Local Government in Ancient India c9.30

c9.30

The Pāli literature, moreover, is full of much interesting evidence on the point. The evidence will show that, though normally the trades and crafts were organized on an hereditary basis and technical talent descended from father to son and was confined to a particular family, the way was still open for exceptions to that rule. Certain other functions were also determined by caste. Spiritual ministrations were the work of Brāhmans, and administration that of Brāhmans and Kṣatriyas, though some share of it was being appropriated by the Vaiśyas (as in the case of the office of the king's treasurer, already referred to, with which was coupled the judgeship of the merchant guilds). But these distinctions did not hold in the economic sphere where all the castes seem to have stood together. The choice of occupations was quite free.