Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.75

c9.75

The list of *ratnins* shows that they included the representatives of all the varṇas.¹ Thus two of the *ratnins*, the *rathakāra* and the *takṣan*, who are mentioned in several texts,² belonged to the artisan section of the śūdra varṇa. The fact that all kinds of metals are prescribed as the sacrificial fee³ in the ceremonies at their homes shows that they owed their importance to their association with metal-working. It has been shown earlier how the king in the *Atharva Veda* tries to secure the aid of the *karmāra* and the *rathakāra*. But in several later texts the place of the *karmāra* is taken by the *takṣan*, who, along with the *rathakāra*, may have been in charge of all the activities connected with metal-working and cart-making, without which the Āryan expansion and settlements farther east and south could not have made any headway. These two *ratnins* are not, however, mentioned in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*, where their place is taken by the *govikartana* (huntsman) and *pālāgala* (messenger).⁴ There are reasons to think that these two were non-āryanised aborigines who were admitted to the śūdra varṇa through rituals. The ceremony of offering jewels is followed by an act of expiation on the part of the king, who is considered guilty of having brought the non-sacrificing śūdras into contact with the sacrifice.⁵ Sāyaṇa goes too far when he includes even the *senānī* (commander) among the śūdra *ratnins*.⁶ In all likelihood the reference to non-sacrificing śūdras applies only to the pālāgala and the govikartana. That the pālāgala was a śūdra can be inferred from the fact that the pālāgalī is addressed as a śūdra.¹ At another place the term pālāgala is defined as false envoy (anṛtadūta);² the quality here ascribed to the pālāgala is always in later times associated with the śūdra.³ The govikartana, who is mentioned as a ratnin in several other lists besides that of the Śatapatha,⁴ is specified as ‘of low caste’ (hinajāti) by Sāyaṇa.⁵ Presumably he was the keeper of game and forests and may have been a śūdra. Keith takes kṣattṛ, one of the ratnins, in the sense of a carver,⁶ which would mean that he also was a śūdra. But this rendering seems to be doubtful, for in the epic kṣattṛ means a chamberlain,⁷ and there is no special reason for believing that the word was used with a different meaning in the Brāhmaṇas. Among the ratnins it is takṣan who can be better rendered as a carver. Thus it would appear that in some cases artisans, and in other cases herdsmen and messengers, from the śūdra varṇa were considered important enough to be approached by the king on the occasion of his great coronation sacrifice.