The owner, master or head of a household, who exercised control over…

The owner, master or head of a household, who exercised control over the women, children, slaves and workers, and shared a common residence was called as _________.

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 3

The correct answer is Option (3) → Gahapati

Option (1) Adimai — Incorrect. Early Tamil literature (the Sangam texts) uses adimai for slaves. A slave was one of the people under the head of a household, not the head himself.

Option (2) Vellalar — Incorrect. In the Sangam texts the vellalar were large landowners in the villages. The term names a category of landholders, not the master of a household with women, children, slaves and workers under him.

Option (3) Gahapati — Correct. A gahapati was the owner, master or head of a household, who exercised control over the women, children, slaves and workers who shared a common residence. He also owned the resources of the household – land, animals and other things.

Option (4) Uzhawar — Incorrect. The Sangam texts call ploughmen uzhavar; they worked the land and did not head households of the kind the question describes.

Note: A same/similar question was asked in CUET (UG) in the papers below.

2026	2025	2024	2023	2022
–	21-05 S1*	–	23-05 S1	–

* A similar question.

NCERT (2026-27): “5.3 Differences in rural society … The large landholders, as well as the village headman (whose position was often hereditary), emerged as powerful figures, and often exercised control over other cultivators. Early Tamil literature (the Sangam texts) also mentions different categories of people living in the villages – large landowners or vellalar, ploughmen or uzhavar and slaves or adimai.…

Gahapati … A gahapati was the owner, master or head of a household, who exercised control over the women, children, slaves and workers who shared a common residence. He was also the owner of the resources – land, animals and other things – that belonged to the household. Sometimes the term was used as a marker of status for men belonging to the urban elite, including wealthy merchants.…”