Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.332

c10.332

But the śūdra women were not treated on a footing of equality by their husbands from the higher varṇas. It is stated by Vasiṣṭha that a śūdra wife, who belongs to the black race, can be espoused as concubine for the sake of pleasure,⁴ but cannot be accepted in a regular marriage.¹ A passage from the same source allows an ārya to marry wives from the śūdra caste, if the wedding is not accompanied by the recitation of the proper Vedic texts, but Vasiṣṭha himself does not consider it desirable.² For such a marriage causes the degradation of the family and the loss of heaven after death.³ In the opinion of Āpastamba it is not desirable that a brāhmaṇa should cohabit with a śūdra woman or serve a person of the black race.⁴ Both Āpastamba and Baudhāyana provide for purificatory rites for those who have connections with a woman of the śūdra varṇa.⁵ But the two passages occurring in the Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra are found in the fourth praśna, which, as shown earlier, is a later addition. Therefore such penances need not be seriously taken as applying to this period. The view that the śūdra wife should be avoided comes into conflict with an earlier rule of Vasiṣṭha, which says that a brāhmaṇa can take three wives, a kṣatriya two, and a vaiśya and a śūdra one each, in the order of their varṇas.⁶ This clearly allows the members of the first two varṇas to enter into regular marriage relations with śūdra women, and hence the idea that the śūdra wife should be accepted only for the sake of pleasure may have been of later origin. Further, it is obvious that a large number of wives could be maintained only by well-to-do people. Thus while the rule of polygamy for the members of the higher varṇas seems to be in line with their better economic status, the monogamy of the śūdra⁷ is in keeping with his unhappy economic situation.