Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c8.137

c8.137

Muir quotes as many as fifty-eight passages from the *Ṛg Veda*, which he interprets as containing denunciations of religious hostility or indifference shown by the members of the Āryan community.⁶ Many of these passages belong to the kernal (Book II — VII) of the *Ṛg Veda* and may be taken as reflecting the conditions prevailing in the earliest period of the Aryan settlements. Several of these are directed against the illiberal people who are called *arādhasam*,¹ *apṛṇatam*² or *apṛṇataḥ*.³ At one place Indra is described as the enemy of the prosperous (*edhamānadvit*) probably of Āryans who rendered him no service;⁴ since Dāsas and Āryans who concealed their treasure from the people were considered objects of attack.⁵ For the sake of his people Agni is said to have captured property whether situated in the plains or the hills, and to have overcome their Dāsa and Āryan enemies.⁶ These passages suggest that even the Āryan enemies were deprived of their possessions (presumably cattle) and consequently reduced to the status of impoverished non-Āryans.