the fourth and lowest of the traditional varnas, or social classes, of Hindu India, traditionally artisans and labourers. The term does not appear in the earliest Vedic literature. In its first application it probably included all conquered peoples of the Indus civilization as they were assimilated as menials to the three-class society of the Brahmans (priests and teachers), Kshatriya (nobles and warriors), and Vaishya (merchants). Sudras are not permitted to perform the upanayana initiatory rite, which introduces members of the three upper classes to the study of the Vedas (earliest sacred literature) and gives them their status as dvija (“twice-born”).

The Sudra varna includes a wide spectrum of endogamous status groups with dominant, landowning groups at one end of the scale and near-untouchables at the other. These variations derive from the Hindu belief that certain behaviour patterns and occupations are polluting, a concept that gave rise to a distinction between “clean” and “unclean” Sudra groups; for example, washers, tanners, shoemakers, sweepers, and scavengers were once relegated to untouchability (see untouchable). As evidence of group mobility in the caste system, some observers have pointed out that many castes claiming Kshatriya and Vaishya status gradually emerged from the Sudra class. See also varna.