṃgha (ibid., no. 201, p. 378). The inscription no. 190 in Cunningham, *Bhilsa Topes* (p. 264) records the gift of Ānaṃda, the son of Vāsiṭhi (Vāsiṣṭhī), the foreman of the artisans (*āvesanin*) of Rājā Siri-Sātakaṇi. Some of the Kānheri Buddhist cave inscriptions record gifts of artisans and merchants. No. 986 in Lüders’s List mentions the gift of a cistern (*pāniyaka*) by a goldsmith, Samidata of Kalyāṇa. No. 987 mentions the building of a *caitya* by the merchants (*vāṇijaka*) of which the overseers included a merchant (*negama*) named Apareṇuka, while the labourers included the stone-cutters (*sela-vaḍhakin*), the *nāyakamisas*, the *kaḍhicakas*, the *mahākaṭakas* and the polisher (*miṭhika*) Khadaraki. No. 995 mentions the gift of a cistern (*poḍhī*) of the merchant (*negama*) Samika from Sopāraga (*Śūrpāraka*). No. 998 mentions the gift of a cave (*leṇa*), a water-cistern (*pāṇiyapoḍhī*), benches for sitting on (*āsaṇapeḍhikā*), a chair (? *pidha*) and a walk (*cakama*) by the merchant (*negama*), Dhama. No.

c9.110.3

1,000 mentions the gift of a cave and cistern by a merchant named Isipāla; no. 1,001 of a cave by a merchant; no. 1,005 of a cave by a jeweller (*maṇikāra*), Nāgapālita of Śūrpāraka; no. 1,024 the gift of a cave, and a hall (*koḍhi*) by Apareṇu the son of a Kalyāṇa merchant; and no. 1,032 the gift of a path (? *patha*) by the blacksmith (Kamāra) Nada (Nanda) from Kalyāṇa. Nos. 1,202, 1,203, and 1,204 record gift of five entrance pillars to the Great Caitya of Velagiri by the foreman of a guild of artisans (*āvesanin*) named Sidhatha. No. 1,298, an Amarāvatī inscription, mentions another foreman Nadabhuti (Nandabhūti). In the Kudā Buddhist cave inscriptions (nos. 1,063, 1,064) we have the gifts of a cave by the śeṭh Vasulaṇaka and of a cistern (*poḍhī*) by the same śeṭh. In the Mahāḍ Buddhist cave inscription (1,073) we have the gift of a cave (*leṇa*) and a Caitya hall (*cetiakoḍhi*) by the wife of the śeṭh Saṃgharakhita and in the Kol Buddhist cave inscription (1,075) the gift of a cave by the śeṭh of the same name. In the Kārli Buddhist cave inscription (*Ep. Ind.*, vol. VII, p. 48) we have the establishment of a cave-dwelling (*śelaghara*) the most excellent one in Jambudvīpa, by the śeṭh Bhutapāla from Vejayaṃtī (Vaijayantī), or Banavāsi in the North Kanara district. The Beḍsā Buddhist cave inscription (1,109) mentions the gift of Pusaṇaka (Puṣya), son of the śeṭh Ānada from Nāsika.

c9.110.4

The Amarāvatī Buddhist sculpture inscription (1,261) records the gift of a rail bar (*suci*) by the righteous hamlet (*bhadanigama*), the Cadakica (of Cadaka), headed by the śeṭhs.