Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.539

c10.539

Our study shows that the ambiguous position of the śūdras disappeared in post-Vedic times, when they were deprived of the remnants of their tribal rights and saddled with economic, political, social and religious disabilities. They were sharply distinguished from the three upper varṇas, denied the right to Vedic sacrifice, initiation, education, and administrative appointments, and above all were specifically assigned the task of serving the twice-born as slaves, agricultural labourers and artisans. Although, like the vaiśyas, the śūdras were also engaged in production, they were not tax-paying peasants which was the case with most of the vaiśyas. The vaiśyas shared certain ritualistic rights with the two higher varṇas and therefore differed from the śūdras in this respect also. In fact the picture of the lower orders, as it appears in the early Buddhist and Jain works, is not essentially dissimilar. The Buddhist texts repeatedly describe the members of the first three varṇas as opulent,¹ but leave out the śūdras, the dāsas and the kammakaras. The Buddha is described as having visited the assemblies of the brāhmaṇa, the khattiya and gahapati devotees (upāsakas),² but the assembly of the śūdras is not mentioned.