Most Ancient Aryan Society

Author(s): Ram Chandra Jain
Publisher: Institute of Bharatalogical Research Sriganganagar Rajasthan

Page 34

system, personal, communal and mixed. The personal land, called Kur-land, was divided into allotments which were assigned to members of the community for their support. The communal or common land, called Nigenna land, was cultivated by the community as a whole for the benefit of the community. The mixed land, called Uru-lal-land, was let out to tenants at a rent amounting from one-sixth to one third share of the yield. The temple supplied the seed, corn, draft animals and implements for the cultivation of the Nigenna-land. The sangu or priest was not a high dignitary to extort the people. He was rather a superintendent. He had to support himself by his own labour, Priests had their allotments to support themselves. There were no slaves or native serfs. Women were also the holders of allotments.
The basic economy of the Bhāratīya people was agriculture. Peaceful pleasant farmers carried on efficient farming operations in Iran, Baluchistan and Sind. They exercised well-regulated mixed-farming.? They lived in small village settlements in upland valleys and the plains alike. They enjoyed communal life with easy self-sufficiency.s There was irrigation farming and riverine water was stored in big bunds. We find big granaries in the two Indus cities of Harappa and Mohenjodaro. This indicates that the agrarian system was so well-organised that the peasants sufficiently produced the necessary surplus to store in these granaries. The agricultural production must have been carried on in two ways. A part of the land might have been cultivated for the support of the individal and his family and the rest for the community. Bhāratīya peasants cultivated cotton, wheat, barley, rice and other considerable variety of farm produce. Fruits and vegetables were also abundantly grown.