Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 9
ब्रह्मस्वहरण-निषेधः — Prohibition of Appropriating Brahmin Property
Brahmasva
अहं तत्रावसं राजन ब्रह्मचारी जितेन्द्रिय: । तासां मे रजसा ध्वस्तं भैक्षमासीन्नराधिप
ahaṁ tatrāvasaṁ rājan brahmacārī jitendriyaḥ | tāsāṁ me rajasā dhvastaṁ bhaikṣam āsīn narādhipa ||
The Caṇḍāla said: “O King, I lived there as a celibate student, with my senses under control. Yet, O lord of men, my alms-food became defiled by the dust raised by those cows.”
चाण्डाल उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even sincere ascetic discipline (brahmacarya, sense-control) can be tested by external circumstances; the passage foregrounds the ethical tension between inner purity and socially/ritually defined notions of defilement.
A Caṇḍāla recounts to a king that he lived in the same place as a self-controlled brahmacārī, but on one occasion his begged food became contaminated by dust (associated with the cows), setting up a discussion about impurity and dharma.