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224 K. K. SHAH

madę out that the poet has coupled this professioned diversification with various virtues and noble qualities of the members in preparing his panegyric for the guild. Again, in case of verse 21 the version of Diskalkar suits the context morę. We are conscious, however_f that the difference in translations arises from dilTcrence in reading of the original text ilself. As students of history we can go only by the published and standard texts and we have taken two available lexts into account. It is noteworthy that the term svakarmma figures in the text of Diskalkar as well as Bhandarkar; only they derive different meanings and that has resulted in controversy among historians.⁶

3.1.    Once we accept that the poet has mentioned variety of professions and not the hobbies, the logical question from this position, and which we must answer, is their social identity. We have already noted in section 2.2 above that Thapar has interpreted their identity in terms of a subcaste characterised by 11cxibility in regard to occupation followed. Basham has also read in their strong corporate sense ⁴a caste in the making’, because the endogamous and commensał character of the guild of silk-weavers is not elear from the record itsclf. A micro-study done on Malwa society a couple of dccadcs ago has established that there are three levels of membership in a caste. The lowcst is that of an effective loeal subcaste population which could bc termed as kindred of co-opcralion. This varies for each individual at any time, and around it there is a group callcd the kindred of recognition within which marriages are madę and/or kin -links can be traced through mutual kin. These two features tend to go together.⁷ Beyond these two kindreds are peoplc who are recognizcd as members of a subcaste which is endogamous, named and separate from other subcastes but being spread over a wide area not an elTcctive group. In fact, subcastes are mostly based on provincial distinction such as Malvi_f Gujarati or Mewari. The provincial subcaste population is not confincd to that province⁸ and today there are Gujarati weavers in Malwa like the immigrant silk -weavers of our inscription. Finally, many subcastes make up a caste, which is nothing but a category composed of subcastes ralher than a group in its own right. However, people of other castes see it as an undilTcrentiatcd group. The only exceplions appear to be in cases of subcastes formed through some irregular behaviour, or when a subcaste comes from another region and has radically different habits. In these cases, peoplc tend to vary their bchaviour towards the different subcastes of that caste. On the whole, caste membership is signifigant for relations with other castcs, and subcaste membership for activitics within the caste. These findings of Mayer from his comprehcnsive and perceptive study of a contemporary Malwa village will help us in analysing the social status and identity of the silk-weavcrs of ancient Malwa as figuring in our record.

3.2.    The three facts of supremę importance about the silk-weavers of our record which emerge from the data collccted and cited in 1.2 and 1.3