The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.224

v1.c15.224

The orthodox Hindu holds that the caste-system is of divine appointment and that it has existed for all time. But the sacred books themselves, when they are studied historically, supply evidence both of its origin and of its growth. The poets of the Rigveda know nothing of caste in the later and stricter sense of the word; but they recognise that there are divers orders of men—the priests (Brahmā or Brāhmaṇa), the nobles (Rājanya or Kshatriya), the tillers of the soil (Viç or Vaiçya), and the servile classes (Çūdra). Between the first three and the fourth there is a great gulf fixed. The former are conquering Āryans: the latter are subject Dasyus. The difference between them is one of colour (*varṇa*): the Āryans are collectively known as ‘the light colour,’ and the Dasyus as ‘the dark colour.’ So far, there was nothing peculiar in the social conditions of North-Western India during the early Vedic period. The broad distinction between conquerors and conquered, and the growth of social orders are indeed universal and inevitable. But, while in other countries the barriers which man has thus set up for himself have been weakened or even entirely swept away by the tide of progress, in India they have remained firmly fixed. In India human institutions have received the sanction of a religion which has been concerned more with the preservation of social order than with the advancement of mankind.