Caste in India: The Facts and the System c5.17

c5.17

Many elements are found blended in this stratum, whose very existence in remote antiquity is concealed from us by Vedic tradition. So far as caste is concerned, the aboriginal population played its part, and continues to do so almost under our eyes; but its action appears to us a mechanical and passive one, rather than an active or guiding one. To judge by what we ourselves can observe it would be imprudent to regard it as a very decisive and fertile factor in the general domain of religion.