Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.146

c9.146

An important development in later Vedic polity is the tendency to claim a special position for the brāhmaṇa and the kṣatriya, distinguishing them from the vaiśya and the śūdra. Ghoshal cites a number of examples to show the importance of the brahma and the kṣatra as two dominant forces in society, their mutual antagonism and their close political alliance.² Prayers for the protection of the two upper classes are to be found in the Saṃhitās³ as well as in the Brāhmaṇas.⁴ If such references are closely analysed, they seem to yield two results. Firstly, most of them occur in later literature, especially in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa. Secondly, while the earlier references generally point to the combination between the two upper varṇas, the later do it to the specific exclusion of the vaiśya and the śūdra. Thus the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa clearly states that the brāhmaṇa and the kṣatriya enclose the vaiśya and the śūdra.⁵ The same text also states that those who are neither kṣatriya nor purohita (priest) are incomplete.⁶ Attention has already been drawn to the exclusion of the vaiśya and the śūdra from the game of dice in the later version of this rājasūya rite.⁷ In connection with the same coronation sacrifice the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa states that the brāhmaṇa precedes the kṣatra but the vaiśyas and the śūdras follow him.⁸ Therefore it would appear that the tendency to equate the vaiśya with the śūdra and exclude them from public life is implicit in earlier texts, but becomes explicit and pronounced in later literature.