Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.227

c9.227

The *Chāndogya Upaniṣad* informs us that Jānaśruti, who was instructed in the knowledge of life (*prāṇa*) and air (*vāyu*) by Raikva, was a śūdra.⁵ But elsewhere he appears as the chief of a people called Mahāvṛṣas,⁶ who lived in the north-west. He was dubbed a śūdra either because of his association with the people of the śūdra tribe who also lived in the same region, or because of the defamatory use of this term⁷ for those who lay outside the pale of brāhmaṇical society.