Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c47.s2: B. Descriptive
Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c47.s2
- Language
- German
Contents
- c47.s2.3 — 4 parts
B. Descriptive
c47.s2.1
§ 21. Regarding the subject in its ethnographic aspect, it is obvious that it must be a task of extraordinary, almost insuperable, difficulty to reduce to anything like accurate numerical terms the component parts of so vast and complex an organisation as that sketched above. It should be borne in mind that the object of the Census is to obtain a record not only of scientific value in the service of ethnography, but of practical importance in the every-day administration of the country. The social position and the numerical strength of different sections of the community are essential facts in connection, for instance, with public instruction or with measures for the promotion of the comfort or convenience of the locality. The Courts of Justice, again, are frequently called upon to decide questions of rank or privilege in which the relative numbers of the litigant parties are points relevant to the inquiry, and which cannot be safely left to the evidence of the disputants, in view of the "megalomania" which is probably at the bottom of the whole controversy. Even the identification of an individual cannot be satisfactorily established in the case of many of the more important social divisions by less than two or even three, successive questions, and often the credibility of a witness is decided by a casual detail of caste convention. On these considerations, and with an eye to the known probability of error in the direction of either excessive generality or excessive minuteness of description, provision was made at the Census for the return of social divisions under two headings, first, the main body, such as caste or tribe, and, secondly, the subdivision to which the individual may belong. In the larger communities, indeed the latter is the more distinctive designation, and was adopted, accordingly, as the unit of compilation in the returns prepared for local use. Lower than this it is unnecessary, for administrative purposes, that the inquiry should go; but it must be recognised that from the ethnological standpoint, the more minute subdivisions of the community are often more pregnant of suggestion or information than those of which they form a part, and must be adequately dealt with in any special investigation, such as that now engaging the attention of those employed upon the Indian Ethnographical Survey.
c47.s2.2
It must also be understood that neither the Provincial nor the Imperial returns claim to present anything beyond a partial and very imperfect picture of the astounding fissiparity of the Brāhmanic social system in the full vigour of its present existence. The Imperial Table, even after a somewhat drastic process of compilation, contains nearly 2,400 separate items, and the project of expanding it to the full limits of the subject inevitably calls to the memory of the expert the concluding verse of the Gospel according to St John. Take, for instance, the feature of endogamy alone. Every subdivision recorded in a Provincial Table, covers, if the main body be widely spread, many others, none of which intermarries with the rest. Not only so, but the main body itself does not recognise any social tie with the body bearing the same name located in a distant part of the country, even though, as sometimes, happens, the same vernacular language may be spoken by both. Each of these local subdivisions, moreover, is divided into its respective endogamous sections; some of them professing a different religion, and occupying, perhaps, quite a different position in the social hierarchy of the neighbourhood from that of the synonymous section elsewhere. Even the Provincial groups, therefore, subjoined to the general aggregate in the Table, convey an impression of homogeneity not in correspondence with the actual fact.
c47.s2.3.1
§ 22. With the above qualifications and reserve, then, the figures to be found in the Imperial returns must be taken as providing as trustworthy information as is now available upon this branch of the subject. In the Tables, the items are arranged in alphabetical order, a form of record which has its advantages from an official point of view, in that it raises no awkward questions as to position or precedence; and, if accompanied, as in the Madras list, by a brief practical account of the principal divisions, it is useful for reference on individual cases. There, however, its function ends, and some form of coordination becomes necessary before all these isolated nuggets of information can be got to collectively yield their tribute towards the common object of illustrating the main characteristics of the social organisation of the different regions of India. It is as well to admit at the outset that in view of the varied origin and history of the social divisions in question and of the various forms the social system has assumed, no classification upon a single a definite principle is possible. It is equally judicious to assume that, taking into consideration the diverse and often mutually inconsistent theories held as to the basis and general principles upon which the system rests, no such classification, even were it possible, would be universally accepted.
c47.s2.3.2
Race, consanguinity, function, creed and policy cover respectively a considerable portion of the ground, but no one of them covers the whole or can be made the standard by which the divisions as they now exist can be graduated on the social scale. It might be thought that in view of the extreme value attached to conventional purity, and the minute rules in regard to it by which the intercourse between the different sections of the community is, by unanimous public opinion in each locality, undeviatingly regulated, a touchstone might be found in it by which social rank might be assayed. This, however, is not the case. Irrespective of the difficulty of obtaining a formal decision on individual cases, owing to prejudice and the general ignorance of the position of classes below them which prevails amongst those who would ordinarily be consulted, there is a marked difference in practice in regard to intercommunion between the greater part of Continental India and the Peninsula, and even between province and province. The criterion which would be adopted would be whether or not certain higher classes would take from the community in question water or certain kinds of food, and these lines of demarcation are in most cases so far apart, including that is, so many communities in each class, that they afford little or no graduation of the masses respectively enclosed within them, and without further internal subdivisions the groups are of little practical significance.
