Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.64

c10.64

That the śūdras constituted the serving class was only implied in the texts of the later Vedic period. But during this period the Dharmaśūtras made the explicit and emphatic statement that the duty of the śūdra was to serve the three higher varṇas, and thus to maintain his dependants.¹ He was expected to run his independent house, which he supported by agricultural and artisanal occupations. Gautama informs us that the śūdra could live by practising mechanical arts.² It seems that sections of the śūdra community worked as weavers, wood-workers, smiths, leather-dressers, potters, painters etc. Although these crafts are mentioned in the early Pāli texts,³ there is no indication of the varṇa of their followers. The gahapati⁴ (generally landed householder) who roughly corresponds to the vaiśya in the brāhmaṇical system, is described at one place as living by arts and crafts.⁵ If a man of substance could become a gahapati, it is possible that some of the well-to-do śūdra artisans such as the smith Cunda, who served a sumptuous dinner to Gautama Buddha and his followers,⁶ or the conspicuously rich potter Saddālaputta, who was in possession of five hundred potter’s shops and a large number of potters working under him,⁷ were gahapatis. This may be also true of the head of the village of a thousand smiths, who gave his daughter in marriage to the Bodhisatta.⁸ Although the term gahapati is now here applied to such artisans, it is possible that some of them rose to this position by virtue of their wealth.