Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.235

c9.235

Towards the end of Vedic period we notice the tendency to exclude the śūdra from the *upanayana* and consequently from education. Such an idea is possibly conveyed by a passage of the *Chāndogya Upaniṣad*, where a famous student claims to have been the glory of the brāhmaṇa, the rājan, and the vaiśya.⁴ But at another place the learner wishes to be popular with every section of the people including the śūdra.⁵ The first clear exclusion of the śūdra is found in a late *Śrautasūtra*, which lays down seasons for the *upanayana* of the three higher varṇas.⁶ It clearly states that the *upanayana*, the study of the Veda and the establishment of fire can bear fruit only in the case of those who are not śūdras and do not indulge in wicked activities.⁷ Another text provides that the initiated student (*upanita*) should not talk to a śūdra.¹ It is further prescribed that the śūdra should wash the feet of the student who has completed his course (*snātaka*) in a ceremony known as the offering of honey (*madhuparka*).² It is difficult to say whether these references from the two Śrautasūtras indicate conditions in the later Vedic period. They may be assigned to the very end of that period, and perhaps even to post-Vedic times, for one of the earliest Gṛhyasūtras, contemporaneous with the early Śrautasūtras, makes it clear that the *rathakāra* was entitled to the *upanayana*.³