Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.481

c10.481

One of the reasons for the origin of untouchability was the cultural lag of the aboriginal tribes, who were mainly hunters and fowlers, in contrast to the members of brāhmaṇical society, who possessed the knowledge of metals and agriculture,³ and were developing urban life. The low material culture and the consequent wretched condition of these tribes is described in the Buddhist texts in these words: “A fool, should he become a human being after the lapse of a very long time, comes into one of the low stocks—caṇḍālas, nesādas, veṇas, rathakāras and pukkusas, he is reborn to a life of vagrancy, want and penury, scarcely getting food and drink for his stomach or clothes to his back. ...”⁴ This would suggest that these despised castes had a very precarious living, and were in far worse conditions than those śūdras who were employed as dāsas and kammakaras, and as such enjoyed some security of livelihood. This contrast in material life was accentuated by the spirit of contempt growing in brāhmaṇical society itself. As in the case of contemporary Greek society,⁵ there had appeared in post-Vedic society a spirit of contempt for manual works and occupations. Gradually as the upper varṇas, especially of the brāhmaṇas and the kṣatriyas, withdrew more and more from the work of primary production and tended to be hereditary in their positions and functions, they not only developed a contempt for manual work but also extended it to the hands that practised it.