Tulsi Prajna 1996 10

SR No.: 524589
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Parmeshwar Solanki
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1996
Total Pages: 166
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 7 MB

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TULSI-PRAJNA
as 'Antyaja' while it is learnt from the sixth Act that his parents had become Shvapākas as a result of the curse of a sage. The śvapakas were, therefore, included in the category of the Antyajas since long before Manu, Madu too includes the Candalas, Pulkasas and Antyāvasayias in that category in the rest of his work. This we have to infer from the fact that nowhere does he say who testify for them or how they are to be punished for various crimes. It is simply incredible to conclude that Manu was forgetful enough to omit such details. Equally inconceivable is the hypothesis that they were never involved in cases, never appeared as witnesses before a law-court and never committed a crime. So we are forced to conclude that Manu included them in a broad category called "Antya' or Antvaja' and laid down rules for evidence, punishment and inheritance etc. for them by referring to that category.
"Antya' and 'Antyaja' are therefore, like Bāhya, a big category. Depending on the nature of its usage (broad or narrow sense) it may or may not include untouchables. Generally, it does. "Antyavāsin"
DR. Ambedkar believes the word 'Antyavāsin' occurs in five works, namely, Gautama Dharmasútra, Vasistha Dharmasutra, Manu Smrti Mahābhārat and Madhyamāngirasa Smrti. As a matter of fact, the term is not "Antyavasin", but Antyāvasāyin. According to Manu, it is the name of a particular varņa-sankara jāti born of a Nişāda woman and a Candāla males. In the Mahābbārata (Anusbāsanaparva) the same caste is called Antyavasāyin'. Vasiştha Dharmasūtra traces the origin of Adityavasāyin from sūdra father and Vaisya mother, though other smstis name offspring of such a marriage Āyogava instead. 10 But whatever the differences among them, all the Dharmaśāstras except the Madhyamāngirasa Smsti agree in regarding Antyāvasãyin as the name of a caste. It is Madhyamāngirasa Smộti alone that mentions Antyāvasãyin as the name of a group consisting of seven castes.
The very name 'Madhyamangirasa Smộti' signifies there were three Smstis of the same name at a certain time and they were identified with the help of the epithets Věddha, Laghu and Madhyama attached to them. Madhyamāngirasa Smộti is no longer available. Nobody could have even heard its name but for quotations from the work in the Mitakşara commentary of the Yājnavalkya Smrti (belon. ging to the 12th century). It is difficult to say when and why the Madhyamāngirasa Smrti picked up seven out of the fifteen Bähya castes of Manu and gave them a new name (Antyāvasāyin). As