History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.295

v2.c19.295

*Pulkasa* (or paulkasa). The word is also written as pukkasa. Śaṁkarācārya on Bṛhadāraṇyaka Up. IV. 3. 22 says that pulkasa and paulkasa are the same. According to Baud. Dh. S. (I. 9. 14) and Manu X. 18 he is the offspring of a niṣāda male from a śūdra female. According to Kauṭ. (III. 7) he is the offspring of a niṣāda male from an ugra female, while Vaik. X. 14, Uśanas (17) and the Sūtasaṁhitā say that he is the offspring of a śūdra male from a kṣatriya woman and that he makes his livelihood by manufacturing and selling¹⁹⁸ liquors or natural intoxicating sap. The same is the view of some teachers according to Gautama IV. 17. According to Vas. Dh. S. (18. 5) and Viṣṇu Dh. S. (16. 5) he is the offspring of a vaiśya male from a kṣatriya female and the latter adds that he subsists by hunting. The Agnipuraṇa (151. 15) says that pukkasas are hunters. Yama¹⁹⁹ and Hārīta quoted in the Kṛtyakalpataru make him out as the offspring of a śūdra male from a vaiśya female. Manu X. 49 prescribes catching and killing animals that live in holes as the occupation of kṣatṛ, ugra and pukkasa. Kṣīrasvāmī (com. of Amara) says that pukkasa is the same as mṛtapa (which see below). Āp. Dh. S. (II. 1. 2. 6) says that when a Brāhmaṇa, Kṣatriya or Vaiśya is guilty of the theft of gold, of the murder of a brāhmaṇa, they undergo for some time in hell torments and then are respectively born as Cāṇḍāla, Paulkasa or Vaina.