Caste and Race in India c8.172

c8.172

We have already noticed the progressive assimilation of the Vaiśya with the Śūdra, and we find Kamalākara, the latest authority of this period, openly declaring that the Vaiśyas are hardly known to exist in the Kali age. In the regulations of this period it is becoming more and more clear that writers on religion treat both the Vaiśyas and the Śūdras as almost indistinguishable. The occupations prescribed by Parāśara, who is par excellence the mentor of the age, for both of them are the same, viz. agriculture, trade and crafts, with the usual addition of service of the Brahmins in the case of the Śūdras.⁴ Vaiśya's food is almost as much taboo to the Brahmin as that of the Śūdra.⁵