Society in Motion: How Caste, Gender, and Economy Evolved in Ancient India

Sequence of Social Changes in Ancient India

Chapter 26 of RS Sharma's Ancient India provides a sweeping sociological overview of how Indian society evolved from its earliest food-gathering communities through to the emergence of feudal landlordism. Unlike political history, which tracks dynasties, this chapter tracks structural social changes — changes in technology, surplus extraction, class formation, and the varna order. It is the concluding analytical synthesis of the NCERT, and therefore functions as the conceptual backbone for all social history questions in UPSC.

The chapter's key argument: ancient Indian society cannot be given a single label — it evolved through several qualitatively distinct stages, each with its own logic of production, social organisation, and political authority.

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The Rig Vedic society was primarily pastoral. Key features:

• People were semi-nomadic; chief possessions were cattle and horses.
• The term for cow (gau) occurs 176 times in the earlier parts of the Rig Veda — cattle were synonymous with wealth; a wealthy person was called gomat.
• Wars were fought for cattle; the raja's main duty was to protect cows — hence called gopa or gopati.
• The daughter was called duhitr (one who milks) — so intimate was the family's connection with cattle.
• References to agriculture are fewer than cattle references in the Rig Veda — cattle-rearing was the main livelihood.
• Society was tribal, semi-nomadic, and egalitarian — spoils of war and cattle constituted the main property forms; women slaves were given as gifts; cereals were hardly mentioned as they were not produced on a considerable scale.
• The main income of a chief/prince came from spoils of war and tributes (bali) received from enemy and allied tribes. The bali was originally a voluntary trust-offering from tribesmen to their chief.
• Periodical sacrifices provided an important occasion for distribution of gifts and tributes — the lion's share went to priests in lieu of prayers offered to gods on behalf of patrons.
• The Rig Vedic society did not have a serving order in the form of sudras.
• Vedic communities had established neither a taxation system nor a professional army — there were no collectors of taxes apart from the kinsmen of the prince. Payment to the king was not much different from a sacrificial offering to gods.

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When Vedic people moved from Afghanistan and Punjab to western Uttar Pradesh, they became full-fledged agriculturists. Key developments:

• Continuous settlements for two to three centuries gave rise to territorial chiefdoms.
• Out of tributes from peasants and others, princes could perform sacrifices and reward their priests → nobles and warriors paid to priests; priests received sacrificial fees.
• The later Vedic peasant contributed to the rise of trade and towns — this feature became prominent in the age of the Buddha. His society did not know metallic money.
• The tribal militia of pastoral society was replaced by the peasant militia of agricultural society.
• For the asvamedha (horse sacrifice), the army comprised both kshatriyas and the vis.
• Priests stressed through rituals the subjection of the peasantry or vaisyas to warrior nobles — but at this stage turning tribesmen into taxpaying peasants was very weak.
• Wooden ploughshare + indiscriminate cattle-killing in sacrifices → peasants could not produce much surplus → could not pay regular taxes.
• Princes were expected to lend their hands to the plough — the gap between vaisya and rajanya was not very wide in early Vedic times.
• Nobles/warriors depended upon peasant militia for fighting and could not grant land without the consent of the tribal peasantry — this limited their power.

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The use of iron tools for crafts and cultivation created conditions for the transformation of comparatively egalitarian Vedic society into a fully agricultural and class-divided social order in the sixth century BC:

• Iron axe cleared forested areas of the middle Gangetic basin — some of the most fertile parts of the world were opened to settlement.
• Iron ploughshare + sickles + other tools → peasants produced a good deal more than they needed for subsistence → surplus that could be collected by princes and priests.
• Large territorial states → formation of the Magadhan empire.
• New technique and use of force enabled some people to possess large stretches of land needing slaves and hired labourers.
• In Vedic times people cultivated fields with the help of family members; no word for wage-earner in Vedic literature. But slaves and wage-earners in cultivation became a regular feature in the age of the Buddha.
• In the Maurya period they worked on large state farms — probably 150,000 people captured in Kalinga by Asoka were drafted for farms and mines.
• By and large slaves in ancient India were meant for domestic work; hired labourers played the dominant role in production.
• With the new technique, peasants, artisans, hired labourers, and agricultural slaves produced much more → a good part collected by princes and priests for regular collection; administrative and religious methods devised.
• The king appointed tax-collectors; it was also important to convince people of the necessity of obeying the raja, paying taxes, and offering gifts to priests → for this purpose the varna system was devised.

