"500" guilds

[Artur Karp]

At 06:50 1.06.1999 -0700, Swaminathan Madhuresan wrote:

>In the Tamil inscriptions...>the merchant guilds of 500 from all(1000)
directions are talked about.

>The number five is important in those guilds, These merchants go
>by the title, "Five Hunderd" ...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------

I would like to know more about those "500" guilds. Is the number purely
symbolic, or does it mirror some organizational system?

In Buddhist literature monks, merchants, travellers, bandits, etc. form
typically 500 members groups.

Any connection with merchants "500" guilds?

Artur Karp