ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to address the issues related to the physical body and the social body. The focus of this chapter is to differentiate between the notions of purity-pollution and untouchability. Consolidating the readings of Patrick Olivelle, in particular, of Dharma literature, this chapter argues that the categorical anxieties found in the Dharma literature are not related to the practice of untouchability. Whereas the Brahmanical householder perspective sees the human body as essentially pure but always threatened by impurities from outside, the renouncer perspective sees the physical body itself as essentially impure and hence completely rejects the notion of purity-pollution. It argues that the householder body is concerned with issues relating to the phenomenology experience of ‘contact’ and the renouncer body is concerned with issues relating to phenomenology experience of ‘touch’. The notions of purity-pollution are issues relating to ‘contact’ and not to ‘touch’ or ‘untouch’.
