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TULSÍ-PRAJNÁ
2. Manusmști and other law-books say that the Chandālas and the Sva pākas etc. shall reside, outside the village. It can be interpreted in two ways. First, that they should stay where they have been residing, namely, outside the village. Second, that they should be required to go out of the village and live there. The second interpretation cannot be accepted as history koows no emperor having his sway over the whole of India and capable of transplanting numerous castes of the untouchables from within to outside the village all over the country. So the first interpretation has to be accepted and the only possibility that seems acceptable is that the forefathers of the 'untouchables lived outside the village from the beginning. The reason for such a phenomenon can be traced in the conflicts of the settled communities with nomadic tribes,
All tribes did not take to settled life at one and the same time. Some became settled and some remained nomadic. Even when all the tribes were nomadic they were always at war with others. Stealing cattle, stealing women and stealthily grazing of cattle in the pastures belonging to other tribes were the chief causes of their conflict. When some of the tribes took to settled life, the corn they possessed became an additional source of temptation to the nomadic tribes provoking the latter to organise raids on the settled communities. The settled communities could not leave their homes and go in pursuit of the raiders. Nor could they always convert their ploughs into swords. So the raiding nomads became a source of trouble to the settlers. In order to save themselves from raids, they felt the necessity of watch and ward.
During the wars between tribes some of them were defeated and broken into bits. These Broken Men Started roaming in all directions. Life became really difficult for them. They were always in the danger of being attacked and they did not know where to go for shelter. It was not conceivable to carry on economic activity independently of a tribe either. So the Broken Men were badly in need of food and shelter. The settled communities on the other hand had the problem of finding a body of men who would do the watch and ward against the raiders belonging to nomadic tribes The two, therefore, struck a bargain where by the Broken Men agreed to do the work of watch and ward for the settled communities and the settled communities agreed to provide them with food and shelter. But according to the primitive notions in force at the time only the persons of the same tribe i e. of the same blood could live together. The Broken Men were aliens and therefore could not be permitted to live in the midst of the settled tribe. Even from the strategic point of view it was
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