A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c18.27.1

c18.27.1

The vast majority of the population lived in villages and agriculture was their main occupation. Great prestige attached to ownership of land, and everyone, whatever his occupation, aimed at having a small plot he could call his own. The village was thus primarily a settlement of peasants, and its assembly an association of landlords. A periodical redistribution of the arable land of a village among its inhabitants prevailed in many parts of the country till comparatively recent times. Besides the landowners, great and small, there was a fairly large class of landless labourers, an agrarian proletariat, who assisted in the operations and shared the proceeds of agriculture; some of them were in a condition of serfdom, and all of them had less to do with the management of local affairs than the landowners. The artisans of the village had shares from the common land of the village, which were of the nature of retainers or inducements to them to stay in the village, ready to take up work as it came to them, the wage of each engagement forming the subject of separate negotiation between the parties. There was also a staff of menial servants from the outcaste who were likewise rewarded by shares in the common land. Day labour was usually paid for in grain, and even the small peasant was ready to hire himself out in his spare time.