History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.120

v2.c19.120

A few words must be said about the word *jāti*. The idea of varṇa was as we have seen based originally on race, culture, character and profession. It takes account mainly of the moral and intellectual worth of man and is a system of classes which appears more or less natural. The ideal of varṇa even in the smṛtis lays far more emphasis on duties, on a high standard of effort for the community or society rather than on the rights and privileges of birth. The system of jātis (castes) lays all emphasis on birth and heredity and tends to create the mentality of clinging to privileges without trying to fulfil the obligations corresponding to such privileges. The word ‘*jāti*’ in the sense of caste hardly ever occurs in the vedic literature. In the Nirukta¹²⁸ (XII. 13) it is said ‘after *agnicayana* (the building of the fire altar), a man should not approach a *rāmā* (for sexual intercourse); *rāmā* is so called because she is approached only for pleasure and not for (accumulation of) merit; she is of a dark caste’. Here the word *kṛṣṇajātīyā* occurs with reference to a woman of the śūdra caste. Almost these very words occur in Vasiṣṭha (18. 17–18)¹²⁹ where for kṛṣṇajātīyā the word kṛṣṇavarṇā is substituted. Viśvarūpa on Yāj. I. 56 (*yad-ucyate* etc.)¹³⁰ quotes these words as a brāhmaṇa text, but there the word is kṛṣṇavarṇīyā. Therefore, the use of the word jāti in the sense of caste can be traced back at least to the times of the Nirukta. Pāṇini (V. 4. 9)¹³¹ teaches the formation of words like ‘brāhmaṇajātīya’ derived from words ending in ‘jāti’ (in the sense of caste). The expression ‘jātidharma’ (rules of castes) occurs in Gautama XI. 20, Vasiṣṭha I. 17 and XIX. 7, Manu I. 118 and VIII. 41 and the word jāti (caste) occurs also in Āp. Dh. S. II. 3. 6. 1, II. 1. 2. 3, Manu (IV. 141, X. 11, 18, 40, 97), Yāj. (I. 95, 361, II. 69, 206, III. 213), Nārada (ṛṇādāna 288) and in the vārtika on Pāṇini IV. 1. 137. Varṇa and jāti are sometimes clearly distinguished as in Yāj II. 69 and 206. But very often they are confounded. In Manu X. 27, 31 the word varṇa is used in the sense of mixed castes (*jātis*). Conversely the word jāti often appears to be used to indicate ‘varṇa’. Vide Manu III. 15, VIII. 177, IX. 86 and 335, X. 41 and Yāj. I. 89 (in which latter sajāti appears to mean ‘savarṇa’).