Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.435

c10.435

When the caṇḍālas were absorbed in brāhmaṇical society, this assimilation did not mark a complete break with their former style of life. Probably on account of their being hunters and fowlers, they were assigned the task of removing dead bodies of animals and human beings. They always appear to be associated with the removal and cremation⁵ of corpses.⁶ This work was also done by the paṇas, who were known as caṇḍālas.⁷ The caṇḍālas were also sometimes engaged for street sweeping.⁸ The caṇḍāla does not appear as an executioner of criminals in the Dharmasūtras. In the Jātaka he is employed in whipping and cutting off the limbs of the criminal.⁹ It has been suggested that the coraghātaka (executioner of a thief) of the Jātaka may have been a caṇḍāla.¹⁰ Some of the caṇḍālas earned their living by the occupations of jugglers and acrobats,¹¹ — a practice which is still followed by the backward nomadic people wandering from place to place in Northern India.