The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c11.s5.9

c11.s5.9

Another relic of the remote past is the objection to the entry of men of lower class people into temples. In Islam slaves were not permitted to bestow alms or visit places of pilgrimages.⁹⁴ In India, according to Megasthenes, there were no slaves. But slavery (*dasta*) probably did exist in one form or the other. Were the *dasas* also debarred from entering temples and the practice has continued; or, was it that every caste and section had its own shrines and did not enter those of others? The picture is very blurred and origins of this practice are difficult to locate.