The Rashtrakutas and their Times c21.27

c21.27

The distinction which Alberuni draws between the eight untouchables of the first group, and the four ones of the second one, is unknown to the Smriti literature. Alberuni himself says that the shoemaker, washerman, and weaver were regarded as lower than themselves by the rest of the untouchables of the first group, who while intermarrying among themselves, would have nothing to do with the members of these classes. It would be, therefore, clear that all the Antyajas were not on the same level in our age; the juggler, basketmaker, sailor, fisherman, and hunter seem to have constituted in our period a class of semi-untouchables. The reason why Alberuni separates the Chandala, Domba, Hādi and Badhatau from the Antyajas of the first group seems to be that these latter had no guild organisations of their own, like the Antyajas of the first group. This inference is supported by the fact that he refers to the Antyajas of the first group as castes or guilds and adds that the Antyajas of the second group were not reckoned among any such castes or guilds.