Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c16.27

c16.27

The mechanism for absorbing tribals involved the support of brāhmaṇa priests and Buddhist monks who received gifts consisting of cash money supplemented by grants of pieces of land. This can be said on the basis of epigraphic evidence from western Maharashtra and in the Sanchi and Bharhut areas. The nature of gift was determined by the medium of exchange prevalent in *circa* B.C. 200-A.D. 500. The Buddhist missionaries, like the *dharmamahāmātras* of Aśoka, must have played an important part in propagating Buddhist social ethics among the tribal people. This ethic emphasised the values of patriarchal family, individual property, respect towards elders, monks, priests, etc., preservation of cattle wealth, and respect for kṣatriyas and brāhmaṇas, for according to the later Buddhist texts the Buddha was born only in the two higher varṇas. It was in this phase that a good portion of Maharashtra and Gujarat was acculturated, and, because of the strength of the four-strata system, in these areas almost all the four orders came to be established.