Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s7.379

v2.c4.s7.379

On the other hand, it is not necessary to deny that the development of caste may have been helped by the family traditions of some gentes, or γένη, or Gotras. The Patricians of Rome for a long time declined intermarriage with the plebeians; the Athenian Eupatridai seem to have kept their γένη pure from contamination by union with lower blood; and there may well have been noble families among the Vedic Indians who intermarried only among themselves. The Germans known to Tacitus¹⁶³ were divided into *nobiles* and *ingenui*, and the Anglo-Saxons into eorls and ceorls, noble and non-noble freemen.¹⁶⁴ The origin of nobility need not be sought in the Vedic period proper, for it may already have existed. It may have been due to the fact that the king, whom we must regard as originally elected by the people, was as king often in close relation with, or regarded as an incarnation of, the deity;¹⁶⁵ and that hereditary kingship would tend to increase the tradition of especially sacred blood: thus the royal family and its offshoots would be anxious to maintain the purity of their blood. In India, beside the sanctity of the king, there was the sanctity of the priest. Here we have in the family exclusiveness of king and nobles, and the similar exclusiveness of a priesthood which was not celibate, influences that make for caste, especially when accompanying the deep opposition between the general folk and the servile aborigines.