Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 91

DEFILEMENT BY CONTACT WITH PARIAHS
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Should they be so ill-advised as to do so. the Latter would
have the right, not to strike them themselves, because
they could not do so without defilement, or even touch
them with the end of a long stick, but to order them to be
severely beaten by other people.
A Pariah who had the
audacity to enter a Brahmin's house might possibly be
murdered on the spot. A revolting crime of this sort has
been actually perpetrated in States under the rule of native
princes without a voice being raised in expostulation \
Any one who has been touched, whether inadvertently
or purposely, by a Pariah is defiled by that single act,
and may hold no communication with any person what-
soever until he has been purified by bathing, or by other
ceremonies more or less important according to the status
and customs of his caste. It would be contamination to
to touch food pre-
eat with any members of this class
pared by them, or even to drink water which they have
drawn to use an earthen vessel which they have held in
their hands
to set foot inside one of their houses, or to
allow them to enter houses other than their own. Each
of these acts would contaminate the person affected by it,
and before being readmitted to his own caste such a person
would have to go through many exacting and expensive
formalities.
Should it be proved that any one had had
any connexion with a Pariah woman he would be treated
;
;
;
with even greater severity. Nevertheless, the disgust which
these Pariahs inspire is not so intense in some parts of the
country as in others. The feeling is most strongly developed
in
in the southern and western districts of the Peninsula
In the northern part of
the north it is less apparent.
Mysore the other classes of Sudras allow Pariahs to ap-
proach them, and even permit them to enter that part of
the house which is used for cattle. Indeed, in some places
custom is so far relaxed that a Pariah may venture to put
his head and one foot, but one foot only, inside the room
;
1
Even to this day a Pariah is not allowed to pass a Brahmin Btreel
in a village, though nobody can prevent, or prevents, his approaching
The Pariahs, on their part,
or passing by a Brahmin's house in towns.
will under no circumstances allow a Brahmin to pass through their
jxircherries (collections of
will lead to their ruin.
Pariah huts), as they firmly believe that
Ed.
it