Caste and Race in India c8.27

c8.27

The Śūdra generally was regarded as so low that his food might not be accepted by the Brahmin. There is one exception to this attitude of the lawgivers, and that is the permission given by Āpastamba for food being prepared by a Śūdra under the guidance of the higher varṇas.⁶ As we have suggested above this relaxation of the usual rule must have been necessitated by the special conditions of South India from which Āpastamba hailed. The same author lays down very strict rules in the matter of acceptance of food by a Brahmin student, who has completed his studies but has not yet entered the life of a householder. In his opinion such a person shall not eat in the houses of people belonging to the three lower castes. He quotes, but evidently does not approve of, the view that he may take food offered by persons of the two castes, next in order, who follow the prescribed rules.⁷ Baudhāyana exhorts such a person to beg only uncooked food from the members of the first three castes and from the carpenters,¹ (lit. chariot-makers). He enjoins a Brahmin to eschew Śūdra's food. A Brahmin observing this rule is said to be the worthiest object of gifts. If the injunction is broken, dreadful consequences will follow both for the recalcitrant individual as well as for his progeny. Recitation of the Veda or offering of sacrifices cannot obliterate the evil effects of such action. A person who dies with a Śūdra's food in his stomach will be born again as a pig or a Śūdra. If after partaking of such food a Brahmin be so unwise as to have conjugal intercourse, the offspring will belong to the Śūdra, and the Brahmin cannot ascend to heaven.² In another passage Vasiṣṭha gives a list of persons whose food must not be eaten. They are the outcast, the Śūdra, the physician, the carpenter, the washerman, the cobbler, etc.³ Gautama is more strict in his rule, and allows a Brahmin to eat the food, evidently cooked food, given only by such of the twice-born persons as are praised for the proper performance of their duties. But he differs from others in this that he recognizes the claims of some people, who are of the Śūdra class, for special treatment. The food offered by a herdsman, a husbandman, an acquaintance of the family, a barber, or a servant may be accepted.⁴ A Brahmin may also accept food at the hands of a trader who is not at the same time an artisan,⁵ the latter's food being forbidden by Āpastamba to a Brahmin student returned home.⁶ According to Gautama the food of a carpenter is also taboo to a Brahmin.⁷