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    Who Were The Shudras

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    Erin Winters
    The book discusses the origins of the Shudra varna in ancient Indian society. It argues that Shudras were originally Aryans belonging to the Kshatriya varna before being socially degraded and becoming the fourth varna due to conflicts with Brahmins who denied them religious rites.

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    Who Were The Shudras

    Uploaded by

    Erin Winters
    1K views4 pages
    The book discusses the origins of the Shudra varna in ancient Indian society. It argues that Shudras were originally Aryans belonging to the Kshatriya varna before being socially degraded and becoming the fourth varna due to conflicts with Brahmins who denied them religious rites.

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    Who Were the Shudras

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    The book discusses the origins of the Shudra varna in ancient Indian society. It argues that Shudras were originally Aryans belonging to the Kshatriya varna before being socially degraded and becoming the fourth varna due to conflicts with Brahmins who denied them religious rites.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    1K views4 pages

    Who Were The Shudras

    Uploaded by

    Erin Winters
    The book discusses the origins of the Shudra varna in ancient Indian society. It argues that Shudras were originally Aryans belonging to the Kshatriya varna before being socially degraded and becoming the fourth varna due to conflicts with Brahmins who denied them religious rites.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    The key takeaways are that the book discusses the origins of the Shudra varna in ancient India and argues that originally the Shudras were part of the Kshatriya varna and became socially degraded over time.

    The subject of the book is discussing the origins of the Shudra varna and answering who the Shudras originally were as well as how they came to be the fourth varna in Indo-Aryan society.

    Part I of the book contains 12 chapters discussing the riddle of the Shudras, different theories about their origins, the status of Shudras, Shudras versus Aryans, Aryans against Aryans, and Shudras and Dasas.

    Who Were the Shudras?

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Who Were the Shudras? is a history book written by Indian social reformer
    and polymath Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.[1][2] The book discusses the origin of the
    Shudra Varna. B.R. Ambedkar dedicated the book to Mahatma Jyotiba Phule
    (1827–1890).

    Contents
    1 Subject of the book
    2 Contents
    2.1 Part I
    2.2 Part II
    3 See also
    4 References
    5 Further reading
    6 External links

    Subject of the book


    In the book Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, citing Rigveda, Mahabharata and
    other ancient vedic scriptures, estimates that the Shudras were originally
    Aryans. They were a part of the Kshatriya Varna belonging to the Solar race
    (Suryavansha).

    Ambedkar writes in the preface of the book,

    "Undoubtedly the conclusions which I have reached as a result of my


    investigations. Two questions are raised in this book: (1) Who were the
    Shudras? and (2) How they came to be the fourth Varna of the Indo-Aryan
    society? My answers to them are summarised below.

    1. The Shudras were one of the Aryan communities of the Solar race.
    2. There was a time when the Aryan society recognised only three
    Varnas, namely. Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas.
    3. The Shudras did not form a separate Varna. They ranked as part of the
    Kshatriya Varna in the Indo-Aryan society.
    4. There was a continuous feud between the Shudra kings and the
    Brahmins in which the Brahmins were subjected to many tyrannies and
    indignities.
    5. As a result of the hatred towards the Shudras generated by their
    tyrannies and oppressions, the Brahmins refused to perform the
    Upanayana of the Shudras.
    6. Owing to the denial of Upanayana, the Shudras who were Kshatriyas
    became socially degraded, fell below the rank of the Vaishyas and thus
    came to form the fourth Varna."[3]

    Importantly, Ambedkar states that the Shudras of Hindu society are


    entirely different from Shudras of ancient Indo-Aryan Society. He writes,

    "...Such an inference is without any foundation, for the Shudras of the Indo-
    Aryan Society are absolutely different in race from the Shudras of the Hindu
    Society. The Shudras of the Hindu Society are not the racial descendants of
    the Shudras of the Indo-Aryan Society. This confusion has arisen because of
    the failure to realise that the meaning of the word 'Shudras' in the Indo-
    Aryan society is quite different from the meaning it has in the Hindu society.
    In the Indo-Aryans the word Shudra was proper name of one single people.
    It was the name of a people who belonged to a particular race. The word
    Shudra, as used in the Hindu society, is not a proper name at all. It is an
    epithet for a low uncultured class of people. It is a general cognomen of a
    miscellaneous and heterogeneous collection of tribes and groups, who have
    nothing in common except that they happen to be on a lower plane of
    culture. It is wrong to call them by the name Shudras. They have very little
    to do with their namesakes of the Aryan society, who had offended the
    Brahmins. It is a pity that these innocent and backward people of later days
    have been rolled up with the original Shudras and subjected to the same
    penalties for which they had given no cause."[4]

    Dr. Ambedkar also discusses Aryan race theory and Indo-Aryan migration
    theory in the book.[5]

    Contents
    Preface

    Part I

    1. Chapter I - The Riddle of the Shudras


    2. Chapter II - The Brahmanic Theory of the Origin of the Shudras
    3. Chapter III - The Brahmanic Theory of the Status of the Shudras
    4. Chapter IV - Shudras Versus Aryans
    5. Chapter V - Aryans Against Aryans
    6. Chapter VI - Shudras And Dasas

    Part II

    1. Chapter VII - The Shudras were Kshatriyas


    2. Chapter VIII - The Number of Varnas, Three or Four?
    3. Chapter IX - Brahmins Versus Shudras
    4. Chapter X - The Degradation of the Shudras
    5. Chapter XI - The Story of Reconciliation
    6. Chapter XII - The Theory in the Crucible

    See also
    Caste system in India
    Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
    Dalit

    References
    1. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (1949). Who were the Shudras?. Bombay: Thackers.
    2. Karmarkar, A.P. (1946), "Review: Who were the Shudras? by Bhimrao Ramji
    Ambedkar", Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 30 (1-2):
    158–160, JSTOR 41784527 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/41784527)
    3. http://www.ambedkar.org/ambcd
    /38A.%20Who%20were%20the%20Shudras%20Preface.htm#PRE
    4. http://www.ambedkar.org/ambcd
    /38C2.%20Who%20were%20the%20Shudras%20PART%20II.htm#a11
    5. http://www.ambedkar.org/ambcd
    /38B2.%20Who%20were%20the%20Shudras%20PART%20I.htm#a04

    Further reading
    Sharma, Arvind (2005), "Dr. B. R. Ambedkar on the Aryan Invasion
    and the Emergence of the Caste System in India", J Am Acad Relig, 73
    (3): 843–870, doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfi081 (https://doi.org
    /10.1093%2Fjaarel%2Flfi081)

    External links
    Who were the Shudras? (http://www.ambedkar.org/ambcd
    /38A.%20Who%20were%20the%20Shudras%20Preface.htm)

    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org


    /w/index.php?title=Who_Were_the_Shudras%3F&oldid=782252120"

    Categories: Books about civilizations B. R. Ambedkar Dalit literature


    Dalit history

    This page was last edited on 25 May 2017, at 19:23.


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