Caste in India: The Facts and the System c7.s2.57

c7.s2.57

¹ It has been readily admitted (e.g. H. Mayne, *Hindu Law and Usage*, pp. 67-8, 79-80) that the restrictions which prohibit marriage from caste to caste may have been less strict formerly, and that, in a general way, the rules of the caste have probably become increasingly exclusive. The completion in a final form of the *dharmaśāstras* and their growing authority would sufficiently explain the incessant tendency towards the spread of more rigorous and uniform practice. It is clear that our sources are far from allowing us to fix with precision, in the historic and documental period, the stages of a decisive evolution in this matter.