| From the fourteenth to the seventeenth century C.E., a sastra of a new type on the topic of Sudras was composed and circulated among Dharmasastrins. These sudradharma texts were primarily concerned with the ritual life of Sudras---the rites, sacraments, and forms of religious knowledge to which they were entitled in sruti and smr&dotbelow;ti. But they also included expositions on the generation of Sudra jatis according to the theory of varn&dotbelow;asan˙kara and descriptions of the ways of life and occupations of Sudras. This is a study and translation of one of these texts, the Sudracarasiroman&dotbelow;i of Kr&dotbelow;s&dotbelow;n&dotbelow;a Ses&dotbelow;a, among the most brilliant and eminent pandits of late medieval Sanskrit, celebrated as both grammarian and poet. In the series of essays that accompany the translation, I analyze the text and piece together the fragmentary evidence for its date and authorship. Sudradharma texts were one response of the Brahmin intellectual elite to the challenges to traditional dharma and dominance arising from the changing socio-economic conditions of Sultanate and Mughal India. They represent a shift in Dharmashastric discourse from the ritual exclusion of Sudras as the sign of their social subjection to fuller integration into the Brahmanical fold. As an effort to deepen the ritual regulation of low castes in a time of and caste instability and anxiety (the improved but precarious class position of many Sudras) and social ferment (the Bhakti movements) they were adjunct to a more general reassessment of varn&dotbelow;a and the identity and place of Brahmins and Ks&dotbelow;atriyas. Sudradharma texts like the Sudracarasiroman&dotbelow;i preserve the Vedic privilege and ritual primacy of Brahmins while adjusting to the new realities of caste by the qualified inclusion of sat, i.e., "good" Sudras as a new client base for ritual services. The Sudracarasiroman&dotbelow;i was composed in typical nibandha style, but in the form of a concise and comprehensive handbook for Brahmins to instruct and guide Sudras in their daily ritual life. |
