The Modern Caste System

THE MODERN CASTE SYSTEM It follows from the definition of caste that the homogeneity of a unit and its consciousness of a closer alliance between its members than exists between it and other units, finds expression in definite social rules or even in outward and visible signs. The exclusiveness of caste, then, has led to prohibitions on intermar riage between castes or eating, drinking and smoking with mem bers of castes other than one's own and even to differences in attire. It may be asked how such restrictions and precepts could be enforced. The reply is to be found in the mentality of the people. In India individuality is weak. Indian society admits of no compromise. Its principles are pushed to their extremest conclusions. In such matters as food and drink, material consid erations have accentuated and to some extent justified this attitude.

The Indian is by instinct cleanly. He has invented many effec tive devices to protect himself from personal defilement. If many of his precautions have become ceremonial rather than hy gienic he has nevertheless modified them in practice on common sense lines. Thus a caste will sometimes refuse to inhale smoke from the huqa mouth piece of a lower caste, but it makes a fun nel of the hand and substitutes it for the infected tube. It will decline to drink from the drinking cup but will take water poured into the hands from the waterskin which has not come into actual contact with the unclean lip. It will not eat soft food from a corn mon dish but it will accept dry biscuit which is obviously less easily contaminated.

But where matrimony is concerned the feeling that the caste must be absolutely isolated is stronger, and it has strengthened by lapse of time. The Kshatriyas admitted, at least in theory, a maiden to choose her husband in the swayamvara, a festive cere mony at which her suitors were assembled and the one who found favour in her eyes was garlanded by her own hand. No doubt this freedom of choice was often replaced by the bride's capture or a contest in wit or warlike skill in which the prize was her hand. But whatever forms the usage took it has fallen into complete abeyance, its last traditional observance being ascribed to Prithiraj of Delhi, late in the i 2th century A.D.

Modern usage denies to a girl any say in the choice of a hus band by the simple device of betrothing her at a very early age, sometimes, indeed, before birth to a "suitable" bridegroom, who must be selected not merely within the caste but in certain groups inside it. The ancient hypergamous rule which allowed a woman to be married to a man of a higher class has also been modified so that she is now only eligible to wed in a higher group within the caste. On the other hand the Hindus and their offshoots have maintained the old exogamous principles which prevent in-breed ing, though in south India cross-cousin marriage is largely prac tised. Hence Hindu society is endogamous restricting marriage to a group, while it is more rigidly exogamous in that it disallows it within the blood kin. It is only hypergamous to a limited de gree. Complex as caste has become, its guilding principles are simple and are only departed from occasionally. It has resulted in the creation of some 3,000 or 4,000 social units, many of which are, however, not altogether homogeneous, so that these figures do not represent all its ramifications. It has accentuated the weakness of Indian individuality. The system of caste has made it virtually impossible for an individual citizen to raise himself in the social scale; but it has made it fairly easy for groups to do so. Its bur den, however, lies heaviest on the women. It has made premature marriage a necessity. It has led to an embargo on the remarriage of widows, even virgin widows, because the strictest monogamy being the ideal of the highest castes, the lower have been forced to adopt it as a token of social advance. It has of ten so narrowed the field of selection that brides command a high and increasing price, and marriages are arranged without regard to the future wife's welfare or that of her offspring but to gratify parental greed. Even of ter death the individual is all but forgotten. Passing by an Indian hamlet the traveller can readily tell if it is Moham medan or Hindu. In the former there will be a cemetery, how ever rude. In the latter the only graves will be those of the very young who died of small-pox and the memorials of holy men who died to the world on entering some religious order. The village fanes contain no tablets to the ashes of the dead. Cremation con signs human personality to oblivion. So faint is the memory of it that the next brother of a soldier killed in action will step into his place, take his wife and name, his regimental number and his land with hardly a formality. And if the widow display any tend ency to revolt and a preference for another man, even for a near kinsman of the dead husband, all the influence of the caste will be employed to bring her to acceptance of the age-long custom.

The Brahman.

To the definition of caste given above the Brahmans certainly do not conform. In a very limited unreal sense the Brahman stands at the head of modern Hindu society owing to his congenital sanctity. But he does not form a horizon tal stratum overlying it. He forms a stratified cone which pene trates it vertically from top to bottom. Divided into great ter ritorial groups, 5 in the north, and 5 in the south, the former are the Gauda, the latter the Dravida.

Northern Groups.

Gaur, from Gauda in Oudh, Kanaujia, Central Doab, Saraswata, on the upper Jamna-Maithila, from Tirhut, Utkala in Orissa.

Southern Groups.

