Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.613

c13.613

The process by which the religious rights of the śūdras were enlarged and they were brought firmly within the ambit of the brāhmaṇical way of life seems to have reached its culmination in late medieval time. Between the fourteenth and the seventeenth century we have a spate of books dealing with the contents and the manner of the rituals to be performed by the śūdras. These are Śūdradharmabodhini of Madanapāla written in the Delhi region in the fourteenth century,³ Śūdrācāracintāmaṇi of Vācaspatimiśra written in Mithila in the fifteenth century,² Śūdrācāraśiromaṇi by Kṛṣṇaśeṣa written in the sixteenth century in western India,⁵ Śūdrakṛtyatattva of Raghunandana written in Bengal in the sixteenth century,⁶ and Śūdrakamalākara of Kamalākarabhaṭṭa written in Benaras in the first half of the seventeenth century.⁷ It seems that the texts meant for standardising the religious duties and observances to be performed by the śūdras were written even earlier. For example the Śūdrapaddhati of Apipāla, a work written earlier than A.D. 1500,⁸ was based on an earlier work composed by Somamiśra,⁹ which may have been earlier than A.D. 1300. A text called Śūdrācāra was based on extracts dealing with the duties of the śūdras found in the Purāṇas.¹⁰