chandala
चण्डाल caṇḍālaIn the Dharmashastra literature, a hereditary group placed outside the fourfold varna order altogether and treated as untouchable, with the disposal of corpses among the occupations assigned to it. Inscriptions use the phrase 'from brahmin to chandala' to mean everyone without exception.
Where this term appears
- The Gupta Centuries: When Classical Hinduism Took Shape History
… a gentle, vegetarian prosperity also records that one community, the Chandalas , was forced to live apart and strike a piece of wood to warn others of their approach.
- The Golagi matha: the monastery that survives only in its own praise Lineages
ārabhya viprān anivāritānāṃ caṇḍāla-paryantam upāgatānām … anna-pradānāya ca sarvakālam akalpayad rājagurur mahātmā …and for the giving of food, at all times, to those who have come and are not turned away, beg…
- Matangi: The Goddess of the Margins Treatise
…e, and which carries the sense of the matanga community, the outcaste Chandalas who handled the dead and the impure.