Maharashtri, Deccan, Karnata, Mysore, Andhra, Telingana, Dravida, Tamil, Gurjara of the west. The northern groups do not all hold a position of unchallenged supe riority over those of the south. The Brahmans of Maharashtra, the modern Mahratha country, do not form an organized body and mostly follow such professions as medicine, law, teaching and government service. Even those who are priests are not always well versed in the vedas, and the later Hindu scriptures. Yet the prominent subgroup, the Chitpawan, "pure-hearted," caste of the Konkan, which leads Mahratha society, used to feel polluted by the food of a Saraswata Brahman because the latter ate fish, a diet forbidden to the former. They despise the Brahmans of Guzerat, the Gurjara, as water carriers and those of Telingana as cooks, and those of all other parts of India as unable to pronounce Sanskrit correctly.

Of the territorial Brahman groups it is impossible to say which really holds the leading place. The traditional centres are still occupied by the Gaur, the Kanaujia and the Saraswata, yet their supremacy is not acknowledged by the other groups. The Kanau jia and the Gaur are probably the purest in blood, but the former exhibit the acme of subdivision combined with or based on cere monial exclusiveness. The least divided are those of the Dekkan. Hence it has been justly said that the Brahmans form "the most heterogeneous collection of minute and independent subdivisions that ever bore a common designation." Never organized into a tribe on a territorial basis the Brahman was, from the beginning, parasitic upon other "classes" of the communities which con ferred their patronage upon him in return for his varied services. As in Vedic times the Brahman followed the fortunes of his chief, so later a village sending forth a segment of its tribal owners to found a new hamlet would send with it a detachment of its hereditary village servants including Brahmans of the section at tached to the tribe; and to every group within a caste is conjoined a specific group of Brahmans whose precedence is fixed by its patrons' standing in the caste. Hence if a group lost ground socially its Brahmans also lost ground, though they had the option of declining to serve it if it dropped out of caste altogether. This new disintegrating force is ever at work. Lastly, just as function fixed or lowered or raised the positions of castes and subcastes, so it altered the status of Brahmans within their own caste. Good samples of such will be found in Bengal where the Agradani Brah mans who conduct funeral rites and accept the offerings of the dead, and the Acharji, fortune-teller, palmist and maker of horo scopes and the Bhat, a rapacious genealogist and bard living largely on blackmail, are degraded by function to a level nearly as low as the Pirali whose ancestors were forced some 40o years ago to eat or at least smell beef cooked for a Brahman converted to Islam when he became chief minister to a Mohammedan ruler of Jessore. Degradation may indeed go further for it ranks the Vyasokta so low that even his patrons the Chasa-Kaibartta, fisher men and cultivators, refuse to touch food in his house.

But the Brahman may abandon all Brahmanical functions al together and take to a secular calling as a lawyer, school-master, engineer or less willingly as a physician. Land-owning is, however, of as good repute in Brahman eyes, and when grants of land were made by grateful rulers or nobles for secular service or spiritual benefits to a Brahman his descendants would often set up as plain country gentlemen farming their estates through serfs of aborig inal or lowly origin. Such Brahman squires are the Nambutiri of the Malabar coast, the Haiga or Havika in Kanara, and the Mas than of Orissa and Guzerat, and scattered representatives of this class exist everywhere. If, however, the estate was of poor soil or became too minutely sub-divided among its heirs the Brahman had perforce to turn farmer himself, like the Babhan or Bhuinhar of Bengal, the Taga of the Punjab.

Further, when economic pressure is severe, the Brahman may descend to agricultural labour, domestic cook or any vocation not involving actual defilement, without loss of caste. Military serv ice is equally open to him, a notable example being the Nuhial of the Punjab, a group which has entirely given up sacerdotal func tions for soldierly careers; while the Panre subdivision of the Kanaujias of the United Provinces prior to the Mutiny of 1857 enlisted freely and with their title anglicized as Pandy acquired a terrible notoriety.

Yet it is as hard for a Brahman as it is for a Mohammedan Saiyid to divest himself of his personal sanctity by turning his hand to any reputable employment. He will lessen or lose it far more readily by other means, by ministering to an unclean caste, or by eating the sins of a dead Raja and taking upon himself the pollutions they have caused. To the latter the term Acharaj has come to be applied though it originally meant only a spiritual guide or teacher, and he is also styled Maha-Brahman or "great Brahman," doubtless to avoid the ill effects of calling him by his real and less auspicious title. The Maha-Brahmans are endoga mous, having been excommunicated by all the other Brahmans be cause they accepted alms made within 13 days of a death. But his functions touch even a lower depth. Occasionally he used to take food from the hand of a corpse on the funeral pyre, but this usage is dying out, and he is now paid merely to eat as much as he can in the belief that the more he consumes the better it will fare with the soul of the dead. Even lower is his own sin-eater, the Par-Acharaj who accepts from the Acharaj those gifts which the latter takes from the Hindus. But sometimes the Acharaj makes these gifts to Saniasis who being dead to the world are seemingly beyond the reach of defilement ; or they are made to his daughter or son-in-law with what consequences is not known. Naturally the touch of an Acharaj pollutes, since he never visits a house save at or after a death which has defiled it.

