Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.603

c13.603

Since śūdras and women were not permitted to offer homa which could be done only with the Vedic mantras,⁴ the newly growing practices of pūjā⁵ and vrata were open to them. Persons of all castes including śūdras were entitled to perfom vratas. According to Devala, a lawgiver of A.D. 600-900,⁶ men of all varṇas are certainly released from sins by practising vows, fasts, temperance and selfmortification.⁷ Although the vratas number seven hundred in the thirteenth century Caturvargacintāmaṇi of Hemādri,⁸ many of them find place in those portions of the Purāṇas which belong to the sixth and seventh centuries.⁹ It has been calculated that as many as twenty-five thousand verses in the Purāṇas deal with vratas.¹⁰ Of course the major portion may be early medieval, but the importance of the vows for the śūdra peasant castes and others from Gupta times cannot be ignored.