[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930) › v2.c19.7 # History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.7 History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.7 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c19.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.7) In most of the works on the castes in India a few features are pointed out as the characteristics of the caste system and as common to all castes and sub-castes. They are: (1) heredity i. e. in theory a man is assigned to a particular caste by birth in that caste; (2) endogamy and exogamy i. e. restriction as to marrying in the same caste and not marrying certain relatives or other persons, though of the same caste; (3) restrictions as to food (i. e. what food and water may be taken or not taken and from whom); (4) occupation (i. e. members of most castes follow certain occupations and no others); (5) gradation of castes, some being at the top in the social scale and others being deemed to be so low that they are untouchable. Some authors⁵² like Senart add another characteristic, viz. the caste council with its chief having in meeting assembled among other matters the power to regulate the conduct of its members, to impose the penalties of fine or excommunication for lapses. It may be said at once that this last is a feature that is not found among most of the brāhmaṇa and kṣatriya castes even in modern times and is not dealt with by dharmaśāstra works. Endogamy is now the most prominent characteristic of caste and so is the theory that it is by birth. The other three are more or less fluctuating from province to province and age to age. In this work the first five characteristics of the caste system set out above will be subjected to a close critical examination on the basis of the Vedic and dharmaśāstra material. We must also remember that the attributes of caste have not been the same throughout the ages. There is great difference between the popular conceptions of modern caste and the conceptions about it embodied in the ancient and medieval dharmaśāstra works. In the twentieth century caste in India is a matter of marriage and to a much lesser extent of food and drink. As to avocations any one can at present follow any profession without fear of loss of caste excepting a few believed to be very impure and very degrading ones (like those of sweepers, butchers, tanners &c.). It is also not possible even now for any one to be generally accepted as a priest, unless he is or claims to be a brāhmaṇa. The old barriers that separated one caste or subcaste from another have been greatly shaken by the influx of modern ideas and the exigencies of the times and one may hope that in a few decades more caste will remain as a purely social institution regulating marriages and to a lesser extent commensality (and not a religious one). Western scholars, in spite of their most commendable patience and industry, often present, through ignorance or lack of first-hand knowledge, the number of castes as larger than what it actually is. For example, Sherring (vol. II. Introduction pp. XXII-XLVI) gives an alphabetical list of brahmanical tribes and remarks (XLVII) 'Hundreds of these tribes, if not at enmity with one another, cherish mutual distrust and antipathy to such a degree that they are socially separated from one another as far as it is possible for them to be-as much as brāhmaṇas are from the lowest outcastes-neither eating nor drinking together nor intermarrying'. The list he gives is most misleading. To take only a few examples, he enumerates Athavle, Achwal, Abhyankara, Apte, Agashe, Bhanu, Bivalkar, Badye, Bhide, Bhagvat, Bhuskute, Bhat, Bodas as separate tribes; but it is well-known to people in Western India that these are the surnames (not subcastes) of the Koṅkaṇastha or Citpāvana brāhmaṇas, who not only interdine, but also inter-marry among themselves, provided there is no bar on the ground of sameness of \*gotra\* and \*pravara\*. - [Previous: v2.c19.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.6) - [Next: v2.c19.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.8) - [Up: v2.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.7) · Pramāṇa