The Varna System: Structure and Function

• Members of the three higher varnas (brahman, kshatriya, vaisya) were distinguished ritually from the fourth varna (sudra).
• The twice-born (dvija) were entitled to Vedic studies and investiture with the sacred thread; sudras were excluded.
• Twice-born = citizens; sudras = non-citizens.
• Brahmanas not allowed to take the plough or do manual work — contempt of higher varnas for manual work reached such limits that they came to look upon some manual labourers as untouchables; the more a person withdrew from physical labour, the purer he was considered.
• Vaisyas were the principal taxpayers — their payments maintained kshatriyas and brahmanas.
• The varna system authorised kshatriyas to collect taxes from peasants and tolls from traders and artisans → enabled him to pay priests and employees in cash and kind.
• Differential interest rates by varna: brahman 2%, kshatriya 3%, vaisya 4%, sudra 5% (as per Dharmashastra rules).
• Sudra guests could be fed only if they had done some work at the host's house.
• Both priests and warriors lived on taxes, tributes, tithes, and labour supplied by peasants and artisans → their relations were marked by occasional feuds for social savings.
• Kshatriyas hurt by vanity of brahmanas claiming highest status; but both resolved conflicts in face of opposition from vaisyas and sudras.
• Ancient texts emphasise kshatriyas cannot prosper without brahmanas, and brahmanas cannot prosper without kshatriyas — cooperative legitimacy of the top two varnas.
• The state used danda (coercive measures); Manu laid down that vaisyas and sudras should not be allowed to deviate from their duties.
• The state found it convenient to assign land revenues to priests, military chiefs, and administrators for their support — in sharp contrast to Vedic practice where only the community had the right to give land to priests. Now and obliged leading community members by granting land. Beneficiaries were also empowered to maintain law and order.

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For several centuries the system worked well in the Gangetic basin — the first and second centuries AD were marked by bumping trade and urbanism, and art flourished as never before. The climax of the old order was reached around the third century AD. Then its progressive role was exhausted.

• Around the third century AD, the old social formation was afflicted with a deep crisis — reflected in Puranic descriptions of the Kali age characterised by varna-sankara (intermixture of varnas), where vaisyas and sudras refused to perform producing functions assigned to them and vaisya peasants declined to pay taxes.
• They did not observe varna boundaries relating to marriage and other social intercourse — epics emphasise the importance of danda (coercion).
• Manu states vaisyas and sudras should not be allowed to deviate from their duties — kings appear as upholders and restorers of the varna system.
• But coercive measures alone were insufficient. Instead of extracting taxes directly through agents and distributing them among priestly, military, and other employees, the state found it convenient to assign land revenues directly to priests, military chiefs, administrators, etc.
• This was in sharp contrast to the Vedic practice where only the community had the right to give land. Now the raja usurped this power and obliged leading community members by granting land to them. Beneficiaries were also empowered to maintain law and order — solving fiscal and administrative problems simultaneously.
• New and expanding kingdoms wanted more taxes → could be obtained from tribal backward areas provided tribals adopted new agricultural methods and were taught to be loyal → tackled by granting land in tribal areas to enterprising brahmanas who could tame the inhabitants and make them amenable to discipline.
• In backward areas, land grants to brahmanas and others spread agricultural calendar, diffused knowledge of ayurveda medicine, and contributed to overall agricultural production; art of writing and use of Prakrit and Sanskrit were also disseminated. Through land grants, civilisation spread to the deep south and far east.
• Large numbers of aboriginal peasants came to be ranked as sudras through land grants to the Hindu fold → sudras began to be called peasants and agriculturists in early medieval texts.

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RS Sharma's synthesis:

1. Palaeolithic food-gathering → succeeded by
2. Food-producing neolithic and chalcolithic communities → peasant villages → Harappan urbanism → break
3. Pastoral, tribal, egalitarian Rig Vedic society (horse-users, cattle-herders)
4. Pastoral → agricultural in later Vedic times, but primitive agriculture didn't yield much
5. Class-divided society comes into full view in post-Vedic times = the varna system, resting on producing activities of vaisyas supplemented by sudras
6. Social system worked well from age of Buddha to Gupta times
7. Then internal upheavals — priests and officials granted lands → landlord class emerges between peasants and state → undermined vaisya position → modification of varna system → feudal formation by 5th–6th centuries AD

