Caste and Race in India c8.119

c8.119

Yājñavalkya opines that the usual sacraments are accompanied by the recital of mantras only in the case of the first three castes. The Śūdras, by implication, were to perform them without the use of Vedic formulæ. They had to use the ordinary formula of “namas” (obeisance). They may offer in the same way the daily sacrifices on the domestic, fire and also the annual offering to the manes.¹ According to the Śukranīti, a Śūdra must perform all the sacred duties incumbent on him with the help of the “namas” formula, which is here explained in the terminology, usual in the next period, as the mantra given in the Purāṇas.² Atri, Laghuśaṅkha, and Likhita draw a distinction between the Śūdra and the other castes by enjoining the Śūdra to undertake only charitable and welfare works and to eschew the Vedic performances.³ Manu is more rigorous in his refusal of the right of the Śūdra to fulfil the sacred law of the Āryas. But even he is prepared to make a concession in the case of those Śūdras who are desirous of gaining merit, and exhorts them to imitate the practices of the virtuous.⁴ Yājñavalkya also seems to recognize the higher claims of those Śūdras whose conduct is proper according to the Brahmanic ideas.⁵ Ushanas, Bṛhadyama, and Laghuvishṇu classify the Śūdras into sat and asat.⁶ The most potent agent for personal purification that the Brahmins have thought of, viz. the liquid made up by the mixture of cow's milk, curds, ghee, urine, and dung is, however, considered so sacred a thing that if a Śūdra drinks it, he commits as heinous a sin as a Brahmin who drinks spirituous liquor.¹