Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s1.2.1

c48.s1.2.1

§ 25. In spite of the unique and universally recognised position the Brāhmans hold in the estimation of the multitude, they have never formed themselves into a single and homogenous body. Their very dispersal over the length and breadth of the continent, in communities different in origin, speaking different languages and eating different food, makes such cohesion impracticable. It has, indeed, had the effect of making them perhaps the most heterogeneous collection of minute and independent subdivisions that ever bore a common designation. Possibly, too, the absence of territorial settlement to which reference was made above, lends greater weight and permanence to a subdivision based on considerations other than those connected with landed property, and has promoted, accordingly, the stricter observance of caste separatism. However this may be, the main lines of distribution are geographical, beginning with the ancient partition of the Brāhmanic order into the five Gauḍa, or Northern sections, and the five Drāvida, of the South. To the former belong the Gauṛ, from Gonda in Oudh, the Kanaujia, of the Central Doāb, the Sārasvata of the upper Jamnā, the Maithila, of Tirhūt, and the Utkala of Orissa. South of the Vindhya come the Mahārāṣṭra, of the Dekkan, the Karṇāṭa, of Mysore and the neighbourhood, the Āndhra of Telingāna and the Drāviḍa of the Tamil country.