Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c12.382

c12.382

But there was a class of priests who ministered to the religious needs of the śūdras. Manu states that those who officiate as priests for a śūdra by obtaining wealth from him and offering an agnihotra are censored by the brahmavādins (reciters of the Veda) as śūdra ṛtvijas (priests), and considered ignorant.³ Commenting on a passage of Manu Kullūka states that the śūdras can perform minor domestic sacrifices (pākayajñas).⁴ We learn from Bhāsa that śūdras worshipped the deities without mantras.⁵ Manu avers that the virtuous śūdras obtain praise if they emulate the habits of the good, but they should do so without reciting the Vedic texts.⁶ He further provides that the śūdras can offer water to their ancestors, like the members of the three upper varṇas. In this connection he states that the Sukālins are the manes of the śūdras and Vasiṣṭha their progenitor.⁷ All this would suggest that Manu invests the śūdras with some religious rights which they did not enjoy in the Mauryan or the pre-Mauryan period.