the polygars and other higher-status people who preferred the old agrarian system "represented the decadent social order", were in many cases "upstarts" and "were also the heirs of a social system in which various orders of hindu society were integrated through ages". these people were dispossessed of their lands, which were then redistributed, but the primary purpose of the changes was to increase production rather than to restructure the social order. in some cases, it coincided with a punishment because among the dispossessed were those who had recently been involved in fighting the eic in the polygar wars. some received pensions in lieu of the lost lands but at inconsistent rates.