366 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
a Shudra father and a Brahmin mother, [1] (ii) the offspring of an unmarried woman [2] (iii) the offspring of union with a sagotra woman [3] (iv) the offspring of a person who after becoming an ascetic turns back to the householder’s life [4] and (v) the offspring of a barber father and a Brahmin mother [5] .
It is difficult to say which Chandala calls for purification. We shall assume that purification is necessary in the case of all the Chandalas. What is the rule of purification prescribed by the Shastras?
Gautama in his Dharma Sutra (Chapter XIV, Verse 30) also refers to it in the following terms :—
“On touching an outcaste, a Chandala, a woman impure on account of her confinement, a woman in her courses, or a corpse and on touching persons who have touched them, he shall purify himself by bathing dressed in his clothes.”
Below is the text of the rule given by the Vasishta Dharma Sutra (Chapter IV. Verse 37) :—
“When he has touched a sacrificial post, a pyre, a burial ground, a menstruating or a lately confined woman, impure men or Chandalas and so forth, he shall bathe, submerging both his body and his head.”
Baudhayana agrees with Vasishta for he too in his Dharma Sutra (Prasna 1, Adhyaya 5, Khanda 6, Verse 5) says :—
“On touching a tree standing on a sacred spot, a funeral pyre, a sacrificial post, a Chandala or a person who sells the Veda, a Brahmin shall bathe dressed in his clothes.”
The following are the rules contained in Manu :—
V. 85 : When he (the Brahmin) has touched a Chandala, a menstruating woman, an outcaste, a woman in childbed, a corpse, or one who has touched a (corpse), he becomes pure by bathing.
V. 131 : Manu has declared that the flesh of an animal killed by dogs is pure, likewise (that) of a (beast) slain by carnivorous (animals) or by men of low caste (Dasya) such as Chandalas.
V. 143 : He who, while carrying anything in any manner, is touched by an impure (person or thing), shall become pure, if he performs an ablution, without pulling down that object.
- According to all Dharma Sutras and Smritis including Manu Smriti.
2& 3 According to Veda Vyas Smriti (1. 910)
According to Yama quoted in Parasura Madhavya.
Anusasan Parva (29-17). He is also called Matanga.