A Study in the Economic Condition of Ancient India c8.28

c8.28

The people of ancient India may be regarded as divided into two main classes : (1) the upper orders, often described as the 'twice-born' classes, and (2) the lower orders, or the 'masses', a term which comprises a vast population of diverse origins generally included in the comprehensive title *śūdra*. In the ancient fabric of Indian society there was no separate group comprising the ‘middle classes’ as this expression is ordinarily understood in English. The absorption of western ideas of recent years may have led to the application of this term to certain strata of the population which appear to correspond with the middle classes so-called in Europe; but the distinction is really foreign to the Indian genius. No account of the social structure of ancient India would be complete without reference to the commercial and trading classes. Certain aspects of their organization have already been the subject of careful study; but the economic conditions under which commerce and trade were carried on, the cost of production, prices realized, the taxes, tolls, and port dues paid, the organization of industries and the distribution of wealth, etc., have not yet been dealt with on a thorough or scientific basis. The subject is one that would call for a separate and lengthy treatise. Moreover, the centres of trade and commerce were the large cities and towns, with which the present work is not directly concerned. In the present thesis I concentrate attention upon the main orders, and deal with the two most representative sections thereof, namely, (1) the landowning, aristocratic or ruling classes, and (2) the working or labouring classes as a whole.