Agriculture was the mainstay of the national economy, and most of its operations were carried on by women of the lowest class (kadaisiyar) whose status appears to have differed little from that of the slave. The bulk of the land was owned by Vellarar, the agriculturists par excellence, who commanded a high social rank. The richer among them did not plough the land themselves, but employed labourers to do it. Besides owning land, they held ofﬁcial posts in the civil and military administration, and the titles vel and arasu in the Chola country and Kavidi in the Pandya were applied to them. They not only enjoyed the jus connubi with royal families, but also shared with the king the duties of war and the pleasures of the chase and of the table. The poorer vellalars did not shun manual labour, but worked on their own small farms, as do the peasantry everywhere.