The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c18.16

c18.16

For the despised position of the Caṇḍāla we have already given examples in an earlier chapter (p. 26 sq.); we have seen how the eating of the food left by them (caṇḍālucchiṭṭhabhatta) had as its consequence, for the members of the Brāhmaṇa caste, exclusion from their caste¹; we have seen further how the wind which had touched the body of a Caṇḍāla was considered impure and how the very look of such a miserable creature sufficed to call up the feeling of impurity in those occupying a higher rank. "Contemptuous as a Caṇḍāla" has become a proverbial expression. Into the mouth of the young lioness to whom a jackal had made a proposal of marriage the words are put: "This jackal is considered low and wretched among the four-footed animals, similar to a Caṇḍāla (hino patikuṭṭho caṇḍālasadiso. II. 6); we are, however, esteemed members of the highest royal family. This one addresses me indecent and improper words; what shall I do with life after I have listened to such words? I will hold my breath and die." The name Caṇḍāla stands for a word of contempt by which a Brâhmaṇa, for example, designates his adulterous wife (pâpacaṇḍâlî IV. 246).