But the Brahmans who have taken to crime as a profession are merely degraded, not unclean. Such are the Tagus on the upper Jamna. They form a criminal tribe, yet seclude their women, wear the sacred thread, plead "benefit of clergy" on conviction and make vows for success in crime to a Muslim saint. They fell because their forefather married a widow of his own caste. Well above them stand the Taga in the same locality. Gaur Brahmans by origin, they abandoned sacerdotal functions and took to farm ing, but they are bad farmers, strictly secluding their women and wearing the sacred thread. A notable tradition says they received a big grant of real estate in 'lieu of offerings, so other Brahmans refused to marry with them or even to take bread from their hands. They have in fact to employ Brahmans for their own sacerdotal business. Yet their social standing is high and the holy Jamna has spared Taga hamlets when changing her course, while floods have swept away those of other castes.

The Modern Khatris.

Scattered over N. India the Khatri caste derives its name from the Kshatriyas, but holds a very dif ferent place in Hindu society, being the leading commercial caste. In religion it is mostly Hindu, but the founders of Sikhism be longed to it and many of its members are Sikhs (q.v.). In its modern organization the caste presents features unknown to the Kshatriyas and of obscure origin. It is graded in three main groups, the Bari or "12," the Bunjahis or "52" (suggesting some solar basis) and the Sarin, possibly guildsmen. Not one of these groups is absolutely endogamous, but they tend to become so. Each group comprises in theory certain specified exogamous clans which strive to form yet further subgroups, by refusing to give daughters to clans of lower status, and even families rise and fall as they evolve scruples in this respect. The Sarin group is not permitted even to smoke with the two higher. No less than 500 clans are named but even folk-etymology has failed to explain many of them; e.g., the Khokharain sub-group of the "52"s claims descent from a son of Manu, but it is possibly named from the Khokhar Rajputs, and several clan-names are traced to military terms in support of the claim to Kshatriya descent. Probably the caste had a Kshatriya nucleus and its lowest group, the Sarin, was affiliated to it when it took to trade. But the above do not exhaust the Khatri sub-groups.

Territorial groups cross-divide the status groups, so that a Lahoria or Sirhindia Khatri will not bestow his daughter on a man of the eastern group; some of the Sarin clans have risen high in status because they gave gurus or pontiffs to Sikhism, and these tend to coalesce into a subgroup, intermarrying one with another, or even splitting a clan into two exogamous septs, so as to make it possible to find equal mates for daughters. As a caste the Khatris are singularly heterogeneous in usage, many clans have special social rites at weddings and the like ; and several septs possess inherited powers of curing disease, affect particular Sikh saints or even Muslim usages.

The Khatri organization has been adopted more or less imper fectly by other castes. Thus the Brahmans who are clients of Khatri clans for ceremonial purposes are graded inter se on the Khatri scheme and their purohits are invariably Saraswati Brah mans. Thus, when Parasurama axe'd the Kshatriyas, a pregnant widow of the exterminated caste found a refuge with a Saraswati and gave birth to a boy who espoused 18 Kshatriya wives whose male offspring refounded the caste, assuming the names of as many Hindu saints. Hence the Khatri gotras are identical with those of the Brahmans, though they are seemingly ignored in practice.

Aroras.

Similarly the Arora, a trading caste which traces its origin to Sindh, is in part organized on the Khatri model and claims a like origin ; but its clan names are frequently totemistic and in its ranks Sikhism only counts a substantial minority of Sikhs.

Bhatias.

The Bhatias, yet another trading caste which has overspread the Punjab from the south-east displays still further traces of Khatri influence, but it is stricter in its Hinduism, eschews widow remarriage and claims Rajput origin. Though it has no territorial groups the caste tradition is that while brides may be taken from the east, the western clans should avoid the converse concession. The Bhatias comprise 84 septs, i 2 at the top and a group of "52"5 below, with a mixed clan styled Gond, "defiled," sprung from widows remarried or Arora mothers. Nat urally the latter are only served by Pushkar Brahmans.

Banias.

