Caste in India: The Facts and the System c5.31

c5.31

What appears certain to me is that neither the Epic nor above all the Smṛiti should be accepted as honest and faithful witnesses of contemporary practices. The picture that they offer us is a composite one and very carefully designed; its authors, without being entirely successful in hiding the joints where the pieces have been fitted together, have fused a number of very varied elements into a theological and social order. They have certainly eliminated from it many features which did not suit their purpose; above all, they have disguised the disjointedness and discordances under a rather thin veneer of unity and harmony.