Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c8.260

c8.260

One would like to know why the fourth varṇa came to be called śūdras. It appears that just as the common European world ‘slave’ and the Sanskrit ‘dāsa’ were derived from the names of conquered peoples, so also the word śūdra was derived from a conquered tribe of that name. There is no doubt that Śudra existed as a tribe in the fourth century B.C., for Diodoros records the advance of Alexander against a tribe called Sodrai,⁸ who occupied portions of modern Sind. The existence of some of the tribes mentioned by the Greek writers can be traced back to a much earlier period. For instance, the Abastanoi of Arrian (called Sambastai by Diodoros) may be identified with the Ambaṣṭhas of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*,¹ which mentions an Ambaṣṭha king.² The same case may apply to the Śūdra tribe, and thus it may be possible to trace the śūdra varṇa of circa 10th-8th century B.C. from the Śūdra tribe of the 4th century B.C.