The Exciting World of Corporate Bodies in Ancient India - Sandeep Balakrishna

THE DEFINING, DISTINCTIVE AND CARDINAL FEATURE of life in ancient India from the Vedic era was the foundational spirit of honest cooperation and harmony. This reflected itself in all areas: religion, society, politics and economics.

Perhaps the best illustration of this spirit is just one word: Yajna. Today, we associate Yajna almost exclusively with a religious ceremony or what is wrongly known as ritual. But as long as India retained her original character, Yajna was a profound activity of national sharing…in fact, the correct meaning of Yajna is “sharing,” and not “sacrifice.” In a sense, Yajna was an institution which provided a spiritual basis for national cooperation. It is in Yajna that we see the practical manifestations of profound conceptions such as Rta, Rna, Dharma, etc. It was also a significant engine of economics but that is a topic for another day.

The spirit of cooperation is primarily a social instinct rooted in basic human impulses. Spirit acquires meaning only through activity. And so, the aforementioned cooperative spirit derives meaning and will function in the real world only through conscious social organization.

Further, this organization—its form, nature, structure, and practical operation also depends on the circumstances that births it and in which it operates. But while the nature of these circumstances dictates its form, functioning, etc., the character of its evolution and development depends to a great degree on the unique genius of the society and culture in which it is incubated and fostered.

This genius is precisely what we observe in the corporate and business life of ancient India. In the real world, this life revealed itself in the following organizations, which continue to exert an enduring influence on our contemporary life as well. Here is a partial list:

• Jati (not caste)

• Sangha

• Shreni

• Puga (can be likened to today’s Association of Persons, a cooperative society, and so on).

• Gana

ON A FUNDAMENTAL PLANE, a study of business and corporate life in ancient India will open up a whole new world, to put it mildly. It will reveal itself to us a stunning array of the real perspectives, attitudes and impulses of life that animated our people so far back in time. More importantly, this study of business life in ancient India shows us the innate spirit of nobility and refinement that informed and permeated all other areas of our national and social life. 

What has been unfairly propagandized as the “caste system” was actually two things at the same time: one, it was a social corporation much like today’s FICCI and similar bodies; and two, it was also an economic unit taken as a whole.

An Exciting History

The Shreni
x

Corporate organizations in ancient India have interesting roots. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad for example, is an early reference. It says that just as how society was divided into four Varnas, the Devatas also had four Varnas.

The story which follows is pretty thrilling.

Brahma was not content with creating only the Brahmanas and Kshatriyas because these two Varnas did not know how to create and acquire wealth. And so, he created the Vaishya known by the term Gana-shah. In fact, the meaning of this word is highly interesting in itself. It basically implies that it is only through cooperation and not by individual effort that wealth is acquired.

This evidently shows the fact that there was thriving corporate activity in India’s economic life as early as the Vedic period. Indeed, for countless centuries, the business community throughout India had organized itself into Ganas.

But on a very mundane plane, this cooperation or organization of business community into Ganas was also practical necessity as we shall see.

Now we can quickly look at only some of the major forms of corporate organizations in ancient India:

• Gana: It was an overarching and a highly fluid organization which generally means an association of traders and merchants…on in general, any corporate body in the current sense of the term.

• Pani: similar to Gana. It is derived from the root, Pann: to barter; to negotiate. Over time, it acquired other meanings such as a miser, a path, a

• market, and so on.

• Puga: Corporations living by the profession of arms. Or entities which supplied soldiers for hire. This genre of corporations also had a clear leadership hierarchy. We can think of them as corporations of warriors and they were in continual existence for several millennia.

• Samavaya: in general, an assembly or congregation of people meant to discuss or carry on some kind of commercial activity.

• ONE OF THE MOST ENDURING and ubiquitous corporate organizations was something known as the Shreni, and it merits some detailed examination. But before that, we can cite an interesting titbit. The head or chief of a Shreni was the Shreshti. This is the origin of the ubiquitous surname, Seth.

  In general, a Shreni was a guild or commercial body in ancient India. We can think of it as follows: practically, all different branches of occupations, professions, and trades had a well-defined organization of some sort. Each such organization or corporate had the authority to lay down rules, laws and regulations for its members, and these were recognized as valid in the eye of the law. The representatives of a Shreni had a right to be consulted by the Government authorities including the King himself in any matter that concerned it.

  A highly interesting facet of Shrenis is the fact that while its legal character was a guild or corporation — I will use the terms guild and corporation interchangeably—its members belonged to the same or different Varnas and Jatis. But all of them followed the same trade or industry.

