Caste and Race in India c8.41

c8.41

The idea that an impure person imparts pollution by his touch and even by his near approach to a member of the first three castes finds definite expression in the law-texts of this period, generally with reference to the persons who are outcasted and even specifically in relation to a class of people called Caṇḍālas. According to Gautama a man who is guilty of the crime of killing a Brahmin, must live outside the village, entering it only for alms. When he thus enters the village he must step out of the road on meeting a member of the first three castes and make the way clear for him.² On touching a Caṇḍāla or one who has touched a Caṇḍāla one must immediately bathe with one's clothes on.³ If a Brahmin unintentionally eats the food or accepts the presents given by a Caṇḍāla he is outcast. But if he does so knowingly he becomes equal to a Caṇḍāla.⁴ The position of the Caṇḍālas must have been very degraded. A householder is exhorted to throw some food for them and the outcasts along with that for crows and dogs outside the house, after all the members of the household have taken their meals.⁵ Kauṭilya forbids them to follow the customs of the Śūdras.⁶ Āpastamba regards it as an offence even to speak to or to look at a Caṇḍāla.⁷ The outcasts are to live by themselves as a community, teaching each other and marrying among themselves. Association with them by pure men is prohibited on pain of excommunication. By association is meant either a matrimonial alliance, officiating at their sacrifice, or even touching them.⁸ It seems that the ideas of pollution had progressed further than these examples lead us to believe. Continued use by the Śūdras of the water in a well rendered it unfit for religious purposes. This at least seems to be the opinion of Baudhāyana who says that a Brahmin, who marries a Śūdra wife and dwells in a village where only well-water is available, becomes equal to a Śūdra.¹ According to the Arthaśāstra the Caṇḍālas had to live beyond the burial grounds, and a simile used by the author makes it quite clear that the Caṇḍālas had their own reservoirs of water which the other classes would not use.² There are many stories in the Jātakas, illustrating the scrupulous avoidance of the proximity of persons belonging to a despised or even a very low caste. The fear of pollution was not entirely confined to the Brahmins, but sensitive females like the daughter of a merchant in the story showed it in an excessive degree. The impurity of a person could also be imparted to objects touched by him.³ The Caṇḍālas lived outside the town in a hamlet of their own, and it seems that the other low castes, mentioned together with them, like Pukkasa, Rathakāra, Niṣāda did likewise.⁴