Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.27

c9.27

Nevertheless, there are some references to the functions of the śūdras as a serving class. It is stated in the *Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa* that the śūdra is created from the feet of Prajāpati without any god, and therefore the lords of the house are his gods and he is to earn his living by washing feet.² In other words, according to a later source he has to live by serving people of higher varṇas.³ The former source further informs us that as a result of the Horse Sacrifice (*aśvamedha*) the nourisher vaiśya becomes wealthy, and the rising śūdra becomes an expert worker.⁴ It is not known whether the term *karmakartā* is used here in the sense of hired labourer, a meaning always attached to a similar term *karmakara* in post-Vedic literature.⁵ In an early Upaniṣad, however, the śūdra is called Pūṣan or the nourisher,⁶ a title (*poṣayiṣṇuḥ*) applied to the vaiśya in the *Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa*.⁷ This would, then, suggest that he was the tiller of the soil,⁸ engaged in sustaining and producing activities for the nourishment of society. Probably in the earlier part of this period, like the vaiśyas, he paid part of his produce as tribute, an obligation from which he was freed in post-Vedic times.