The great trading caste of the Banias or Mahajan, "great folk," spread all over N.W. India and Rajputana, is obvi ously organized on a scheme of its own. It is split into three terri torial groups, of which the principal are the Aggarwal from West ern, and the Oswal (who became Jains) from Eastern Rajputana. But the offspring of Aggarwals by handmaidens form a kind of "half-score" subcaste whose clans are named after their mothers' clans. The pure Aggarwals only number 17 clans, descended from as many snake maidens, but to these must be added the Gond, a half clan, due to an unwitting breach of the exogamous law, and another due to a marriage with a low-caste wife, with which last other Banias will not smoke. Finally a subcaste said to be quite distinct, descends from tanners who took to trade. Small wonder then that the Banias in the mass are admitted to be of pure Vaisya descent, eschew widow remarriage, wear the sacred thread and re fuse food and drink at the hands of the yeomen who despise them. Sectarian differences have also cross-divided the Banias, since while Vaishnava and Jain families intermarry the Shaiva or Maheshri stand, or are kept, aloof. Yet the disruption is not ab solute, for the Jains have made converts from groups other than the Oswal and these with the Oswal seem to have assumed in the Punjab the ancient title of Bhabra, now applied to any Bania from Rajputana whether Jain or not. Jain Bhabras profess strict monogamy. All these trading castes of N. India contain enter prising elements, Khatris and Aroras being found in the Pathan borderland, Afghanistan and even in Turkistan. One Khatri clan, the Merwaha, claims its origin from Merv. As an owner of land acquired by moneylending, he is a progressive landlord, but the Arora when allowed a chance runs him close. On the Punjab borderland the latter has been for centuries treated as a denizen of the Ghetto, forbidden to wear a turban, and only allowed to bestride an ass, to carry on petty trade and lend money. Never permitted to employ his capital in developing commerce or im proving agriculture, he has invested it in usury of the harshest type and is equally hated and despised, dubbed a Kirar till that term has come to imply all that is mean and cowardly.

Kayasth.

In the plains of Hindustan and Bengal the Kayasth may be called the Khatri's substitute. The term simply means accountant or scrivener and in old days the Kayastha kept up court records, collected taxes and administered finance. These functions brought him into collision with the Brahmans as in Kashmir. The present stronghold of the Kayasth caste is in Lower Bengal where tradition plausibly describes it as an importation of the 9th century into that country; but it was not organized until the I I th when Ballal Sen forbade the immigrants to intermarry with their indigenous caste-fellows. But he apparently failed to do more than stabilize existing usage which permitted the former to take brides from the latter. However this may be, the Kayasth either imitated the Brahmans' Kulinism or, quite conceivably, founded that system which the Brahmans adopted. Whether the Kayasths were originally all Kshatriyas or comprise elements affiliated from lower classes akin to them by occupation, it is im possible to decide ; but they are minutely subdivided.

Caste and Occupation.

In different groups the smiths will be known by different names, but as yet mere community of voca tion would not make a smith's daughter of Madras . marriageable to a Punjabi smith's son. Indeed the smiths of much smaller terri tories than a Province would not tolerate equal alliances outside their own territorial subgroups. At best the smiths of a territory esteeming itself superior to those of another might accept daugh ters from an inferior territory. But the smiths were, it would seem, recruited from many sources. Some were, or asserted a claim to be, originally of a high caste like the Rajput, or respect able middle-class yeomen. The recollection of superior origin would die hard and the clan name would be carefully retained, so that the families so descended would only marry with families of equal descent—or at best accept brides from those not more than a degree lower. Again there are grades of occupational re pute among smiths. Some may gain rank by pursuing a higher calling, as armourers. Economic pressure may turn others into nomad smiths or tinkers. The former will assume a new trade name, almost a surname, describing their skilled handicraft and the white-smiths will now intermarry still preserving their old clan exogamy. Popular speech will dub the nomads tinkers or even gipsies and they will have perforce to accept it, but they will be glad to give daughters to settled smiths, people who still form an integral factor in the village community and may even hold land of it as a retaining tenure for keeping up the village smithy. Other smiths may get engineering qualifications or build up big businesses but that will not raise them, at least not at all speedily. But to the outside world they will drop the caste name of smith, and use the one they have ready to hand; i.e., their old clan name which may denote descent from a historic stock. In two or three generations they may succeed in obtaining at a price brides from impoverished families of a similar stock, thus taking the first step towards the recognition of their long-lost and not convincingly authenticated status. But such social progress is tedious as well as costly and may halt halfway, the new subgroup finding it easier to intermarry with its equals until it becomes strictly endogamous and forms a sub-caste. Yet again a number of similar families may be converted to a new sect recognized as Hindu but stress ing certain Hindu doctrines on social usages which mark it off from the rest of the caste. It, too, will tend to intermarry but may continue to accept brides from the unregenerate members of the caste. Political parties when they become stabilized may some day produce still further cross-divisions among the smiths. Mean while the smiths show little inclination to become Smiths by sur name and probably the future history of Indian surnames will not disclose the full extent to which the craft is followed in India. Still less likely is it that it will ever see hyphenated Smiths, since subcastes with social ambitions will discard any surnames reflect ing their traditional calling, and metronymics have rarely found favour in India.

