[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958) › c8.330 # Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c8.330 Śūdras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c8.330 - **Language:** English ### [c8.330](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958.c8.330) The miserable or negligible status of the \*śūdra\* varṇa at the time of its origin is hardly borne out by the picture of society in the \*Ṛg Veda\* and the \*Atharva Veda\*. Nowhere in the collections is there any evidence of restrictions regarding food and marriage either between the Dāsa and the Āryan, or between the \*śūdra\* and the higher varṇas.⁵ The only early reference, which implies such social distance between the varṇas, is to be found in the \*Atharva Veda\*, where it is claimed that the brāhmaṇa enjoys the right to become the first husband of a woman as against the rājanya and vaiśya.⁶ The \*śūdra\* does not come in for notice, probably because his varṇa did not exist at that stage. There is nothing to show that dāsas or \*śūdras\* were considered impure, or that their touch imparted pollution to the food or the body of the members of the higher varṇas.¹ - [Previous: c8.329](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958.c8.329) - [Next: c8.331](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958.c8.331) - [Up: c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958.c8) ## Cites (2) - [Ṛgvedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.rg) — Sanskrit - [Atharvavedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.atharva) — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958.c8.330](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1958.c8.330) · Pramāṇa