The royal services that the "paiks" tended to were defense (the Ahom kingdom did not have a standing army till the beginning of 19th century and its army consisted of the militia formed of "paiks"), civil construction (embankments, roads, bridges, tanks, etc.), military production (boats, arrows, muskets), etc. There were two major classes of "paiks": "kanri paik" (archer) who rendered his service as a soldier or as a laborer and "chamua paik" who rendered non-manual service and had a higher social standing. Some other minor classes were: "bilatiyas" (tenants at the estates of nobles), "dewaliyas" (attached to temples and sattras) and "bahatiyas" (attached to hill masters). "Kanri paiks" could move up to "chamua". Most of the lower paik officers—Bora, Saikia, Hazarika, Tamuli, Pachani—belonged to the "chamua" class.