Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c16.32

c16.32

Since the priestly beneficiaries were endowed with almost all the fiscal rights and privileges which were enjoyed by the kings, they were faced with the problem of collecting regular share of the produce, levying forced contributions such as food, fuel, grass, timber, etc., and imposing forced labour called *viṣṭi* or *pīḍā*. If necessary they could lease their land and fiscal rights to others and replace one set of peasants by another. They had also the authority to punish offences against family and property. Although in many cases the villagers were instructed to carry out the orders of the beneficiaries and in some cases specifically transferred to them, these provisions in themselves would not help the brāhmaṇas unless these were constantly enforced. But for enjoying all these fiscal and economic concessions and maintaining law and order the brāhmaṇas did not possess any administrative apparatus. In a way they appeared as the enjoyers of a good portion of the produce but did not have the coercive machinery to compel the peasants and artisans to produce. What they mainly possessed was the strength of refined rituals and the ability to propagate the varṇa ideology and convert the people to it. For various civil and criminal offences the Smṛtis prescribe not only fines and punishments enforceable by the government but also elaborate penances (prāyaścittas), which obviously were enforced by the brāhmaṇas. But these would not mean anything to the tribals who did not subscribe to the varṇa system and the values associated with it. The brāhmaṇas therefore accelerated the age-old practice of converting the tribes into castes within their established social framework. This is the reason why the lists of Manu and of the late Purāṇas disclose a large number of mixed castes, all śūdras, whose tribal origins can be detected without difficulty.