In the structural transformation of the agrarian economy during the second urbanization, the category of Gahapatis emerged as a distinctive socio-economic class. What was their precise functional profile?

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In Buddhist Pali literature, the Gahapati shifts away from its simple Vedic definition of a domestic household head. It designates an influential socio-economic class of wealthy non-aristocratic landowners. They controlled large tracts of arable land, deployed dependent workers (Dasas and Kammakaras) to extract crops, and operated as the principal fiscal backbone of the urbanizing kingdoms.

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