Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c14.37

c14.37

The Jainas, Buddhists and Ājīvikas were condemned as śūdras, who could be admitted to the fold of those sects without any discrimination. Their influence may have been felt especially in the period from B.C. 500—A.D. 300 and seems to have been confined to artisan śūdras; Buddhism, the strongest of all, did not admit slaves and debtors to the saṃgha. The impact of Vaiṣṇavism was felt in post-Maurya and more particularly in Gupta times, but the worship of Viṣṇu was exploited by the brāhmaṇas to maintain the principle of social stratification and economic discrimination involved in the varṇa system. Tantricism admitted women and śūdras to its cakra or ordination and popularised the folk and aboriginal cult of the mother goddess towards the end of the Gupta period and in post-Gupta times, but it soon came to develop a religious hierarchy, typical of a feudal society, giving the lowest place to its lay devotees. The reforming sects responded to the religious aspirations of the various sections of the śūdras at one stage or the other. The Jain and Buddhist sects catered to the needs of śūdra artisans, and the śaivite, vaiṣṇavite and tantric sects (although all early medieval sects were affected by tantricism) catered to the needs of śūdra peasants, but none of them could substantially alter the servile position of the fourth varṇa. None of the reforming religious movements of Buddhism, Jainism, Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism questioned the fundamental theory of *karma*, which provided the doctrinal basis of the brāhmaṇical social order. They tried to contain social discontent rather than channalise it into revolutionary directions. By promising religious equality in place of other forms of equality they helped to reconcile the lower orders to the existing social system. The spirit of protest against social inequities, which characterised these movements in their earlier stages, withered away in course of time, and they identified themselves with the essentials of the varṇa organisation. Thus the complex of all these factors helped to maintain the comparative calmness of the śūdras and to secure their permanent servitude.