The present tendency is to retain or revive the old clan names which makes it quite easy to avoid breaches of the exogamous principles, or adopt titles of offices held, even if they were Moham medan assumed under the Moghul overlords.

Bhois.

A caste of some size (about 6o,000 in number) is that of the Bhois in Bombay. The term is also used to denote a litter bearer and some Mahars style themselves Bhois. In some parts of Khandesh the Bhois are confused with Kahars, an immigrant caste of fishermen from northern India. Elsewhere they are known as Maharia and are very often called Koli on account of similarity of occupation. In the Deccan they differ little from the Mahratha Kunbis in looks, dwellings, etc., and indeed in Nasik they called themselves Kunbis and some of that caste eat with them. One authority says that they sprang from a Brahman father and a Parasar mother, and terms them Paushtikas. Yet they have dark complexions and amongst them totemism sur vives, chiefly among the Khandesh Bhois, whose totems are leaves of trees. The Bhois are divided broadly into five groups, each again subdivided into endogamous sections. Many of these are again subdivided but are able to eat together though they cannot intermarry. The exogamous sections are numerous but are merely surnames, many of which are found also among the Mah rathas. Fairly strict Hindus, they yet have the custom of bury ing the dead, especially the unmarried.

Modes of Life.

An Indian's mode of life varies with his caste and occupation, and the climate of the part to which he belongs. His vocation and his ceremonies may be said to fill his life, and they are of equal importance. The cultivator has to work on the land in due season, but his hours of leisure are taken up by the countless rites which accompany birth, marriage and death, and by fairs and festivals, so that he does not feel the want of much else to instruct or amuse him. A birth, especially a boy's birth, is the occasion for observances which occupy his family for years, and by family here is meant his sept rather than his parents and their closer kindred. A marriage is a quasi-public event and so is a fu neral. Hence to abolish or reduce ceremonial would deprive the people in the mass of their employment, for there is as yet little or nothing to replace it. The sequence begins at pregnancy, which is solemnized by a series of observances often obscure in origin, but intended to result in a safe confinement, to revere ancestors, to ensure a lucky life for the child, and so on. They are continued at birth, twins being occasionally unpropitious, and certain se quences, as e.g., a birth of one sex after three of the other being peculiarly so, and requiring special observances to avert their ef fects. An eighth child is most ill-omened to its parents. Other un toward births affect other near relatives. At birth astrology is called in to determine the child's future, and often it is sought to decide its future calling, a choice already largely made for it by its caste.

Its head may in places be moulded, but otherwise little is done for it physically. Naming is an important rite and so is the first tonsure which may mean a journey to some distant place for cer tain septs. These and other minor rites lead up to the investiture with the sacred thread for boys of the twice-born castes, a rite of initiation wherein they become pilgrims, at least potentially.

Marriage absorbs more rites and usages than all the rest put together. Betrothal begins with numerous minor rites, even when it is itself a binding ceremony, sometimes known as "little wed ding," the shddi or a similar expression, the popular term for wed ding meaning literally "rejoicing," but older terms are still in use. The wedding is the occasion for usages to ensure its fertility, for games to decide which of the parties is to be the dominant partner and for luck in the new household. Important roles are assigned to women, and men whose spouses are still alive, to the best man, to the mother's brother and others. The death of a bride-to-be or a newly-wedded wife is peculiarly inauspicious. Many usages are probably survivals of obsolescent customs. At a Hindu wedding, the binding rite is often the seven-fold circumambulation of the sacred fire, as fire, like the other elements, is a witness. In many forms of marriage rite, the wedded pair are treated as a god and goddess, or are crowned like them. There are also degrees of mar riage varying among different castes, and equally degrees of legiti macy, relics of ancient usages. In strict practice a bride must be a virgin, can only be ritually married once and should be given by her father without price to the bridegroom. But, as a fact, brides are usually bought or exchanged, unless the hypergamous rules compel the purchase of the groom. Widows are remarried, if cus tom permits, by observances which are civil rather than religious or merely by co-habitation with the dead man's next of kin. In places her children by the first husband are brought into the new one's family, but this usage is rare and the right of the widow's son to succeed as his heir is now usually contested. It is not un usual for the bride to be formally admitted into her husband's sept. Consummation is sometimes deferred, the bride remaining in her parents' house for one, three, five or even 11 years and then being brought to her new home by a rite known as mukhlawa ("disclos ing the face"), gauna and so on. But this usage is by no means uni versal and the Legislature has fixed a more advanced age for the legal consummation of marriage. But the difficulties of dealing with such a matter by statute are immense. The community of a married pair is emphasized in the Central Provinces, where they perform the business of their caste or an imitation of it.

