Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.329

c13.329

The law-books of this period do not provide for the discriminatory scale of compensation for the murder of the members of the four varṇas. Viṣṇu, however, introduces such a scale of penances for the expiation of the sin of murder. Thus a person guilty of killing a brāhmaṇa, a kṣatriya, a vaiśya or a śūdra should perform the mahāvrata penance respectively for 12, 9, 6 and 3 years.⁷ There is nothing to show that such penances were enforced, but they reflect the relative importance of the life of the members of the four varṇas. Nevertheless, Viṣṇu and Yājñavalkya regard the murder of a kṣatriya, a vaiśya, or a śūdra as a crime of the fourth degree (*upapātaka*),¹ and according to the former the guilty are required to perform the *cāndrāyaṇa* or *parāka* penances, or to sacrifice a cow.² Such a provision places the śūdra on a footing of equality with the vaiśya and the kṣatriya, and emphasises the special position of the brāhmaṇa. A passage in one of the manuscripts of the *Śānti Parvan* also betrays this tendency. It states that, if a kṣatriya, a vaiśya, or a śūdra kills a brāhmaṇa, either his eyes should be taken out or he should be killed; but if the offender is a brāhmaṇa, he should be banished.³ Another passage from the same manuscript states that the brāhmaṇa who is guilty of sinful actions and is a murderer or a thief among the *vipras*, and a kṣatriya, a vaiśya or a śūdra guilty of killing the brāhmaṇas, should be deprived of their eyes.⁴ Thus there is no mention of varṇa distinctions in this case.