History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.411

v5.c71.s1.411

Elaborate purifications are prescribed for removing the taint of touching certain men, unclean objects like bones (Manu V. 87), women in their monthly illness or within certain days after delivery and animals (like dogs, village pigs, cocks, crows). They have to be passed over here for reasons of space. But a few passages may be cited by way of sample. Gautama²⁵⁹ (14. 28) provides that on touching *patita*, cāṇḍāla, a woman freshly delivered, a woman in her monthly illness, a corpse, or on touching any one who has touched any one of these or any one who is the third in contact, the purification is brought about by a bath with the clothes on. Manu V. 84 and Yāj III. 30 contain similar provisions The Pr. V. (pp. 495-499) discusses the question whether *sparśa*²⁶⁰ (touch) means direct touch or includes even indirect touch and ultimately arrives at the conclusion that indirect touch also is included and cites Āpastamba-smṛti in support that if a brāhmaṇa and a cāṇḍāla or the like are both seated on the same branch (without actually touching each other) the brāhmaṇa can become purified only by a bath. A verse quoted as Yājñavalkya's by Pr. Prakaraṇa²⁶¹ p. 110 (not found in the printed text) states: 'on touching a cāṇḍāla, pukkasa, mleccha, *bhilla*, a *pārasīka* (one coming from Persia) and the like and persons guilty of grave sins one should bathe with the clothes on.' The Ṣaṭ-triṁśan-mata²⁶² provides 'on touching Bauddhas, Pāśupatas, Laukāyatikas, atheists and those who follow forbidden actions, one should plunge in water together with the clothes on. On touching a caitya tree (such as a fig tree round which a platform is built), a funeral pile (or brick altar prepared in the śrauta rite called Agnicayana), a sacrificial post, a cāṇḍāla, one who sells the soma plant, a brāhmaṇa should enter water with the clothes on.' Saṃvarta ²⁶³ requires a *dvija* to sip water on touching a shoemaker, a washerman, a *veṇa* (Manu X 19, 49, one who beats drum &c.), a fisherman, a dancer (*naṭa*) and Śātātapa ²⁶⁴ provides that if any limb of a *dvija* (except the head) is touched by one who colours clothes, a shoemaker, a hunter, a fisherman, a washerman, a butcher, a *ṭhaka* (Thug), an actor, one who allows sexual intercourse in the mouth, a dog, a prostitute allowing men of all varṇas to visit her, an oil-grinder, the keeper of a tavern, an executioner, a village pig or cock, he should wash the limb with water and perform *ācamana*. If the head is touched by any one of these, then he should bathe. In this connection it may be noted that Hemādri quotes (on p. 38) the Garuḍapurāṇa and (on p. 316) Parāśara for the 16 castes in a village that were treated as cāṇḍālas in the matter of touch, speech or sight. Devala (q. by Hemādri on prāyaścitta p. 312) says that Cāṇḍāla and Turuṣka (Turk) are equally low. The chapter on untouchables in the 2nd vol. of the H. of Dh pp. 165-179 may be consulted in this connection. On pp. 175-176 of the same work references are given to verses of Atri, Śātātapa, Bṛhaspati and others stating that no purification is required on the ground of untouchability in the case of religious festivals and marriage processions, in battle, in the case of fire or invasion and similar calamities. By no stretch of imagination can these verses be restricted to the untouchability arising from death or birth as some propose to do. The words are too sweeping for this explanation and there being no untouchability on birth for any one except the mother and persons in mourning not being likely to join religious festivals and marriage processions those verses cannot be so construed