Caste in India: The Facts and the System c8.s3.33

c8.s3.33

Many castes take their name from their dominant occupation; but this only refers to a generic denomination, the application of which does not at all necessarily correspond to the limits of the caste. Baniā (merchant) is, like Brahman or Kshatriya, a designation in which it would be very incorrect to see the name of a caste; to do so would be to unite in a single province a number of groups which, having neither the right to intermarry nor to eat together, themselves form distinct castes.² Agricultural castes are numbered by dozens in a single district, and the Kāyasths, or scribes, of Bengal, in spite of a common professional name, are really divided into as many castes, distinguished by geographical or patronymic names, as there exist among them endogamous groups with particular usages and special jurisdiction. It is the same everywhere.