Caste and Race in India c8.158

c8.158

We have seen above the reason advanced by Manu why agriculture should be regarded as an unworthy occupation for the Brahmin. In regard to other occupations we do not know the grounds on which the status of an occupation was determined. Yet there is no doubt that there was some defined scheme of status of different occupations which depended not so much on their lucrativeness as on their ceremonial purity. Nārada distinguishes all work as either pure or impure, and mentions the following as impure work: sweeping the gateway, the privy, and the road, rubbing the master's limbs, shampooing the secret parts, and gathering and putting away the leavings of food, ordure, and urine.⁶