Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c16.21

c16.21

The non-Sanskritic names of many of these mixed castes and their description as tribes or occupations at different places suggests that these were older tribes and occupations improvised into castes. We may possibly identify eighteen remnants of the older tribes in this Manu’s list of mixed castes. These are: Ābhīra, Āhiṇḍaka, Ambaṣṭha, Andhra, Caṇḍāla, Cuñcu, Dāśa, Kaivartta, Madgu, Mādhuka, Māgadha, Mārgava, Meda, Niṣāda, Pukkusa, Sairindhra, Vaidehaka, and Veṇa. The remaining thirteen, namely, āvṛta, āyogava, carmakāra, dhigvaṇa, kukkuṭaka, kārāvara, karaṇa, kṣattā, maitreyak, pāṇḍusopāka, pāraśava, sūta, śvapāka, and ugra might indicate occupation.¹ Antyāvasāyin, though defined as a separate mixed caste in Vasiṣṭha and Manu, seems to have been an omnibus term applied to all the untouchables.