Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c11.60

c11.60

Kauṭilya lays down that, if fields cannot be sown (apparently due to shortage of labour power), they can be leased to those who cultivate for half the share of the produce.¹ Those who live by bodily labour (i.e. karmakaras) and therefore do not possess seeds and oxen necessary for cultivation can cultivate such lands, but may retain only one fourth or one fifth of the produce; presumably their seed and oxen were provided by the state.² Kauṭilya enunciates the principle that the sharecroppers should pay to the kings as much as they can without entailing any hardship upon themselves, but he does not indicate the nature of such hardships.³ It seems that the sharecroppers were also allotted some land with hard soil, for which they had not to pay anything to the state.⁴ Evidently there were two kinds of sharecroppers — the one retaining half and the other retaining ¼th or ⅕th of their crops; the former are described by the commentator Bhaṭṭasvāmin as *grāmyakuṭumbinaḥ*.⁵ In the section on the *durganiveśa* (founding of the capital) Kauṭilya provides that the *kuṭumbins* should be settled on the boundary of the capital to meet the requirements of their field work and other occupation.⁶ It is said that they shall work in flower gardens, forest gardens, vegetable gardens and paddy fields⁷ and collect plenty of grain and merchandise as authorised. In this context the term *kuṭumbinaḥ* is explained by T. Gaṇapati Śāstrī as a person belonging to the lowest varṇa (*varṇāvarāṇām*),⁸ and by Shamasastry as families of workmen.⁹ Thus the *kuṭumbins* were probably śūdra sharecroppers and agricultural labourers. This use of the term is rather unusual since in most sources kuṭumbinaḥ means simply the head of a family,¹ but the context indicates that here it has a specialised meaning.