The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.139

v1.c17.139

The Vaiçya is described as 'tributary to another, to be lived on by another, and to be oppressed at will.' From the point of view of the Kshatriya this indicates the fact that the exactions of the king from the commoners of the tribe were limited only by practical considerations of expediency: the commoner had no legal right to his landholding or to his private property if the king decided to take them from him; and, if he was allowed to retain them, he paid for them in tribute and in the duty of supporting others. This refers, no doubt, to the king's privilege of assigning to his nobles the right to receive food from the common people, and thus of making provision for the maintenance of the nobility, who assisted him in the protection of the country, and in the administration and the conduct of justice. By this means the nobles came more and more to occupy the position of landholders under the king, while the Vaiçyas approximated to the position of tenants. Moreover, the nobles may well have received from the king, as a result of successful onslaughts on the aborigines, grants of conquered lands and slaves, which they would hold in full proprietorship, subject to the political authority of the king. Among the Vaiçyas, again, distinctions were growing up: that originally the agriculture was carried on by Āryan tillers is certain; but, in the period of the Brāhmaṇas, the position was changing gradually; and, for the peasant working on his own fields, was being substituted the landowner cultivating his estate by means of slaves, or the merchant carrying on his trade by the same instrumentality, though we cannot with any certainty say how far this process was proceeding. The industrial workers, like the chariot makers, the smiths, the tanners, the carpenters, were sinking in estimation and forming distinct castes of their own.