Caste and Race in India c11.10

c11.10

It is because the Brahmins put restrictions on the acceptance of food and drink from the Śūdras during the second stage of the development of their culture that we find that in Northern India generally there is some leniency shown by them towards some of the higher castes, while in Southern India such an attitude and practice is considered a great sacrilege. As the taboo was laid against the Śūdra, and as the Brahmin most probably continued to treat the other two castes as almost his own equals in this matter, even when in later times the taboo became stricter and was made widely applicable, by force of habit and tradition, he continued to take water from pure castes and specially prepared food from high castes. When the pioneers of brahmanic culture progressed into Southern India with restrictions against food and water from the Śūdra as one of the items of their tradition, as they had none of the other castes—the Kshatriya and the Vaiśya—to whom they were accustomed, to think of in their new regions, they applied their rules against the Śūdras to all the indigenous population of the Southern countries. And the seed fell on a very congenial soil. The Southern peoples before their contact with the Indo-Aryan culture most probably had beliefs about the sanctity and power of food to transmit certain qualities very much like those of primitive peoples.¹ This is why the restrictions on food and drink are so rigorous in South India, where, as we said, the Brahmin does not accept food or water at the hands of anyone but a Brahmin.