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Mleccha () is a Sanskrit term referring to those of an incomprehensible speech, foreigners or invaders deemed distinct and separate from the Vedic tribes.Monier-Williams, Monier. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Clarendon Press, 1899, p. 841.Macdonell, Arthur Anthony. A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary. Longmans, Green, & Co., 1897. In Vedic Brahmanical discourse, the term is used to refer to foreigners (anāryans) who are considered outside the realm of Vedic dharma.Witzel, Michael. “ The Development of the Vedic Canon and Its Schools: The Social and Political Milieu.” In: Inside the Texts, Beyond the Texts: New Approaches to the Study of the Vedas. Harvard Oriental Series, 1997.Parpola, Asko. The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization. Oxford University Press, 2015.Dandekar, R. N. Vedic Bibliography, Volume 1. Ramakrishna Publishing House, 1947.
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.Monier-Williams, Monier. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Clarendon Press, 1899, p. 841. These individuals were considered outside the Varna system and the ritualistic framework of Vedas. Historical sources identify various groups as mlecchas, including the Saka, Huna people, Chinas, Yavana, Kambojas, Pahlavas, Bahlikas, Rishikas, and Daradas.National geographer, 1977, p 60, Allahabad Geographical Society – History.Mahabharata 6.51, 6.118, 7.20, 7.90, 7.116, 7.118, 8.73 etc Other groups designated as mlecchas include the Barbaras, Kiratas, Parada kingdom, Parasika kingdom, Indo-Greeks, , and Scythians. Further identifications include the Yuezhi,"Language multiplicity and ancient races in India" Kinnara kingdom, Tushara kingdom,MBH 12.65.13–15 and Nishadas. The designation further extends to include groups such as the Turkic peoples, Gujjars, Mongols, Roman people, Baloch people, and Arabs.
As mleccha does not have an Indo-European etymology, scholars infer that it must have been a self-designation of a non-Aryan people within India. Based on the geographic references to the Mleccha deśa (Mleccha country) to the west, the term is identified with the Indus people, whose land is known from the Sumerian texts as Meluhha.; Asko Parpola has proposed a Dravidian derivation for "Meluḫḫa", as mel-akam ("high country", a possible etymological relationship and reference to Balochistan from where originated the Indus Valley Civilization. Franklin Southworth suggests that mleccha comes from mizi meaning 'speak', or 'one's speech' derived from Proto-Dravidian for language.
Pali, the older Prakrit used by Theravada Buddhism, uses the term milakkha. It also employs milakkhu, a borrowing from a Dramatic Prakrit.
Early Indo-Aryans spoke Sanskrit, which evolved into the various local modern Sanskrit-derived languages. Sanskrit was believed to include all the sounds necessary for communication. Early Indo-Aryans would therefore dismiss other languages as foreign tongue mleccha bhasha. As the Sanskrit word itself suggests, mlecchas were those whose speech was alien. Correct speech was a crucial component of being able to take part in the appropriate yajna (religious rituals and sacrifices). Thus, without correct speech, one could not hope to practice correct religion, either.
The notion of being Arya suggested a knowledge of Sanskrit in order to effectively perform ritual hymns; thus suggesting the importance of language. Parasher discusses the importance of knowing the correct speech in order to perform sacrifice and ritual in the religion of the Brahmanism. Parasher continued, "The best experts of the sacrificial art were undoubtedly the various families of the Brahmins who, placed in a hierarchy within the Indo-Aryan social system, became the upholders of pure and best speech".
Historians note that early Indo-Aryans believed Sanskrit to be the superior language over all other forms of speech. As such, mleccha or barbarian speech was said to have meant any of the following:
Thus another distinction that was made between the mlecchas and non-mlecchas was area of habitation. Though they were considered a marginal group, the area characterize as the mleccha-desa (the natural border that separated their lands from that of the Aryans) was never permanent. Instead, it was defined by the changing ideas about the Āryāvarta. Parasher noted that the only consistent areas dubbed as mleccha desa were those regions inhabited by Adivasi who for long periods of time did not come under the sway of the Vedic, Buddhism or Jainism influence.
Though the area of the Aryas expanded with time, the notion that was held over all of the land was that of purity. As Vedic literature refers only to the places and territories that were familiar to the Indo-Aryans, these lands eventually became part of the Āryāvarta. Parasher thus indicates that the Āryāvarta was designated as the region where the River Sarasvati River disappears is the Patiala district in Punjab. The Pariyatra Mountains belong to the Vindhya Range, probably the hills of Malwa. The Kalakavana is identified with a tract somewhere near Prayagraj. Still, other interpretations of the Āryāvarta refer to those areas where the Indian antelope roams, for these areas are fit for the performance of Vedic sacrifice. Early Vedic literature focused on defining the area of habitation of the Aryas for this land was considered pure; yet there is no actual reference to the mleccha country or behavior. Wherever the territory, though, the implications of naming such lands as the Āryāvarta is that any lands excluded from that area were considered impure.
Further, there is evidence that Indians of the Vedic period actually had contact with people outside of the Indian subcontinent, namely the Persians. The Achaemenid Persian Empire, which ruled over the Hindush during this time (522–486 BC) was not designated as mleccha, perhaps because they did not interfere with the Brahminical way of life.
Later Vedic literature speaks of the western Anava tribes as mlecchas and occupying northern Punjab, Sindh and eastern Rajputana. The tribes of the north were mlecchas either because they were located on the frontiers such as Gandhara, Kashmira, Kambojas, Khasas and therefore both their speech and culture had become contaminated and differed from that of Āryāvarta, or else, as in the case of southern India, they were once Aryas but having forsaken the Vedic rituals were regarded to mleccha status.
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 Hindu 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 Brahmin. Mlecchas drank alcohol, ate Beef, which was strictly forbidden to a follower of Hindu orthopraxy, and followed spiritual practices which were foreign to the Indian subcontinent.Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations By Romila Thapar
Swami Parmeshwaranand states the mleccha tribe was born from the tail of the celestial cow Nandini, kept by Vashishta for sacrificial purposes when there was a fight between Vishvamitra and Vasistha. The Mahabharata gives the following information regarding them:
The term is not attested in the Vedas, but occurs for the first time in the late Vedic text the Shatapatha Brahmana. 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 . Vedabase . In medieval India, a foreign visitor al-Biruni (died 1048) noted that foreigners were regarded as unclean or Mleccha and Hindus were forbidden any social or matrimonial contact with them.Rizvi, S.A.A. (1987), The wonder that was India, volume II, pages 252–253, Sidgwick and Jackson, London
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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