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Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c9.s34: 23. Seven classes of the people

Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c9.s34

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23. Seven classes of the people

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Perhaps the best known section of Megasthenes is his account of the seven 'tribes' or classes of India. They are : (1) The philosophers, (2) cultivators, (3) herdsmen and hunters, (4) artisans and traders, (5) fighters, (6) overseers (Ephors or Episcopoi) and (7) councillors and assessors³. Megasthenes, like Nearchus, mentions two types of Brahmins—those engaged in the study of nature and practice of religion, and those who took part in political life and advised the king as counsellors. Both these classes were numerically small, but highly respected for their learning and character. The class of philosophers included two types ; first the officiating priests (*purohitas*) who conducted religious ceremonials, public and private, in return for *dakṣiṇā*, were exempt from labour and taxation, and predicted the fortunes of every year at its commencement ; then there were the ascetics (*sanyāsins*) who have been mentioned already. The seventh class provided the mantrins, the judges, treasurers and generals for the army. The second class of cultivators formed the bulk of the population ; they were exempt from fighting and other services, devoted the whole of their time to tillage, and were of a mild and gentle disposition. They lived in the country and avoided towns as much as possible. In times of war, they were allowed to go about their occupation undisturbed by the surrounding conflict.

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In the words of Arrian : ‘In times of civil war the soldiers are not allowed to molest the husbandmen or ravage their lands : hence, while the former are fighting and killing each other as they can, the latter may be seen close at hand tranquilly pursuing their work,—perhaps ploughing, or gathering in their crops, pruning the trees, or reaping the harvest.’ This does not seem to be an idealised picture, but a matter of general practice and common knowledge in ancient India ; witness the telling simile in an old Buddhist commentary which says that philosophers while destroying the opinions of their adversaries must carefully respect the principles of logic which are useful to all, just as kings, while destroying the soldiers of their enemies, respect the field labourer who is the common help of both armies¹. The cultivators paid a determinate share of the produce to the state by way of rent for the land they cultivated but did not own. On this important subject², we may set down the actual words of the Greek authors. Arrian says simply : ‘they cultivate the soil and pay tribute to the kings and the independent cities’. Diodorus is more elaborate, but by no means more helpful ; he says : ‘They pay a land-tribute to the king, because all India is the property of the Crown, and no private person is permitted to own land. Besides the land-tribute, they pay into the royal treasury a fourth part of the produce of the soil’.

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Lastly, Strabo has this : ‘The whole of the land belongs to the Crown, and the husbandmen till it on condition of receiving as wages one-fourth of the produce.’ We notice marked differences in these extracts from Megasthenes by the three writers. Arrian is silent on state ownership and says that the payment for land was of the same order in monarchies and in free cities (republics), which should be deemed enough to silence all attempts to restrict the application of our texts to the royal domain; Diodorus mentions the payment of a quarter share of the produce to the state in addition to the tribute, while Strabo says that three-fourths were given up to the state, only a quarter going to the cultivator as wages. It may well be doubted whether these differences in the rate of land tax or rent may be properly explained as due to differences in the conditions under which cultivation was carried on under a sharing system, the landlord contributing only the land in some cases, but cattle, plough, manure and so on in different degrees in other instances. The *Arthaśāstra*, however, knows these differences, and Breloer has argued that the Mauryan polity was based on a close supervision and regulation of all agriculture and industry in the land by government agency¹. In Taxila alone soldiers outnumbered husbandmen, as the king was at war with two of his neighbours, as he told Alexander².

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³ Diodorus, II, 40-41 (Meg. pp. 40-44); Arrian, *Indika*, XI-XII (pp. 203-13); Strabo, XV, 1, 39-41 and 46-49 (pp. 47-8 and 53). Also Diod. II, 36 (p. 33) for immunity of cultivators from ravages of war. Monahan, *Early History of Bengal*, p. 153, refutes Stein's doubts over this question.

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¹ The citation is from Abhidharmakośavyākhyā—see Breloer, i. p. 118, n. Also IHQ, ii, (1926), p. 656.

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² U. N. Ghosal, Ownership of Land in Ancient India, IHQ, ii (1926), pp. 198-203. Also post chapter on Mauryan Polity.

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¹ Breloer, *KS*, i, pp. 77–93; *contra*. Stein, *op. cit.*, pp. 126–9.

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² 'When Alexander asked him whether he had more husbandmen or soldiers, he replied that as he was at war with two kings he required more soldiers than field labourers.' Curtius, viii, ch. 12 (*Invasion*, p. 202.).

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The third class, shepherds and hunters, lived a nomadic life in forests, cleared the land of wild beasts, birds that devour seeds sown, and other pests, received an allowance of corn from the king for the service, and paid him tribute in cattle. The fourth class of artisans and traders paid taxes from their earnings, except armourers and shipwrights who received subsidies. The *fifth* class, warriors, less numerous only than the cultivators lived a life of ease and enjoyment in peace; they received a handsome pay out of which they maintained all the servants they required for cleaning their arms, keeping their horses, driving their elephants and chariots and attending on them at home and in camp. The sixth class evidently includes both officials openly employed for the supervision of the work of the different departments, the *Mahāmātras* and *Adhyakshas*, and the numerous spies (assisted by the courtesans) who were engaged in the constant communication of secret information about all men and things to the king and, in republics, to the magistrates.

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