History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c21.27

v2.c21.27

Once the spirit of exclusiveness and exaggerated notions of ceremonial purity got the upper hand they were carried to extremes. It does not appear from the ancient smṛtis that the shadow of even the cāṇḍāla was deemed to be polluting. Manu V. 133 (which is nearly the same as Viṣṇu Dh. S. 23. 52) declares 'flies, spray from a reservoir, the shadow (of a man), the cow, the horse, the sun's rays, dust, the earth, the wind and fire should be regarded as pure.' Yāj. I. 193 is a similar verse (Mārk. Purāṇa 35. 21 is almost the same). Manu IV. 130 prescribes that one should not knowingly cross the shadow of the image of a deity, of one's *guru*, of the king, of a snātaka, of one's teacher, of a brown cow or of a man who has been initiated for a Vedic sacrifice. Here no reference is made to the shadow of a cāṇḍāla. Medhātithi on Manu V. 133 expressly says that 'shadow' means 'shadow of a cāṇḍāla and the like'. Kullūka, however, adds on Manu IV. 130 that on account of the word 'ca' in that verse the shadow of cāṇḍālas was included in the injunction of that verse. Therefore it is legitimate to infer that Manu and Yāj. did not prescribe that even the shadow of a cāṇḍāla was impure and caused pollution. Not only so, Aparārka⁴⁰⁶ quotes a verse 'the shadow of a cāṇḍāla or patita, if it falls on a man, is not impure'. But Aparārka himself⁴⁰⁷ adds on this verse the comment that this favourable rule about the shadow of a cāṇḍāla or patita is applicable only if he is at a greater distance from a man than the length of a cow's tail. Bāṇa in his Kādambarī (para 8) describes how the cāṇḍāla girl entered the royal assembly-hall though she was untouchable and stood at some distance from the king. It appears that there was no difficulty about her entering the hall of audience or polluting the assembly by her shadow. Gradually some smṛtis prescribed a bath for a brāhmaṇa coming under the shadow of a cāṇḍāla. The Mit. on Yāj. III. 30 quotes a verse of Vyāghrapāda that if a cāṇḍāla or patita comes nearer to a person than the length of a cow's tail, then the latter must take a bath and another verse of Bṛhaspati to the effect 'a patita, a woman in her monthly period, a woman freshly delivered and a cāṇḍāla should be kept respectively at a distance of one yuga, two, three and four'. As yuga is four cubits, this means that a cāṇḍāla cannot approach within 16 cubits of a caste Hindu.⁴⁰⁸