Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.338

c9.338

It is argued that “a sense of danger with which the purity of the Brāhmaṇical faith was threatened from the idolatrous practices of the aboriginal subjects” first suggested to the brāhmaṇas the necessity of raising an insurmountable barrier between the Āryan freeman and the men of the servile class”.⁴ This seems to be a rather naive explanation. It is obviously based on the assumption that the śūdras were made up only of the conquered peoples, which is incorrect. Even so the *Rg Veda*, the *Atharva Veda* and many earlier references in later Vedic literature do not show any indications of protecting the purity of the brāhmaṇical faith by raising strong barriers against the śūdras. Possibly the śūdras who were recruited from the conquered aboriginals were excluded from the Vedic sacrifice because of their different religious practices, but this cannot be regarded as the only cause of such a development. We have already pointed to the process of social and economic differentiation which led to the śūdra’s exclusion.