The Penguin History of Early India

by Romila Thapar

  According to the Arthashastra, although guilds had to be registered in the locality where they functioned and required permission to change location, this may not have been strictly adhered to. Artisans of any craft could constitute a guild, and those of importance included guilds of potters, metal-workers, weavers, goldsmiths, bead and glass makers, ivory carvers and carpenters. However, this did not preclude private enrrepreneurship, and one wealthy potter named Saddalaputta who owned 500 pottery workshops also organized the distribution of his products, with a large number of boats taking the pottery from the workshops to the various ports of the Ganges River system.

  The shrenis fixed rules of work, as well as the quality of the finished product and its price, in order to safeguard both the artisan and the customer. Prices of manufactured articles depended on their quality or were calculated according to a fixed scale. The behaviour of members was monitored through a court that ensured the customary usage of the guild, the shreni-dharma. This was on a par with the customary laws of the jati as an occupational group and had to be honoured by the king. Institutions such as the shreni and the jati had some elements of representative functioning, even if their reference was only to theirown group. Sometimes there could be an overlap between the two and the shreni took on the functions of a caste. Among these was the possibility of its becoming an endogamous unit for arranging marriages. The shreni was presided over by the head, the jyeshtha, who would probably have negotiated with other institutions when required. To some extent the functioning of the shreni echoes that of the gana-sanghas. That the guild also intervened in the private lives of its members is clear from the regulation that, if a married woman wished to join the Buddhist Order as a nun, she had to obtain permission not only from her husband but also from the shreni to which he belonged. Recruitment was connected to its association with caste: the children of a particular jati tended to follow their father’s trade, thus providing the shreni with regular numbers. Artisans who took on apprentices could supplement the hereditary recruitment. The threat to the guild came in periods of transition when the occupation followed by a jati underwent economic change, or when the demand for a particular product declined.

  The goods produced by the artisan, whether individually or through a guild, were bought by merchants – vanij, a term that survives in the modern profession of the bania. Long-distance transportation of merchandise was organized by the sarthavahas, with a number of caravans travelling together for protection against brigands. Associated organizations assisting commercial activities, but less powerful than the guilds, were the puga, goshthi and nigama – corporations, committees and locations where exchanges were conducted. Towns such as Taxila, Kaushambi and Bhattiprolu are associated with nigamas.

  Excavations have led to the discovery of a number of seals with the emblems of guilds and corporations. The banners and insignia of the guilds which were carried in procession on festive occasions have been depicted on sculptured panels associated with some Buddhist stupas. Insignia were also a means of advertising the guild, as were the donations many guilds made to religious institutions that were recorded as votive inscriptions. Examples of this were the prolific donations of the corn-dealers, and the gold and silversmiths, towards the sculptured reliefs surrounding the Buddhist stupas at Bharhut and Sanchi. The ivory carvers’ guild at Vidisha also worked on some bas-reliefs at Sanchi. Donors at such places were not just from nearby towns but also came from distant places in the Deccan.

  An inscription issued by Shaka royalty in a cave at Nasik, in western India, records an endowment to the Sangha provided by the interest on a large sum of money invested with a guild of weavers. The inscription reads:

  In the year 42, in the month Vesakha, Ushavadata son of Dinika and son-in-law of king Nahapana, the Kshaharata Kshatrapa, has bestowed this cave on the Sangha generally; he has also given a perpetual endowment, three thousand – 3,000 kahapanas which, for the members of the Sangha of any sect and any origin dwelling in this cave, will serve as cloth money and money for outside life; and those kahapanas have been invested in guilds dwelling in Govardhana 2,000 in a weavers guild, interest one pratika (monthly) for the hundred and 1,000 in another weavers guild, interest 3/4 of a pratika (monthly) for the hundred, and those kahapanas are not to be repaid, their interest only to be enjoyed.

