conclusion of guilds??
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A guild /ɡɪld/ is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as confraternities of tradesmen, normally operating in a single city and covering a single trade. They were organized in a manner something between a professional association, a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society. They sometimes depended on grants of letters patent from a monarch or other ruler to enforce the flow of trade to their self-employed members, and to retain ownership of tools and the supply of materials, but were generally regulated by the city government. A lasting legacy of traditional guilds are the guildhalls constructed and used as guild meeting-places. Guild members found guilty of cheating on the public would be fined or banned from the guild.
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Guilds In Ancient India History Essay
4815 words (19 pages) Essay
1st Jan 1970 History Reference this
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This Thesis entitled ‘Guilds in Ancient India: 500 B.C. to 500 A.D.’ is a research on the conditions of the laboring class from the Vedic period to the Gupta age. It is divided into six chapters viz. (1) Introduction to Guilds, (2) Origin, (3) Growth, (4) Organization, (5) Functions and (6) Decline of the Guilds. An attempt has been made to give a comprehensive account of this important facet of the Indian social set-up in ancient times on the basis of variety of original sources. The study of the data, culled from different sources in the broad context of the historical development of the Indian people, has brought into bold relief some little known facets of this important subject. An honest attempt has been made to bring the slightest of hidden facts into the forefront.
The introductory chapter gives a brief account of the need and the circumstances which led to the formation of Guilds.
The second chapter deals with the origin of Guilds. It deals with the questions like ‘when and where the Guilds first originated?’ and ‘how the caste system played an influential role in shaping economic activities?’
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The third chapter deals with the growth of Guilds from the Sutra period to the Gupta’s. The Guilds did not exist in the Vedic period but there beginnings are to be found in the Sutra period. They were the outcome of the organization of artisans and craftsmen for protective purposes.
The fourth chapter throws light on the organization of Guilds. In this chapter special emphasis is given on the three levels in which the Guilds were organized in ancient India i.e.
i) The General Assembly
ii) The Guild Head
The Executive Officer
The way the Guilds operated and functioned, forms the subject matter of the fifth chapter.
In the sixth chapter a detailed study is made on the decline of Guild system. The causes responsible for the decline form the bulk of this chapter.
In this way, a clear and complete picture of the Guilds in Ancient India is presented in this work. All the various aspects of different problems have been studied with a wealth of evidence from all possible sources.
(Vishal Sood)
Department of Ancient Indian History
Culture and Archaeology,
Panjab University, Chandigarh.
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE ORIGINAL SOURCES
It will be proper to give a chronological outline of the principal sources used in this work. The idea is not to enter into comprehensive discussion of this controversial theme.
Vedic Texts
The Vedas primarily the Rigveda symbolize the oldest written source of the history of the Indian civilization, the Indus seal having not been satisfactorily translated so far. The majority of the scholars view that the composition of these texts took place either during or after the decline of the Indus valley civilization which ranged from 2500 B.C. to 1700 B.C. as is clear from Carbon-14 dating1. H. W. Bailey appears to be precise in his analysis that the period of the Veda is about the eighteenth Century B.C.
Vedanga and Brahmanas
The Vedanga logically followed the Veda. On the basis of astronomical data, Haug fixes the date of Vedanga Jyotisa to about 1186 B.C. which seems acceptable. The Brahamana text also go back to that period. Thus, we approximately place these texts starting cir. 1500 to 1000 B.C. 2.
Sutra
Exact dates are hard to assign to individual Sutrakaras as all of them thrived in different ages. For example, in point of style, Apastamba is prior than Katyayana3. The Baudhayana Gryha Sutra (II, 5, 6) entitles a Rathakara to be initiated, while the Gobhila Grhya Sutra is silent over the ceremony. Likewise, the Gobhila Gryha Sutra (II, 1, 8) prescribes the use of Yajnopavita for the bride at the time of marriage, but the Khadira Gryha Sutra makes no mention of it. Instances like these show that the development of the Sutra literature extends over the period of many centuries. The occurrence of Apastambha’s name in the Bidadi-ganapatha of Panini (VI, 1, 104) may show that Apastambha flourished earlier than Panini 4. The actual occurrence of some Sutras in the Brahmanas and Aranyakas, besides showing their origin from the latter, indicate that the Sutra literature ranges from 800 to 500 B.C.5.
Buddhist and Jain Works
Though Buddhist texts were written sometimes after the demise of Buddha, they generally reflect the conditions of his times. Broadly, they reflect the society of Sevent