Aacharya Premsagar Chaturvedi Abhinandan Granth

SR No.: 022848
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ajaykumar Pandey
Publisher: Pratibha Prakashan
Publication Year: 2010
Total Pages: 502
Language: Hindi
Classification: Smruti_Granth
File Size: 36 MB

Page 475

Trade as Depicted in Jain Texts
443
merchants carrying on trade by putting an equal share (samabhaga). This means that partnership as a form of business organisation was known to people. The traders were generally united under trade guilds known as 'seni' (srenis) headed by setthis (sresthis). The setthis were very rich and influential persons and had special status in the society. The merchant guilds advocated private enterprise based on collective system which gave incentive to the growth of trade and commerce. The Jaina canonical texts refer to guilds of goldsmiths painters, etc. The guilds represented the business community before the State and worked for their welfare in Inatadharmaka thanga we find the Srenis of painters representing before the king to reduce the death sentence of a painter to which the king agreed. The guilds formed their own codes and the king recognised them. They exercised considerable control over the members who were bound by the codes of the guilds.
The formation of guilds in those days shows that the merchants possessed the idea of modern chambers of commerce to safeguard and promote their interest. We, thus, find unions among the merchants which strengthened their position fore the king and the people. Satthavaha or Sarthavaha (the leader of the caravan of merchants)
The group of merchants going out with money and commodities for trade was known as 'sattha' or 'sartha' (caravan of merchants) and their leader or head was called 'satthavaha” (caravan-leader). Though the literal meaning of sattha (sartha) was a group of persons moving together for some purpose, it generally meant a caravan of merchants. The head of the sartha i. e., sarthavaha was generally a leading merchant of repute.
The sārthaväha occupied a key-position in the trading group. It was he who took initiative in chalking out a detailed programme of the trade-journey. He must have been a man of immense foresight, drive, initiative, courage, intelligence