Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.185

c10.185

The economic disabilities imposed on the śūdras by the Dharmasūtras shed further light on their material condition. Reference has been made to the imposition of compulsory service on the artisans for a day in a month by the king. Gautama lays down that in order to defray the expenses of the wedding of a girl, and when engaged in a rite enjoined by the sacred law, a person could take money by fraud or force from a śūdra.¹ Members of the vaiśya, the kṣatriya and perhaps of the brāhmaṇa varṇas, who did not observe the rites and duties of their class, could also be subjected to this procedure in the order of their social status but only when the śūdra was not available.² This law, which provides a license for the extortions from the śūdra community by the members of the upper varṇas, is not to be found in any other Dharmasūtra, although it has its parallel in the Manu Smṛti.³ It may be a later insertion which reflects the tendency of a brāhmaṇical school to exploit the śūdra to the full.