all the castes whom he supposed to be born of intermixture as Shūdras, and this varna included castes which followed various professions, like those of physicians, charioteer (charioteer was regarded as very high in those times) and trades like those of carpenter (x, 47, 48), and even a caste which was engaged in commerce (the Magadhas). We must indeed admit that our author erred in deriving, as his predecessors did, the Ambasthas from two different parent tribes; but the fact that persons engaged in medicine and carpentry were regarded in his times and in his locality as base-born, is a fact which it would take a good deal of evidence to disprove.
Let us now find out low the Shūdra varna was constituted as it was conceived by our writer. I have already said that our writer carefully avoids making any statement as to whether a Shūdra was an ārya or not, though he has in many ways implied that Shūdra was not ārya.
The varna of Shūdra was by no means a caste or a group of castes composed of persons of the same status. Our writer and probably the Brāhmanas of his region included a number of castes and tribes in the varna Shūdra. They conceived that the low castes of their own region, as well as the ruling tribes which neglected the sacred riles and ceremonial, were Shūdras. Our author warns the Snātaka not to dwell in a country where Shūdras are rulers. This shows, however, that Shūdra kings actually existed, as we know from other sources, and as such they must have been recognized as Kshatriyas (rulers). The line of demarcation which separated Shūdras from the rest was not a matter of
