Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.348

c9.348

It is not possible to accept the thesis propounded in the *Vedic Index* and accepted by several writers¹ that the śūdra was a serf in the beginning, that his life was insecure and then gradually his old disabilities began to be removed. Such a view does not hold good of those Āryans who were degraded to the position of śūdras. Of course the non-Āryans were subjected to a policy of extermination in course of early wars, but there is nothing to show that at that time those who were conquered were encumbered with disabilities. On the contrary, the process seems to have been just the reverse. While the earlier references point to the participation of the śūdra in the communal life, the later references point to his exclusion, with the result that towards the close of the Vedic period disabilities overwhelmed the old tribal rights. They become so marked and perhaps so oppressive as to evoke protests from the *Upaniṣads*. It is stated in the *Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad*² that even the caṇḍālas and paulkasas cease to be as such in the world of the soul, where all distinctions disappear. The *Chāndogya Upaniṣad*³ states that even a caṇḍāla is entitled to the leavings of the agnihotra sacrifice, round which hungry children sit just as they sit round a mother. We do not know how far such protests in favour of the lower order were derived from the old ideal of tribal equality, but the possibility cannot be entirely ruled out. This tendency was carried forward by the reformation movements of post-Vedic times, while the opposite tendency, which sought to impose increasing disabilities on the śūdra varṇa, was continued by the compilers of the Gṛhya-sūtras and Dharmasūtras.