The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c9.s1.t2.1

c9.s1.t2.1

In the later literature of political institutions the term *saṃgha* seems to have dropped out of general use. The most "generic" term for *polis* with the authors of the *smṛiti-śâstras*, at any rate, is *samûha*. In the fourth century A. C. Yâjnavalkya¹ used it generically for any corporation. *Samûhas* were known to be divided into various classes differing from one an other according to the nature of objects for which the association was instituted or the kind of persons organizing themselves into a *polis*. One of these was the *śreṇî*, i. e. gild, a second was the *naigama* (also *nigama*) or body of traders (the "gild merchant"), and a third was the *pâṣaṇḍi*, or group of socio-religious heretics and dissenters, e. g., Buddhists, Jainas and other denominations; and *gaṇa* (town) was the fourth.