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Local Government in Ancient India c9.s2: § 4

Local Government in Ancient India c9.s2

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§ 4

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Without multiplying further instances, those already adduced will make it quite clear that both North Indian and South Indian evidence agree remarkably in attributing to the guilds or assemblies banking functions¹ which were taken full advantage of by the public in making permanent religious endowments. Secondly, we have seen that according to both northern and southern evidence the deposits with the banks were made under proper deeds of agreement reciting the conditions under

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¹ Some of the North Indian inscriptions show that these banking functions were also exercised to some extent by other kinds of corporate bodies than what are understood by guilds and assemblies. We have an interesting example of this in no. 62 in Fleet’s *Gupta Inscriptions* which runs as follows:

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‘By the Upāsikā Harisvāminī, the wife of the Upāsaka Sanasiddha, for the sake of her parents, twelve *dīnāras* are given, as a permanent endowment, to the community of the faithful, collected from the four quarters of the world, at the holy great *vihāra* of Kākanādaboṭa. With the interest that accrues of these *dīnāras*, day by day one Bhikṣu, who has been introduced into the community, should be fed.
Also, three *dīnāras* are given in the *ratna-gṛha* (jewel-house). With the interest of these three *dīnāras*, day by day three lamps of the divine Buddha should be lit in the *ratna-gṛha*.
Also, one *dīnāra* is given in the place where (the images of) the four Buddhas are seated. With the interest of this, day by day a lamp of the divine Buddha should be lit in the place where (the images of) the four Buddhas are seated.
Thus this permanent endowment,—written upon stone (so as to endure) for the same time with the moon and the sun,—has been accomplished by the Upāsikā Harisvāminī, the noble lady, the wife of Sanasiddha.’
Thus the *Ārya-Saṅgha* or the community of the faithful received permanent deposits called *akṣaya-nīvī* of which the interest alone was to be appropriated for the charity, while the capital was to be kept intact. The inscription also shows that the provision of sacred

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which they were held. In the concluding part of the Nāsik inscription cited above (no. 8, *Ep. Ind.*, vol. VIII, p. 83) we have the following sentence: ‘And all this has been proclaimed (and) registered at the town-hall, at the record office, according to custom.’ This suggests a double formality: first, the notification (*śrāvita*) of the gift, and, secondly, its registration (*nibaddha*). The endowment was recorded in the archives conformably to rule. But with regard to these legal details and formalities of the transactions the South Indian evidence is at once more abundant and explicit as we have already seen. It also introduces us to certain new and interesting features regarding the religious benefactions. In the first place these were, from the nature of the case, mostly for Hinduism rather than for Buddhism or Jainism. Secondly, the purposes of the grants were

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lamps at shrines was by no means the exclusive characteristic of South Indian religious benefactions but had its earlier precedents in the north. There are several other Gupta Inscriptions recording similar benefactions. No. 5 records a permanent endowment for feeding Bhikṣus and maintaining a lamp, while nos. 7–10 record endowments in favour of almshouses for feeding Brāhmans.

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Some of the Bhinmāl inscriptions (*Bombay Gazetteer*, vol. I, pt. I, App. iii) show the temples acting as banks in receiving permanent deposits to provide out of their interest the articles for worship specified by the donors. These articles comprised flowers for garlands, aloewood, wheat, ghee, leaves and betel-nut &c., required for the *naivedya* as also the engagement of singing women. The rate of interest allowed on the deposits is also indicated; in one case it was as high as 30 per cent. (no. VII), in another case only 12 per cent. (no. X).

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both sacred and secular. In the northern inscriptions we have also two instances of the endowments being applied for the robes, pocket-money, and medicines of the monks, and of another for a perpetual sacred lamp. In the southern inscriptions we have several instances of endowments being offered for the support of Brāhmaṇas in the place of the Buddhist monks of the northern, while, as regards sacred purposes, we have many varieties recorded, besides provision of the permanent lamp, viz., food for gods, anointing, processions on festival days, camphor lamps, beat of drum at festivals, scents for the bathing-water of the gods, and the like. We

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have also two remarkable examples of secular charity, viz., provision of free ferry boats in a village tank, and of water, fire-pans, and a water-lever to a cistern for a Brāhmaṇa settlement. Thirdly, the

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South Indian epigraphic evidence points to the extensive practice of making payments of charities in kind according to the convenience of the donors and also of the receivers of those trust-properties. The majority of the instances represents payment of the necessary value of the charity in sheep, but we find also a few instances of the payment in cows. There are many cases of payment in land

