Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.115

c13.115

A significant factor which contributed to this development was the fragmentation of land through the processes of partitions and gifts. The laws of inheritance as laid down in the Dharmaśāstra, the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya, and the law-books of Manu and even of Yājñavalkya never refer to the partition of landed property, which, is mentioned for the first time in the codes of Nārada³ and Bṛhaspati.⁴ This may suggest that in the middle or towards the end of the Gupta period big joint families, owning large stretches of land, began to break into smaller units. Once the principle of the partition of land was recognised, the increasing density of population in the fertile river valleys of Northern India, after the earlier phases of settlements, was bound to accelerate the pace of the fragmentation of arable plots of land. The pressure of population on land is indicated by an epigraphic record of the 5th cen. A.D., which shows that it was not possible to obtain 1½ *kulyavāpa* of land at one place in northern Bengal; it had to be purchased in smaller plots at four different places.¹ The purchase was made for the purpose of making gifts, which we have numerous examples during this period. Land grants, made to the brāhmaṇas and temples, further helped the process of fragmentation. We no longer hear of large plots of 500 *karisas* or of the state farms of the Mauryan period. Epigraphic references to arable units of one *kulyavāpa* or of 4, 2 and 1 *droṇavāpas* do not suggest big plots.² According to Pargiter a *kulyavāpa* was a little larger than an acre.³ But if the *kulyavāpa* measure of land prevalent in the Cachar district of Assam be considered identical with the *kulyavāpa*,⁴ the area of the latter would be about 13 acres. Since one *kulya* is equal to 8 *droṇas*, it would appear that the average plots of land in north Bengal varied from seven acres to three acres. During the same period a survey of the land grants made by the Maitraka rulers of Valabhī in Gujarat shows that the average plot of land did not exceed two or three acres in size.⁵ Naturally smaller holdings made it uneconomical to employ a large number of śūdra slaves and labourers. While some may have been employed in twos or threes, others may have been dispensed with.