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SOCIAL LIFE
87
even though the notions regarding impurity must have prevailed in India from the earliest times, 1 yet untouchability, in the modern sense of the word, came into existence somewhere between 200 and 600 A. D.2 A complete segregation of the untouchable castes can be seen in the NC. which shows that untouchability had reached an advanced stage during these centuries. It has been clearly stated that there were two forms of the worldly segregation (loiya-parihāra-nijjūdha)-(i) for a definite period (ittarita) and (ii) for the whole life (avakahiya). This might be called the temporary and the permanent segregation. As an example of the former the author has referred to the typical Indian custom of segregating those families for a period of ten days where a death or birth had taken place.. Various despised castes like that of the nada, varuda, chimpaga, cammāra and çumba, on the other hand, have been cited as examples of the latter for being permanently segregated by the civilized sections of society." If we are to believe that the main distinction between the impure and the untouchable lay in the fact that while the touch of the impure caused pollution only at a ceremonial occasion, the touch of the untouchable caused pollution at all times, then the former could be cited as a typical example of impurity, while the latter clearly revealed the existence of untouchability. It can thus be judged that the notions regarding impurity as well as untouchability were largely prevailing during this time.
Furthermore, these despised people, or juṁgitas or duguņchitas, as they have been called in the NC.', have also been termed as abhojjas or asambhojikass, showing thereby that interdining
1. Untouchables, p. 139. 2. Ibid., p. 144. 3. Izsit shiftat 37194fe3ft --NC. 4, p. 280. 4. Fifth H afaqh550—Ibid. 5. 3717 Ter E-755-fĚTNT-FAT-GAI-Ibid. 6. Ambedakar, op. cit., p. 140. 7. NC. 2, p. 243. 8. Ibid.
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