Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.280

c10.280

In the pre-Mauryan period the social position of the śūdra also underwent a change for the worse. The lawgivers emphasised the old fiction that the śūdra was born from the feet of the god,⁵ and apparently on this basis imposed on him numerous social disabilities in matters of company, food, marriage and education, amounting in several cases to his social boycott by the members of the higher varṇas in general and the brāhmaṇas in particular. It was laid down by Baudhāyana that a *snātaka* should not go on a journey with outcastes, a woman or with a śūdra.⁶ Haradatta’s comment on a passage of Gautama states that the term *snātaka* here means a brāhmaṇa or a kṣatriya,⁷ which implies that the rule did not apply to the vaiśya. Again, one of the rites essential for securing success was that the student desiring it should not talk to women and śūdras.¹ All association with the outcaste (patita), who is defined as the son begotten by a śūdra on a female of an unequal caste (evidently higher),² was considered undesirable. These were obviously meant to reduce opportunities of social contact between the śūdra and the higher varṇas. In this respect the Dharmasūtras exhibit a clear tendency to widen the social distance between the brāhmaṇa and the śūdra. Āpastamba and Baudhāyana hold that, if a śūdra comes as a guest to a brāhmaṇa, he should be given some work to do and may be fed after the work had been performed.³ He should not be fed and received by the brāhmaṇa, but by his slaves, who should fetch rice from the royal stores for this purpose.⁴ According to Gautama a non-brāhmaṇa should not be the guest of a brāhmaṇa, except on the occasion of a sacrifice,⁵ when the vaiśyas and the śūdras should be fed with his servants for mercy’s sake.⁶ On the occasion of the vaiśvadeva ceremony, however, even the caṇḍālas, dogs and crows should be given a portion, if they came at the end of the rite.⁷ It seems that this sacrifice, in which a number of deities were invited to partake of the offerings, retained some of the communal and tribal characteristics, which transcended the new class distinctions.