Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.45

c10.45

There is some direct information about the śūdras in the Dharmasūtras, a little in the early Pāli texts and still less in the Jain texts. Perhaps on account of the scantiness of such information it has been argued by Fick that except for the theoretical discussions nothing points to the real existence of the fourth caste, the śūdras, in the early Pāli texts.³ This view has been rightly questioned by Oldenberg.⁴ We can quote instances to show that a person was to be known and his status defined by the name of his caste. Thus the identity of an archer is enquired in terms of his being a kṣatriya, a brāhmaṇa, a vaiśya or a śūdra.⁵ A common illustration provided by the Buddha in the course of his discourses is that a wise man is expected to know