Jain Journal 1973 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 29

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Slavery (Sudratva) 13 at the dawn of civilization had become an essential part of the social system of the Age, when Rsabhadeva became the first tribal king. It may be presumed from the division of the people into four castes that the Sudras (or slaves) were driven in scores to the field and workshops.
The study of history reveals that the division of production into agriculture and handicrafts "gave rise to production for exchange, the production of commodities; with it came trade, not only in the interior and on the tribal boundaries, but also overseas".14
JAIN JOURNAL
The distinction between rich and poor was added to that between free man (Brāhmaṇa, Kşatriya and Vaisya) and slave (Sudra) at the beginning of civilization. With the new division of labour, such as, Kumbhakāra (potter), etc., there came into being a new division of society into classes. The difference in the possession of wealth of the various heads of the families helped the process of breaking up the old communistic household communities and put an end to the common cultivation of the soil for the welfare of the community. The cultivated land was assigned gradually for use to the several families in perpetuity, i.e., the transition to complete private ownership was completed gradually and simultaneously with the transition from the Yaugalic family to a new family. "The individual family began to be the economic unit of society."15
The foundation of hereditary succession, hereditary royalty and hereditary nobility was laid down by Rsabhadeva at the end of Kulakarism. In this manner the greed for wealth divided the members of the gentes into rich and poor; "property differences in a gen changed the community of interests into antagonism between members of a gen (Marx)"16.
Such a picture of socio-economic conditions prevailing at the period in between the upper stage of Kulakarism and the dawn of civilization is revealed in the Jaina Agamas. It throws an important light on the
13 Acaranga Niryukti, p. 7.
14 The Origin of the Family, etc., p. 160.
15 Ibid.,
16 Ibid., p. 161.