Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.125

c13.125

The traditional view that vaiśyas were peasants recurs in the literature of this period¹ In the *Amarakośa* words for cultivators are listed in the *vaiśya-varga* (section).² But there are reasons to think that śūdras were also becoming peasants. Like Manu, Viṣṇu and Yājñavalkya show that land was rented out to the śūdra for crop.³ This would suggest that the practice of leasing land to śūdra sharecroppers was growing stronger. Gradually they established permanent possession over the land. A Pallava land grant of this period (A.D. 250-350) informs us that four sharecroppers (*ārdhikaḥ*) remained attached to the land even when it was gifted away to brāhmaṇas.⁴ The grant also mentions the transfer of two kolikas,⁵ who may have been peasants or agricultural labourers of the Kol tribe.⁶ Another Pallava land grant of the same period speaks of the transfer of a plot of four *nivartanas* cultivated by a person called Atuka,⁷ who may also have been a sharecropper. This would suggest that at least in some cases the śūdra sharecroppers of the state could not be dispossessed of the land even when it was transferred to others.