Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c11.257

c11.257

Kauṭilya furnishes some information about the religious conditions of the śūdras. He lays down that if a person entertains at a dinner dedicated to a god or ancestors such vṛṣala ascetics as the Buddhist and the Ājīvikas, a fine of hundred paṇas shall be imposed on him.⁵ Shamasastry renders vṛṣala as śūdra, but the passage does not actuallty refer to the śūdra but to the ascetics, who were branded indiscriminately as śūdras by brāhmaṇas. Nevertheless, the ascetics were respected by Aśoka without any consideration of caste. It is said that on one occasion when Aśoka was criticised for this by his minister, he replied that considerations of caste prevail in marriage and invitations and not in the observance of the dhamma.⁶