Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s7.190

v2.c4.s7.190

² See Dasyu, Dāsa; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 113, 114. There is no trace in Vedic literature of any real distinction of colour save this main one. In the Gopatha Brāhmaṇa, i. 1, 23, the Brahman’s colour is white (śukla); the Kāṭhaka Saṃhitā, xi. 6, calls the Vaiśya ‘white’ (śukla), the Rājanya ‘swarthy’ (dhūmra); and the later view makes the four castes black, yellow (pīta), red (rakta), and white respectively. See Weber, Indische Studien, 10, 10, 11; Muir, Sanskrit Texts, i², 153, etc., 176. Cf. also Av. iii. 4, 6, where Whitney, Translation of the Atharvaveda, 90, with hesitation suggests the reading varṇaiḥ, ‘castes.’