  Out of them, the two thousand, 2,000 at one pratika per cent are the cloth money; out of them to every one of the twenty monks who keep the vassa [the rainy season when monks remained at the monastery] in my cave, a cloth money of twelve kahapanas. As to the thousand which has been invested at an interest of 3/4 of a pratika per cent, out of them the money for kushana [a monthly stipend?]. And at the village of Chikhalapadra in the Kapura district have been given eight thousand – 8,000 – stems of coconut trees, and all this has been proclaimed and registered at the town hall, at the record office, according to custom.

  Epigraphia Indica, VII, p. 81, tr. E. Senart, ‘Nasik Cave Inscriptions’, Inscription No. 12

  Such inscriptions provide an indirect comment on the political importance of guilds. Although guilds were powerful in urban life, it seems their heads did not seek direct political influence or office, presumably because politics was regarded as the prerogative of the king – at least in theory. Undoubtedly, the nexus with royalty did provide a political edge to their activities, but their political ambitions seem to have remained subdued. A possible explanation for this is that in some cases the royal family appears to have had financial interests in the guilds. Investments in a commercial enterprise brought large returns, larger perhaps than the revenue from a piece of land of comparable value. Royalty invested its money in commercial activities and therefore had an interest in ensuring the well-being of the guild. Royal support in a tangible form and the lack of opposition from the king may have dulled the edge of political ambition among the guild leaders. Furthermore, access to political power on the part of a given guild would require that it first ally itself with other guilds in order to obtain their loyalty, without which no political ambitions could be achieved. Such co-operation may have been effectively prevented by caste rules, such as forbidding eating together – an effective barrier between guilds of different castes. But if such rules were not being observed, the inability to co-operate politically was for other reasons. The endowment created a nexus between royalty, the shrenis and the Sangha, and this nexus tended to keep their relations on a relatively even keel. The emergence of the shreni was essentially an urban phenomenon and, as a characteristic social institution, it also reflected the increasing significance of urban life.

  Inscriptions such as the one above refer to investments in guilds of weavers, potters and suchlike. Clearly, these were occupations that were profitable and socially acceptable, otherwise they would not have attracted investments from the royal family and upper castes. Yet these are also the occupations of those listed as the lower social orders in the normative texts, where the Dharmashastras dismiss them as shudras, explaining that some among them are born of sankirna jatis, or mixed castes, just a notch above the more polluting groups. They are called mixed castes as they are said to be the progeny of marriages across castes and occupations. These castes are ranked and reference is made to anuloma, hypergamy, literally in the direction of the body hair, indicating the father was of a higher caste than the mother, and pratiloma, hypogamy, which is the reverse. That the combinations and permutations were different in each text points to its not being taken literally, but being a theory intended to deny status to certain castes. Like much in the Dharmashastras that seeks to explain a social condition, this is a fiction invented to prevent the upward mobility of those ranked as low. By the same token it may provide an oblique indication of an improvement in the status of certain shudra jatis.

  There is a lack of fit between the vision of the normative texts and social reality. The former can be taken as the social norms endorsed by a small privileged group, but it cannot be taken as a description of the way in whi
ch the larger society actually functioned. These disdainful theories of the Dharmashastras may have encouraged groups in so-called low occupations to prefer the social flexibility of Buddhism and the emergent Bhagavata sects. Despite some exaggeration, inscriptional depictions were more realistic, as were those in certain Buddhist texts. There is no uniformly better status for those ranked as shudras although a few among them could be reasonably well off, such as the potter-entrepreneur Saddalaputta with his large production and distribution of pots. And in most texts, including the Dharmashastras, some among the shudras are described as poor. Judging by references to the impoverished, poverty was no stranger to these early societies.

