Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c8.272

c8.272

That the Śūdras appear as a tribe in the earliest part of the *Atharva Veda* can also be inferred from the third reference, in which the fever *takman* is asked to attack a wanton *śūdra* woman along with the Mujavants, Balhikas and Mahāvṛṣas.³ All these peoples seem to have been inhabitants of north-western India,⁴ where, in the *Mahābhārata*, the Śūdra tribe is described as living along with the Ābhīras.⁵ Another verse also repeats the desire that the fever should go to the foreign people.⁶ All this would suggest that the context in which the Śūdra woman is mentioned relates to the attitude of hostility of the Āryans of the period of the *Atharva Veda* towards the foreign tribes inhabiting northwestern India. And hence the word *śūdrā* here probably means a woman of the Śūdra tribe. In the parallel passage from the *Paippalāda* recension *śūdrā* is replaced by *dāsī*,⁷ which shows that in the author’s view the terms were interchangeable. Therefore, the occurence of the term *śūdra* in what is regarded as the earliest and the most characteristic part of the *Atharva Veda* should be understood not in the sense of varṇa, but in that of a tribe which suits the context better.