Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c11.131

c11.131

In the Arthaśāstra the amātyas constitute the highest cadre of officials from which the chief priest (purohita), the minister (mantrin), the collector (samāhartā), the treasurer (sannidhātā), officers in charge of the harem, ambassadors and the superintendents of more than two dozen departments are to be recruited.⁵ But an item common to the qualifications of the amātyas laid down by Kauṭilya and other thinkers whom he quotes is noble birth. This is expressed variously as “father and grandfather being amātyas”, abhijana and jānapadobhijātaḥ.⁶ It is doubtful whether such a qualification could provide any scope for the śūdras. As Aristotle puts it, good birth is nothing but ancient wealth and virture combined,⁷—a thing which could hardly be found among the lower orders. Megasthenes mentions the professional class of councillors and assessors, who, though small in number, monopolised the highest posts of government, executive and judicial.¹ At another place he states that the noblest and the richest took part in the direction of the state affairs, administered justice and sat in council with the king.² That they formed an exclusive caste is obvious from the rules that they could not marry outside their own caste, exchange one profession or trade for another, or follow more than one business.³ All this shows that the avenues to the higher bureaucracy were closed to the people of the lower orders.