[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958) › c13.142 # Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.142 Śūdras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.142 - **Language:** English ### [c13.142](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958.c13.142) The land grants of this period, made in Central India, repeatedly refer to the tax-paying kuṭumbins and kārus (artisans).⁹ Land transactions from Bengal mention the names of the \*kuṭumbins\* who are informed of the gifts or the sale of land.¹ It is beyond doubt that the \*kārus\* were \*śūdras\*. This applies also to the \*kuṭumbins\*. The latter have been taken as cultivators² or houseslaves.³ It is also suggested that the \*kuṭumbins\* belonged to the professional artisan classes who cultivated land as a subsidiary means of livelihood.⁴ But it seems that, in contrast to the \*kārus\*, the \*kuṭumbins\* were cultivating householders. In the early Pāli texts they appear as householders of substance,⁵ and may have been vaiśyas. In the \*Arthaśāstra\* of Kauṭilya the sharecropping \*kuṭumbins\* have been taken as \*śūdras\* by T. Ganapati Sastri.⁶ The tax-paying cultivator families of the Gupta period may have included both vaiśyas and \*śūdras\*. But the position seems to have changed substantially in subsequent times. The kurmis, who constitute a numerous cultivating caste in West Bengal, Bihar and U.P. and are placed in the category of \*śūdras\*, seem to correspond to the \*kuṭumbin\*. The same is true of the kunbi caste found in Maharashtra and parts of Madhya Pradesh. - [Previous: c13.141](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958.c13.141) - [Next: c13.143](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958.c13.143) - [Up: c13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958.c13) ## Cites (1) - [Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.artha.kautilya) — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958.c13.142](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958.c13.142) · Pramāṇa