________________
SOCIAL LIFE AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 175
a kivuseholder, irrespective of classes or social' grades, general usage it was restricted to the seţthis or bankers who were the best representatives of the Vessas. They were the gahapatis par excellence, just as the Khattiyas were the Warriors par excellence. There are single instances of gahapatis: Anāthapiņdika, Mendaka, Citta, Nakulapitā, Potaliya, Sandhāna and Hāliddhikāni, where gahapati 'almost assumes the function of a title'.1 The canonical Pali texts speak often of the Khattiya-mahāsālas or wealthy nobles, Brāhmaṇa-mahäsālas or wealthy Brahmins and Gahapati-mahāsālas or wealthy gentry. Buddhaghosa gives the minimum monetary strength of each of the three classes of mahāsālas, that of the Khattiya being the highest. The gahapatis as financiers figured as highly important persons in the royal court. As bankers they controlled the whole of trade and commerce, agriculture and industry. They were at the same time the business magnates in a city or town. They married within their own class, their main consideration at thom time of marriage being samānajāti and samānagotta.* Their wives end daughters as female members of'aristocratic families strictly observed the Purdah system, and as such
1 Rhys Davids and Stede, Pali-English Dict., sub voce gahapati. * Supta, i, p. 71; Noddes, z (Calla-v.), Bec. 18." & Law, Srävasti, p. 1A. Dhammapada-affhakatha, ü, p. 218,
