Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s3.11

c6.s3.11

They all split up almost invariably into a sometimes considerable number of divisions. Although included under a common name, these really constitute so many castes between which marriage is never allowed. As a Hindu himself remarks: ‘The Brahmans of Bengal do not marry with the Brahmans of other regions, nor the Kāyasths (scribes) or other castes of Bengal with their respective castes in other parts of India. Moreover, amongst the Brahmans of Bengal, the Rahri Brahmans do not marry with the Varendra or Vaidika or Dakkhinatwa Brahmans. The Ballalseni Vaidyas (doctors) who live in eastern Bengal do not marry with the Lakmanseni Vaidyas who live in the west of the province, and the four classes of the Bengali Kāyasths never intermarry amongst themselves. In Upper India, marriage is forbidden between the sections of the Kāyasths, the number of which here amounts to twelve.’ This is only one example. The most resolute advocate of the purely professional origin of the castes, Nesfield, states that all the nominal castes are thus resolved into a number of sections which are castes proper. In the north-west provinces he counts seven of these among the Barhais or carpenters, ten among the Kāyasths or scribes, thirty among the Chatris (cultivators or landed proprietors), and forty among the Brahmans.¹ Elsewhere things are no different, and it would be both superfluous and tedious to mention more names.