Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.376

c13.376

The rule that only the śūdra should bear the title of dāsa⁷ does not seem to have been followed. Thus the name of an ancestor of Ravikirti, a brāhmaṇa, was Varāhadāsa;⁸ and the name of a ruling chief of the Sanakānīkas, who was a feudatory of Candra Gupta II, was Mahārāja Viṣṇudāsa.⁹ The *Nāṭyaśāstra* ordains that in a drama the names of the brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas should indicate their gotra and functions, those of traders their generosity, and those of servants different kinds of flowers.¹⁰ It is not clear why the śūdras were to be named after flowers.