Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.273

c10.273

What is most shocking to the modern democratic mind is the fact that Āpastamba and Baudhāyana provide the same penance for killing a śūdra as for killing a flamingo, a *bhāsa*, a peacock, a brāhmaṇi duck, a *pracalāka*, a crow, an owl, a frog, a muskrat, a dog etc.¹ This extreme view, which attaches the same importance to the life of a śūdra as to that of an animal or a bird, may not have found universal acceptance,² for the same lawgivers prescribe a wergled of ten cows and a bull for killing a śūdra.³ But there is no doubt that the early brāhmanical law attached very little importance to the life of a śūdra.