A History of Agriculture in India v1.c29.s2.3

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.’