Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.23

c5.23

Caṇḍālas,¹ hunters,² robbers,³ carpenters,⁴ smiths,⁵ potters,⁶ and weavers.⁷ "These were either suburban to large cities, or rural, and constituting as such special markets for the whole country-side."⁸ The existence of such suburban areas were due either to the policy of segregation adopted by the higher castes or the king with regard to the people of lower classes like the Caṇḍālas or to the natural tendency of localisation of particular kinds of handicraft or industry, in which case the villagers had of necessity to depend on a contiguous town or a self-contained village. In any case, the economic life in these dvāragāmas was very poor.⁹ These villages were under their headmen (jeṭṭhakā).