Death ritual is not quite as intricate or as costly. Cremation is far and away more prevalent with Hindus than burial, but some castes bury the dead, and infants are almost always buried, though they may be exposed. The lower grades of Brahmans play a fairly extensive part in death rites, taking most of the alms offered by the dying man or his heirs. The popular theory is that as the funeral rites can only be validly performed by a man's next heir, he who fulfils them will inherit and, despite innumerable decisions to the contrary, the idea dies hard. In Bengal the Hindu law of in heritance follows the sacerdotal law which regulates the sacrificial efficiency of the heirs, each in his degree.

Post death rites for the dead continue for months or even years, and their non-observance may cause harm not merely to the dead but to the living. The spirit of a sonless man is particularly liable to be malignant. Hindus believe in Put, "Hell," which is recon ciled to the doctrine of metempsychosis, making it a temporary place of abode like Svarga, "Heaven." After the term therein de creed to the soul by Yama, it will be reborn, the form of its re birth depending on its karma (q.v.), or the accumulated energy of past actions which is not wholly removed by its sojourn in Heaven or Hell. Funeral feasts, usually eaten at the grave and immediately after the funeral, are common among low castes in the Central Provinces and are probably non-Aryan in origin though also practised by Bishnois.

Seasonal Rites.

The life of a pastoral tribe is often nomadic. To find pasture, flocks and herds are taken to the hills or to lands beside the rivers in the hot season, and there is no respite for the herdsmen. Their festivals have to be held on such dates as fit in with their movements. For the cultivator things are easier, yet, even in his case, the great festivals are all held at times when manual work is slack. Thus the Holi falls in early spring when the crops are ripening and the Dasehra (q.v.) in autumn when the work is again slackening. Among Mohammedans the festivals and fasts, being determined by the lunar year, fall at times in the midst of the busy season and, therefore, seriously affect agricultural efficiency.

Economic Effects.

In a country where agriculture more or less supports over 72% of the population, the caste prejudices and habits of the mass of the workers prevent their taking up other occupations to utilize their spare time. A man may have insuffi cient land to support his family but if he is of good caste he can not take to weaving or work for hire because that would lower his social status. This difficulty is enhanced by the laws as to tenant right which have subdivided holdings until they are minute in area. This fact compels the tenant of a fighting caste in the Pun jab and Hindustan to seek employment in the army, but in Ben gal he is shut out from such a vocation. Nor does he seek work on the tea estates of Assam or the indigo plantations of Bihar. Only in the coal-fields of Bengal do the Rajputs and even Brahmans find employment as skilled coal cutters. In southern India the condi tions are apparently much the same. Obviously the lowest castes have a great advantage over the middle, even the lower middle, ones in their capacity for migration. Similar is the case of jute spinning and weaving, the most important manufacture in Bengal. Only a fourth of the skilled workers in this industry are natives of that province. A province like Bengal where the population is al ready dense absorbs about 1,200,000 souls from other parts of India. The root cause of the Bengal cultivators' poverty has been attributed to his not having enough work to fill in his time. In spite of the extension of canal-irrigation in the Punjab the same remark applies to the lowest castes of that province.

Caste Government.

Caste government may have been im posed from without and not be of spontaneous growth. In N. Arcot (southern India) the eighteen right-hand castes, which in clude few landed elements, used to obey the Desais, intendants of a desk or circuit-area, who are Chettis (Sethi) of the great Telugu trading caste, the Balija, and some humbler castes still submit to them. Entitled the "protector of wealth," Dhanapala, the Chetti deals with moral delinquencies (in both sexes), his badge of office being a brass cup-shaped spoon round which a carved figure repre sents each caste. The post is saleable and is worth thousands of rupees, but it is kept in the Balija caste.

The Uriya, "of Orissa," carpenter caste has an official hierarchy in its mahardna, "great prince," dondopato mahardna, his criminal deputy, swangso mandrana, and others, as the agopothiria, whose function it is to eat with a man re-admitted to caste. Here, again, for grave cases, representatives of five castes, equal or superior to the carpenters' own, are called in to sit with the caste officers and act as assessors. The Gaudo of the Uriyas in Ganjam does not call in outside assessors, but it, too, has a series of officials, includ ing the desia who re-admits to caste.

