Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c47.s2.3.4

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.