Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.291

c10.291

Gautama lays down that the śūdra should be shown consideration by a young person if he was eighty years old and lived in the same town.⁸ Weight age given to age was a tribal practice which continued even in class societies. However it was obligatory on a śūdra to honour an ārya, although the latter might be younger in age.¹ Forms of salutation and greeting, which are regulated in the Dharmasūtras according to varṇa, reflect the servile position of the śūdra in society. It is laid down by Āpastamba that a brāhmaṇa should salute by stretching forward his right arm on a level with his ear, a kṣatriya holding it on a level with his breast, a vaiśya holding it on a level with his waist, and a śūdra holding it on a level with his feet.² Different terms are prescribed for making inquiries about the welfare and health of the members of the different varṇas. Thus the term used for the health of a kṣatriya is ‘anāmaya’ and for that of a śūdra is ‘ārogya’. ³ It is further provided that in greeting a kṣatriya or a vaiśya a person should use pronouns and not their names,⁴ which implies that only the śūdra could be addressed by his name, the position of the twice-born classes being too high for such familiarity. In the early Pāli texts a kṣatriya is never addressed by his name or in the second person by any person belonging to the lower classes.⁵ The mother of king Udaya, whom the barber Gaṅgamāla calls by his family name, shouts angrily; “This filthy son of a barber, of low origin, forgets himself so much that he calls my son, lord of earth, who is a khattiya by caste, Brāhmaṇa.”⁶