Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c8.144

c8.144

Many passages show a general hostility towards the people known as Paṇis.⁷ Muir understands them as niggards.⁸ According to the authors of the *Vedic Index* Paṇi in the *Ṛg Veda* denotes a person who is rich, but who does not give offerings to the gods, or bestows *dakṣiṇās* on the priests, and who is therefore an object of intense dislike to the composers of the Saṃhitā.⁹ In one passage they were described as *bekanāṭas* or ‘usurers’ (?) subdued by Indra.¹⁰ The fact that the Paṇis were capable of making sacrifices and entitled to wergeld shows that they were members of the Āryan fold.¹¹ Hillebrandt identifies them with the Paṇis¹² who formed part of “the Dahae, a great group of Scythian tribes of horsemen and warriors”.¹ The authors of the *Vedic Index* think that the term is wide enough to cover either the aborigines or hostile Āryan tribes.²