Marriage and Remarriage.—The age for marriage is largely a matter of social status as well as of caste. Generally it is lowest among the high castes, but even in their case may be almost adult because their girls are more secluded, it may be difficult to arrange betrothals, or the evils of premature unions may be recognized. On the other hand, among the Cherumans, agricultural serfs in Cochin, a girl not married before puberty is regarded as polluted, as a woman "whose age is known," and out-casted. In the old days she was handed over to a headman who could marry her to his own son or sell her into slavery. The prejudice in favour of infant marriage is strongest in Lower Bengal, where a religious compulsion for it has been discovered by the Brahmans in the scripture which consigns to hell the father who lets his daughter attain puberty unwed. But the scripture may have sought a reli gious explanation of an aboriginal prejudice.

Over the problems of its origin and effects and reform, contro versy has raged for over a century without much result. Marriage, indeed, does not necessarily imply co-habitation, which may not take place till one or any odd number of years up to i i of ter the wedding, so that of ten the earlier the latter ceremony the later the actual marriage. It is not, however, likely that the usage will spread much. Too many factors militate against reform. A horde of parasites, the go-between, the bards, priests, artisans, prostitutes, almost every caste gets perquisites at betrothals, weddings, funerals, and the social rites therewith connected. The dullness of village life and the inconceivable ennui of the secluded zenana, among the classes which regard the emancipation of women with horror, are only brightened by the excitements which attend domestic events. When a bridegroom has to be paid for, he probably costs less if his bride is a child. When a bride has to be bought her price is high and going higher. The father of sons must buy quickly if he would secure daughters-in-law. The peasant youth who finds himself unwed at 20 may have to resort to the thoroughly disreputable matrimonial agents who abduct girls from localities where females are in excess, harbour discontented young wives or buy up low caste damsels, disposing of them at excellent prices to purchasers who are careful not to enquire too closely into antecedents. A single scandal in a family of good standing will undo years of reform propaganda ; and nothing but a revolution in female education will alter things.

Closely interwoven with the problem of premature marriage is that of widow remarriage. Like sati (q.v.) the dislike to it as a social stigma is based on idealism. But the ideal is the enemy of the real.

In southern India, a group of the Marans, temple servants, stand higher than other sections of that caste because they forbid a widow to remarry, but permit her to take a Brahman or higher caste paramour. They are in consequence known as Orunul, "one string." So great is the dislike among the Jats of upper India to her remarriage even with the husband's younger brother, that they generally avoid espousing the widow, so that she remains ten ant-for-life of the dead husband's land, and is kept in concubi nage. If, however, she takes advantage of her position to elope with another, she is claimed by her husband's nearest kinsman on the plea that she was informally wed to him. Generally the sacrament of marriage being only once possible for a woman, her remarriage is a purely social rite unsanctified by priestly recognition. Never theless the general dislike of widow remarriage and the stigmas at tached to it make the acquisition of a child-bride a social necessity, cost what it may. Several of the terms for "widow" connote ill repute or ill-luck. But when the prejudice has once been overborne the widow remarried may rank higher than the ritual wife. Thus, in the eyes of the Gavara, a respectable cultivating caste in Mad ras, a woman who has had seven husbands is much respected : in the Himalayas, a widow's son provided he be born in her hus band's house, is regarded as the husband's son even if obviously he is not : and a Jat will conceive it a duty to put away his wife in order to fulfil the higher obligation to marry a brother's widow.

Divorce.—As a general rule, among the higher Hindu castes no divorce is recognized, but where it is recognized it is not de pendent on judicial decree but on the husband's will, and no coun tervailing privilege is accorded to the wife. Yet, in fact, all castes would recognize the expulsion from caste and consequent annul ment of a marriage in case of a wife's misconduct or misfortune such as violation. Where divorce is permissible it becomes capri cious and often degenerates into sale, but as a rule caste opinion is strong enough to prevent grave abuses and marriage is remarkably permanent. Even among the humbler castes a man who had put away a wife without grave cause would find it difficult to find a new one. Dissolution of a marriage by mutual consent is usual only among inferior castes or backward tribes and is then effected by a simple rite such as the breaking of a stick, the cutting of a melon in two or the like. Even the caste council's intervention is superfluous.

Polygamy.—As an institution polygamy (q.v.) is the excep tion. It is almost the privilege of wealth, irrespective of caste and often discountenanced by important sects. Its principal justifica tion is sonlessness in the wife. Very generally the wife first wedded holds a favoured position and the co-wife may suffer various dis abilities but much depends on her relative social status, on under standings arrived at when the first bride is acquired and so on. A bride or her parents may stipulate that she shall not be given a rival, but in its zeal to void agreements in restraint of matrimony, the Indian Legislature has also invalidated covenants in restraint of polygyny, so such stipulations have been judicially declared of no avail. Polygyny is sometimes advocated by childless wives anxious to see the birth of an heir and ready, if not eager, to adopt him. A curious rule of inheritance may arise in families where all the wives have sons, the inheritance being by top-knots, each wife's sons getting an equal share collectively, irrespective of their number.

