[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897) › c18.27 # The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c18.27 The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c18.27 - **Language:** English ### [c18.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c18.27) Besides these wild peoples whom I might call "ethnical castes," as they were held together by a common race, we meet other groups reckoned likewise by the Indians among the despised castes, in which their mean work seems to have been the separating line which in course of time has stamped them into a caste; they can be characterised, in contrast with the "ethnical castes," as "low professional castes." Originally these despised professional castes were nothing else than non-Aryan races who, although they stood on a higher culture-level than the hunting and fishing races, engaged in branches of profession the practice of which presupposed no acquaintance with metals and their employment and were therefore held in low esteem by the Aryans who worked with iron instruments. To this class belong such occupations as form even to-day the exclusive occupation of people standing on a low level, such as that of making baskets from willows and bamboos, plaiting and weaving, the manufacture of leather and earthen vessels. Not a bias against handicraft in general¹ but against a profession which they found was followed by low races, originally made the Aryans avoid such means of earning a livelihood and leave them to the aboriginal races. Later the stain of impurity was attached to the occupation, even when, owing to the mixture of races, this ceased to be reserved for particular races, and in course of time this stain spread to all possible handicrafts and professions, the more so, as with advancing civilization the higher classes became exempted from manual occupations. - [Previous: c18.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c18.26) - [Next: c18.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c18.28) - [Up: c18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c18) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c18.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c18.27) · Pramāṇa