Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c14.s1.4

c14.s1.4

far better organised than a group of wandering merchants. In the Jâtakas there are whole villages of artisans, for instance, a village comprising 1,000 families of dealers in wood. That the office of aldermen carried some authority is clear: that it was sometimes hereditary is apparent, but the Jâtakas do not enable us to determine the exact amount of control which the aldermen exercised in practice or which was allowed to them in theory. Nor again is it possible to ascertain to whom they were responsible. A Jâtaka, indeed, brings before us a state officer, Bhândâgârika, Treasurer or Superintendent of Stores, who also acted as judge for members of merchant guilds.¹ It is thus clear that the guilds were not perfectly autonomous, that the state was entitled to some sort of supervision over them and that in particular it undertook to award justice, at any rate in the more important cases. The Mûgapakkha Jâtaka speaks of 18 guilds, eighteen being a mysterious number in India. But since most of the occupations organised themselves, the actual number of guilds far exceeded that figure. From literary and epigraphic sources, Majumdar has made a list of 27 guilds.²