Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.154

c13.154

In the first half of the 7th cen. A.D. Hsüan Tsang describes śūdras as a class of agriculturists,¹ a description which is confirmed by the *Narasimha Purāṇa*, where agriculture is laid down as the duty of the śūdras.² But it seems that this significant development took place during Gupta times. The view that the farmer population was largely composed of śūdras³ seems to be more true of the Gupta period than of earlier times. Perhaps never in any earlier period was there such a great accession to the numerical strength of the śūdras. In order to assimilate numerous aboriginal tribes and foreign elements Manu made a far greater use of the fiction of *varṇasaṃkara* (intermixture of varṇas) than was done by his predecessors. In the majority of instances the mixed castes were lumped with the śūdras⁴ in respect of their hereditary duties. But the new śūdras do not seem to have been recruited as slaves and hired labourers like their old counterparts. They pursued their old occupations and were probably taught new methods of agriculture,⁵ which gradually turned them into tax-paying peasants. Thus while the aborigines benefited from the knowledge of civilised life imparted to them by brāhmaṇical society, the latter could overcome its internal weaknesses by the addition of new producing masses.