History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.282

v2.c19.282

*Niṣāda.* For vedic references see above (pp. 43 and 46). The Nirukta¹⁹³ III. 8 while explaining the words 'pañcajanā mama hotram juṣadhvam' in Ṛg. X. 53. 4 remarks that according to Aupamanyava the 'five people' are the four varṇas with niṣāda as the fifth. This shows that Aupamanyava regarded them as distinct from the four varṇas (including the śūdras). The Nirukta further says that according to the Nairuktas the niṣāda is so called because 'sin (or evil) sits down in him'; from this it follows that in the times of Yāska the niṣādas had come to be looked down upon with scorn as evil people and were probably some aborigines like the modern *Bhils*. According to Baud. Dh. S. (I. 9.3 and II. 2.33), Vas. 18.8, Manu X. 8, Anuśāsana 48.5, Yāj. I. 91 the Niṣāda is an anuloma caste, offspring of the marriage of a brāhmaṇa with a śūdra woman. Baud. Dh. S. (II. 2.34), Kauṭ. (III. 7), Manu (X. 8) and Yāj. (I. 91) say that pāraśava is another name for niṣāda. Manu (IX. 178) derives pāraśava from the root *pāray* (to go across) and the word *śava* (a corpse) meaning 'though living he is like one dead'. In a corrupt passage of Vas. Dh. S.¹⁹⁴ (18. 9-10) the same derivation is accepted. Gaut. (IV. 14) distinguishes between niṣāda and pāraśava, the former (acc. to the com. Haradatta) being the offspring of a brāhmaṇa from a vaiśya woman and the latter being the offspring of a brāhmaṇa male and a śūdra female. According to Nārada (strīpuṃsa v. 108) and Anuśāsana 48.12, niṣāda is the offspring of a kṣatriya male and a śūdra female and he subsists by fishing (according to the latter). Nārada (strīpuṃsa 108) says that pāraśava is the offspring of a brāhmaṇa male and a śūdra female. Uśanas (36-38) says that the offspring of the marriage of a brāhmaṇa with a śūdra woman is called pāraśava and gains his livelihood as the worshipper of the goddess Bhadrakālī or by learning Śaiva āgamas or by playing on musical instruments, while niṣāda is the illegitimate offspring of a brāhmaṇa from a śūdra woman who subsists by killing wild beasts (such as elephants) and by selling flesh. The Vaik.¹⁹⁵ (X. 13) has practically the same remarks to make about pāraśava and niṣāda. Śāntiparva (59. 96-97) speaks of niṣādas as men with reddish eyes and with black hair. In the Rāmāyaṇa Guha, the king of niṣādas, helps Rāma to cross the river Ganges (Ayodhyā 50. 33). Here he is spoken of as belonging to the caste of niṣādas (niśādajātyaḥ). We have historical evidence for the name pāraśava in the Harṣacarita (I, towards end), where Bāṇa¹⁹⁶ tells us that he had with him two pāraśava brothers Candrasena and Mātṛṣeṇa in his travels. In the Tipperah copperplate of a chieftain called Lokanātha (about 650 A. D.) we are told that the king's maternal grandfather Keśava was a pāraśava (vide E. I. vol. 15 at p. 307). The Mit. on Yāj. I. 91 cautions that this niṣāda (the anuloma offspring of a brāhmaṇa from a śūdra woman) is different from another caste called niṣāda, which is a pratiloma one and lives by catching fish. Medhātithi on Manu X. 8 does the same. Niṣāda occurs in the gaṇa kulālādi (Pan. IV. 3. 118). The Vāyupurāṇa (vol. II. chap. 1. 120-121) narrates that the niṣādas, dark and dwarfish, were produced from the left hand of king Vena and they dwelt on the Vindhya. In the Bhāgavata-purāṇa we have the same story¹⁹⁷ (IV. 14. 42 ff.) and we are told that niṣādas were dark like crows, of short stature, snubnosed, with red eyes and hair and that they dwelt in mountains and forests.