Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c16.23

c16.23

The total number of vrātya and mixed castes mentioned by Manu comes to sixty-one, and, if we add the four broad orders, it comes to sixty-five. This list includes practically all the mixed castes mentioned in the Dharmasūtras and the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya. These are ambaṣṭha, antyāvasāyin, āyogava, bhṛjjyakaṇṭha, caṇḍāla, karaṇa, kṣattā, kukkuṭaka, māgadha, niṣāda, pāraśava, pukkusa or paulkasa, sūta, śvapāka, ugra, vaidehaka or vaideha, veṇa or vaina, and yavana. Dauṣmanta, dhīvara, kṛta, kuśīlava, mahiṣya, and mūrdhāvaṣikta are the mixed castes who are mentioned in the earlier lists but do not find place in Manu’s catalogue, although naṭa in Manu may correspond to kuśīlava in Kauṭilya. Vrātya appears as a mixed caste in Kauṭilya, but Baudhāyana and Manu treat it as a generic term, and Manu places twenty-eight mixed castes in this category. However the important thing to note is more than doubling of the mixed castes in Manu. In the earlier law-books altogether their number is twenty-five, but in the tenth chapter of Manu it rises to over sixty. The lists in either case may not be exhaustive, but they unmistakably reflect the trend towards the multiplication of castes.