Caste and Race in India c8.87

c8.87

The unions of males of lower castes with females of higher castes are contemplated and specifically treated. Yet they are not at all countenanced. As a matter of fact, they are not marriages at all. The progeny of such unions is declared to be without the pale of the sacred law,⁴ though the names of the different groups formed by them according to the difference in the caste of the father and the mother are given.⁵ Such unions are so despised that their offspring, though their actual parentage may be unknown, are held capable of being singled out, because such persons certainly are destitute of virtue and good conduct.⁶ Caṇḍāla—the untouchable and unapproachable class of this period—is represented as the issue of the union of a Śūdra male with a Brahmin female.