Archaeologists working near the coast of Gujarat have identified 4th-century BCE inscriptions in early Brahmi script on a series of basalt slabs. These inscriptions detail the 'Sangha-Niti' or the Ethics of Mutual Affirmation, which governed ancient merchant guilds and cooperative assemblies.
The text describes a proto-democratic system where ethical consensus was prioritized over individual wealth accumulation. This discovery suggests that collective ethical codes were well-established in the Saurashtra region long before the formalization of the Artha-Shastra, emphasizing social trust as a pillar of trade.