Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c11.234

c11.234

Kauṭilya informs us that actors, players, singers, fishermen, hunters, herdsmen, wine distillers and vendors, and similar persons usually travel with their women.³ This was not the case with the women of the higher varṇas, whose activities were limited to the sphere of home. The outside life of the women of the śūdra varṇa was due to the necessity of working in the fields and pastures for the subsistence of their family. For Kauṭilya provides that wives of sharecroppers and herdsmen are responsible for the payment of debts incurred by their husbands.⁴