Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.65

c9.65

Although in the later Vedic period artisan sections of the viś were reduced to the position of śūdras, there is nothing to show that crafts or agricultural operations in which they were employed were looked upon with contempt. So far as agriculture is concerned, there was a positive attitude of aiding, encouraging and honouring it by applying charms and performing a number of domestic rites.⁵ As to the crafts, there is no evidence of contempt even for leather-work.⁶ This would suggest that impurity did not arise from the nature of the task, which remained unchanged even in subsequent times. Significantly enough in the Śrautasūtra a ceremonial act was called *śilpa*,¹ a word which also means craft. The absence of contempt for manual labour during the later Vedic period may be likened to a parallel development in Greece, where during the period from Hesiod to Socrates (*cir.* 800-*cir.* 400 B.C.) public conscience was favourably disposed towards it.² Respect for manual labour in the later Vedic period probably lingered from the old simple society in which even the king lent his hand to ploughing. The epic instances of prince Janaka actually ploughing the sacrificial ground and prince Duryodhana being asked to do it may reflect the archaic Vedic society, which still retained much of tribal equality. A survival of princes taking to ploughing is found in the Buddhist ceremony of *vappa-mangala*.³ Interestingly enough in the ancient society of the Jews the rabbis supported themselves by manual labour and taught that god had commanded mankind not only to rest on the sabbath but also to work on the other six days of the week.⁴