The Rashtrakutas and their Times c21.3

c21.3

The most striking feature of the Hindu Society has been the caste system since very early times. To trace the history of this institution from its beginning is irrelevant for our present enquiry; we shall, therefore, try to ascertain its nature during our period. The usual theoretical number of the castes is four, but it is rather strange that Greek writers like Megasthenes and Strabo and Muslim writers like Ibn Khurdadba and Al Idrisi should concur in maintaining that their number was seven. The seven castes of the Muslim travellers are, however, not identical with the seven castes of the Greek ambassador : the latter does not enumerate any of the untouchables among his castes, while the former include at least two among the depressed classes. Alberuni, however, differs from the earlier Muslim travellers and maintains that there were sixteen castes, the four well-known ones, five semi-untouchables and seven untouchables. The actual number of the castes and sub-castes of our period was, however, more than sixteen; the Smritis of our period mention several subcastes, and according to Kalhaṇa, who flourished in Kashmir in the 12th century, the number was 64.¹