The Rashtrakutas and their Times c21.74

c21.74

The Vaishyas were losing their position among the Traivarnikas much earlier than our period. S'rikrishna enumerates them along with Sudras as persons who were backward or suffering from religious disabilities.(51) Baudhayana Dharma-Sutra(52) points out that the Vaishyas were practically of the same status as the Sudras, as both were marrying indiscriminately and following similar professions like service and tilling. In our period there was no very great difference between the positions of these two castes, for Alberuni expressly says so.(53) He further informs us that(54) if a Vaishya or Sudra was proved to have recited the Veda, his tongue was cut off. There are many clear indications in Alberuni's works to show that he was well acquainted with the contents of the Dharmasastra literature; if, therefore, he makes such a statement which goes directly against the rules of the Smritis on the point, the reason may be well presumed to be that the position of the Vaishyas was actually reduced in practice to that of the Sudras, in spite of the rules of the Smritis. It is, therefore, certain that at the end of our period the Vaishyas were levelled down to the position of the Sudras throughout the whole of India. To discuss the causes of this phenomenon is beyond the scope of the present work.