Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.544

c13.544

According to the Vaijavāpa Gṛhyasūtra a śūdra can perform conceiving ceremony (niṣeka), ceremony for getting a son in the third month of conception (puṃsavana), parting of the hair ceremony (simantonnayana), birth ceremony (jātakarma), naming ceremony (nāmakaraṇa), taking the child out of the house (niṣkramaṇa), cereal eating ceremony (annaprāśana) in the sixth month after birth, and tonsure (caula).³ All these ceremonies are to be performed, without mantras and at the time prescribed for them.⁴ It is interesting that all these sacraments are connected more or less with birth and were to be performed by the twice-born also. This shows the great importance of child birth not only to members of the three higher varṇas but also to the lowest varṇa. Obviously more working hands were needed in Gupta and post-Gupta times to look after the expanding agrarian economy, and emphasis lay on production rather than on sterilisation.