Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.128

c10.128

The Dharmasūtras throw some light on the living conditions of the members of the śūdra varṇa. Gautama provides that the śūdra servant should use the shoes, umbrellas, garments and mats, thrown away by the people of the higher varṇas.² The same picture is obtained from a Jātaka story, which informs us that clothes gnawed by rats were intended for the use of the dāsas and the kammakaras.³ Gautama further adds that the remnants of food are meant for the śūdra servant.⁴ The Āpastamba Dharmasūtra instructs the pupil to put down the remains of food left in his dish either near an uninitiated ārya or near a śūdra slave belonging to his teacher,⁵ which clearly implies that the remains of food were to be eaten by the śūdra servant. This is also attested by the Hiranyakeśin Gṛhyasūtra, which lays down that, in a three-day vow undertaken after the completion of his studies, a student should not give the leavings of his food to a śūdra.⁶ Pāṇini refers to special terms applied to food leavings, which were presumably given to domestic servants.⁷ We learn from a passage of the Vinaya Piṭaka that the sick wife of a merchant preserved the ghee which she had vomited, for the use of the dāsas or the kammakaras who might apply it to their feet or burn it in a lamp.⁸ It is also recorded that five hundred people accompanied the Order of the monks led by the Buddha in the hope of eating the remnants of their food.⁹ All this would show that there was nothing unusual about the śūdra servants eating the remnants of the food of their masters.