Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c11.204

c11.204

But the liberal laws of Kauṭilya mostly cover the *āhitakas* and the ex-āryan slaves whose numbers must have been small; only a few of these laws apply to the greater number of ordinary slaves, who are evidently śūdras. Failure to see this point had led to the wrong inference that Kauṭilya’s laws indirectly abolish slavery or that he introduced a policy of making his countrymen a nation of freemen.⁴ His liberal laws mainly indicate his concern to protect the position of the ex-āryan slaves as distinguished from the non-āryen or śūdra slaves. This is natural, for Kauṭilya seems to draw a line between the śūdra and the members of the three upper varṇas in the laws relating to evidence, adultery and inheritance.⁵ Although Kauṭilya does not explicitly distinguish between an ārya and a śūdra as the Dharmasūtras do, he makes an unambiguous distinction between an ārya and an *avara* in matters of providing rations.⁶ And there is no doubt that the term *avara* stands for śūdra.