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• GS Paper I (Social History): The entire arc — tribal → agricultural → varna → feudal — is directly testable as a narrative question. Understanding each stage's logic is essential for analytical answers.
• Varna System as a Mechanism of Surplus Extraction: RS Sharma's materialist interpretation of the varna system (as a device to convince people to pay taxes and offer gifts to priests) is a key historiographical position — frequently invoked in UPSC analytical MCQs.
• Iron Technology and Social Change: The iron ploughshare opening the Gangetic plain is a classic example of technology driving social transformation — connects to broader GS themes on technology and society.
• Land Grants and Feudalism: The chapter connects directly to Ch. 25's analysis of land grants — here Sharma shows how the landlord class that emerged from land grants prepared the ground for feudalism by the 5th–6th centuries.
• Continuity and Change: The varna system's persistence across technological and political transformations illustrates how social structures outlast the economic conditions that created them.
• Interlinks: Rig Veda (pastoral) ↔ Later Vedic (agricultural) ↔ Iron Age (Magadhan state) ↔ Mauryan centralisation ↔ Gupta climax ↔ Land grants ↔ Feudal formation.

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1. Gau (cow) count in Rig Veda: The term gau occurs 176 times in the EARLIER parts of the Rig Veda — a specific and testable number.
2. Bali: Originally a voluntary gift/trust-offering from tribesmen to the chief — NOT a coercive tax. It became associated with tribute from defeated tribes. Do not confuse with the later Vedic bali (tax).
3. Duhitr: The word for daughter means 'one who milks' — indicating the centrality of cattle in Rig Vedic family life. Not to be confused with modern Hindi beti.
4. Gomat and Gopati: Gomat = wealthy person (one who possesses cattle); Gopati/Gopa = the raja whose duty is to protect cows. These Sanskrit terms are testable.
5. No sudras in Rig Vedic society: The Rig Vedic society did NOT have a serving order in the form of sudras. The four-varna system solidified only in later Vedic/post-Vedic times.
6. No taxation system in Rig Vedic times: Vedic communities had established neither a taxation system nor a professional army — payment to the king resembled a sacrificial offering.
7. Vis/Sena terminology: In Vedic times, the tribal peasantry (vis) formed the sena (armed host). In LATER Vedic times this force was called bala. Do not confuse these terms.
8. Slave use in ancient India: Slaves were mainly meant for domestic work — hired labourers played the dominant role in production. UPSC sometimes tests this distinction.
9. 150,000 Kalingas: Approximately 150,000 people captured in Kalinga by Asoka were drafted for work in farms and mines — this is a specific detail from the chapter.

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• Palaeolithic: food-gathering; hill groups; game, fruits, roots
• Neolithic/Chalcolithic: food-producing; upland communities; peasant villages → Harappan urbanism
• Urbanism disappears for ~1000 years after Harappa
• Rig Veda society: pastoral, semi-nomadic, tribal, egalitarian
• Gau occurs 176 times in earlier Rig Veda; cattle = wealth; wealthy person = gomat
• Raja = gopa/gopati (protector of cows)
• Daughter = duhitr (one who milks)
• Agriculture references fewer than cattle in Rig Veda
• Bali = originally voluntary gift/trust offering; later = tribute from defeated tribes
• No sudras in Rig Vedic society; no professional army; no formal taxation
• Vis = tribal peasantry = sena; in later Vedic times = bala
• Iron tools from c. 600 BC: cleared Gangetic forest; surplus production; class formation
• 150,000 Kalinga captives: drafted by Asoka for farms and mines
• Slaves in ancient India: mainly domestic; hired labourers = dominant in production
• Varna system purpose: convince people to pay taxes and offer gifts (RS Sharma's materialist view)
• Twice-born (dvija): brahman, kshatriya, vaisya — entitled to sacred thread + Vedic study
• Sudras = non-citizens; excluded from Vedic studies
• Vaisyas = principal taxpayers; maintained kshatriyas and brahmanas
• Differential interest: brahman 2%, kshatriya 3%, vaisya 4%, sudra 5%
• Untouchability: arose from high-varna contempt for manual labour
• Social crisis: 3rd century AD; varna-sankara; Kali age descriptions in Puranas
• State response: assign land revenues directly to priests/officials → land grants
• Land grants in tribal areas: spread agriculture, Ayurveda, Sanskrit, Prakrit, writing