Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c14.5

c14.5

The śūdra was considered identical with the slave, although only a section of śūdras may have been legally slaves. Therefore it is wrong to render the word “śūdra” by “slave”, as has been done by Hopkins.¹ In spite of the use of money slaves were used on a limited scale, and the private use of land still remained submerged under clan and joint family rights. Just as the clans which formed higher varṇas held landed property in common, so also they held labourers in common to work on the land. Similarly it is not correct to characterise śūdra as a serf, as is done in the *Vedic Index*² for a serf means a person whose service is attached to the soil and who is transferred along with it.