The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.196

v1.c19.s9.196

Combined with this widespread corporate regulation of industrial life, there was a very general but by no means cast-iron custom for the son to follow the calling of the father. Not only individuals but families are frequently referred to in terms of their traditional calling. The smith, e.g., is Smithson; Sāti the fisherman's son is Sāti the fisherman; Chunda the smith is called Chunda Smithson, etc.¹² This, however, is not peculiar to Indian or even to Āryan societies, up to a certain stage of development. Even of our own it was said but half a century ago that the line of demarcation between different employments or grades of work had till then been 'almost equivalent to an hereditary distinction of caste'¹³. In modern India no doubt these lines of demarcation have intensified in the course of centuries, and have split up the industrial world into a, to us, bewildering number of sections, or, as the Portuguese called them, castes.