The ‘Vasu’ of Meru became the Vaiśya in this new rural structure around sedentary cultivation. The etymology of the words Vasu and Viś is the same and means ‘wealth’. The farmer became the lord of the surplus produce. ‘Ar’ means plough. Many words of agrarian origin like Area, Acre, Agrarian, Arable are derived from the root ‘Ar’. The ploughman who wielded ‘Ar’ was called the ‘Arya’. In due course, the word Arya became synonymous with ‘Lord’.
