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ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
engaged for tending the cattle or milking the cows.1 Besides, there were large number of servants and personal attendants or sevaga-purisas2 like the majjavaga, maṇ lāvaga3 etc. who were regularly employed by the kings and wealthy citizens for carrying out their personal work. According to A.N. Bose, there have been five categories of hired-labourers in ancient India, viz. those engaged in agricultural, pastoral, industrial, mercantile and household labour.* The existence of all these types of hired labourers can be seen from the above account of the NC.
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Wages-An analysis of the above-mentioned classes of the bhayags will reveal that two main principles were followed in deciding the wages of the labourers, i.e. either according to the duration of their work or according to the amount of work done by them. Bhati was a specific term for the wages of the bhayagas and kammakaras, while the wages earned by a physician have been called veyanı or veyaṇaga. Pāņini also informs us that the wages of the unskilled or manual labourers were to be called bhṛti", while those of the skilled artisans (silpis) were known as vetana.8
The labourers could take their wages either in cash or in kind or in both combined. Instances of all the three can be found in the text, although the payment in cash seems to have been more popular. The bhaya gas and kammakaras are invariably mentioned as receiving their wages in the form of
1. गोवालग " भती" वृत्ति:-NC. 2, p. 145; NC 3, p. 433.
2. NC. 4, p. 350.
3. NC. 2, p. 469.
4. Bose, A. N., 'Hired Iabour in Ancient India', Indian Culture, Vol. 4, Pp. 252-57.
5. " भती" णाम भयगाणं कम्मकराणं ति कुत्तं भवति - NC. 3, p. 519.
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6. ण वट्टति जतीग हत्थातो वेयणगंवेत्तु --- NC. 3, p. 110.
7.
fat-Astādhyāyi, III. 2, 22.
8. Ibid., III. 1, 14, 26, and II. 36; Agrawala, V. S., India as Known to Panini, p. 236.
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