History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c8.29

v1.c8.29

Lastly we have to speak of the Śudras whose occupation, according to Hiuen Tsang was agriculture. In days preceding the Christian era, agriculture was the occupation of the Vaiśyas while menial service alone was left to the Śūdra caste. The spread of Buddhist sentiment witn its aversion to the taking of life must be held responsible for this change of occupation. The ploughing of land in which action worms and insects are inevitably killed was gradually looked upon as sinful and was eventually prohibited to the Dvijas: a prohibition which is even mentioned in Manu. These classes hence withdrew gradually from agriculture and left it in the hands of the Śūdras. In the Panjab and elsewhere, however, several communities did not mind this prohibition, and hence their sinking in public estimation to the rank of the Śūdras. As already described the Jats, the Gujars and the Marathas who are agriculturists, are thus, though Aryan in race, looked down upon as Śūdras. The original Dravidian population of the land became now the agriculturists of the country and of course formed the great Śūdra class. The lower population in Northern India and the west is thus, speaking generally, chiefly Dravidian with a large mixture of the Aryan race. In the south or the Madras Presidency the influx of the Aryan population in remote times was not considerable and there the agricultural population is wholly Dravidian.