The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c6.28

c6.28

It is not easy to account for the rise and growth of caste. Senart argued with great force that the Āryan practices of endogamy and exogamy were primarily responsible for the development.⁴ This, however, can be only part of the explanation. The term Varṇa or colour which denotes caste has rightly been held to supply a further clue. The history of the relations between the whites and the blacks in South Africa and the southern states of the American Union offers an illustration. In ancient India the natural difference of complexion might not have been so great, colour-feeling might not have been so strong and the gulf between the fair and dark races might not have been so wide. But distinctions of colour, emphasised by divergences of civilisation and, for a while by a life-and-death struggle for the possession of land and cattle, would be enough to create an almost permanent line