Mleccha

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Mleccha (from Vedic Sanskrit म्लेच्छ , meaning "non-Aryan, barbarian") is a derogatory term for people who did not conform with the moral and religious norms of the Indo-Aryan society.

By its structure, the term is not natively Indo-Iranian, so that it would seem to be a loan of the ethnonym of a non-Aryan people so described, possibly Proto-Dravidian. It has been speculated that the term is related to Meluhha, the name of a trading partner of Bronze Age Sumer, tentatively identified with the Indus Valley civilization.

The term is not attested in the Vedas, but occurs for the first time in the late Vedic text Shatapatha Brahmana. The law giver Baudhâyana defines a Mleccha as someone "who eats meat or indulges in self-contradictory statements or is devoid of righteousness and purity of conduct."

In the epic Mahabharata, some Mleccha warriors are described as having "heads completely shaved or half-shaved or covered with matted locks, [as being] impure in habits, and of crooked faces." They are "dwellers of hills" and "denizens of mountain-caves.

In ancient India, this term was also applied by the Aryan kingdoms to foreigners. In Bhagavata Purana and medieval literature, such as that of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the term is used in the context of meat eaters, outcastes and Muslims.

See also

• Dasa

Notes

External links

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Last updated on Friday January 11, 2008 at 13:53:00 PST (GMT -0800)
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