The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c17.15

c17.15

The conflict arose from the infusion of the renouncer's individualistic thought and rationalistic values into the otherwise devalued magico-religious world of caste. This created an irreparable rift, not only between the renouncer's otherworldly sphere and the mundane order of caste, but also within the caste world itself. Although usually supposed to be completely closed and internally coherent, caste does indeed show a rift. This is not just a matter of actual practices where the rift is obvious but all too easily dismissed as another instance of India's proverbial diversity. It is equally and clearly expressed in theoretical statements in the dharma texts. There we find at least two terms, *varṇa* and *jāti*, where we make do with only one, caste, suggesting an unbroken unity. Admittedly, *varṇa* and *jāti* are often used interchangeably, but the question is how the set of four *varṇas* are related to the practically innumerable *jātis*. One might, of course, take the *jātis* simply as subdivisions of the four canonical *varṇas*. The explanation of the dharma texts is, however, subtly different. The *jātis*, we learn, arose from marriages—that is, mixed marriages—between members of the "original" four *varṇas*.²⁶ This explanation has, of course, much to recommend itself. But the point is that here the preordained and immutable caste order breaks open. With a clarity that leaves nothing to be desired, we are told that the caste order with its innumerable *jātis* arose from the evil of *varṇasaṃkara*, the mixing of the *varṇas*. The caste order, then, is undermined from the beginning, built as it is on the "fault line" of *varṇasaṃkara*.