Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c12.357

c12.357

It is argued by Bhandarkar that the vṛṣalas formed a community consisting of people from all the four varṇas after the pattern of the āryan community.⁵ But generally the vṛṣala was identical with the śūdra. Thus while the Dharmasūtras enjoin the snātaka not to travel with śūdras, Manu instructs him not to travel with vṛṣalas.⁶ His denunciation of connections between a brāhmaṇa and a vṛṣalī occurs in the context in which he bans all connections between a brāhmaṇa and a śūdra.⁷ Although nowhere in the *Mahābhāṣya* the term vṛṣala distinctly refers to a śūdra,⁸ the similar status of the vṛṣalī and dāsī⁹ and the proverbial poverty of the vṛṣala¹⁰ show that the vṛṣala was no better than a śūdra. Like the term śūdra, the term vṛṣala was also used indiscriminately to cover barbarians and heretics. But commonly vṛṣala signified a member of the fourth varṇa, and hence the contrast between the brāhmaṇa and the vṛṣala in the *Mahābhāṣya* should be taken in the sense of that between the brāhmaṇa and the śūdra.