Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.3

c9.3

Information gleaned from the rituals mainly relates to the land of the Kuru-Pañcālas, where the major part of the later Vedic literature was composed.¹ This literature roughly covers the period from *circa* 1000 to *circa* 500 B.C., and presupposes various phases of social development, differing according to the times to which a particular text can be assigned. Thus the collections (Saṃhitās) of the Black school of the *Yajus* are earlier than those of the White school.² Of the Brāhmaṇas the *Śatapatha* and the *Aitareya*, which make important statements on the inter-relation between the varṇas, are ‘comparatively modern, while the *Pañcaviṃśa* and *Taittirīya* are the most ancient.³ Even later than the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* and the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* is the *Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa*,⁴ and so is the *Kauṣitaki* or *Śāṅkhāyana Brāhmaṇa*.⁵ In some cases it is difficult to draw a line between the Śrautasūtras and the Brāhmaṇas; thus the *Baudhāyana Śrautasūtra* may be regarded as a late Brāhmaṇa.⁶ The *Āpastamba Śrautasūtra* seems to be similarly old.¹ In addition to these, the dates of other principal *Śrautasūtras* (viz. *Āśvalāyana*, *Kātyāyana*, *Śāṅkhāyana*, *Lāṭyāyana*, *Drāhyāyaṇa* and *Satyāṣāḍha*) have been fixed between 800 and 400 B.C.² Some authorities assign these texts to 400-200 B.C.,³ but since they explain many rituals mentioned in the *Saṃhitās* and *Brāhmaṇas* we have preferred to use them mainly for the study of later Vedic society. However the fact of their overlapping with the *Gṛhyasūtras*, which we have used for post-Vedic times, cannot be overlooked. At present the number of the *Upaniṣads* exceeds even two hundred, but only six of them can be ascribed to the pre-Buddhist period.⁴ In examining the material from the different strata of later Vedic literature regard has to be paid also to the relative dating of the various parts of individual texts.⁵ Moreover, in the later *Saṃhitās*, and especially in the *Brāhmaṇas*, we find far more frequent use of optatives than in the *Ṛg Veda* and the *Atharva Veda*.⁶ Hence many statements in the later Vedic literature are not in the form of the record of facts that actually occurred, but are to be interpreted as advice and instructions. But occasional evidence for things which may have happened can be culled from the main narrative portion of the *Mahābhārata*, which possibly reflects happenings in the later Vedic period.⁷ A good portion of the *Jaya Saṃhitā* or the original epic, consisting of nearly 8000 verses, sounds archaic and can be used for supplementing information obtained from later Vedic texts.⁸