The shudras are the
lowest and least influential of the four major social groups (varnas) in
traditional Hindu society.
The shudras' social function in this model was to serve
everyone else.
The creation story known as the Purusha Sukta describes the
shudras as being created from the Primeval Man's feet, reflecting their low
social status.
Because the feet are the lowest and most basic part of the
body, the shudra was regarded as the lowest caste in Hindu society.
Unlike the "twice-born" varnas—brahmin, kshatriya,
and vaishya—whose adolescent males were entitled to a ritual second birth that
allowed them to study the Veda, shudras were always once-born and thus
prohibited from studying or even hearing the Veda.
In practice, the status of shudras varied greatly by region;
for example, many of the land-owning jatis (endogamous social subgroups) in
southern India were shudras, and they were powerful communities.
At the very least, unlike the untouchables, who were
considered completely impure due to their hereditary occupations, they were
given a distinct place in Hinduism's caste system.
