Caste in India: The Facts and the System c7.s2.10

c7.s2.10

The system only admits of four castes : there is no fifth, we are assured. And thus, from the mixture of these castes, considered according to the various imaginable hypotheses, new castes are brought forth, the ‘ mixed castes ’. The degree of respect assigned to each is less in proportion as it postulates the association of a woman of higher caste with a man of lower caste. This is not all. Children, although the offspring of a couple in the same caste, may forfeit their status if the obligatory ceremonies are neglected. They form the class of the Vrātyas, but according as they derive from Brahmans, Kshatriyas or Vaiśyas, the Vrātyas divide, with a symmetry which clearly shows an artificial ordinance, into exactly the same number of distinct castes. We are given the name of all these sections and the trades which are proper to each. But these are certainly only specimens ; these mixtures and complications imply the existence of many others, and the Viṣṇusmṛiti¹ is certainly right in describing as ‘ innumerable ’ the sections which originate in this manner.