Artisans and Craftsman

In the second category of occupations those of the artisans are, the reed-worker (nalalkara), the potter (kumbhakara), the vehicle-meker (yanakara), the needle-maker (sucikara), the goldsmith (suvannakara), the metal smith (kammara), the carpenter (palaganda), the ivory-maker (dantakara) and the silk producer (kosiyakara).

The nalakara is a basket-maker, but is to be differentiated from another class of basket-maker, the vena. His craft is a sippa^[1] albeit a low one.^[2] The nalakaras have the distinction of living in their own settlement (nalakara gama)^[3] unlike the other artisans in the group.

The most important of all the artisans is the potter (kumbhakara), who is the next craftsman. His craft comprises of making earthenware on the banks of rivers and ponds.^[4] The king Ajatasattu identifies the potter’s activities as a sippa.^[5] His occupation is a low sippa.^[6] He is not a rich man and seems to live solely by his craft. This can be seen from the fact that the monks who take the gift of bowls from him reduce him to a position where his family and occupation suffers.^[7] On the other hand his ritual position is not very low. Dhaniya kumbhakara is a monk^[8] and Ghatikara kumbhakara is a faithful devotee of the Kassapa Buddha.^[9] The Buddha Kassapa addresses him as Bhaggava, a term denoting gotta. The Buddha Kassapa shows deep affection towards him, although he is poor and can offer only rice and curry. The Buddha Kassapa is so much moved by this that he declines the king’s invitation to spend the rainy season at his residence and prefers instead the Ghatika, the kumbhakara’s meagre alms.

The vehicle-maker repairs the wheel. Instead of an antevasi, which we find in other crafts, in this context, it is a yanakara putta who does the work.^[10]

The fourth artisan is the needle-maker (s ucikara) who is differentiated from the needle-vendor (suc ivannija).^[11] Sucikara must also be differentiated from the needler (sucaka) who presumably uses needles to goad the animals and consequently suffers in hell.^[12] The next artisan is the metal-smith (Kammaara). In one context, he is the person to whom a man finding a gold ring may go in order to check the worth of it.^[13] He is thus identified with suvannakara, the goldsmith. Cunda, who is a Kummara putta, is a rich man owning a mango grove. It was at his place that the Buddha ate his lost meal.^[14] In another place a bronze vessel (kamsapati) is sold in a Smith’s shop.^[15] He is also shown as a possessor of a family (kammarakula); a distinction which is usually reserved for a man of substance or status.

We know very little about the palaganda^[16] who is a carpenter except that he has an assistant (antevasi). The ivory-worker (dantakara) is another craftsman who suffers because the monks take away too many needle cases from him.^[17] Like the carpenter, he, too, has an assistant.^[18]

The king describes the garland-maker’s (malakara) craft as a sippa.^[19] Whether he is an artisan in our sense is doubtful, since the work of the flower-cutter (pupphachandaka) is described as low (hinakamma).^[20] Of the last artisan manufacturer, the silk-worker (kosiyakara), only the technique of worm rearing and silk making is indicated. He works against the ritual injunction not to kill in order to support his wife and children.^[21]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Vinaya.IV.6f.

[2]:

Ibid.

[3]:

Majjhima Nikaya.II.206.

[4]:

Ibid.II.51.

[5]:

Digha Nikaya.I.51.

[6]:

Vinaya.IV.7.

[7]:

Vinaya.III.244-45.

[8]:

Ibid., pp. 41-42.

[9]:

Majjhima Nikaya.II.48-53

[10]:

Majjhima Nikaya.I.31-32.

[11]:

Samyutta Nikaya.II.215.

[12]:

Vinaya.III.106.

[13]:

Anguttara Nikaya.IV.120.

[14]:

Digha Nikaya.II.135-36.

[15]:

Majjhima Nikaya.I.25.

[16]:

Anguttara Nikaya.IV.127.

[17]:

Vinaya.IV.167.

[18]:

Digha Nikaya.I.78.

[19]:

Ibid., I.51.

[20]:

Vinaya.IV.6.

[21]:

Ibid., III.224-25.