"Ambedkar also attempted to uplift those who had suffered the most at the hands of Brahmanical Aryan culture: the Sudras. But, unlike Ramaswami, his method was not to attempt to uncouple this social class from an alien Aryan culture. On the contrary, according to Ambedkar (1946), "the Shudras were one of the Aryan communities of the Solar race. . . . The Shudras did not form a separate Varna. They ranked as part of the Kshatriya Varna in the Indo-Aryan society" (v). On the basis of a variety of passages, particularly Mahabharata, santi parvan 38-40 (which describes a Sudra by the name of Paijavana performing a major sacrifice conducted by Brahamanas), Ambedkar argued that the Sudras were once wealthy, glorified and respected by rsis, composers of Vedic hymns, and performers of sacrifice. Due to continuous feuding with the Brahmana class, the Sudras inflicted many tyrannies on the Brahmanas, who, in retaliation, denied them the upanayana initiation ceremony, causing them to eventually become socially degraded. Ambedkar, in his book Who Were the Sudras? (1946) offers a critique of the philological basis of the Aryan invasion theory, that in places is well-informed and well-argued. He adamandy rejected this theory, which he saw as partly responsible for propagating the erroneous idea that the Sudras were a non-Aryan, indigenous ethnic group."