Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c8.179

c8.179

Similarly it appears that some of the conquered chiefs received high status in the new society. Priestly acceptance of gifts from the Dāsa chiefs such as Balbūtha and Tarukṣa earned them unstinted praises, and validated their status in the new order. That the Dāsas were in a position to make gifts and were looked upon as liberal donors can be deduced from the very meaning of the roots *das* from which the noun Dāsa is derived.¹ The process of assimilation went on in later times, for the later literature records the tradition that Pratardana Daivodāsi went to the world of Indra,² who was historically the titular ruler of the Āryan invaders.