Local Government in Ancient India c9.66.1

c9.66.1

The ‘low-trades’ mentioned in the Smṛtis naturally cover a wider ground because they are determined with reference to the stricter ideals and more orthodox standpoint of the Brāhmaṇa. Yet a comparative consideration of these cannot fail to be interesting for the light it will throw on early Indian social and economic conditions. It will appear from the evidence that there is a substantial agreement between the Pāli works and our law-books in respect of the trades or professions implying an inferior social status. It is not quite pertinent to the present inquiry to refer to certain classes, castes, professions, or peoples, which, according to ancient Hindu law, were subjected to social disapproval on account of their deficiencies due to physical, moral, or religious considerations. From the severe, uncompromising, Puritanic standpoint of the Brahmanical way of life and its austere ideals of inner and outer purity, it is indeed no wonder that serious physical deformities or defects and contagious diseases should render a person unworthy of proper social intercourse, especially on religious occasions like the performance of a *śrāddha*; and that a similar disqualification should arise from serious moral delinquencies or breaches of religious rules regarding conduct and discipline proper to the caste to which the offender belonged.