Śūdra
group · 13 works · 35 mentions · 54 anchored passages
Śūdras · Śūdra woman · śūdras · Shudra · Sudra · Sudras · last...classes · the Sudra · traders · śūdra
spoken of as
1 expressionŚūdras8 mentions
Viṣṇu Smṛti (Sanskrit) · Dissertations on Early Law and Custom (English) · Manusmṛti (Sanskrit) · Nāradasmṛti (Sanskrit) · Parāśara Smṛti (Sanskrit) · Vīramitrodaya (Sanskrit)
Nor Śūdras.
in the texts
Manusmṛti
The lowest of the four varnas, central to the marriage-prohibition and status-degradation rules.
A Brāhmaṇa who takes a Śūdra woman to his bed sinks to a lower state;
By marrying a Śūdra woman, a Brāhmaṇa falls, according to Atri and the son of Utathya;
If a Vaiśya and a Śūdra arrive at the house as guests, he should feed them along with his servants, showing them kindness.
Viṣṇu Smṛti
The servant varṇa, given the longest impurity period and simplified/mantra-less rites.
A Śūdra, one.
A month for a Śūdra.
For Śūdras, it is on the twelfth day, but without mantras.
Āṅgirasa Smṛti
The lowest of the four varṇas, association with whom disqualifies Brahmins from śrāddha and who may not be fed leftovers.
One should not, with effort, feed a *śūdra* (शूद्र) in the house on the day of a *śrāddha* (श्राद्ध).
One should not give the leftovers of the *śrāddha* (श्राद्ध) to *śūdras* (शूद्रस्) or to wicked people.
one who sacrifices only for a Śūdra, one nourished by a Śūdra, one who lives in a Śūdra's house, one devoted to accepting gifts from a Śūdra, and one who is a perpetual beggar, // Ang_1.
Kātyāyana Smṛti
The lowest of the traditional four varnas, explicitly excluded from judgeship and subject to harsher procedural treatment.
A Śūdra should be diligently avoided.
Those of the Śūdra and other classes who are without a surety should be bound in fetters.
Cowherds, merchants, as well as artisans and actors, servants and moneylenders—even if they are twice-born, one should treat them like Śūdras (in ordeals).
Nāradasmṛti
The servant social class, subject to distinct (often less restrictive) marriage and waiting-period rules, and central to the caste-intermixture (varṇasaṃkara) taxonomy.
A Śūdra woman gives birth to a Pāraśava (पारशव), a superior son, from a Brāhmaṇa.
These three are declared to be the sons of a Śūdra woman from the three higher classes.
A Śūdra woman may likewise have three other husbands in the reverse order of the classes.
Parāśara Smṛti
The lowest of the four varṇas, whose members receive distinctively different (typically reduced or substitute) penance obligations throughout the passage.
There is no fast for Śūdras;
A Brāhmaṇa should perform the Sāṃtapana penance;
A Brāhmaṇa without the Gāyatrī is more impure than even a Śūdra.
Dissertations on Early Law and Custom
Indian laboring caste used as a comparative example of social distance.
De Tocqueville has strongly suggested, and others after him will probably demonstrate, that the enormous social prestige of the French Court and its constant indulgence of its military tastes had at length turned the French territorial nobility into a caste as distinct from the cultivating peasantry as is the Rajput from the Sudra, as distinct as was the white planter of the Southern States from t …
it is not even certain from some passages whether the lowest and most despised of castes, the Sudras, are always excluded.
Slokantara
The trading/commercial caste, whose duty is buying and selling.
thus a Śūdra’s activity is commerce.
The work of a *Śūdra* is to trade by sea, to sell and to buy.
[Slo_78j§4] Furthermore, the *Śūdra* are traders.
Vīramitrodaya
The fourth varṇa, treated here as a social group with distinct, simplified rules for the timing of ancestral rites.
"For Śūdras, it is on the twelfth day, without mantras.
For Śūdras, however, the Sapiṇḍana is on the twelfth day.
Therefore, an *āmaśrāddha* should be performed by a Śūdra also in the forenoon itself.
Yājñavalkya Smṛti
The lowest of the four varṇas, subject throughout to distinctly graded and often harsher treatment relative to caste status.
A Śūdra who does so becomes an outcaste;
the middle for a Kṣatriya, the lowest for a Vaiśya, and half of that for a Śūdra.
one who feeds Śūdras or ascetics at a rite for the gods or Ancestors, one who takes an improper oath, and an unqualified person who performs a qualified person's work;
Atharvaveda (Paippalāda)
The servile class, born from Puruṣa's feet, appearing among poison victims and supplicants.
from his feet the Śūdra was born.
This indeed they declare — the supplicants, the Śūdras, and the Āryas alike:
Those who come struck by poisoned arrows — both Śūdras and Rājanya men — all appearing before my eyes, they go back free of disease.
Yama Smṛti
The lowest of the four varṇas, contact with whom by higher castes is treated as polluting and punishable.
/ by the very act of intercourse with a Śūdra woman, he becomes fallen.
By the very act of intercourse with a Śūdra woman, a twice-born begets a child of her nature;
/ for killing a cow, a Kṣatriya, a Vaiśya, a Śūdra, or one born of a regular-order union, // YSS_1.
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa
The servant class, described in the varna order and phalaśruti passage.
and even a Śūdra attains greatness.
and the śūdras, engaged in their own prescribed duty, were in service to the three varṇas.