A History of Agriculture in India v1.c29.s2: Classification of Villages
A History of Agriculture in India v1.c29.s2
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Classification of Villages
v1.c29.s2.1
The Mauryan Government made a two-fold classification of the villages for the purpose of fiscal administration. The villages were grouped according to the number of tax-paying inhabitants, the caste of the people, the size and the commercial and industrial value.
v1.c29.s2.2
(i) Villages enjoying remission of taxes. These included certain newly founded villages and villages granted as Brahmadeyas and the like. This group included villages granted to royal servants, such as superintendents, accountants, gopas, sthanikas, veterinary surgeons, physicians, horse-trainers and messengers, without the right of alienation by sale or mortgage.
v1.c29.s2.3
(ii) Villages supplying soldiers or weapons of war. Villages that paid grains, cattle, gold and raw produce as tax, and supplied free labour instead of taxes, included the purely agricultural type as well as villages of low-caste people. The Mauryan Government pursued a policy of setting up villages tenanted solely by the people of the Shudra caste. Says Kautilya, ‘Villages should be formed, each consisting of from 100 to 500 agricultural families of Shudra caste.’ Men of low caste for such work were preferred on the ground that they were more efficient in manual labour than men of the high castes. Stringent measures were adopted to protect agricultural interests in these villages by way of forbidding impediments of different kinds. ‘No ascetic other than one who was taken to the fourth stage of life, no association other than one of the same origin (i.e. of agricultural caste), no guild devoted to a different object other than a guild of the same nature shall colonize a village. On account of the isolation of the villagers, and devotion of the people to cultivation there will be growth of wealth, labour, minerals, grains and drinks.’
v1.c29.s2.4
The seclusion of the villages belonging to the Shudra families was a Mauryan innovation. It gave a distinct stamp to the farmers as a whole. Megasthenes was thus led to believe that husbandmen formed a distinct caste. He says, ‘The second caste consists of the husbandmen, who appear to be far more numerous than the others. As they were exempted from fighting and other public services, they devoted the whole of their time to tillage. Nor would an enemy, coming upon a husbandman at work on his land, do him any harm, for, farmers were regarded as public benefactors and were protected. The land thus remaining unravaged, and producing heavy crops, supplies the inhabitants with all that is requisite to make life enjoyable. The husbandmen themselves, with their wives and children, live in the country and avoid going into town.’