Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.133

c9.133

But there is also the other side of the picture. Already during this period, particularly towards its end, a clear tendency had begun to exclude the śūdra from participating in the communal life. Thus the śūdra could not take part in the sprinkling ceremony on the occasion of the *rājasūya* sacrifices, unlike the members of the threc higher varṇas.¹ It has been contended by Jayaswal that the *janya* or the *janya-mitra*, who appears in the texts as the fourth person to sprinkle water on the king, is a śūdra in the sense of a man of hostile tribe.² Such an interpretation seems to be without any authority. In our opinion like the *vrātya*, who was not a member of the *vrāta* or the tribal unit, the *janya* was also not a member of the *jana* or the tribal community concerned with the performance of the *rājasūya* or similar sacrifices but the member of an alien tribe who was assimilated into the growing brāhmaṇised society through rituals. Whatever be the correct meaning of this term;¹ it is clear that it has nothing to do with the śūdra at any place in literature. It is also stated that on the occasion of the rājasūya sacrifice the three higher varṇas could request the king to grant a place for the worship of gods.² Although the exclusion of the śūdra would naturally follow from the theory that he was born without gods, it can be also taken to indicate his declining importance in political life.