A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c18.5

c18.5

There is no means of forming a reliable estimate of the population at any time during this long period we are now reviewing; even the Cholas, although they kept a minute record of property in land, never thought of taking a census of the population. In the ports on the seaboard, and in the capitals of kingdoms, particularly in Vijayanagar, there were undoubtedly considerable numbers of foreigners, including Arabs, Jews, Persians, Chinese, people from Malaya and the eastern archipelago; and, later, the Portuguese and other European nations. The presence of Parsis is noticed by Friar Jordanus at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Necessarily and obviously, however, the bulk of the population was always and everywhere Hindus organized in castes. There was some connexion between caste and occupation, but this was by no means unalterable, and the pressure of new factors and situations was always bringing about changes, in spite of protests from conservatives and even occasional attempts on the part of the political power to stop them.