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Vol. XXII, No. 4
213
dyeing. digging, stone-work, sweeping, making looms, preparing brushes etc are instances to the point.
Of the occupations considered evil by Buddhists, only a few are associated with the untouchables; e.g, hunting, catching and selling fish, snake charming, executioner's job etc. Why people belonging to other occupations became untouchables, is not and can not be answered by Basham and his followers. Time and Place
Before we accept something as correct we have to test if it agrees with the facts known to us in respect of time and place. To single out the doctrine of non-violence as the factor responsible for the rise of untouchability we must establish two propositions. First, that untouchability was born precisely during the period when Buddhism and Jainism prevailed. Second, that the worst features of untouchability are visible today precisely in those regions where Jainism and Buddhism prevailed earlier.
However, we have seen that untouchability was born before the advent of Buddhism and Jainism. Even though Buddhism spread far and wide, it did not have sway in the south of Andhra Pradesh so far as the Indian sub continent is concerned. All the big centres of the Buddhists were situated in the north. Cominunications were not easy and the south was sparsely populated before the Seventh century after Christ. So Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Kerala are the regions least influenced by Buddhism. The worst features of untouchability were seen precisely in these regions.
The creed of non-violence is practised more rigorously by the Jainas. So one could expect that Jainism might explain the growth of untouchability where Buddhism fails. But the Jainas, unlike the Buddhists, were never a dominating force in India and it was beyond their power to cause such a social change all over the country. Rajasthan and Gujarat have remained the citadels of Jainism. Were untouchability born under the impact of Jainism, it could not have spread far beyond the borders of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
But if neither Buddhism nor Jainism was responsible for the birth of untouchability, what other creed could have caused it ? The Sankhya and Yoga systems of philosophy were protagonists of nonviolence but there is little possibility that they ever reached the masses and influenced them. Even their names are unfamiliar to average reader of Indian history. Different sects of Shaivas apd the cult of Shakti are known to us but they were far from non-violence. That leaves the Vaisnava faith which discards animal sacrifices and introduces devotion and worship of Visnu instead. Non-violence,
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