• Thus, nearly all branches of professions, industry, trade, etc., formed their own guilds but their numbers varied over different periods and geographical locations throughout our history. However, the most common or standardised number of guilds starting from the Buddhist period onwards is eighteen. In some cases, there were as many as thirty-two. But overall, the number of guilds or corporations in the long history of India is rather substantial, which only shows how pervasive and complex the system of our corporations was. Here is a partial list of such guilds or corporations:

  1. Guilds of wood-workers including carpenters, cabinet-makers, wheel-wrights, builders of houses, builders of ships and builders of vehicles of all sorts.

  2. Workers in metal, including gold and silver.

  3. Stone workers

  4. Leather workers

  5. Ivory workers

  6. Workers fabricating hydraulic engines (Odayantrika).

  7. Bamboo workers

  8. Braziers or brass workers

  9. Jewellers

  10. Weavers

  11. Potters

  12. Oil millers (Tilapishaka)

  13. Basket makers

  14. Dyers

  15. Painters

  16. Corn-dealers

  17. Cultivators

  18. Fishermen

  19. Butchers

  20. Barbers and Shampooers

  21. Garland makers and flower-sellers (Malakara)

  22. Mariners

  23. Herdsmen

  24. Traders, including caravans and merchants

  25. Robbers and freebooters

  26. Militia who guarded caravans

  27. Moneylenders

  28. 
      

  29. These professional guilds also formed part of the local political assemblies.    

  
  
• Courtesy: https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/the-exciting-world-of-g%C4%81na-%C5%9Br%C4%93%E1%B9%87i-p%C5%ABga-and-corporate-bodies-in-ancient-india

D.V. Gundappa's Vision and Ideal of Rama Rajya - Sandeep Balakrishna

 Every creature felt happy. Everybody was intent on [performing] Dharma. Turning their eyes towards Rama alone, creatures did not kill [or inflict violence upon] one another.

While Rama ruled the kingdom, the conversations of the people centered round Rama, Rama and Rama. The whole world became Rama's world.

Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras were performing their respective duties, satisfied with their own work and bereft of any greed.

While Rama was ruling, the people were immersed in Dharma and lived without telling lies. All the people were endowed with excellent character. All were engaged in virtue[1].  

The ideal of Rama Rajya (the Kingdom of Rama) is also a goal in itself and is as dateless as Sanatana Dharma and Bharatavarsha. The extraordinarily vivid, compassionate, gentle, and serene picture that Maharshi Valmiki has painted in the foregoing verses is a perfectly-blended distillation of all the best elements of the Vedic conception of the “Rashtra Yagna” described in chapter 2. This picture also reminds us of a great scholar of art and aesthetics who averred that the purpose of art is to show the possibility that a better world exists. In the parlance of traditional space-time notions of Bharatavarsha, Rama Rajya can be likened to a kingdom or a world order that existed in the Krita (or Satya) Yuga[2], which Rama brought ushered in in his own time, i.e. in the Treta Yuga. A renowned description of the Krita Yuga is available in the Mahabharata:

In the Krita Yuga, there were no poor and no rich; there was no need to labour, because all that men required was obtained by the power of will; the chief virtue was the abandonment of all worldly desires. The Krita Yuga was without disease; there was no lessening with the years; there was no hatred or vanity, or evil thought; no sorrow, no fear. All mankind could attain to supreme blessedness.

In other words, no external factor was necessary to regulate order in the Satya Yuga while the very maintenance of order became an ongoing task in the successive Yugas. This point becomes significant when we consider the following phrases in the aforementioned verses: (1) rāmamevānupaśyanto nābhyahinsanparasparam -- Turning their eyes towards Rama alone, creatures did not kill [or inflict violence upon] one another; (2) rāmabhūtaṃ jagābhūdrāme rājyaṃ praśāsati -- The whole world became Rama's world. This also has a beautiful parallel in “rāmo vigrahavān dharmaḥ,” that is, Rama is the embodiment of Dharma. To state the obvious, both the meaning and the message in this is that people turned to Rama, the human embodiment of Dharma in order to guide them on the virtuous path and help them abstain from wrongdoing.

Politics and Statecraft in Rama Rajya

The logical question that arises from this discussion is this: how is politics and statecraft conceived in this Rama Rajya? To which D.V. Gundappa answers in his inimitable style that[3]

Rama Rajya is the grandest conception of a Master Poet… where there are no fetters in the relationship between the ruler and the ruled…where Dharma doesn’t depend on others for its functioning and is akin to breathing: effortless.

