Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.123

c13.123

It has been suggested that during the Gupta period land grants to brāhmaṇas served to promote village settlements by private enterprise.⁶ This may have been the case in the undeveloped areas in Central and South India but not in northern Bengal, where it was difficult to obtain land at one place, or in Gujarat. Possibly either the waste and undeveloped land was settled with surplus śūdra population, for the old peasants would not like to shift from settled areas, or aboriginal cultivators were enrolled as śūdras in the brāhmaṇical social organisation. Although in the traditional social hierarchy śūdras were required to serve as slaves and hired labourers, the new śūdras were either peasants or sharecroppers. Hence in Gupta and post-Gupta texts it became necessary to call them cultivators.