Chandala does not denote one single homogenous class of people. It is one word for many classes of people, all different from one another. There are altogether five different classes of Chandalas who are referred to in the Shastras. They are (i) the offspring of a Shudra father and a Brahmin mother (ii) the offspring of an unmarried woman (iii) the offspring of union with a sagotra woman (iv) the offspring of a person who after becoming an ascetic turns back to the householder's life and (v) the offspring of a barber father and a Brahmin mother
