Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s5.22

c6.s5.22

The strictness of the rule that certain articles in a house may be touched and certain articles may not be touched by a middle-class or Śūdra servant complicates the arrangements in a Brahman household. A Kunbi servant cannot go to the god-room, kitchen, and dining-room of the house. He may touch bedding and woollen clothes; he may not touch fresh homewashed cotton clothes. He may touch dry grain; he can touch no grain that is wet. These rules are puzzling and much care is required in teaching and learning them.