Caste in India: The Facts and the System c7.s4.35

c7.s4.35

It is of little importance that the word ‘varna’ in no way signifies ‘caste’ in the hymns, if it be true that this word has never strictly had this meaning, or at least that it has only acquired it by virtue of a late extension. If it be true that we are dealing with classes and not with castes, we can draw no conclusion from the fact that we see a triple division in the population whose existence we may be justified in inferring in a still remoter past. The societies in which class-hierarchy appears are too various for it to possess any inherent significance. Caste, being by nature a circumscribed and separatist organism, must necessarily have other roots.