Caste and Race in India c8.201

c8.201

Caste, as a group, comprised within a larger class and with no necessary connection with occupation, is contemplated by the commentators and Nibandha-writers of this period. According to them, out of the many tribunals designed for justice one consisted of persons living in the same place, following different occupations, and belonging to different castes, while another consisted of people carrying on one type of occupation but belonging to different castes.² Nilakaṇṭha explains a regulation of Yājñavalkya about witnesses to mean that they shall be according to the caste and varṇa of the litigants. If the castes of the parties differ, then witnesses belonging to the varṇa in which the castes are comprised should be called in.³