The Rashtrakutas and their Times c21.16

c21.16

After mentioning the eight varieties of the Antyajas, Alberuni expressly adds that all these classes lived near the towns or villages of the four castes, but outside them. It is therefore clear that they were regarded as untouchables. It may be pointed out that some of the later Smritis like Angiras, (7) Brihadyama, (8) Atri, (9) and Āpastamba (10), which discuss the problem and the treatment of the untouchables, pronounce most of these classes as untouchables. Washerman, shoemaker, juggler, fisherman, Chandāla, and basket-maker of Alberuni correspond to rajaka, charmakāra, naṭa or s'ailushika, kaivarta, chaṇḍāla and veṇujivin of these Smriti writers. Since early times these were regarded as untouchables and till quite recently; washermen, shoemakers, fishermen, and Chandalas because their professions were dirty, and jugglers and basketmakers, probably because these professions were the monopoly of the non-Aryan aborigines in the beginning. One of the inscriptions on the Rajarajesvara temple at Tanjore provides, as we have seen, for the enactment of a certain drama at the time of the annual fair and states the salaries paid to the actors. A perusal of Sanskrit literature also shows that the actors who enacted the dramas of Bhāsa, Kālidāsa, and Bhavabūti were not regarded as untouchables. The Naṭas, who are pronounced as untouchables by the Smriti writers, were not obviously the members of this class; they were tumblers, jesters, and rope-dancers who are described as untouchables by the Muslim writers of our period.