Caste in India: The Facts and the System c8.s5.10

c8.s5.10

According to Manu,¹ the gods will not eat an offering prepared by a Śūdra woman. In Rome the presence of a foreigner at the sacrifice of the *gens* was sufficient to offend the gods.² The Śūdra woman is a foreigner; she does not belong to the race which by the investiture of the sacred thread is born into the fullness of the religious life. Even if it is lawful for the high castes to marry a Śūdra woman, in addition to the legitimate wife possessed of full rights, yet the union must be celebrated without the customary prayers.¹ In the Āryan conception of marriage, husband and wife form the sacrificing couple attached to the family altar of the hearth. This common conception forms the basis of the endogamy of the Hindu caste and the limitations imposed on the family in classical antiquity.