Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s5.12

c6.s5.12

It is perhaps the same idea which gives rise to other strange distinctions that superstition draws between parched grain and grain cooked with water. Here is another significant example. In the Panjab the Hindus readily take pure milk from the Muslim tribe of the Ghosis ; ¹ they would reject it with horror had they any reason to fear that it had been mixed with water. It is true that causes, more or less obscure, perhaps simple, practical necessities, have in more than one case caused the rule to be relaxed. Every one in the Panjab takes water from the hands of the very low caste of Jhinvars,² but it is a tribe which chiefly supplies domestic servants. In many villages ³ the potter may distribute water to every one—at least on condition that a special vessel is reserved for each caste. At certain village communal meals ⁴ all the castes meet together, but each eats separately. These very arrangements prove the vitality of the principle. It is closely attached to considerations of external purity.