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TULSI-PRAJNA
therein clearly who they were. The words Anty aja and Antyavāsin are the only exceptions. The Madhyamāngirasa Smrti gives a list of seven castes called Antyajas while Vedavyāsa Smrti enumerates twelve castes of the Antyajas. D.R Ambedker finds a lot of differences in these lists and concludes that it is difficult to ascertain if the communities called Antyavāsin, Antyaja and Bāhya were untouchables.
Ambedkar's views warrant two comments. First, even when the Dharmaśāstr s do not explain the terms they use, internal evidence can be used to ascertain the meaning. Such an attempt may not succeed in each case but neither can we deem it entirely useless Secondly, a few more or less names in the lists mean too much to DR. Ambedkar, so we have to consider if the Dharmaśāstras aimed at preparing-exhaustive lists. That alone can lead to a correct conclusion.
Who were the Bāhyas
Ambedkar believes that Manu used the term Varna-Bāhya' or merely Bahya' for Anuloma Varna-Sankaras and Hina' for Prati. loma Varna-Sarkaras. "The Hinas are lower than the Bāhyas. But neither the Bābyas not the Hinas does Manu regard untouchables"2 Ambedkar does not care to prove that assertion. One who cares to read will find that Manu uses the terms Bāhya and Hina in the same sense, both connote the offspring of the Pratiloma marriages that is, the varņa-sankara jātis alleged to be born of fathers of lower varna and mothers of higher varna. Thus, Manu says, "just as a Brāhmaṇa woman gives birth to a Bāhya child from (her marriage to a) Süura, similarly the Bāhyas beget Bāhyataras from their marriage to women of) four varņas. Thus from the Pratiloma relations the Bāhyas beget Bāhyataras with the result that the Hinas beget fifteen Hina varņas''s, So Ambedkar is mistaken in his assertion that Manu uses the term “Bāhya" for Anuloma Varna-sarkaras.
He is not, however, mistaken when he claims that the term Bāhya does not mean untouchable. It was used for a large number of groups (i.e. Pratiloma Varņa-sankara jātis) and social status of all of them need not be the same. It is clear from the Dharmaśāstras that the Bāhyas were a heterogeneous mats. The possibility remains, therefore, that some of the groups called Bāhyas were untouchables while the rest were not. Antya and Antyaja
Ambedkar treats Antya and Antyaja as two different categories As a matter of fact, they are ideatical. If a Brahmana is called 'son
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