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TULSI PRAJNA
barbers, carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, washermen, shoemakers etc. were all included in the Shüdra varna. All the `Kâri' castes (artisans) were Shūdras. The matmakers (kațakāras) ranked low among the Shüdras.
The number of the Sbūdras was very large. As a matter of fact, all but the first three vainas of Aryāvarta were generally included in the Shūdra varņa. Such people include i outsiders as well as the inhabitants of Āryavarta. The outsiders included the Kiskindhikagandhikas, the Shakas, the Yavanas, the Sheuryas, the Kraunchas ete, The Chandālas and Mrtapās too who resided at the outskirts of the Aryan settlements-the grâmas, the ghosas, the nagaras and the sanvähas-were the Shūdras.''28
The Shūdras were divided in two groups-the Niravasitas and the Aniravasitas The higher three varnas "could not take meals with the Aniravasita Shüdras but they could feed them in plates.” So the Aniravasita Shüdras could touch the food-vessels of the three vernas while the Niravasita Shüdras were not permitted to take meals their plates as the plates used by them would beeome so polluted that it would not be possible to purify them even by fire. 29 Takşā (carpen ters), Ayaskāra (blacksmith), Rajaka (washerman), Tantuvāya (weaver) etc. were Anirevasitas while the Chandalas, the Mștapās etc. were Nirayasitas. “The Niravasitas lived outside the villages. Their dwellings were separated from those of persons belonging to the three varnas. They lived at the end of the village, though they could live inside the urban area in big cities.”89
People belonging to all castes lived in the villages in the days of Patanjali. "Even in a village where a single caste prevailed, at least five kārus namely blacksmith, potmaker, carpenter, barber and washerman were a must ..... Houses adjacent to the boundary of the village whether outside or inside the boundary were called antaragphas. These were the dwellings of the Chandālas and the Metapas.”81
Ghurye contends that the Chandālas and the Mstapās at the time cannot be called untouchables as they were discriminated against only in the use of food vessels. 32 But people who were compelled to live outside the villages or in separate quarters of the towns, who could not touch the food vessels of the twice born and the use by whom of those vessels led to such a pollution that made them unfit for use by the three varņas cannot be defined as anything else but untouchables. We have discrissed in chapter I what untouchability means and we are in a position to conclude on the basis of that discussion that the Chandālas and Msta pãs were outcasts even though included in the Shūdra varņa.
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