Caste and Race in India c8.175

c8.175

In the treatment of the Śūdras, it seems that the distinction made in the last period between sat and asat Śūdra was acted upon locally in Northern India, and did not appeal to writers on sacred law hailing from Southern India. To them a Śūdra was a Śūdra, and as such an untouchable, except in name. Mādhava exhorts a Brahmin to avoid living in the same house with a Śūdra or accompanying him in a carriage. Nor must he take food ordinarily cooked by him. But food that is prepared in oily substance or in milk may be accepted, provided it is eaten not in the house of the Śūdra but on the banks of a river.¹ Hemādri even goes further and impresses upon a Brahmin the sinfulness of eating one's food in a Śūdra's house though prepared by oneself with the raw materials supplied by the Śūdra.² Even the food of the few privileged Śūdras that was formerly acceptable to the Brahmin is ruled out by Mādhava as a custom unsuited for the Kali age.³ So determined has the opposition to the Śūdra's food become, that Kamalākara is at pains to explain away ancient texts by all manner of fanciful interpretations.⁴