History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c21.34

v2.c21.34

Certain provisions were made in the smṛtis by way of exceptions to the general rules about the untouchability of certain castes. Atri⁴¹⁰ (verse 249) says 'there is no taint of untouchability when a person is touched by an untouchable in a temple, religious processions and marriages, in sacrifices, and in all festivals'. Śātātapa quoted in the Sm. C. declares that there is no doṣa (lapse) in touching (untouchables) in a village (i. e. on the public road), or in a religious procession or in an affray and the like, and also when the whole village is involved in a calamity.⁴¹¹ Bṛhaspati also remarks that there is no fault (and so no prāyaścitta) if one comes in contact (with untouchables) at a sacred place, in marriage processions and religious processions, in battle, when the country is invaded, or when the town or village is on fire. The Sm. C. adds that these verses were variously interpreted; some saying that they apply only where one does not know that the man who has touched him is an untouchable, while others hold that they apply to the touch of impure persons who are not ucchiṣṭa (i. e. risen from meals without washing their hands &c). The Smṛtyarthasāra⁴¹² (p. 79) summarises the places where no blame in incurred on the ground of mixing with untouchables viz. in battle, on public roads leading to a market, in religious processions, in temples, in festivals, in sacrifices, at sacred places, in calamities or invasions of the country or village, on the banks of large sheets of water, in the presence of great persons, when there is a sudden fire or other great calamity. It is somewhat remarkable that the Smṛtyarthasāra speaks of untouchables entering temples. The Par. M. (vol. II part I p. 115) says that there is no doṣa when cāṇḍālas take water from a large tank (used by higher castes), but as regards small reservoirs the same rules apply to them that apply to the purification of wells touched by untouchables.⁴¹³ Vide Vṛddha-Hārīta IX. 405-406 for the purification of a well.