Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.101

c9.101

The śūdra is possibly connected with another ceremony of the rājasūya sacrifice, in which the newly consecrated king is called on to ascend the four quarters of the sky, when brahma in the east, kṣatra in the south, viś in the west and phala, varcas and puṣṭam in the north are asked to protect him.² Jayaswal says that phala is evidently a substitute for śūdra.³ This is not accepted by Ghoshal who takes the ceremony as symbolising the influence of the three higher castes in the Vedic polity.⁴ It has been also suggested that phala denotes industrial classes.⁵ In our opinion the term phala, which is used in Vedic literature⁶ in its literal sense as meaning ‘fruit’ and not in its later secondary sense as ‘result,’ may not be unconnected with the producing activities of the śūdra, but the same cannot be said of the term varcas which means lustre. As to the word puṣṭam (nourishment), it is generally associated with the vaiśyas, but in one passage the śūdra is also called pūṣan (nourisher).¹ It may, therefore, be tentatively suggested that the terms phalam and puṣṭam reflect the producing activities of the śūdra, who is thus indirectly called upon to protect the king in the north.