Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.513

c13.513

The Gupta period also provides instances of educated śūdras. A passage of Yājñavalkya suggests the existence of the teachers of servants.⁷ In the *Mṛcchakaṭika* the judge reprimands Śakāra: "A low caste fellow, you are talking of the sense of the Vedas, yet your tongue has not fallen off."⁸ The existence of such śūdras is also attested by the *Vajrasūci*, which speaks of the śūdras who are learned in the vedas, graminar, mimāṃsā, sāṃkhya, vaiśeṣika, lagna etc.⁹ This statement does not refer to the Buddhists but to the śūdras proper, for the Buddhists were condemned as śūdras in the brāhmaṇical idiom but not in that of the Buddhists. Jayaswal argues that learned śūdras and the śūdras talking Sanskrit, referred to in Buddhist texts, were sons of the brāhmaṇas through śūdra women.¹ This is probable, but some advanced sections of the śūdras, who tried to uplift their brethren, may have been educated.