Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c47.s2.3
Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c47.s2.3
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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.