Talk:Mlecchas

By Swami Harshananda

mlecchas (‘those who speak in an uncultured way’)

The word ‘mleccha’ has often been used in the epics and the purāṇas to describe the non-Āryan tribes who perhaps came from outside the country. The Śatapatha Brāhmana (3.2.1.23 and 24) declares that those who speak an incorrect and corrupt dialect are asuras and mlecchas. The Gautama-dharmasutras (9.17) prohibits a person from speaking with mlecchas as also impure and irreligious persons. People of countries beyond the Āryāvarta, where the varṇāśrama system did not exist, had been dubbed as mlecchas.

The Mahābhārata has some interesting details about the mlecchas: 1. They were produced from the tail of the celestial cow Nandinī of Vasiṣṭha and drove away the army of Viśvāmitra. 2. They were living in the coastal regions and their king was Aṅga. 3. Aṅga was killed by Bhīma in the Kurukṣetra war. 4. The wealth that was left over in the yāgaśālā (sacrificial shed) of Yudhiṣṭhira (after the Aśvamedha sacrifice) was taken away by the mlecchas.

5. Kalki, the future incarnation of Visṇu will destroy the mlecchas who will be found everywhere in the world.

In the later period, by the time of the Bhavisyapurāna (A. D. 900), the mlecchas seem to have been absorbed as a caste at the lowest rung of the social ladder. They have been described as the eaters of cow’s flesh and selling their children for financial benefits. But they could worship the clay images of the Devī and other gods.

References

• The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore