History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c3.10

v1.c3.10

We will lastly refer to the third most important cause which impaired the power of the people of India to resist foreign conquest as a whole. The ramification of the four main castes or varṇas which also took place during the Mediaeval Hindu period contributed, in our view, very largely to weaken the power of the people for resistance. History shows that at the beginning of the Hindu period, there was not any extensive subdivision of the four main castes and these again were not water-tight compartments distinguished by the interdiction of marriage and even of food. By the operation of several causes during the Hindu period main castes began to subdivide themselves into innumerable subcastes not in consequence of any Buddhistic influence, but in spite of it, till at last about the end of the Hindu period that stupendous structure of caste, with its jealousies and its prejudices, with its rigorous restrictions on food and marriage which we see today was completed. The natural result was that the people were divided and could not and did not offer that united opposition which is necessary to successfully resist foreign attempts at conquest.