Caste and Race in India c8.141

c8.141

Food offered by a Śūdra is generally forbidden to a Brahmin as in the last period, but with this difference that, in addition to the specifically privileged Śūdras, there is the class of the good Śūdras whose food may be accepted. The general tenor of the detailed regulations leads us to believe that this permitted food was to be either uncooked or specially prepared in milk or ghee. According to Vishnu, a member of the first three castes has to undergo a penance if he takes food offered by a carpenter, a blacksmith, a goldsmith, a dealer in molasses and other liquids, an oil-presser, a weaver, a dyer of cloths, a cane-worker, or a washerman. The later distinction between food prepared without the addition of water and that in which water is used is mentioned by Atri. He allows a Brahmin to accept from a Śūdra anything that is prepared in ghee and articles like milk, buttermilk, curds, etc. Consistently with this distinction in food the same writer forbids a Brahmin to take water from a Śūdra. The food offered even by a Kshatriya and a Vaiśya was not considered to be perfectly innocuous.²