Mlecha

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Mlecha

Mleccha (Sanskrit: म्लेच्छ, romanized: mlecchá) is a Sanskrit term referring to those of an incomprehensible speech, outgroup, foreigners or invaders deemed distinct and separate from the Vedic tribes.

 In Vedic Brahmanical discourse, the term is used to refer to anāryans (non-aryan) who are considered outside the realm of Āryāvarta.

Mleccha was traditionally applied to denote foreigners or outsiders who did not belong to the Vedic cultural milieu, regardless of their race or skin colour.

 These individuals were considered outside the Varna system and the ritualistic framework of Vedic society. Historical sources identify various groups as mlecchas, including the Śākas, Huns, Chinese, Yavanas, Kambojas, Pahlavas, Bahlikas, Rishikas, and Daradaiî Other groups designated as mlecchas include the Barbaras, Kiratas, Paradas, Parasika kingdom, Indo-Greeks, Pulindas, and Scythians.

Further identifications include the Kushans, Kinnaras, Tusharas, and Nishadas. The designation further extends to include groups such as the Türks, Gujjars, Mongols, Romans, Balochs,and Arabs.

The word mleccha emerged as a way for the ancient Indo-Aryans to classify those who did not subscribe to the traditional value system, though the characteristics of this system were ambiguous. In sum, though, the idea was that the mlecchas were peoples who did not conform to what was culturally acceptable.

Relations with mlecchas

Early writings refer to these foreign peoples as half-civilized, unconverted people who rise or eat at improper times. They stated that monks and nuns should avoid certain areas of habitation because they were unsafe. Namely, that the ignorant populace might beat, harass or rob them under the impression that they were spies from hostile villages. Further, while some of these non-mlecchas, such as those of the Jain faith, had established contact with people of the forest tribes, they were automatically designated as mlecchas. This was the typical attitude of people from the plains who took pride in their norms of settled agricultural and urban lifestyles.

Historians note that there were also systems in place to determine the validity – or purity – of certain customs, which would ultimately be judged by the priest. As such there were intricate rules in place to define purity from impurity, laws of behavior, as well as rituals and customs, in an effort to educate the members of the Brahmanical system. Namely, these advisors took great pains to ensure that peoples of the Brahmanical system did not subscribe to any mleccha customs or rituals.

The Sanskritisation of names was a common feature among both indigenous and foreign mlecchas who slowly tried to move away from their status of mleccha. Very often, in the case of ruling families, it took one to two generations to make a transition. One of the most direct forms of the expression of the Brahmanical ritual purity was the form and type of food which a Brahmin could eat. He was forbidden to accept cooked food from any unclean person.

Thus when the Punjab region became a mleccha area conquered by Muslims, the staple food was given a lower place in the food-ranking.

By the twelfth century CE, wheat was described in one lexicon as food of the mlecchas, and rice became the pure cereal.

Onions and garlic was also regarded as the food of the mlecchas and therefore prohibited to the priestly intellectual class of Brahmins. Mlecchas drank alcohol, ate cow flesh, which was strictly forbidden to a follower of Hindu orthopraxy, and followed spiritual practices which were foreign to the Indian subcontinent.

Literature describing the Mleccha

In the 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 and noses

They are dwellers of hills and denizens of mountain-caves. Mlecchas were born of the cow (belonging to Vasishtha), of fierce eyes, accomplished in smiting, looking like messengers of Death, and all conversant with the deceptive powers of the Asuras.

The Mahabharata gives the following information regarding them:

Mleccha who sprang up from the tail of the celestial cow Nandini sent the army of Vishvamitra flying in terror.

Bhagadatta was the king of mlecchas.

Pandavas, like Bhima, Nakula and Sahadeva once defeated them.

Karna during his world campaign conquered many mleccha countries.

The wealth that remained in the yaga-shala of Yudhishthira after the distribution as gifts to Brahmins was taken away by the mlecchas.

The mlecchas drove angered elephants on the army of the Pandavas.

This shows mlecchas were against Pandavas.

The term is not attested in the Vedas, but occurs for the first time in the late Vedic text the Shatapatha Brahmana.[49] The Baudhayana sutras define a mleccha as someone who eats beef or indulges in self-contradictory statements or is devoid of righteousness and purity of conduct.

Medieval Hindu literature, such as that of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, also uses the term to refer to those of larger groups of other religions, especially Muslims.

 In medieval India, a foreign visitor Al Birūnī (died 1048) noted that foreigners were regarded as unclean or Mleccha and Hindus were forbidden any social or matrimonial contact with them

According to the Gwalior inscription of his descendant Mihira Bhoja, the Gurjara Pratihara King Nagabhata I repulsed a mleccha invasion. These mlechchhas are identified with the Arab Muslim invaders.

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