c47.s2.3.3
Now, for the purpose of this review, which is mainly to render the facts assimilable by those who have not been brought into personal contact with the civilisation of India, the basis of that subdivision will be found in function, overlying in some cases a distant but traceable background of race. It will be found that, as a rule, graduation upon this basis is in general harmony with the current conceptions regarding hereditary purity which prevail in India. The term function, it should be explained, is not limited to the occupation actually followed in the present day, but extends to that traditionally ascribed to the body in question, and is more frequently than not implied in the title of the caste. This expansion of meaning is necessitated by the mobility of occupation in modern times, on the one hand, and, on the other, by the consideration that whilst function usually takes rank in relation to purity according to the character of the service performed or of the material handled, there are numerous cases where the public estimate is formed upon the origin of the community by whom the occupation is pursued, and thus takes its stand upon racial considerations rather than upon the intrinsic nature of the pursuit. Elsewhere, again, race alone is the determining factor; but here the community, as a rule, stands, as explained above outside the Brāhmanic system. The influence of the latter, however, extends far beyond the limits of the Brāhmanical religion.
c47.s2.3.4
The definition of caste quoted above is therefore applicable without serious modification of its essentials to communities of not only Jains and Sikhs, but, except in the North-west, even of the Muslim persuasion, as they rise in wealth and in the power which wealth, even under Brāhmanism, is able to exercise. These instances have been included, accordingly, in the review which follows, important differences of religion being duly noted against them. As regards the review itself, it is not intended to serve as a Glossary, or to give an account of all the castes and tribes which find place in the Imperial returns, but merely to bring to notice the principal bodies under each of the heads into which Indian society has, for the purpose of exposition, been here marshalled on the lines laid down above.
c47.s2.4
§ 23. At the head of the list are placed certain groups of an exceptional character, whose position differs somewhat from that of the rest. The Brāhman naturally stands first, as the keystone of the whole social scheme. The Rājput, again, is an order of nobility rather than a caste in the ordinary acceptation of the term. With, but after, them may be taken the trading and writing classes, both of which in Upper India, though not in the South, claim distant connection with the Rājput, and who, with the Brāhman, constitute what are known as the Educated classes of India. Here, too, may be placed the religious devotee, or mendicant orders, who, by virtue of their profession have abjured caste, though in more than one instance only to re-form themselves into something very like a caste of their own.
c47.s2.5
In dealing with the masses of the population, the first fact of which cognisance should be taken in regard to the general arrangement of the castes is the remarkable preponderance of the agricultural element. Cultivation is the premier employment of the country, and to occupy a holding is the main object of the bulk of the rural population. In the little oligarchy, therefore, known as the village community, the landed classes stand at the top, and where, as in all but the east of India and the tracts still under the forest tribes, that community exists in an organised form, the classes included therein are all subservient to the needs of the peasantry. Each of these economic units contains a recognised body of artisans, minor professionals and menials, to whom is assigned respectively a small share of the village land or of its annual produce. Mixed in with these, are found the various large bodies of fishers, cattle-breeders and others, some of whom hover between the fields and their eponymous means of subsistence. To the village, then, as it is understood in India, is dedicated the second of the main divisions of the list, followed by a small group of minor, or subsidiary professional castes between village and town. In the third are placed the castes exercising functions specially or exclusively the product of city life. In placing them after the rural bodies it is not implied that they rank below the latter from whom in most cases they originally sprang, for they stand, as a rule, a little higher; but they are, as it were, bye-products of the hive, outside the normal output, and on lines parallel to the main organisation. Then, detached from either town or village, except in a few cases where a permanent pied à terre is kept for shelter during the rainy season, are various tribes of travellers and nomads, some of whom are real castes, others a nondescript collection of waifs often consisting of "broken men" or people discarded by other communities. The greater number of the latter are numerically small; but there are a few which include large and respectable communities. Finally, some reference must be made to the bodies not coming within the caste system, such as the more or less primitive tribes of the Hill-tracts, and also the Muslim races foreign to India in their titles, though to a great extent native in blood.
c47.s2.6
As regards the arrangement of the items coming under each head, functional or other, it seems best to deal with the return territorially, or by linguistic divisions, as the case may be, in order that prominence may be given to the marked differences in the caste system which are found to prevail.
c47.s2.7
§ 24. **Brāhmans** (14,893,300). Considering that the participation of a Brāhman is essential to the validity of all ceremonies of a social character amongst the great majority of the community which takes its religious title from this order, it is not surprising that the latter should occupy the first place in the returns both as to numbers and dispersion. In every part of India, except the eastern and western frontiers and the hills of the Central Belt, the Brāhman is found in very considerable numbers, and tradition, which in this case, at all events, is corroborated by the evidence of physiognomy, nomenclature and custom, is almost unanimous in pointing to the upper Gangetic region as the place of origin. From this nucleus Brāhmans found their way in very early days across Rājputāna and Mālva to the west coast of Gujarāt. In the south of the Peninsula, the earliest appearance of this class was probably not much earlier than the Christian era, and for the next eight or nine centuries the supply seems to have been plentiful and constant. The Brāhmans of lower Bengal trace their