Indian Antiquary Vol 49

SR No.: 032541
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 252
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 34 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
associations, namely the senis in which, to all appearance, the tendency to develop into castes in the modern sense, was inherent. Tradition. 43 defines éreni as an association of people of the same or of different játis, who carried on the same trade. Thus the legal literature enumerates by way of examples, éreṣis of horse-dealers, betel-sellers, weavers and shoemakers. The inscriptions also furnish materials; not infrequently, those of the Buddhist cave temples of Nasik Junnar, &c., where we find a dhaññikaseni, a tilapishakasreni and so on (see Archæological Survey of Western India, IV, pp. 94, 96ff, 102, 104). Also an inscription of Gwalior (Samvat 933) mentions a areni of oil-pressers (tailika), as also one of gardeners (málika)5; this last one appears also in an inscription of Samvat 1343 coming from Somanâtha in Sorath, 46 and so on. The Epic leaves no doubt that śreşi acquired an important political significance. 47 We learn from the legal literature that the śrenis had their own ordinances and a certain jurisdiction.18 Their presidents or elders are mentioned in the Jatakas or in other places.49 It is said of everyone who calls together an assembly of the people, sabbá seniyo sannipátetvd.50 It is, however, quite clear that for the time of which the Jâtakas furnish a picture, the conception of caste has to be excluded from the seni. Sen is neither vanna nor jati; the professions in which the corporation of seni is found to exist, fall, as the Suttabibhanga has shown us, under the category of Sippam, perhaps also that of Kammam, never under that of Jati. On the other hand, however, it is no less clear that there are occasions when the senis approach the nature of caste. The hereditary character of the professions is, of course, not an inviolable law, 51 although in fact it is a very important rule. 51 There can be no doubt that the heterogeneous character, the greater or lesser degree of defilement which was associated with particular vocations according to the nature of the work, produced an aloofness mixed with contempt among the members, nay, a split among themselves; the frequent local isolation of particular professions in fixed streets or special villages 53 perhaps wholly, or in part, in consequence of that defilement - must have contributed to the erection of barriers between them. Now, if from ancient times onwards, the thought and life of the nation, accustomed, to the conception of caste as a natural differentiation by birth, was connected -though not indissolubly and not without exceptions with difference of occupation with such restrictions as were produced by the foar of defilement by intercourse with persons of lower birth: was it not then perfectly natural that out of these guilds or corporations, there should grow up organisations more and more like the castes, and ultimately the castes themselves, 54 We learn of guilds of the Mâlikas from a
[ DEC., 1920
43 Puya seems not to have been taken into account here: according to the definition quoted by Jolly ZDMG, 50, 518, n. 2 from the Viramitrodaya, the púga is a corporation bhinnajdtindm bhinnavṛittindm elasthanardsind grámanagarddisthdndnd. In the Vinaya Pitaka may be compared perhaps Chullavagga, VIII, 4, 1; Nisanggiya 30, 1; Pachittiya 33, 5, 2; 82, 1; Bhikkhunt-Nissaggiye 8, 1; cf. also Foy, Königliche Gewalt, p. 15, n. 1.
43 See Jolly, op. cit. p. 518.
4 Jolly, Recht und Sitte, 136.
46 Epigraphia Indica, Vol. I, p. 160. Cf. the guild of the maidkdra of whom jetihaka is mentioned in Jas, III, p. 405.
46 Ep. Ind.. I, 285.
4s Fick, 172 Jolly, Becht und Sitte, 136; Foy, Königliche Gewalt, 14.
49 Fick, 182.
61 One is here reminded of the parents who pondered upon the question whether they should make their son learn lekhd, ganand or rupa, Mahdvagga, I, 49
47 Hopkins, Ruling Caste, 81 ff.
50 Dhammap. Atth.. p. 239.
$2 Fick, 179.
63 Fick, 180 ff.
An instructive example how, in the atmosphere of India, organisations of a quite different nature readily develop the tendency of resembling organisms of the form of caste, is afforded by the fact that at the present day there exists no connubium, or at least, no commensality between the Brahmans of the various Vedic schools, such as the Rigvedis, Madhyandins, Apastambs, etc., Jolly ZDMG, 50, 515. Senart,