  Another aspect emerging from inscriptions is that the guild could also act as a banker, financier and trustee. Generally, however, these functions were carried out by a different category, that of merchants, the shreshthins/setthis or financiers, the designations of which continue to the present in the sethis and the chettiars. The use of the term setthi-gahapati would suggest that families of rich landowners, with surplus wealth to invest in trade, initially provided members to the profession of merchant. Banking was not a full-time occupation and the setthi often had other interests as well. As a profession, lending money became more widespread with the greater use of coined metallic money and the extension of the market for trade, since cowrishells or the barter system were hardly conducive to investment.

  Usury was an accepted part of banking and the general rate of interest continued to be between 12 and 15 per cent. Money lent for sea trade often called for a higher rate of interest. An authoritative writer suggested that the rate of interest should vary according to the caste of the person to whom money is lent, with the upper castes paying a smaller rate than the lower. This would have made it more difficult for the lower and economically poorer castes to pay off debts or to finance commercial ventures, and it would be far easier for the upper castes to invest in trade.

  The post-Mauryan centuries saw a great spurt in the minting of coins. The kings of the north-west imitated Greek, Roman and Iranian coin-types, while others issued local coins that were superior to the punch-marked coins of the Mauryan period. Currencies minted elsewhere, such as the denarii of the Roman Empire, circulated freely. Coinage also allowed the possibility of forward speculation in goods and capital. However, the increasing use of money did not drive out the barter systems, particularly in rural areas where agricultural products, such as paddy, provided the unit of exchange. The diverse use of coins, even along the west coast from Barygaza to Muziris, indicates the variant trading economies, such variations being amply described in the Periplus. A large variety of coins were used in towns; these were of gold (nishka, suvarna and pala), silver (shatamana), copper (kakini) and lead. The most commonly used coin was the karshapana or pana. With the expansion of commercial enterprise, weights and measures became increasingly detailed and complex.

  Roman gold and silver coins found in south India – literally in hoards – are thought to have been used in large number as bullion, or alternatively as high-value currency, given the absence of local gold coins in this area. This may explain the hoarding of gold and silver coins. These were also areas where local currency was marginal, unlike northern and western India. That there was a familiarity with coinage is evident from the presence of punch-marked coins, as well as sparse low-value local coins in imitation of the Roman. Coins of the Roman Republic have been found, but the immensely large numbers are of early Imperial issues that span the turn of the Christian era. The latter were valued for the high quality of their metal content and may have been hoarded as an item of gift-exchange among local chiefs, or as potential capital for further exchange.

  There is a comparative paucity of high-value Roman coins in north India, less than a quarter of the number found in the south. This has suggested that in the north the coins were melted and re-issued even though there was metal available for coins. Had this been done on a scale to make it worthwhile, Greek and Latin sources would surely have commented on it, since they refer to the coinage in circulation at various places. The gold coins of the Kushanas followed the Roman weight standard, partly to ensure that they would be used as legal tender in areas familiar with Roman trade. The imitation of particular coins probably had more to do with the continuity of a medium of exchange than with fashion.

  Cultural Interactions

  Although coin hoards from the Roman maritime trade were more evident in southern India, the impact of Greco-Roman ideas and artefacts was obvious in the north. This was doubtless due t6 the longer association of north-western India as a neigbour of Hellenistic culture. Exchange of merchandise led inevitably to an exchange of ideas. At one level, words, largely of a technical kind, were borrowed. At another level the aesthetic impact is seen, particularly in Buddhist art. Buddhism may have been more popular with the Hellenistic Greeks because it provided easier access to Indian society than Brahmanism. Coin legends in Greek point to the continued use of the language in addition to Prakrit and Sanskrit. Indian folk-tales and fables travelled westwards and collections such as the Panchatantra were subsequently translated into neighbouring languages, appearing in European literature under various guises that perhaps included some versions of Aesop’s fables. Chaturanga, a game named after the four traditional wings of the Indian army and played by four players, became popular in west Asia and evolved into chess.

