History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c21.14.5

v2.c21.14.5

The only caste that is said by the most ancient Dharma-sūtras to be untouchable by birth is that of cāṇḍālas and the word cāṇḍāla has a technical meaning in these works as stated above (p. 81) under cāṇḍāla. Gaut. (IV. 15 and 23) says that the cāṇḍāla is the offspring of a śūdra from a brāhmaṇa woman and that he is the most reprehensible among the pratilomas. Āp. Dh. S. II. 1. 2. 8–9³⁹⁸ states that on touching a cāṇḍāla one should plunge into water, on talking to him one should converse with a brāhmaṇa (for purification), on seeing him one should look at the lumināries (either the Sun or moon or stars). We have seen above that there were three kinds of cāṇḍālas and they were all so by virtue of the circumstances of their birth. Manu (X. 36, 51) makes only the andhra, meda, cāṇḍāla and śvapaca stay outside the village and makes the antyāvasāyin (X. 39) stay in a cemetery. That leads to the inference that other men even of the lowest castes could stay in the village itself. Hārīta³⁹⁹ quoted by Aparārka (p. 279) states ‘if a dvijāti’s limb other than the head is touched by a dyer, a shoemaker, a hunter, a fisherman, a washerman, a butcher, a dancer (naṭa), a man of actor caste, oilman, vintner, hangman, village cock or dog, he becomes pure by washing that particular limb and by sipping water (i. e. he need not bathe)’. Here most of the seven antyajas are included and it is expressly said that their touch is not so impure as to require a bath.