The subtext here is the fact that the political life of a ruler, the daily application of statecraft, and politics in national life do not exist in independent realms; DVG clearly eschews the popular connotation embedded in the term, “political machinery.” Instead, he (correctly) views these elements as a “jīvaśarīra,” a life-body motivated by a higher and nobler impulse because the worshipped Deity of a state/nation is the life of its people. For DVG, the primacy of the human spirit and its higher impulses in politics was paramount. Unless this spirit was underlaid and motivated by Dharma, any political system was superficial at best and dangerous at worst. In his[4] own words, “politics is also a mere instrument like the numerous paths and approaches to pursue and practice Dharma,” and “the state akin to the family, is a field for the pursuit of Dharma.”[5] And he provides a guidepost of sorts as to what this Dharma is in the practice of statecraft in lines that are matchless for their simple profundity[6]:

The verdict of those Pandits [wise and learned people] who have understood the nuances of tradition and act in a spirit of selfless service directed at the good of the country is Dharma.

In the realm of politics, this translates[7] into the following:

The ruler is subservient to Dharma; Dharma in turn is embodied in society. Therefore, the original home of the state’s power emanates from the Dharmic feeling prevalent in the society. The seat of the ruler is just a mere implement or equipment that maintains and protects this Dharmic feeling.

This is entirely consistent with the Sanatana conception of statecraft which instructs the king to be an upholder, protector and an agent of Dharma in the verse, rājā dhārmiko bhūyāt. The most effective discharge of this duty is also the price that he pays for enjoying his royalty (or its equivalent in today’s democratic terms). Even a cursory perusal of the life and legacy of great monarchs, royal dynasties, and world leaders (in various democracies) clearly shows the verifiable truth that the yardstick[8] of a politician’s merit is the condition of the citizens.

There is however a jarring note of sorts which can be made by way of contrast. The Sanatana conception of statecraft (or Raja Dharma) allowed for a certain class of people who were beyond the king/state’s power. In common parlance, these were the Rishis, Sadhus and so on who contributed at a far profounder level by staying within society and being detached to it simultaneously. Prof M. Hiriyanna offers one of the best characterizations of such people. They were people who deliberately[9] chose Moksha or Jivanmukti “as the ideal to be pursued, and thereafter [made] a persistent and continual advance towards it.” The system of democracy that India adopted after 1947 makes no allowance for such class of people. But the fact that they still exist and are accorded the same level of respect and reverence is not because this system of democracy protects them but despite it, owing to millennia of our civilizational inheritance.

Notes

1. Valmiki: Ramayana: Yuddha Kanda: 131. Verses: 100, 102, 104, 105
2. Yuga is an epoch or an era in within a four-age cycle which repeats. These four are: Krita (Satya), Treta, Dwapara and Kali.
3. D V Gundappa: Rajyashastra, Rajyanga—DVG Kruti Shreni: Volume 5 (Govt of Karnataka, 2013) p310. Emphasis added.
4. Ibid. p309
5. Ibid. p319
6. Ibid. p376
7. Ibid. p377
8. See for example, the discussion on p 309: D V Gundappa: Rajyashastra, Rajyanga—DVG Kruti Shreni: Volume 5 (Govt of Karnataka, 2013)
9. M. Hiriyanna: The Indian Conception of Values: The Quest After Perfection (Prekshaa Pratishtana and W.I.S.E. WORDS, Reprint 2018) p50

Courtesy: https://www.prekshaa.in/article/dv-gundappas-vision-and-ideal-rama-rajya

Visiting the Extraordinary Village Administrative Universe of Ukkal - Sandeep Balakrishna

AFTER ABOUT A HALF HOUR OF TRAVELLING southwards from Kanchipuram towards Vandavasi, we reach Koolamandal, one of those typical nondescript villages. Once a flourishing hub of piety and prosperity sustained by a vibrant Sanatana society. Now unknown, uncared for…remembered only during elections.

Koolamandal (its earlier name: Kulambandal) was one of the cynosures of the grand Chola Empire. Its formerly magnificent — and now restored Gangaikondacholeesvarar Temple was built by the formidable Rajendra Chola I in 983 CE under the guidance of his spiritual Guru, Ishana-Shiva Pandita.

A mile-long eastward journey from Koolamandal leads us to another site of civilisational amnesia and cultural apathy. This is the Ukkal village. You would look at me strangely if I told you that for about three unbroken centuries, Ukkal reigned as one of the exemplars of village administration that had touched the summit of perfection.

