History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s1.49

v7.c96.s1.49

VI. *Varṇa and caste*. The subject of the origin of varṇa classification, the caste system and the duties, privileges and disabilities of the four varṇas have been dealt with at length in the History of Dharmaśāstra Vol. II. pp. 19-164. It has been shown that the word 'varṇa' (colour) has been applied to Āryas and dāsas in the Ṛgveda, that these two (āryas and dāsas) were opposite camps, that brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas are mentioned in the Ṛgveda, but the word varṇa has not been expressly connected with them. The words Vaiśya and Śūdra do not occur in the Ṛgveda except in the Puruṣasūkta (Ṛg X. 90. 12) but even in that hymn the word 'varṇa' is not employed with reference to them. That hymn is held to be comparatively a late one by most modern scholars. It may be conceded that at the time when the Puruṣasūkta was composed the community was divided into four groups viz brāhmaṇas (thinkers, learned men, priests) kṣatriyas (rulers and warriors), vaiśyas (common people following agriculture and crafts) and śūdras (those that did menial work). Such a division of people into four groups is not unnatural and is found in many countries even now. In England there are aristocratic families, there is the middle class and the workers in factories &c. They are not necessarily based on birth alone, though largely so based. It has been shown above (p 1265) that intermarriages between brāhmaṇas and the other varṇas were allowed up to the time of the Yājñavalkya Smṛti which expresses its dissent from its predecessors and prohibits a person of the three upper classes from marrying a śūdra woman. There is no evidence to show that intermarriage or dining among the four varnas was prohibited in the Vedic age. In the Vāj. S 30. 6-13, Kāṭhaka S. XVII 13, Tai. Br. III 4 2-3 numerous artisans and craftsmen such as takṣan, rathakāra, kulāla, karmāra, niṣāda, sūta and others are mentioned but it is extremely doubtful whether they had become petrified castes at the period of these works Rathakāra and karmāra and sūta are mentioned in Atharvaveda III. 5. 6-7. It is probable that by the time of the Chān. Up. V. 10. 7 Cāṇḍālas had become untouchables (like dogs and hogs) and Paulkasa seems to be equated with Cāṇḍāla in Br Up IV. 3. 22. Even in the times of Yājñavalkya and Parāśara (2nd to 6th century A.D.) a brāhmaṇa was permitted to take food at the house of such sūdras as his *dāsa*, cowherd, barber, a tenant of his land on the rent of half share of crops (vide above p 1266). The varnas were only four, there was no fifth varna (Manu X. 4 and Anuśāsanaparva, chap 48 30), though in modern times untouchables are often spoken of as *pañcamas* (against Smṛti usage). The word *jāti* in the sense of caste hardly ever occurs in Vedic literature but it occurs in the Nirukta (XII. 13) and in Pāṇini (V. 4. 9), who explains ‘brāhmaṇajātīya’ as meaning one who is a brāhmaṇa by caste’. Sometimes, Jāti and Varna are differentiated in Smṛtis (Yāj. II. 69, 260), but from ancient times the word *Jāti* is confounded with the word *Varṇa*. Manu (X 31) uses the word Varṇa in the sense of mixed castes; conversely, the word Jāti is employed in the sense of ‘Varṇa’ in Manu (VIII. 177, IX. 85-86, X. 41)