Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.209

c9.209

It is interesting to note further that when Śunaḥśepa was adopted as a son by Viśvāmitra and given the first rank among his hundred sons, with the right of primogeniture, the fifty older sons refused to accept this position. This infuriated the father, who cursed them to have descendants of lower castes, such as those of the Andhras, Puṇḍras, Śabaras, Puḷindas, Mutibas, Dasyus and *antas* (outcastes).¹ While this account provides an early example of the priestly ingenuity in the invention of genealogies for non-Aryan peoples in order to assimilate them to the lower ranks of brāhmaṇical society, it also shows that recalcitrant and disobedient sons were regarded as Dasyus and *antas*. In his commentary to this passage Sāyaṇa also includes caṇḍālas and other low castes, but they are not mentioned in the text.²