ABSTRACT
The main groups comprising the (medieval) Indian society were—the aristocracy, the rich merchants and bankers, scholars, landowning classes, peasants, labourers and artisans. To have an idea of the life of wage earners, artisans, labourers and servants inside the imperial palace, court and camp and houses of nobles, one can draw ample information from foreign travellers’ and merchants accounts. All the professional groups or castes were (and most of them still are) found inhabiting all parts of India, though the terminologies applied to them today differ from region-to-region, depending upon the dialect or language spoken there. In the former group, W.H. Moreland included the court and imperial servants, professional and religious classes including mendicants and ascetics and domestic servants and slaves. Deviating from the convention of dividing and studying Indian society on the lines of caste, Moreland, classified it into two groups—consumers and producers.