  One of the enduring results of this contact was the fairly detailed references to India in the various works of the Mediterranean world, such as Diodorus’s Library of History, Strabo’s Geography, Arrian’s Indika, Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, the Periplus Maris Erythraei, and Ptolemy’s Geography. The first three claimed to be quoting at length from earlier but lost writings on India, such as the Indica of Megasthenes. That the supposed quotations from Megasthenes were paraphrases becomes clear from the variations in specific statements from the first three texts. The others were writing afresh. These works began to supersede the accounts associated with Alexander’s campaign. India was now visible in the Greco-Roman world not merely as a land of the fabulous, but more realistically as a place with potential for trade and with traditions of knowledge that interested Mediterranean scholars. But despite this the image of its being ‘the Other’ was continually reinforced. Little attempt was made to correct the errors in the Indica of Megasthenes, although there was now far more familiarity with things Indian. The seven divisions of Indian society became axiomatic for these authors.

  The most direct and visible interface was in the realm of art, with the emergence of Gandhara art in Afghanistan and north-west India. Gandhara art evolved as a mixture of styles, one of which was the Greco-Roman style of Alexandria, from where sculpture in bronze and stucco travelled along the west Asian trade routes to influence Hellenistic and Indian models nearer home. The emergence of Gandhara art coincided with the introduction of multiple celestial beings and heavens in Buddhist theology, which lent themselves ideally to manifestations in sculpture and painting. The diverse influences affecting Gandhara art suggest that it should not be taken as a uniform style and should be subdivided according to its diversity.

  Indian ideas can also be traced in some west Asian belief systems and particularly in the doctrines of the Manichaeans, Gnostics and Neo-Platonists. The last of these had a long and eventful history in Europe as an alternative philosophy to the Judaeo-Christian tradition, and associated some of its ideas with what was believed to be Asian thought and practice. Certain aspects of the life of Christ (the immaculate conception or the temptation by the Devil) are so closely parallel to events in the legends of the life of the Buddha that – despite the archetypal qualities – there can be a suspicion of some indirect borrowing. The observances of the Essenes (to which sect Christ is said to have originally belonged) also point to some knowledge of Indian religious belief and practice. Certain other aspects of Indian practice find parallels in the eastern Mediterranean at this time, among them asceticism (associ
ated with Paul of Alexandria and St Anthony), relic-worship and the use of the rosary.

  Connections through embassies were even more direct: the best known of those sent by Indian kingdoms to Rome was the one that sailed from Barygaza in about 25 BC. It included a strange assortment of men and animals – tigers, pheasants, snakes, tortoises, a monk and an armless boy who could shoot arrows with his toes – all regarded as appropriate for the Roman Emperor. It took the mission four years to reach Rome. Such embassies would have reiterated the image of India as the land of the magical and the marvellous.

  Communication with the west was not the only exciting possibility, for these centuries also saw the beginnings of Indian contacts with China and the introduction of Indian culture to south-east Asia, all of which commenced through trade. During the second and third centuries BC some goods of Chinese origin were in use in India with names derived from Chinese: for example, china patta, Chinese cloth; and kichaka, bamboo, which could be related to the Chinese ki-chok. When the first Buddhist missionaries arrived in the first century AD to establish themselves at the famous White Horse Monastery at Loyang in China the contact was of a different kind, but the mission was slow to take off. The central Asian oases at Yarkand, Khotan, Kashgar, Tashkend, Turfan, Miran, Kucha, Qarashahr and Dunhuang became useful staging-points when they developed into towns and later also became the sites of monasteries and stupas. The embellishment of these required semi-precious stones from India and banners of silk from China, all of which enhanced commerce. Manuscripts, paintings and ritual objects were also brought from India, and for many centuries these monasteries maintained a close and lively interest in the development of Buddhism both in China and in India. A considerable knowledge of the history of northern Buddhism has come from Chinese and central Asian translations of Buddhist texts, and is now increasingly available at these sites. Chinese Buddhists travelled to central Asia to learn about Buddhism, while the more courageous undertook the difficult journey to India, to study the texts at various monasteries.