Even this glorious heritage would have been lost to us but for the diligence of Sri K.V. Subrahmanya Iyer who in 1893 discovered seventeen inscriptions in the ruins of an ancient Vishnu temple. Of these, only fourteen were reasonably well-preserved. Of these fourteen, only twelve give us precise details of how the aforementioned village administration functioned.

Sri Iyer sketches a brief portrait of the heartbreaking condition of that temple: “Of the shrine itself, only the lower portions remain standing, and the mandapa in front of the shrine threatens to collapse at any moment.” After much tedious searching, I could identify the present name of this temple as the Arulmigu Bhuvana Mangala Perumal Temple.

The inscriptions cover the period from the eighth to the eleventh century spread over the suzerainties of the late Pallavas, the Rashtrakutas and the Cholas. They inform us that this Vishnu Temple was originally called Puvanimanikka (i.e., Bhuvanamanikya) Vishnugriham. Rajaraja I referred to its deity as the Tiruvaymolidevar (i.e., the Deity of the Tiruvaymoli), a direct reference to the Nalayiraprabandham composed by Nammalvar.

At various points in its long history, Ukkal was also known as Utkar, Utkal, Sivachulamanimangalam, Vikramabharana-chaturvedimangalam and Aparajita-chaturvedimangalam (a reference to the Pallava King, Aparajita).

An Unbroken Inheritance of Sanatana Statecraft

WITHOUT EXCEPTION, EVERY HINDU EMPIRE faithfully adhered to the ancient dictum of Santana statecraft that the lowest unit of administration must have the maximum autonomy. Interference from the central government was kept at the barest minimum as we have seen in this ennobling story of the Yogic village of Sorade. We notice the same feature in Ukkal as well.

In fact, a close study of these fourteen inscriptions opens up highly illuminative insights regarding the setup, constitution and functioning of village administration in South India. Its contents attracted the attention of no less a stalwart than R.C. Majumdar who wrote quite extensively about their value…sitting far away in Calcutta.

Ukkal was governed by an assembly known as the Sabha or Mahasabha, an unbroken administrative inheritance from the Sabhas and Samitis of the Vedic Era. The village assembly was subdivided into various committees tasked with specific functions. Committee members, technically known as Perumakkal (Distinguished Men), were elected each year. Transactions of the assembly were scrupulously recorded in registers and ledgers and other official books by an officer known as the Madhyastha (Arbitrator). Its accounts were maintained by the village accountant known as the €™Karanattan (its Telugu variant is Karanam, a familiar surname in south India). Sometimes, the Madhyastha also performed the duty of the Karanattan.

Here is the list of Committees constituted for Ukkal:

1. Distinguished men elected for the overall village assembly

2. Distinguished men elected for charities

3. Distinguished men elected for the village tank

4. Distinguished men elected for gardens

5. Distinguished men who manage the miscellaneous affairs of the village

If this sounds similar to the more renowned Uthiramerur inscription, it is because it is similar. The difference is only in the details. In other words, the constitution of such village assemblies differed in different localities and at different periods in history. Specific aspects of administration in each village were periodically upgraded or modified based on changed conditions or needs.

The Ukkal Inscriptions: A Summary

LET’S HEAR IT DIRECTLY from the horse’s mouth. The following short summary of twelve inscriptions discovered at Ukkal, offer firsthand evidence of the specifics of village administration. The numbers indicate the inscription number.

1. The Assembly of the village received a deposit of an amount of gold from one of the commissioners ruling over another village on the condition of feeding twelve Brahmanas and doing other useful works from the interest on this sum.

2. A certain person donated a plot of land to the great Assembly on the condition that its produce should be utilised for supplying the God with a stipulated quantity of rice. The inscription concludes as follows: “Having been present in the Assembly and having heard their order, I, the Madhyastha wrote this.”

3. A certain person had purchased a plot of land from the Assembly and assigned it to the villagers for the maintenance of a flower garden.

4. On receipt of a plot of land, the Assembly undertook to supply paddy to various persons engaged in connection with a cistern which the donor had constructed to supply water to the public.

5. The Assembly undertook to supply an amount of paddy per year by way of interest of a quantity of paddy deposited with them. The Perumakkal elected for the year would cause the paddy to be supplied.

6. A meeting of the Assembly, including the Perumakkal were elected for the management of charities and the commissioners in charge of the temple of Sattan in the village. The Assembly assigned a daily supply of rice and oil to a temple. The Perumakkal elected for the supervision of the village tank shall be entitled to levy a fine of (one) kalanju of gold in favour of the tank fund from those betel-leaf sellers in this village, who sell betel-leaves elsewhere but at the temple of Pidari.

