Caste in India: The Facts and the System c7.s4.38

c7.s4.38

Ludwig in the end himself recognizes that he can only discern two distinct classes—the one of priests and the other of nobles—placed above the mass of the Āryan people, the Viśas. If he considers these indications to be sufficient grouna for affirming the existence of an order of castes, it is because he has taken the Brahmanic system as his starting-point. At least tacitly he considers this system to be the exact expression of the facts, and consequently takes any traces which in the past seem to agree with it as proof that at the time from which they date it existed in its entirety. This, to my mind, is begging the question.