Caste in India: The Facts and the System c8.s5.49

c8.s5.49

Although in several cases the worship of a common ancestor or of a recognized patron in India recalls the Graeco-Roman worship of eponymous heroes, it cannot be said that this is a prominent feature of the caste. Religious individualism here, thanks to the more liberal course of speculation, has made an advance, which has elsewhere been impeded by the advent of a political constitution definitely opposed to all religious innovation. Religion in India has been free to localize itself, to split up *ad infinitum*, and on occasion to mobilize with a liberty unknown in classical societies. It is chiefly in practice, and in usages directly inspired by very ancient conceptions, that the continuity of tradition manifests itself in the heart of the caste.