History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c24.s1.460

v2.c24.s1.460

The problem of taking back into the Hindu fold persons who were forcibly converted to other faiths has engaged the attention of smṛtis. Moslems first attacked India in the 8th century from the direction of the province of Sindh. This invasion led to the enslavement and forcible conversion of many people. It appears that Devala and other smṛtikāras tackled with the problem of taking back such people. The Devala smṛti opens with a question by the sages put to Devala who was sitting on the banks of the Sindhu at ease as to how brāhmaṇas and members of the other varṇas when carried off by Mlecchas were to be purified and restored to caste. The following verses of the Devala-smṛti are very instructive on this point. Verses 7-10 declare that when a brāhmaṇa is carried off by Mlecchas and he eats or drinks forbidden food or drink or has sexual intercourse with women he should not have approached, he becomes purified by doing the penance of *cāndrāyaṇa* and *parāka*, that a kṣatriya becomes pure by undergoing *parāka* and *pādakṛcchra*, a vaiśya by half of *parāka* and a śūdra by the penance of *parāka* for five days. Then verses 17-22 are most important928c. 'When persons are forcibly made slaves by Mlecchas, cāṇḍālas and robbers, are compelled to do dirty acts, such as killing cows and other animals or sweeping the leavings of the food (of Mlecchas) or eating the leavings of the food of Mlecchas or partaking of the flesh of asses, camels and village pigs, or having intercourse with their women, or are forced to dine with them, then the penance for purifying a dvijāti that has stayed for a month in this way is prājāpatya, for one who had consecrated Vedic fires (and stayed one month or less) it is cāndrāyaṇa or parāka; for one who stays a year (with Mlecchas in this condition of things) it is both cāndrāyaṇa and parāka; a śūdra who stays (in this condition) for a month becomes pure by kṛcchrapāda; a śūdra who stays a year should drink yāvaka for half a month. The appropriate prāyaścitta should be determined by learned brāhmaṇas when a person has stayed (in the above circumstances among Mlecchas) for over a year; in four years the person (who stays in the above circumstances among Mlecchas) is reduced to their condition (i. e. becomes a mleccha and there is no prāyaścitta for him).' The Prāyaścittaviveka states that after four years death is the only purifier for him.928d Three more verses of Devala (53-55) also deserve consideration 'One who was forcibly seized by Mlecchas for five, six or seven years or from ten to twenty years, is purified by undergoing two Prājāpatyas. Beyond this there is no purification; these penances are meant only for him who has simply stayed among Mlecchas. He who had stayed with Mlecchas from five to twenty years is purified by undergoing two Cāndrāyaṇas'. These verses are apparently inconsistent with the verses cited above (17-22), but they most probably mean this that if a man only stayed among Mlecchas for 5 to 20 years, but has not done any of the forbidden things such as eating ucchiṣṭa or the flesh of asses &c., then he can be taken back even after so many years. This would be an exception to the rule contained in verse 22. There is no reason why the reasoning of Devala should not be extended to persons who have been in the condition stated in verses 17-22 for over four years. In the Pañcadaśī (Tṛptidīpa v. 239) we have the following very significant passage928e 'just as a brāhmaṇa seized by Mlecchas and afterwards undergoing the appropriate prāyaścitta does not become confounded with Mlecchas (but returns to his original status of being a brāhmaṇa) so the Intelligent Soul is not really to be confounded with the body and other material adjuncts.' This establishes that the great Vidyāraṇya, who after Śaṁkarācārya, is the greatest figure among ācāryas, approved of the view that a brāhmaṇa even though enslaved by Mlecchas could be restored to his original status.