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members.1 Probably the settlement of disputes among its members and the solution of the problems of trade and business fell under the jurisdiction of the guild. It could also settle the disputes between wives and husbands.? That guild organizations were well-disciplined and maintained solidarity is suggested by a Jātaka story which describes the shifting of 100 families of carpenters overnight.3
A guild worked for the welfare of its members, and it had a right to approach the king and demand justice. A painter was ordered to be executed by prince Malladinna; the guild of the painters visited the king, explained the matter, and requested him to quash the sentence passed against the member of its union. The king was pleased to commute the sentence into banishment.4 Then we hear of a washermen's guild approching the king in order to demand justice.5
Some of the guilds probably carried on banking business too. In cities like Rājagriha, Srāvasti, Vaiśāli and others, where brisk trade and business were carried on, the guilds of Sreshthins might have been functioning as banking institutions. They accepted money from others on interest and invested it in trade or lent it on interest to smaller tradesmen.
Some of these guilds might have issued coins. The carliest coins known as the punchmarked coins started in about the seventh or sixth century B.C. It is probable that some of them might have been issued by these guilds even in the sixth century B.C., because it seems, there was no statc monopoly of manufacturing and of issuing coins. That Takshasilā merchant guilds minted coins is almost certain in the light of the evidence yielded by Negama coins.
The members of these guilds sometimes carried on their business in partnership. Some Jātakas, such as Kițavanika Jataka?, Bāveru Jātaka, 8 and Mahāvanija Jātaka," describe
cici inwenci so
1 Ja, 1. 267; IV. 411. 2. Gou. Dhr. S, XI. 22-23.
Alaih, 1. 286. 4. Naya, 8. p. 107.
Asc. Chu, Il, P, 182.
A CUNNISGITA3!; Coins of Ancient India. 7. O, I. p 404 also II, 181.
Ibid, III. p. 126. 9 lbid IV. p. 350,
