Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.424

c13.424

Family life is enjoined for a śūdra in the same manner as for a member of any other varṇa.¹ But the śūdras continue to have their own marriage practices.² The Anuśāsana Parvan states that the marriage of the three higher varṇas has to be accomplished through the joining of hands with the mantras, but the marriage of the śūdras is accomplished through sexual intercourse.³ A Jain source refers to a svayaṃvara hall at Tosalī, where a slave girl selected her husband from an assembly of slave boys.⁴ Several references suggest that in the śūdra community women continued to be comparatively freer than in the higher classes Commenting on a passage of Yājñavalkya, Viśvarūpa is of the opinion that the Smṛti texts about niyoga refer to śūdras,⁵ and supports his view by quoting two verses of Vṛddha Manu and a gāthā of the Vāyu Purāṇa.⁶ In the case of the absence of the husband it was far easier for a śūdra wife to secure dissolution of the marriage tie and take another husband than in the case of the wives of the other three varṇas. In such a case the Anuśāsana Parvan prescribes a waiting period of only one year for the śūdra wife.⁷ But Nārada, who specifies the waiting periods for vaiśya, kṣatriya and brāhmaṇa wives, declares that no such definite period is prescribed for a śūdra woman whose husband is gone on a journey.⁸ Again, the repetition of the provision that wives of herdsmen, oilmakers, distillers etc. are responsible for the payment of debts incurred by their husbands⁹ shows that these śūdra women did not always depend for their livelihood on their menfolk.