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Local Government in Ancient India c9.s1: § 3

Local Government in Ancient India c9.s1

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§ 3

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The North Indian evidence, valuable for its comparative antiquity, and its consequent anticipation of the growths reflected in the southern, is far more copious in its literary than in its epigraphic or monumental part. While the evidence as a whole is devoid of those definite and elaborate details by which we are enabled to draw a complete picture of the administrative machinery evolved and employed by local government in olden times, yet there is one unique feature in the northern material which gives us a valuable compensation for the deficiency, and serves to bring out the efficiency of the organization of these local bodies. That feature is the discovery of numerous seals and sealings issued by North Indian guilds or corporations in different localities and at various times. The earliest of these is a seal-die of terra-cotta discovered in the excavations conducted by Sir John Marshall at Bhīṭā, near Allahabad, on which he reads the legend *Śahijitiye nigamaśa*, ‘written in letters of the third or perhaps fourth century b. c.’ Sir John found the die at the foundation of a house which he accordingly designates as the ‘House of the Guild’, and remarks that ‘the house in which the seal was discovered may mark the site of the office of the *nigama* or corporation’ (*Arch. Surv., Annual Report*, 1911–12, p. 47). Four other sealings of guilds bearing the legend *nigama* or *nigamaśa* inscribed in Kuṣaṇa characters have also been discovered there, together with a fifth sealing bearing the legend *nigamasya* in northern Gupta characters.

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Similarly, the excavations at Basāṛh (identified with Vaiśālī) have brought to light many seals with inscriptions that connect them with the time of the Imperial Gupta kings, and ‘the most numerous [class] among the seal inscriptions is that referring to the corporation or guild (*nigama*) of bankers (*śreṣṭhin*), traders (*sārthavāha*), and merchants (*kulika*).’ It is invariably combined with other seals, giving the names of private individuals, who were themselves traders, merchants, or bankers, and probably were the members of those guilds. One person, Hari by name, styles himself as both *kulika* and *prathama-kulika*, i. e. the leader of merchants. ‘It looks as if during those days something like a modern chamber of commerce existed in Upper India at some big trading centre, perhaps at Pāṭaliputra’ (Dr. Bloch in the *Arch. Survey, Annual Report*, 1903–4. p. 104). The discoveries included three specimens of seals bearing the legend *śreṣṭhi-kulika-nigama*, ‘the corporation of bankers (and) merchants’, and no less than 274 showing the legend *śreṣṭhi-sārthavāha-kulika-nigama* (or sometimes *nigamā*), i.e. the corporation of bankers, traders, (and) merchants. The symbol added to these merchant guilds' seals has been described by Dr. Bloch as a money-chest, because in shape it resembles the money-bag held in front from which the attendant of Lakṣmī, very probably Kubera, throws down coins, as depicted on the seals of officials. Among the names of private persons who are associated with the seals of the guilds as their members may be mentioned Ajapāla, Āryyanandi, Bhavasena, Nāgasiṃha, Dharmmo-rakṣati-rakṣita, Ghoṣa, Gomikaputra, Harigupta, Varāhasya (genitive), Īśānadāsasya (genitive), Keśavadattasya (genitive), Lakṣmaṇa, Mātṛdāsa, &c. We have also a number of what may be called *kulika-* and *śreṣṭhi*-seals, i. e. seals issued by *kulikas* or merchants and *śreṣṭhins* or bankers, whose names are given on them, e. g. *kulika-Dhanasya*, *śreṣṭhi-Śrīdāsasya*, &c. Again, no less than sixteen specimens of a seal bearing the legend *śreṣṭhi-nigamasya*, (seal) of the guild of bankers were discovered by the excavations of Dr. D. B. Spooner, who is thus led to make the following remark: 'Banking was evidently as prominent in Vaiśālī as we should have expected it to be, judging from the notice in Manu to the effect that the people in Magadha were bards and traders' (*Arch. Surv., Annual Report*, 1913–14, p. 122).¹

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¹ ^1 *Manu*, X. 47 mentions the Māgadhas as traders, not as bards. It may be interesting to note in this connexion that numerous

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Besides seals and sealings the ancient Indian guilds also issued coinage, specimens of which, belonging to different periods, have been discovered in the process of archaeological exploration. On plate III of Cunningham’s *Coins of Ancient India* (p. 63) are figured four coins from Taxila bearing the following obverse and reverse legends:

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| | *Obverse* | *Reverse* |
| No. 8 | [? *T*]ālima[ta] | [*N*]ega[m] |
| ,, 9 | *Dujaka* | *Negamā* |
| ,, 10 | *Dojaka* | *Negamā* |
| ,, 11 | *A*[*taka* ?]*takā* | *Negam*[*ā*] |

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These coins seem to have been struck by the *negamā* inscribed clay seals issued by the Buddhist Saṅghas or monasteries have been discovered. Thus in the excavations near Kasia Dr. Vogel brought to light no less than 464 seals bearing the legend *śrī-Mahāparinirvāṇa-vihāre bhikṣusaṅghasya* with minor variations, which were used by the Convent of the Great Decease to seal their letters sent to another neighbouring monastery which has been traced in other nine seals. [See *Arch. Surv.*, *Annual Report*, 1906–7, pp. 63–7.] The names according to Prof. Bhandarkar (*Carmichael Lectures*, p. 176) are those of towns which, from their issue of coins and seals, are to be taken to be self-governing, political bodies, and not mere industrial guilds. The inscription in cave no. 18 at Nāsik refers to the gift of a village by the citizens of Nāsik and this fact, according to him, further indicates the political character of the town corporation. He further points out (as has been already set forth in the previous pages) that corporations of Naigamas are mentioned in the *Vivādaratnākara* and by Yājñavalkya, and that the *Visuddhimagga* (ch. XIV) states that some ‘Naigamas’ and ‘Gāmas’ could issue money. The *Vivādaratnākara* explains *naigama* as a town corporation (*paurāṇāṃ samūha*) but the *Smṛti-Candrikā* as *sārthiko vaṇik* i.e. a merchant.

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or guilds of the names¹ given, and were of the nature of ‘mercantile guild-tokens’. The legends on the coins are ‘in beautifully formed Asokan characters, both Gandharian [Kharoṣṭhī] and Indian. Over the word *negamā* there is a single stroke or bar, as if to designate one *negamā*. On the opposite side there is a “steel-yard” very clearly represented.’ These coins are partly punch-marked silver pieces and partly single or double die copper pieces, all of the standard peculiar to India, anterior to the Greek conquest of Alexander, or, more correctly, ‘the Greek conquest of Demetrius’. The inscriptions are partly in Brāhmī characters of the oldest type and partly both in Brāhmī and in Kharoṣṭhī letters, which fact points to the conclusion that they are not later than the third century B. C.²

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¹ Rapson (*J. R. A. S.*, 1900, p. 99) regards the names as those of the rulers of the guilds.

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² Along with these guild-coins, we may note what Cunningham calls the ‘autonomous coins of ancient India’, i. e. those issued by the free clans or autonomous communities, such as the (1) *Odumbara* coins; (2) *Yaudheya* coins (with those of their chiefs Brāhmaṇa Deva and Bhānu Varma); (3) *Sibi* coins; (4) *Mālava* coins; (5) *Vaṭāśvaka* coins (probably connected with the Aśvaka tribe, the ‘Assakenoi’ of the Greeks, to which Rapson (*J. R. A. S.*, 1900, pp. 98–106) adds (6) *Uddehika* coins (third century B.C.); and (7) *Ārjunāyana* coins, related to the Yaudheya.

Cites (6)