The Age of the Imperial Guptas c7.45

c7.45

Such differences in the caste system of the Eastern and Western Provinces of Northern India point to one conclusion: that the castes and sub-castes and of the North-eastern Provinces were changed and reclassified long after the last reduction of the *Mānava-Dharma-Śāstra* and these classifications were changed when the Hūṇas conquered the whole of the Western Provinces of Northern India and the West-central districts of Central India. To go deeper into the subject is impossible within the limited compass of this treatise. The castes of Northern Gujarat suffered a second change on account of the obliterating influence of militant Jainism of the period of Hemacandra Sūri and his royal patrons Kumārapāla and Siddhārāja Jayasiṃha of Aṇahilapāṭaka. No further changes in the basic rules of the castes of the North-eastern Provinces were needed up to the end of the 12th century, even when the people abandoned Mahāyāna proper and the obscene and revolting rites of Kāla-Cakra-Yāna and Vajrayāna under the Pālas of Bengal.