History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c21.4.3

v2.c21.4.3

If the śūdra was not untouchable in the Vedic literature, and if he was allowed to be a cook for brāhmaṇas and to wash the feet of brāhmaṇa guests in spite of that passage (as stated in the Dharmasūtras quoted above pp. 161–162), there is no reason to suppose that the Chāndogya passage indicates that the caṇḍāla was untouchable in the remote ages. Another passage is relied upon by orthodox writers to support the theory that untouchability of caṇḍālas is declared in Vedic writings. In the Bṛ. Up. I. 3 the story is narrated that gods and asuras had a strife and the gods thought that they might rise superior to the asuras by the Udgītha. In this vidyā occurs the passage³⁸⁸ 'this devatā (Prāṇa) throwing aside the sin that was death to these devatās (vāk etc.) sent it to the ends of these quarters and he put down the sin of these devatās there; therefore one should not go to people (outside the Āryan pale) nor to the ends (of the quarters) thinking 'otherwise I may fall in with *pāpman* i. e. death'. In the first place there are no peoples expressly named here. Śaṁkara explains that by 'end of the quarters' are meant regions where people opposed to Vedic culture dwell. This description can only apply to people like the mlecchas and not to cāṇḍālas who are not opposed to Vedic knowledge (but who have no adhikāra to learn it). Besides cāṇḍālas might stay outside the village, but they do not stay at the end of the quarters³⁸⁹ (or at the end of the ārya territory).