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SOCIAL LIFE AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS (177) trade and commerce, agriculture and farming' as the listinctive occupation, in point of fact, there was hardly any social grade which did not participate in production, distribution, export and import, sale and purchase of trade commodities. So on the basis of occupation alone, the social distinction accorded to the Vessas as a class could not be maintained. Trade and farming as the occupation of the Vessas could be taken to mean that the economic aspect of social lifo was dominated by persons born in the Vessa families, especially the gahapatis.
In the Apadāna, a young banker (sexțhiputta) gives the following description of himself, Born in the family of a banker, he was endowed with the five pleasures of the senses. While inside his palatial residence, he was entertained by the dancing girls with music, vocal and instrumental, and operas. The young and childish maidens and others of the female retinue 'pleased and teased him with jokes and Pranks. The barbers, bath-attondants, cooks, wreath-makers, jewellers, acrobats and wrestlers made him gay day and night. The poor and needy, all classes of beggars and vagrants , appeared at his door along with religious mendicants of various denominations. The traders and merchants from various countries, even those from the distant kingdom of China,
