Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c12.27

c12.27

In spite of the tendency to approximate the vaiśya to the śūdra there is no evidence of the existence of independent śūdra peasants. Generally they continued to be employed as hired labourers and slaves, for Manu repeats the old rule that, instead of paying taxes, artisans, mechanics and śūdras who subsist by manual labour should work for one day per month for the king.³ He lays down a new provision that the vaiśyas should meet times of emergency by paying 1/6 of their corn as tax and the śūdras by their manual labour.⁴ In this connection Kullūka states emphatically that even in bad times taxes should not be imposed on the śūdras.⁵ Manu's exemption of śūdras from taxes is corroborated by the *Milinda-pañha*. It informs us that every village had its slaves, men and women, wage earners (*bhatakas*) and hired labourers (*karmakaras*), who were exempted from taxes.⁶ Therefore, unlike the vaiśyas, the śūdras do not appear as peasants paying taxes to the state. While enumerating the eightfold functions (*aṣṭavidhaṃ karma*) of the king Medhātithi mentions trade, agriculture, irrigation, digging mines, settling uninhabited districts, cutting forests, etc.⁷ But there is no evidence of dāsas and karmakaras being employed in agriculture by the state, as we find in the Mauryan period. The *Mahāvastu* describes a village headman as hurrying out of the village to inspect the work in the fields, but we do not know whether he did this on behalf of the king.¹ It seems that śūdras were mostly employed as agricultural workers by individual proprietors. Patañjali refers to the landowner sitting in a corner and supervising the ploughing done by five hired labourers.² Manu also speaks of the servants of the peasant proprietors.³ According to him the cultivator should form an item in the additional portion to be given to the brāhmaṇa son in the partition of family property.⁴ This obviously refers to the employment of agricultural labourers by the brāhmaṇas.