Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s1.3

c6.s1.3

¹ The statement by Megasthenes that the number of μέρη was seven certainly rests on a merely superficial knowledge or interpretation of the facts. It is curious that precisely in the north-west of India we still find to-day that subdivision into seven clans is usual in many castes. Does the Greek evidence rest fundamentally on confusion with some such custom? It is curious that Herodotus (II, 164), depicting Egyptian society as divided into castes, also enumerates seven of them. This number varies, however, among more recent authors (cf. Mallet, *Les Premiers Établissements des Grecs en Égypte*, pp. 410-11).