SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN ANCIENT INDIA 39 Kosambi, Introduction, p< 91; Culture, p. 24. Irfan Habib, General President's Address, op. cit, p. 10. XII. 13. The Nirukta is a commentary on the Nighantu, a Vedic glossary in five chapters and is pre-Paninean. Aitareya Brahmana, VII. 29. Satapatha Brahmana, VI. 4. 1. 13. Claude Meillassoux, 'Are There Castes in India?', Economy and Society, Vol. II, No. 1, London, February 1975, pp. 89-111. Basham, Wonder, p. 41. ( Satapatha Brahmana, IV. 3.3. 15. It is unfortunate that a compilation of all his articles except those on coins (Indian Numismatics, (ed.) B.D. Chattopadhyaya, Orient Longman, Delhi, 1981) is yet to be published. Central Book Depot Allahabad, 1973. See my article, 'From Tribe to Untouchable: The Case of Nisadas', in R.S. Sharma and Vivekanand Jha (eds.), Indian Society: Historical Probings (In Memory of D.D. Kosambi), ICHR and People's Publishing House, New Delhi, 1974, pp. 67-84. A.L. Basham, 'Aryan and Non-Aryan', in Deshpande and Hook (eds.), Aryan and Non-Aryan in India, p. 2. Cf. Sudhakar Chattopadhyaya, Social Life in Ancient India, Academic Publishers, Calcutta, 1965, p. 151. This hypothesis was put forward by N.K. Dutt, Origin of Caste in India, Vol. I, c. 2000-300 BC, London, 1931, pp. 106-7. K.A.N. Sastri, Aryans and Dravidians, pp. 48-82. In his book entitled Untouchability: A Historical Study (Koodal Publishers, Madurai, 1979, pp. 127, 132-41,144), K.R. Hanumanthan has shown that untouchability in the south has a distinctly later origin than in the north and the earliest references to untouchability can be found in Acarakkovai (fourth/fifth century AD) which shows the Dharmasastra influence. The obligatory nature of expiatory rites and penances, relatively simple or complex, and the strong sodal sanction behind them is proved by elaborate provisions regarding their strict enforcement in these texts. The preservation of the vama order is ordained as the primary responsibility of the monarch in the Dharmasutras of Gautama (XI. 9-10) and Vasistha (XIX. 7-8), the Arthasastra of Kautilya (1. 3. 14-17), the Smritis of Manu (VII. 35), Visnu (III. 1, 33), Narada (XII. 113) and Yajnavalkya (I. 363). The Ramayana, for example, portrays Rama killing a sudra named Sambuka who in violation of Dharmasastra norms was practising penance which had purportedly resulted in the death of a brahmana's son (Uttara Kanda, LXXIII. 2- LXXVL 15, Gita Press Edition. See my article 'Vamasamkara in the Dharmasutras: Theory and Practice', Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. XIII, Pt. 3, Leiden, 1970, pp. 280, 287-88; G.C. Pande, Foundations of Indian Culture, Vol. II, Dimensions of Ancient Indian Social History, Delhi, 1984, p. 229; S.J. Tambia, 'From Varna to Caste Through Mixed Unions' in Jack Goody (ed.). Character of Kinship, Cambridge, 1973, pp. 218,223-24. The substantial increase in the number of mixed castes in Manu (55 according to P.V. Kane, Dharmasastra, Vol. II, Pt. I, p. 59) reflects the growing fusion and assimilation of various elements with the Aryan population. Vamasamkara was presumed to be caused not only by marriage with women unfit for marriage or promiscuity among the varnas, but also by relinquishing one's obligatory duties (JAanusmriti, X. 24). Gautama Dharmasutra, IV. 22-24; Manusmriti, I. 96. Visnusmriti, X. 37-38. Katyayana (AD 400-^00) also uses the term asprisya twice in the sense of untouchables (verses, 433,783), A useful recent study based on the Buddhist Canon is that by Uma Chakravarti, The Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1987. It is significant that like the Upanisads, Dharmasastra and other brahmanical texts, Buddha also expressed full faith in the theory of high and low births and material position being connected with action in previous birth. B.R. Ambedkar did not carefully go into all the evidence while propounding the theory that Buddhism in a way effectively countered caste and untouchability in