Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c12.125

c12.125

There seems to have been separate streets of the wage-earners in towns. A Buddhist source speaks of the *bhṛtakavīthi*, presumably in Rājagṛha, where the brāhmaṇas and householders (probably vaiśyas) went to hire labourers.⁴ Another source draws a contrast between the street of the poor (*daridravīthi*) and the luxurious house of a rich man in a town.⁵ Possibly this *daridravīthi* was identical with the *bhṛtakavīthi* and was inhabited by poor people who lived on wages. We also learn about three *bhṛtakas*, who cleared dirt near a rich man’s house and lived in its vicinity in a hovel of straw.⁶ Patañjali repeatedly states that the house of a vṛṣala, i.e. śūdra, is reduced merely to a wall (*kudya*).⁷ This suggests that presumably it had an earthen or brick wall and the other three sides were enclosed by straw. It is also possible that the term *kudya*⁸ here indicates a hut.