Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s3.33

c6.s3.33

To an even greater degree does this statement apply to the Hindus. Risley has carefully studied this category of facts. He has distinguished the very different moulds in which, according to circumstances, the exogamous sections from various levels of Hindu society seem to have been cast, particularly in the very low castes which have sprung from the strata of aboriginal populations : vicinity ; common ancestry, authentic and supposed ; a common surname regarded as a sign of relationship ; a common cult for that category of objects or animals to which ethnography gives the name of *totem*, which are connected with the clan by some superstitious legend. Several of these principles of division, the last especially, have an archaic, uncivilized aspect, which carry us back to a remote period previous to any Āryan influence. This is not, however, the moment to explore the delicate question of origins. Brahmanic influence has been at work for long centuries past. It is recognizable by certain errors ; the zeal for imitation is more ardent than judicious. A low caste, claiming to follow Brahmanic rules, may resolve itself into exogamous fractions, while constituting a single eponymous group and even expressly attaching itself to one single *gotra*.¹