A Study in the Economic Condition of Ancient India c8.3

c8.3

For the purpose of revenue collection, however, lists of estates were kept in the record department. It appears that the size of an estate (*grāma*) was governed by the possession of a *kula* (the family of a *sāmanta*). Hypothetically each *sāmanta-kula* was considered to be the owner of an estate (*grāma*) which contained pasture, fallow and cropped land. It is rather interesting that the same word *kula* was used to denote an area of land which could be ploughed by two yokes of oxen; the seed sufficient for sowing this area was called *kulya*; and a person belonging to a *sāmanta-kula* was expressed by the word *kulīna*, meaning "nobleman", and a lady by the word *kula-duhitṛ*, etc.