UPSC Prelims 2020 question on Kulyavapa Dronavapa Land Measures

Gupta Economy: The agricultural crops constituted the main resources which the society produced and the major part of the revenue of the state came from the agriculture. Various types of land are mentioned in the inscriptions; land under cultivation was usually called Kshetra, Khila was the uncultivable land, Aprahata was the jungle or forest land, Gopata Sarah was the pasture land and Vasti was the habitable land.

Different land measures were known in different regions such as Nivartana, Kulyavapa and Dronavapa. In the inscriptions of Bengal, terms like Kulyavapa and Dronavapa are used.

It is not possible to classify the regions precisely according to the crops grown, but all the major categories of crops — cereals like barley, wheat and paddy, different varieties of pulses, grams and vegetables as well as cash crops like cotton and sugarcane — were known long before the Gupta period.

Kulyavapa and Dronavapa are thus units of measurement of land (specifically, the amount of land that could be sown with a certain measure of seed — a kula or a drona).

Hence option (a) — measurement of land — is the correct answer.