Forms of labour in ancient and medieval South India (up to the thirteenth century)

Abstract

Tamil inscriptions offer details that enable us to reconstruct agrarian developments in the Tamil region from about the eighth to the thirteenth centuries. Land grants spawned Brahmana land holders, but elsewhere too a landlord class formed, with growing conflicts with peasants over rent and labour dues. The presence of the depressed Paraiyas provided the bulk of wage labourers. A certain advance in urbanisation produced not only active merchant guilds but also migratory artisan groups.