Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c14.26

c14.26

In the case of oppression the śūdra labourers may have taken refuge⁴ among the free tribal population, or have migrated from one state to another. The oppressed seem to have offered passive resistance; we have hardly any concrete instance of revolt or active resistance. Further, in contrast to the brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas, the śūdras were not a well-organised, closed community, capable of making any combined efforts against their masters. As time passed, they fragmented into numerous sub-castes of unequal social status, which went on multiplying through the accession of numerous tribes. It is suggested that in the *Amarakośa*, craftsmen such as garland-makers, potters, masons, weavers, tailors, painters etc. are noted in an approximately descending order.⁵ The theory of the origin of mixed castes through hypergamy (*pratiloma*) was cleverly used to create a hierarchy of degraded śūdra castes, separated by ideas of purity and pollution from one another,¹ with the result that they found it difficult to make a common cause. The division between the pure (*sat*) and impure (*asat*) śūdras became marked from Gupta times.