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vert them and sanctioning due respect to them when they joined the order, Buddhism could not permit its followers to despise them for their hereditary occupations. Monks and nuns did accept food and water from the untouchables, Ananda, the Chandala girl Prakriti.
We can consider the matter otherwise too. Were untouchability a product of the likes and dislikes of the Buddhists, had Buddhism shut its doors in the face of the persons belonging to evil occupations, the outcome would have been some thing like the following.
?. All the traders in weapons would have become untouchables. 2. All traders in animals and birds would have become untoucha.
bles. 3. All who sold fish and meat would have become untouchables. 4. All who sold wine and other alcoholic liquors would have
become untouchables. 5. Traders in poison would have become untouchables. 6. Thieves, robbers, cheats, forgerers and perjurers etc. would
have all become untouchables. 7. All astrologers and palmists would have become untouchables.
In reality, only two categories of the above are untouchables today, namely, no. 3 and no.4 There is no definite relationship.. therefore, between untouchability and occupations involving violence. Harmless Jobs
How hasty and ill-considered it is to blame the Buddhists and Jainas for untouchability is best shown by the fact that Basham regards the occupation of the Kārävar as something opposed to the doctrine of non-violence. The caste has been ever engaged in making shoes etc. of the skin of the dead animal. To use the skin of a dead animal is as much non-violent as using the dung of a living animal. Even the staunchest believers in non-violence do not hesitate to bear the shoes made of the skin of the dead animal and that is why such shoes were so much in vogue in Indian villages, How could then one call the occupation violent ? For Basham's information, the Buddhists did not think so.
Still, Basham is compelled to adinit that blaming the doctrine of non-violence does not explain the phenomena in all cases. The caste called Vena, for example, is basket-maker and Basham fails to explain why they became untouchables. There are other occupations associated with untouchability that cannot be called violent by any stretch of imagination. Carrying dead bodies, leather-work, washing,
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