At the same time, the region was undergoing political and social change as new city states linked by trade replaced older agriculturally based communities bound by ties of kinship. A growing number of merchants had attained economic success, but their social and religious status was limited by the caste system. Additionally, trade routes across Asia — most notably the renowned Silk Route — brought new social and religious ideas to the northern Indian subcontinent from China and central Asia. The new rulers and the merchants were eager for a religion that awarded them higher social status as well as the opportunity to attain salvation, which at the time was believed to be possible only for those of the highest caste, the priests.