History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c20.222

v2.c20.222

(8) A brāhmaṇa could take³⁷⁵ food at the houses of members of the three classes who performed the duties prescribed for them by the śāstras (according to Gaut.), but he could not take food from a śūdra except when the śūdra was his own cowherd, or tilled his field or was a hereditary friend of the family, or his own barber or his dāsa. Vide Gaut. XVII. 6 and Manu IV. 253 (= Viṣṇu Dh. S. 57. 16), Yāj. I. 166, Parāśara IX. 19. Āp. Dh. S. I. 5. 16. 22 says³⁷⁶ 'that food which is brought by an impure śūdra should not be eaten by a brāhmaṇa;' but Āpastamba allows śūdras to be cooks in brāhmaṇa households provided they were supervised by a member of the three higher classes and observed certain hygienic rules about paring nails, the cutting of hair. Manu IV. 211 forbade in general the food of a śūdra to a brāhmaṇa and by IV. 223 he laid down that a learned brāhmaṇa should not take cooked food from a śūdra who did not perform śrāddha and other daily rites (mahāyajñas) but that he may take from such a śūdra uncooked grain for one night, if he cannot get food from anywhere else. Baud. Dh. S. (II. 2. 1) requires a brāhmaṇa to avoid the food of vṛṣalas (śūdras). Gradually rules about taking food from śūdras became stricter. The Śaṅkhasmṛti (13. 4) remarks that brāhmaṇas fattened on the food given by śūdras are *Paṅktidūṣaka*. Parāśara³⁷⁷ XI. 13 ordains that a brāhmaṇa may take from a śūdra ghee, oil, milk, molasses and food fried in oil or ghee, but should eat it on a river bank and not in the śūdra's house and the Par. M. adds (II. 1. pp. 411-12) that this permission is meant to apply only when the brāhmaṇa is tired by travelling and no food from a member of another class is available. Haradatta on Gaut. XVII. 6 remarks that a brāhmaṇa could take food from a śūdra who was a cowherd &c. only in the case of very extreme calamities. Aparārka also (p. 244 on Yāj. I. 168) says the same. In the kalivarjya (actions forbidden in the kali age) the old practice of eating the food of cowherds, barber &c. was forbidden.³⁷⁸