During the post-Mauryan period, a large number of jatis came into existence because of varnasamkara or mixing of varnas. This mixing was the result of two types of marriages i.e. anuloma i.e. proper and pratiloma i.e. improper. To the number of these derivative castes enumerated by the older authorities, Manu and Yajnavalkya add a few more.
As for the social status of these castes, Manu says that anuloma castes are slightly inferior to their fathers but are entitled to all the rights. However, according to all the accounts, the pratiloma castes have the status of shudras.
Manu mentions the old mixed castes such as the nisada, the parasava, the ugra, the ayogava, the ksattr, the chandala, the pukkasa, the kukkutaka, the svapaka and the vena that are said to have originated from the intermixture of the varnas. He ascribes a similar origin to a long list of new castes.
Since his list counts as many as 61 castes, their consolidation in chapter ten seems to have been the work of about the fifth century AD. Some of these castes are avrta, ambastha, abhira, dhigvana, sairandhra, maitreyaka, margava, kaivarta, pandusopaka, ahindaka, karavara, andhra, meda, antyavasin etc.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Manu further adds that bahyas (outside the Varna) and hinas (low people) produced fifteen kinds of low castes, on women of higher castes. All these castes were to be distinguished by their occupations. All these cases, it seems were backward aboriginal tribes, who retained their occupations even when they were absorbed in brahmanical society. Manu informs us that some of the mixed castes pursued important crafts and belonged to the category of untouchables.
In the Brahmanical law of this period, an attempt is made for the first time to give a recognised status to a number of aboriginal tribes within the orthodox social system. The paundrakas, the codas, the dravidas, the kambojas, the kiratas, the kalingas, the pulindas, the usinaras, the mekalas, the latas, the paundras, the daradas, we are told, were originally kshatriyas, but they sank to the level of shudras by failing to perform sacred rites and to consult the Brahmanas.