Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c11.33

c11.33

The Dharmasūtra terminology used by Kauṭilya may suggest that the śūdras continued to be completely dependent for their livelihood on their masters of the upper varṇas. On the basis of a passage in Book II of the *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭilya it is suggested that śūdras appeared as peasants and cultivators, but this interpretation of the passage seems to be doubtful. Kauṭilya lays down that in founding a rural settlement villages, consisting of a hundred to five hundred families each, should be set up at the interval of two or four miles and should be inhabited mainly by śūdra and karṣaka (cultivators).¹ In our opinion the terms² śūdra and karṣaka form a *dvandva* compound, and indicate that śūdras were not peasants. Several scholars treat śūdra as an adjective of karṣaka³ and hold that śūdra peasants were requisitioned for founding settlements. The interpretation of the phrase *śūdrakarṣakaprāya* is rendered difficult by the fact that it does not occur anywhere else in the *Arthaśāstra*. In indicating the nature of settlements Chapter XXI of the *Ādi Purāṇa* uses the term *śūdrakarṣakabhūyiṣṭhāḥ*;⁴ in our opinion in such cases karṣaka is a substitute for vaiśya. For the same chapter of the Purāṇa speaks of vaiśyas and śūdras as two separate categories. As usual the vaiśyas are described as those living on trade, agriculture and cattle rearing, and the śūdras as those who are meant for the service of the vaiśyas as artisans and non-artisans,⁵ i.e. as domestic servants, agricultural labourers etc. Obviously the verses in the *Ādi Purāṇa* are based on Kauṭilya, for it also prescribes one hundred families as the minimum population for a village and five hundred as the maximum.⁶ Therefore the interpretation of the *Arthaśāstra* passage by the Tamil-Malayalam commentary, which takes