based on peculiar ideas regarding purity and pollution are more likely to be hurt and pained, especially when rapacious foreigners like Yavanas, Shakas, and Pahlavas were making inroads in the country. They were again an object of envy by peoples below them. Buddhism was trying to pull them down without becoming itself ready to lift the burden which they carried.
As the Brāhmana was above all and godlike, so was Shūdra at the bottom, with the exception of Antyajas who were hardly regarded as members of society. The Shūdra is spoken of in contemptuous manner, but the elements of sympathy are not entirely wanting.
They (the Brāhmana employers) must allow to him out of their own family property a suitable maintenance, after considering his ability, his industry, and the number of those whom he is bound to support. The remnants of their food should be given to him, as well as their old clothes, the refuse of their grain, and their old household furniture" (x, 124-5).[1]
Shūdra is contrasted with Brāhmana in several places in the book. In discussing the eligibility for office of a judge, Brāhmana and Shūdra are contrasted. This man without sacraments is not a fit person even to carry the dead of the Brāhmanas. Our text also advises a king that he should select a place to build his capitol which does not abound in Shūdras; and he advises a
- ↑ The Shūdra is sometimes spoken of as if he were like the modern pariah, but this is a false view. The slave Shūdra was a house-slave and must have come into constant contact with his master. Personal service was his special duty. He lived of course in the Oriental style in his own house (not in the one of his master) but he cooked for his master, etc., and was recognized as a member of society, not an outcast.
