The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s7.66

v1.c27.s7.66

The evidence, however, is somewhat confusing. We find in Āpastamba⁴ a form of words prescribed at the new- and full-moon offering in the case of a Çūdra, where it seems that we are expected to see in the Çūdra either a Rathakāra or a Niṣāda, two special classes permitted a share in the sacrifice. A Çūdra appears also at the Pitṛmedha in the Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa,⁵ and it is permitted to eat food from a carpenter (*takṣan*), who, of course, is closely allied to the Rathakāra. Āçvalāyana⁶ permits the carpenter to establish the sacred fire, and Bharadvāja expressly says that some permit this to the fourth caste, while others do not.⁷ The later theory⁸ makes the Rathakāra to be the son of a Vaiçya by a Çūdra mother. On the other hand Āpastamba¹ expressly contemplates any of the first three classes including in its ranks Rathakāras, which certainly seems an artificial view, in view of the comparatively late period of that Sūtra. The Niṣādas who appear occasionally as permitted to have some concern in the sacrifice are reckoned by the ancient authority Aupamanyava as a fifth class, and they have some claim to be regarded as members of the pre-Aryan population who remained in a less dependent condition than the Çūdras, presumably retaining their own tribal organization under the suzerainty of Aryan princes.²