Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.326

c9.326

Harsh provisions, which even forbid bodily contact with and sight of the śūdra on certain ceremonial occasions, began to appear towards the end of the Vedic period. A person consecrated for the sacrifice is asked not to speak to the śūdra,¹ and the same condition is imposed on a person who has been initiated (*upānita*).² The *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* lays down that at the *pravargya* ceremony (an introductory Soma rite) the performer should shun contact with a woman and a śūdra because they are untruth.³ Except one such reference in the *Kāṭhaka Saṃhitā*, this is the earliest example of bracketing the woman with the śūdras — a practice which is frequently found in later literature.⁴ It is also provided that a woman performing a rite for the sake of a son should not be touched by a vṛṣala, male or female,⁵ who in later times is identified with the śūdra and depicted as anti-brāhmaṇical. In the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* even a carpenter's touch is regarded as imparting ceremonial impurity to the sacrificial vessels.⁶ But at another place, if the reading in the *Mādhyandina* recension of that text is correct, the *takṣan* appears as reciting the mantra for Āruṇi.⁷ It has to be remarked that all such references about avoiding contact with the śūdra occur either in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* or the *Śrautasūtras*, which indicates that the idea of the ceremonial impurity of the śūdra involving prohibition of physical and visual contact with him appeared towards the close of the Vedic period and even later.