Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c12.306

c12.306

Manu mentions the old mixed castes such as the niṣāda,⁷ the pāraśava, the ugra, the āyogava, the kṣattṛ, the caṇḍāla, the pukkasa,⁸ the kukkuṭaka, the śvapāka and the veṇa,⁹ who are said to have originated from the intermixture of the varṇas. He ascribes a similar origin to a long list of new castes. Since his list counts as many as 61 castes, their consolidation in Chapter X seems to have been the work of about the fifth century A.D.¹⁰ However they are enumerated here for the sake of clarity. A brāhmaṇa begets on the daughter of an ugra an āvṛta, on the daughter of an ambaṣṭha an ābhīra, and on the woman of the ayogava caste a dhigvaṇa.¹ Further, on an āyogava woman the dasyu begets a sairandhra, the vaidehaka a maitreyaka, the niṣāda a mārgava or a dāśa who is also known as a kaivarta.² On a vaidehaka woman the caṇḍāla begets a pāṇḍusopāka and the niṣāda an āhiṇḍaka.³ On a woman of the vaidehaka caste the niṣāda also begets kārāvara; and a vaidehaka begets an andhra on a kāravara woman and a meda on a niṣāda woman.⁴ A niṣāda woman bears to a caṇḍāla a son called the antyāvasāyin, who is despised even by those who are excluded from the fourfold varṇa system (bāhyas).⁵ Manu further states that the sūta, the vaidehaka, the caṇḍāla, the māgadha, the kṣattṛ and the āyogava beget on women of similar castes issues who are more despicable, more sinful than their fathers, and are excluded from varṇa society.⁶ He adds that bāhyas and hinas (low people) produce fifteen kinds of low castes⁷ on woman of higher castes. Although Manu does not enumerate these castes by name, they seem to have been covered by the list that has been given above.