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I am aware of Brahmin sub-caste members that wouldn't eat at other Brahmin sub-caste homes even as we speak (2018). One can easily imagine their attitude about eating at a non-brahmin home or a non-brahmin eating with them at their home. Silver is considered unpollutable - so if a "polluting" caste/sub-caste member asks for water, they would give it to him in a silver cup. of course the advent of throw-away cups makes possible another way to avoid ritual pollution.

Does any scripture talk about the unpollutability of silver?

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    adding 'as we speak (2018)' is editorializing using your opinion, as though such practices are taboo in the modern age. If you remove it, the question becomes objective, or else it would get flagged. Also, you seem to be asking a lot of questions which any discerning reader can figure has an anti-orthodox stance, and again, those tend to be flagged as opinion-based.
    – mar
    Feb 26, 2018 at 0:59

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Both silver and gold are considered as very pure.. so what it means is that if they get sullied then purification is achieved back very easily.

And, that's why householders are also prescribed to take food in utensils made of gold or silver.

A house-holder should always take his food in golden or silver vessels, or in these made of bell-metal, substituting the fragrant leaves of the Palasha, Lodhra, or Padma for them in cases where they would be unavailable. A yati or a Brahmachdrin should use the kind of utensil which he thinks proper for his cult. (63-64) ---- Vyasa Smriti verses

As regards, whether they (gold and silver) can get impure, then yes:

The purification of gold and silver [is encompassed] by air and the rays of the sun and moon. (44)

A woolen cloth is not sullied when marked with semen or touched by a dead body. It becomes pure when the part [affected] is washed by water and earth. (45) --- Angirasa Smriti verses

But, when it is said that, by mere air something gets pure, then that has to be considered as ever pure for all practical purposes.

However, other scriptures prescribe some purifying methods for silver as well:

When articles become sullied, they are purified in the following ways––if they are metal, by scrubbing them with cowdung, earth, and water, or with just one of them; if they are copper, silver, or gold, by using an acidic cleanser; if they are earthenware, by firing them; if they are wooden, by scraping them; ---- Baudhayana Dharma Sutras 1.8.27


Gold is cleaned with just water, as also silver. Copper is cleaned with an acidic cleanser.----- Vashista Dharma Sutras 3.54

So, i don't think we can say that they (silver and gold) do not get polluted ever, but it is relatively a lot easy to remove impurities of them.

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  • thats close enough; if you can find references for ordinary vessels getting polluted by whatever castes you consider polluting, I'll accept the answer.
    – S K
    Feb 26, 2018 at 13:30

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