Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.501.1

c10.501.1

That the members of the lower orders actually got into the Buddhist church is suggested by a number of instances. Mātaṅga, the son of a caṇḍāla, is said to have attained infinite bliss, which many kṣatriyas and brāhmaṇas could not attain;¹ a monk is described as a former vulture-trainer,² and caṇḍālas appear as adopting the homeless state although Fick thinks that “the acutal existence of such holy men is extremely doubtful”.³ He gives no good reason however for his lack of faith in the statement of the Pāli canon on this point. In the list of the authors of the *Thera*- and *Therigāthas*, at least ten among 259 theras⁴ and eight out of about fifty-nine therīs⁵ belonged to sections of society which may be regarded as śūdras. They included an actor, a caṇḍāla, a basketmaker, a trapper, a prostitute and a woman slave.⁶ We have no similar information to throw light on the proportion of the members of the lower orders in the Jain chruch. But it is significant that the first woman disciple of Mahāvīra is said to have been a captured slave.⁷ It is suggested that the homeless condition was often a reaction to surfeit of wealth and power which the people of the lower orders were totally denied.⁸ But this is hardly borne out by evidence either in the case of the Buddhist or the Jain church.