7. The Assembly accepted the gift of an amount of paddy on the condition of feeding two Brahmanas daily out of the interest on this amount.

8. The Assembly has received a royal order authorising the village to sell lands on which tax has not been paid for two full years. Accordingly, these lands have become the property of the village.

9. This is the record of a sale of a plot of land by the village Assembly, which was their common property, plus a sale of five water levers, to a servant of the king who had assigned this land for the maintenance of two boats plying on the village tank.

10. The great Assembly — including the Perumakkal who were elected for the year and the Perumakkal elected for the supervision of the tank — being assembled, assigned, at the request of the manager of a temple, a plot of land in the fresh clearing for various specified purposes connected with the temple.

11. The village Assembly grants a village to a temple, including the flower garden, for the requirements of worship there. The terms of grant include the following: “We shall not be entitled to levy any kind of tax from this village. We, the Perumakkal elected for the year, we, the Perumakkal elected for the supervision of the tank, and we, the Perumakkal elected for the supervision of gardens, shall not be entitled to claim forced labour from the inhabitants settled in this village. This is confirmed at the order of the Assembly. If a crime or sin becomes public, the God (i.e., the temple authorities) alone shall punish the inhabitants of this village. Having agreed thus, we, the Assembly, have engraved this on stone.”

12. The son of a cultivator in the village assigned a plot of land in the neighbourhood. From the proceeds of this land, water and firepans had to be supplied to a mandapa frequented by Brahmanas. Further, a water lever was constructed in front of the cistern at the mandapa. The Perumakkal who manage the affairs of the village in each year shall supervise this charity.

Lessons and Insights

CLEARLY, THE UKKAL INSCRIPTIONS give us a rather comprehensive and unambiguous idea of the powers and functions of the village Assembly, and the perfection they had reached in administration. Nothing was left to chance or individual whim. Annual elections prevented monopolies and concentration of power. Every transaction was written down to the last detail and publicly ratified.

The macro dimension of Hindu statecraft and administration also reveals the fact that village assemblies were regarded as inextricable parts of the constitution of the country. As we mentioned earlier, they were entrusted with the entire management of the village in a truly autonomous fashion. Sabhas and Mahasabhas were absolute proprietors of village lands and they had full authority to create fresh clearings. They owned corporate property which they could sell for public purposes such as supplying the necessities of temples, digging wells and growing gardens. In essence, the village assembly exercised all the powers of a state within its own sphere of activity. In return, it had to deposit annual revenues to the imperial treasury and maintain peace and order and prevent rebellious or anarchist feelings.

In some cases, the Mahasabha of one village exercised jurisdiction over other villages. Inscription 11 cited above presents one such example. It shows that the Ukkal Assembly owned another village situated about three miles away. This village was given as a tax-free grant in order to provide for the necessities of a temple in Ukkal itself. This is how the inscription reads:

We, the assembly of Sivachulamanimangalam, alias Sri-Vikramabharana-chaturvedimangalam [Ukkal] ordered as follows: “To the god of the Puvanimanikka-Vishnugriham in our village shall belong, as a divine gift (deva-bhoga), the village called Sodiyambakkam, a hamlet (pidagai) to the north of our village, including the great flower-garden which belonged to this (temple) previously. The site of the village, the tank, the wet land, and dry land, and everything within its limits, on which the iguana runs and the tortoise crawls, for the worshippers of the god of his Puvanimanikka-Vishnugriham, for the requirements of the worship, for oblations (Tiruvamridu) at the three times of the day, for two perpetual lamps, for rows of lamps at twilight, for festivals, for the bathing of the idol at solstices, equinoxes and eclipses, for offerings (sribali), for supplies to the store-room of the temple, and for all other purposes. We shall not be entitled to levy any kind of tax from this village… If we utter the untruth that this not as stated above, in order to injure the charity, we shall incur all the sins committed between the Ganga and Kumari. We, the assembly, agree to pay a fine of one hundred and eight kanam per day, if we fail in this charity through indifference.

To round off this essay on a depressing note, the following photographs show the present condition of Ukkal.

Postscript

Clearly, the Ukkal inscriptions showcase a high degree of administrative sophistication and perfection both in theory and practice, attained in an era sans technology, where primacy was placed on the human element.

Courtesy: https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/visiting-the-extraordinary-village-administrative-universe-of-ukkal