History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c8.10

v1.c8.10

We have described caste in its racial aspect and shown that though Anuloma marriages were allowed, even in the times of Harsha, they were being gradually disallowed and that such marriages taking place among the three higher castes which were Aryan, there was not much deterioration of race. We shall now advert to caste in its occupational aspect, and the first prominent remark to make is, that while the occupation of the first two castes ramained much the same as in the ancient days of Manu, the occupation of the Vaiśyas had undergone a restriction. They were husbandmen and cattle-breeders pre-eminently as well as traders in the days preceding the Christian era; but now they remained only traders. “ कृषिगोरक्ष्यवाणिज्यं वैश्य-कर्म स्वभावजम् ” says the Bhagavadgītā but the *krishi* and *gorakshya* or agriculture and cattle-rearing had ceased to be the occupation of tne Vaiśyas and had now become the occupation of the Śūdras. Hiuen Tsang distinctly says that trading was the only occupation of the Vaiśyas and agriculture was the occupation of the Śūdras. The result was, that notwithstanding that the race of many of the agricultural classes in India was distinctly Aryan, they came to be classed as Śūdras or fourth grade of the people. The fact that the lowest population of the Panjab and Rajputana is still distinctly Aryan in type also proves that many of the peoples, now and even then looked upon as Śūdras were in reality Aryan by race. The peoples who have most suffered in this way are the Jat populations of the Panjab, Sind and the United Provinces and the Gurjaras who were cattle breeding Vaiśyas have suffered most in the same manner and it may be added that the Marathas have suffered still more in this manner on our side. That the Jats are distinctly Aryan no body even now doubts. “ If appearance is any index, the Jats are clearly of Aryan origin ”, says the Muzzuffernagar Gazetteer. They are fair, tall and with long heads and noses. Their Aryan race is admitted by Sir H. Risley also in the Census report for 1901. It seems, therefore, strange that historians still assign to them a Scythian origin. The Gurjaras also are in appearance Aryan though they are darker in complexion. The Marathas too are in appearance Aryan though their noses are less distinctly Aryan there being in their case some mixture with the Dravidian races. Unfortunately these three peoples have suffered at the hands of both Indian and European savants. Indian Shastris of later days with their bias against agriculture and cattle-rearing and the custom of widow marriage which obtains among the three have treated them as Sūdras.* And European scholars have treated them as Scythic in origin, being influenced by the strange bias that the manlines which these races displayed in later history could not have belonged to the long settled people of India but could only have characterised fresh hordes of invaders like the Kushanas and the Huns who were known to be of the Scythian race. It is, however, undoubted that the Jats most distinctly and the Gujars and Marathas in lesser degree are undoubted Aryan in race and their being treated as Sūdras by Indian Shastris and as Scythians by European scholars is, historically and ethnically, incorrect.