Cultural Study of Nisitha Curni

Author(s): Madhu Sen
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar

Page 95

SOCIAL LIFE
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speaking Aryan languages, were regarded as Aryans, while the non-Aryans dwelled outside these Āryan regions. They were called paccaṁtiyas (prātyantikas) as they inhabited on the outer fringes of the Aryan society. The non-Aryans are described as wearing quaint dresses, following different customs and speaking various languages, 2 and indulging in indecent and violent activities. Pointing towards the aboriginal habits of these people the author gives an interesting explanation of the word Dasu, that is the people who used to bite with their teeth when enraged. + Caste System
The Aryan society was governed by the traditional order of the four Varnas (câuvoanna) which consisted of the Banbhana, Khattiya, Vaisa and Sudda. Though fundamentally opposed to the Brāhmaṇical caste system, the Jaina lawgivers during these later centuries not only identified themselves with the essentials of the Varna organisation, but also produced a caste-system of their own which was not basically very different from the Brāhmanical caste system.? A rigid demarcation was
1. मगहादियाणं अद्धछन्वीसाए आरियजणवयाणं, तेसिं अण्णतरं ठिया जे अणारिया ते
T--NC. 4, p. 124. 2. HaoferumahATE Recai furat facan—Ibid. 3. FÉH3015614FAFTTTTT surfti-Ibid. In the Vašisthadharmaśāstra
(IV. 24) the Sūdras, who must have initially heen the non-Aryans by caste, are characterised as hostile, violent, boastful, short-tempered, untruthful, extremely greedy, ungrateîul, heterodox, lazy and impure..
See-Sharma, R.S., Sūdras in Ancient India, p. 253. 4. 0762yr Café zifa durch--NC. 4, p. 124. 5. NO. 3, p. 124. For the traditional division of the four Varnas, which can
te traced from the time of Kautilya down to the Smrti literature and also in the contemporary epigraphs, see-Arlhasāstra, Bk. 1, Ch. III, pp. 6-7; Laws of Manu, Ch. 1, 88-90, and 4, 24 (Buhler); Watters, op. cit., 1, p. 168; Beal, op. cit, 1, p. 82; Alina Plates of Silāditya
(A.D. 766-67), CII. III, No. 53, p. 232 and No. 39, p. 185, text p. 177. 6.771 PHUSTA .afauy TTSTI, 312g Tat 45H-TE --NC. 3.p. 413 7. Some of the contemporary Jaina texts provide a Jaina version of the
origin of the Varnas in which the origin of four Varnas has been