Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c8.269

c8.269

social relations has been the tendency to look ahead to later developments. An example is the meaning of the words *ārya* and *dāsa* in the *Ṛg Veda*. Sāyaṇa takes *ārya* as a member of the first three varṇas, and *dāsa* as a *śūdra*;¹ this is obviously based on the later division of society into four varṇas, which Sāyaṇa’s interpretation is meant to justify. Likewise in the Atharva Vedic reference under discussion Sāyaṇa explains *ārya* as a member of the three varṇas,² which naturally makes *śūdra* the representative of the fourth. But it becomes very hard to interpret earlier texts, if they are approached with the later conception of *ārya* and *śūdra* as developed in the Dharmaśāstras.