The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c7.s16.t3.3

c7.s16.t3.3

But because of this kind of mobilization the *Vrātya* and others of the same standing came to acquire or conquer for themselves positions of dignity in the social structure. The demographic make-up of the state-systems of five thousand years or so in diverse regions of India was marked by *varṇa-saṅkara*, miscegenation, confusion of castes, elevation of the fallen, Aryanization of the non-Aryan, Hinduization of the non-Hindu. The rôle of the *Vrātya* as a creative factor in Indian demography is fundamental. Equally fundamental is the place of *varṇa-saṅkara* (caste-mixture) as well as *anuloma* and *pratiloma* marriage (union of the “higher” with the lower castes) in the social system of the Hindus.