Shudra
Traditional Shudra or Shoodra[1] (Sanskrit: Śūdra[2]) is one of the four varnas of the Hindu class and social system in ancient India.
[2][5][6] According to Richard Gombrich's study of Buddhist texts, particularly relating to castes in Sri Lankan Buddhist and Tamil Hindu society, also "The terms Vaisya and Sudra did not correspond to any clear-cut social units, even in the ancient period, but various groups were subsumed under each term [...]; In medieval times (say AD 500–1500) though society was still said to consist of the four classes, this classification seems to have become irrelevant[.]"
According to historian Ram Sharan Sharma, the purpose of this verse may have been to show that shudras had the same lineage as the other varnas and hence were a section of society in the Vedic period.
[16] The Purusha Sukta verse is now generally considered to have been inserted at a later date into the Vedic text, possibly as a charter myth.
[17] Historian Ram Sharan Sharma states that "the Rig Vedic society was neither organized on the basis of social division of labour nor on that of differences in wealth... [it] was primarily organised based on kin, tribe and lineage.
"[19] According to Sharma, nowhere in the Ṛgveda or Atharvaveda "is there any evidence of restrictions regarding food and marriage either between the Dasa and Aryan, or between the Shudra and the higher varnas".
[24] The ancient Hindu text Arthashastra states, according to Sharma, that Aryas were free men and could not be subject to slavery under any circumstances.
These are: Pundrakas, Codas, Dravidas, Kambojas, Yavanas, Sakas, Paradas, Pahlavas, Chinas, Kiratas, Daradas and Khasas.
[40][41] According to Ashwani Peetush, a professor of philosophy at the Wilfrid Laurier University, the Vajrasuchi Upanishad is a significant text because it assumes and asserts that any human being from any social background can achieve the highest spiritual state of existence.
A Buddhist text, states Patton, "refers to Shudras who know the Vedas, grammar, Mimamsa, Samkhya, Vaisheshika and lagna".
[44] The term vaṇṇa does appear in the Buddhist texts as few exceptions, but states Bronkhorst, only in the context of abstract divisions of society and it seems to "have remained a theoretical concept without any parallel in actual practice".
[58] The word is almost entirely missing, in any context, from ancient Sanskrit literature composed before the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE, and it scarcely appears in the dharmasutras.
Other Hindu texts such as the epics, states Naheem Jabbar, assert that Shudras played other roles such as kings and ministers.
In most regions, it has been the Shudra who typically make offerings to the gods on behalf of the Hindu devotees, chant prayers, recite meweda (Vedas), and set the course of Balinese temple festivals.
[67] Scholars have tried to locate historical evidence for the existence and nature of varna and jati in documents and inscriptions of medieval India.
This has led Cynthia Talbot, a professor of history and Asian studies, to question whether varna was socially significant in the daily lives of this region.
[68] Richard Eaton, a professor of history, writes, "anyone could become a warrior regardless of social origins, nor do the jati appear as features of people's identity.
Evidence shows, according to Eaton, that Shudras were part of the nobility, and many "father and sons had different professions, suggesting that social status was earned, not inherited" in the Hindu Kakatiya population in the Deccan region between the 11th and 14th centuries.
Sixty of his compositions were included by the Sikh Gurus of Punjab region as they compiled the Sikhism scripture the Guru Granth Sahib.
[79] The tenets of Vedic Hinduism in north India held less sway in the south, where the societal divisions were simply Brahmin and Shudra.
