Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.308

c9.308

The mass of evidence in favour of the śūdra’s participation in the Vedic sacrifice is more than counterbalanced by the evidence against it. It is repeatedly stated that the śūdra has no right to sacrifice³ on account of his low birth, and that he is incapable of making sacrificial offerings.⁴ A rite connected with the building of the fire altar (*agnicayana*), without which there can be no Vedic sacrifice, is explained as removing Agni from the śūdra varṇa.⁵ But the fact that such direct statements about the exclusion of the śūdra from the Vedic sacrifice are not found in the Saṃhitās may suggest their later origin. None the less, even in those texts there are numerous references, which have this implication. The instructions for the ceremony of the establishment of fire sacrifice speak of only the first three varṇas.⁶ whose seasons for this purpose are mentioned in the Brāhmaṇas. Even the *rathakāra* is left out. In this connection it is stated that the fire coincides with the universe, which consists of the brāhmaṇa, the kṣatriya and the viś.⁷ It is also said that the rājanya and the viś are born of sacrifice and hence of the brāhmaṇa.⁸