Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c8.182

c8.182

Early literature throws hardly any light on the process of assimilation between the Āryan commoners (*viś*) and those of the survivors of earlier societies. It is likely that most of them were reduced to what came to be known as the fourth varṇa in Āryan society. But, if we leave out the *Puruṣasūkta*, there is no evidence of the existence of the śudra varṇa in the age represented by the *Ṛg Veda*. In the early Ṛg Vedic period there existed, however, a small servile class of women slaves. It seems that, when the male members of the enemies of the Āryans were killed, their wives were reduced to slavery. Thus it is stated that Trasadasyu, the son of Purukutsa, gave away fifty women as gifts.³ Further evidence for the existence of women slaves is to be found in the earlier portions of the *Atharva Veda*. Therein the woman slave is described as wet-handed, smearing the pestle and mortar,⁴ and also as throwing lye on the droppings of the cow,⁵ which shows that she was engaged in domestic work. This collection provides the earliest reference to a black *dāsī*.⁶ References, therefore, suggest that in the early Vedic society women slaves were employed in domestic work. The use of the word *dāsī* makes it obvious that these were the womenfolk of the conquered Dāsas.