Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.419

c10.419

Oringinally the caṇḍālas seem to have been an aboriginal tribe. This is clear from their use of their own dialect.² In a Jain text they are mentioned along with the other tribes such as the Śabaras, the Draviḍas, the Kaliṅgas, the Gauḍas and the Gāndhāras.³ But gradually the caṇḍālas came to be looked upon as untouchables. Āpastamba holds that to touch and see a caṇḍāla is sinful.⁴ This passage, however, is not to be found in the two earlier manuscripts of his Dharmasūtra,⁵ which shows that untouchability appeared probably towards the end of the pre-Mauryan period. A similar provision occurs in the later work of Gautama, who provides that, if a caṇḍāla defiles the body, it can be purified by bathing dressed in clothes.⁶