Number of words: 127

One rather extraordinary development emerges from the Jataka accounts. This is the establishment of special settlements or villages of people belonging to particular crafts. Thus there was a carpenters’ village, consisting, it is said, of 1,000 families; a smiths’ village, and so on. These specialized villages were usually situated near a city, which absorbed their special products and which provided them with the other necessaries of life. The whole village apparently worked on co-operative lines and undertook large orders. Probably out of this separate living and organization the caste system developed and spread out. The example set by the Brahmins and the nobility was gradually followed by the manufacturers’ corporations and trade guilds.

Excerpted from pages 113of ‘Jawaharlal Nehru The Discovery of India ’ by Jawaharlal Nehru