Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c12.389

c12.389

Manu lays down the same moral code for the members of all the four varṇas. They should practise non-injury, truth, non-stealing, purity, sublimation of passions, and freedom from spite, and should beget children on their wives only.¹ But from the religious point of view he considers women and śūdras as the most impure sections of society. They are to be avoided by a sacrificer engaged in the cāndrāyaṇa vow.² He prescribes less rigorous rites of purification for them.³ A śūdra should keep himself pure by shaving once a month and, like the vaiśyas, should observe rites of purification in cases of death and birth.⁴ But he endorses the view of the old lawgivers that a vaiśya’s period of impurity lasts for 15 days and that of a śūdra for a month.⁵ He adds that at the end of the period of impurity a brāhmaṇa can become pure by touching water, a kṣatriya by touching the animal on which he rides and his weapons, a vaiśya by touching his goad or the nose-string of his oxen and a śūdra by touching his staff.⁶ Manu also provides that a dead brāhmaṇa should not be carried by a śūdra, because if he defiles the burnt offering by his touch the deceased does not reach heaven.⁷ Thus he maintains the distinction between a śūdra and a brāhmaṇa even after the latter’s death.