DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31218#0028
THE CASTE SYSTEM OF NORTHERN INDIA
endogamous. And where a colour question arises, that
tendency becomes all the more marked, as has been ob-
served, for instance, among the mulattos, quadroons, and
other groups of the mixed white and negro races, and as
is still to be observed to a certain extent in India to-day.1
All these circumstances were present in the Vedic age.
The Arya was a high race, the Dasyu a low. The Arya
despised and hated, perhaps also feared, the Dasyu; he
looked on him as foul-mannered, as an eater of raw and
even human flesh ,• and he felt a strong repugnance to
his physical peculiarities—a low stature, a dark skin, a
flat nose. The colour question was very prominent and
impressed itself deeply on the Arya’s imagination :2 in-
deed the usual word for a social class was varna, which
means colour. Intermarriage in such circumstances
cannot have been free and unrestrained. It began : it
ceased as soon as possible. As cadets both of the full
and half blood pushed further afield, it began again, and
again ceased. The result would be the formation of
groups of all shades of colour, all degrees of mixed
blood3—all with a strong tendency to endogamy.
In the Jatakas,4 a collection of folk tales used by
pious compilers as a medium of moral
4. Sodety in instruction, there is an account of society
the Buddhist as it existed in early Buddhist times.
period qqie C0i0ur distinction, so prominent in
the Vedas, has faded into the background,
though its memory survives in the word varna used for
the four social classes—Kshatriya, Brahman, Vaisya
and Sudra. It will be noticed that the Kshatriya heads
the list; the Lords spiritual have not yet taken pride of
1 For othei' examples, see Risley, Census Report, India, 1901, p. 555.
Risley’s account is here closely followed.
2 The distinction between fair and dark is still real to the people,
as is shown by their proverbs and in other ways. It is a commonplace
that a fair bride finds a husband more easily than a dark bride.
3 Anthropometry has proved ihat the Hindu race is of mixed origin,
if it has proved nothing else. For a discussion of the elements in that
race, see Risley, The People of India.
4 The Jatakas are of various dates, but probably all anterior to the
4th century b.c. See V. A. Smith, Early History of India, 4th edition,
1924, pp. 11 and 65, note.
endogamous. And where a colour question arises, that
tendency becomes all the more marked, as has been ob-
served, for instance, among the mulattos, quadroons, and
other groups of the mixed white and negro races, and as
is still to be observed to a certain extent in India to-day.1
All these circumstances were present in the Vedic age.
The Arya was a high race, the Dasyu a low. The Arya
despised and hated, perhaps also feared, the Dasyu; he
looked on him as foul-mannered, as an eater of raw and
even human flesh ,• and he felt a strong repugnance to
his physical peculiarities—a low stature, a dark skin, a
flat nose. The colour question was very prominent and
impressed itself deeply on the Arya’s imagination :2 in-
deed the usual word for a social class was varna, which
means colour. Intermarriage in such circumstances
cannot have been free and unrestrained. It began : it
ceased as soon as possible. As cadets both of the full
and half blood pushed further afield, it began again, and
again ceased. The result would be the formation of
groups of all shades of colour, all degrees of mixed
blood3—all with a strong tendency to endogamy.
In the Jatakas,4 a collection of folk tales used by
pious compilers as a medium of moral
4. Sodety in instruction, there is an account of society
the Buddhist as it existed in early Buddhist times.
period qqie C0i0ur distinction, so prominent in
the Vedas, has faded into the background,
though its memory survives in the word varna used for
the four social classes—Kshatriya, Brahman, Vaisya
and Sudra. It will be noticed that the Kshatriya heads
the list; the Lords spiritual have not yet taken pride of
1 For othei' examples, see Risley, Census Report, India, 1901, p. 555.
Risley’s account is here closely followed.
2 The distinction between fair and dark is still real to the people,
as is shown by their proverbs and in other ways. It is a commonplace
that a fair bride finds a husband more easily than a dark bride.
3 Anthropometry has proved ihat the Hindu race is of mixed origin,
if it has proved nothing else. For a discussion of the elements in that
race, see Risley, The People of India.
4 The Jatakas are of various dates, but probably all anterior to the
4th century b.c. See V. A. Smith, Early History of India, 4th edition,
1924, pp. 11 and 65, note.