Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c47.s2.3.3

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.