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or villages. Fourthly, the rate of interest allowed on these religious deposits was not at all uniform. In some cases it was 12½ per cent., and in a few others as much as 50 per cent. No. 29 of 1893 records interest at 25 per cent., 179 of 1912 15 per cent., and 224 of 1903 20 per cent. The rate of interest in the northern inscriptions seems to have been slightly lower. It may be further recalled in this connexion that the guilds and assemblies received the gifts of others as trust-properties and made similar gifts themselves. Individual charity vied with the communal and collective charity. As bankers receiving public deposits of cash, and as trustees or administrators of trust-properties in various forms, these guilds and assemblies enjoyed a high degree of public confidence by the faithful discharge of their responsibilities and obligations. There was no abuse of their fiduciary ownership of the public funds accumulating in their hands. The efficiency of their organization is emphatically demonstrated by their longevity. They are trusted to provide for the purposes of gifts in perpetuity. They are made trustees even of royal gifts. Inscription no. 37 mentioned above (p. 108) records Rājarāja the Great depositing money with four bazars of Tanjore to maintain some temple charities of his. No. 26 of 1912 records how a king chooses to deposit 1,400 *kāśus* in trust with sixteen villages. Uṣavadāta, son-in-law of king Nahapāna, of a northern inscription trusts two guilds of weavers with his great gift of gold to be held for the beneficiary nominated by the donor. And, what is still more surprising and significant, the guilds allow themselves perfect freedom of migration as dictated by economic necessities, but this change of place does not affect in the least their distinctive corporate personality or individuality, their internal cohesion, or, what is more important, their *credit*, their legal relations and liabilities entered into in the localities from which they remove.

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But these rural banks, besides receiving and paying interest on deposits, were also competent to borrow money at interest on occasions of necessity. Such occasions for borrowing are recorded, for instance, in the Southern epigraphs, nos. 397 of 1913 and 279 of 1909. In the one case the capitalist creditor was the temple itself, and in the other case an individual.

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The question of payment of interest is connected with that of the investment of the moneys deposited. As may be naturally supposed, the moneys were invested in productive public works yielding a return more than sufficient to cover the stipulated interest on the deposits. As Venkayya points out (*South Indian Inscriptions*, Volume II, Part V, p. 19), ‘in all probability the money thus borrowed was utilized in bringing waste lands under cultivation. From the produce of these lands the interest on the money borrowed was paid’. No. 214 of 1911 (a Cola epigraph of about 1050 a. d.) records the interesting instance of a gift of 100 *kāśu* to an assembly which utilized the money in repairing damages caused to irrigation channels by the Kāverī floods. The interest payable on the deposit was at one *kalam* of paddy per *kāśu* to be paid for certain purposes of the temple (among which was included the exposition of the Śivadharma). The restoration of the damaged irrigation channels must have brought to the assembly an additional revenue from the water-rates and enabled them to discharge their liability in regard to the money thus utilized. Sometimes the deposits of the public were treated by the assembly as convenient sources of the capital or cash they needed to execute some urgent public works (not necessarily productive in their character) in the interests of the people. An instance of this is recorded in no. 284 of 1911 which registers the deposit of thirty *kalañju* of gold with an assembly that utilized the money to construct a bathing hall (*namanamantapa*). The purpose of the deposit was provided for by the assignment of land yielding the required income. Another method of investing the local funds was to deposit them with parties approved by the central government. According to Kauṭilya (IV. i), there was a special department of the central government consisting of three *amātyas* (ministers), or *pradeṣṭṛs*, to look after the interests of artisans (*kārukarakṣaṇa*; cf. also the evidence of Megasthenes), and the parties whom the guilds might trust with their deposits are precisely defined, such as those who can meet their wants, who are themselves money-lenders, who enjoy their confidence and the like. The rule was also laid down that the guilds might get back their deposits in time of need.

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We may also note in this connexion the *variety* of guilds shown, especially in the northern evidence. We have references in the inscriptions to guilds of (1) weavers, (2) silk-cloth weavers, (3) oilmen, (4) oil-millers (*tilapiṣaka*), (5) potters, (6) braziers, (7) bamboo-workers, (8) ivory-workers, (9) shepherds (in the southern evidence), and (10) mechanicians [fabricating hydraulic engines, *odayantrikas* (connected with *udaya-yantra*)]. We may recall the Smṛti passage (*Gautama*, XI. 21) in which the different classes of guilds are broadly distinguished as those of (1) cultivators, (2) herdsmen, (3) traders, (4) money-lenders, and (5) artisans, each class having liberty to lay down its own laws to be respected by the king. Bṛhaspati (I. 26) adds to this list artists [e. g. painters (*citrakāra*) according to the commentator], dancers, religious orders (like the *Pāśupatas*), and even robbers who must adjust their disputes according to their own particular laws. Vyāsa adds the dyers (*raṅgopajīvins*).

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In conclusion, it may be observed that the South Indian religious endowments were, as we have seen, mostly assigned or entrusted to village corporations, the scope of whose functions and activities seems to have been much wider than that covered by the industrial guilds contemplated in the North Indian inscriptions (of which the precise scope is not ascertainable from the available evidence) and to have embraced the totality of the manifold interests of communal life. We now turn to the methods of administration of that life through the local bodies.

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