Adoption.

The intense desire for a son to inherit and to sol emnize his father's funeral rites necessary to the welfare of his soul, has led to adoption in various forms in the regions under Brahmanical influences; and to various species of substituted sons. Manu's laws, which probably drew largely on primitive ideas of paternity, allow that in default of a real son, the wife's son born secretly, her son previously born or begotten, the son of a remar ried wife, and a foundling or a son purchased, should inherit in his place. Yet, the principle of legitimation, per subsequens matri monium, is not expressly enunciated and its rare occurrence is con fined to tribes little influenced by Brahmanism. Manu accepted the niyoga rule whereby a sonless man could appoint his wife or widow to bear him an heir, just as he could designate a daughter to that end. The man chosen, however, must be a near agnate kins man of the husband and one son only could be begotten by him. The Arya Samaj (q.v.) has inculcated a great extension of this practice, removing all Manu's restrictions. In one passage Manu condemns not niyoga but the levirate (q.v.) whereby the husband's kinsmen could impose the duty of raising an heir to him without appointment, and seems to say that if a son is born under the levirate the deceased husband's property must be absolutely sur rendered to him. To the son by niyoga, Manu assigns the term Kshetraja, "field"-son, in allusion to the question discussed by him and still much debated, whether a crop grown from seed sown on an alien field belongs to the sower or the owner of the land. He decides that the latter owns it, in the absence of a contract to the contrary, although the seed is more important than the soil, but clearly other jurists differed from him. Sociologically the results of Manu's rules have been evil. Their principles have come down into modern custom in countless forms, their complexities have been fostered by advocacy resulting in costly and protracted liti gation, culminating in universal debt. The demand for credit be ing insatiable has had to be met by the capitalist castes, and in the absence of opportunity for financing industry, Indian capital has followed the line of least resistance, lending at customary rates which it is folly to regard as usurious. An inveterate tendency to procrastinate and evade repayment of a loan has rendered security nugatory. The distinction between an assured debt and one totally unsecured is unknown to the borrower, carefully ignored by the lender and disregarded in legislation, so that a man of substance pays almost as dearly for accommodation as a man of straw. Land hunger is not confined to the cultivating classes. It is keenly felt among all. In more than one province the Legislature has been compelled to protect the peasantry en masse from economic serf dom and expropriation of its age-long tenures, just as it has had to check the abuses of landlordism and create fixity of tenant-right. The usurer has realized the utmost in kind, and for the still huge balance has been able to extort personal service extending even to jus primae noctis and creating an unrest which has found a vent in such jacqueries as occurred in the Punjab in 1914-15. The usage of niyoga has been attributed to customs of group marriage (q.v.) or to polyandry (q.v.), which in India is not common save among primitive groups or in tracts where women and land are scarce, as in the Himalayas, it is a precaution against fragmenta tion of holdings and is almost invariably fraternal. Elsewhere when custom bids a widow espouse her husband's brother or his agnatic cousin, suspicion of polyandrous practices may be justified, a theory supported by the popular view that adultery within the caste is much more venial than infidelity outside it. Among the Nairs (q.v.) of Madras, polyandry in the strict sense does not pre vail. The rule is that a woman can have but one lawful spouse. To a man more is allowed. Among the Madu in Madras he may be polygamous in one village and polyandrous in another.

Matriarchate.

The matriarchate (q.v.) can hardly be traced in India, but in the south polyandrous practices make it inevitable that descent should sometimes be traced by the female line and a man's heir is then his uterine sister's son. Women, however, rarely manage property even when it vests in them and the duty is en trusted to the eldest male of the family. The Bants of S. Kanara furnish a conspicuous instance to the contrary, doubtless because the men were a feudal body like the Nairs incessantly engaged in war, and still great sportsmen, though excluded from the army. Disdain for cultivation may indeed degenerate into sheer idleness, all fieldwork being left to the women while the men knit as a pas time. Yet the purchase of wives as workers is rare.

Ritual and Caste.

A fruitful source of caste formation and ramification, especially in the south, is the complexity of ritual. Each grade of priest tends to form a separate subcaste, and every ministrant in a fane belongs to a caste-group. The bent of the barber for music in Malabar has led to his employment as a tem ple bandsman which function has raised him to semi-sacerdotal status with Ambalavasi, "temple-resident," rank. The latter may trace descent in the male or female line, are divided into a num ber of functional castes each actively fissiparous, and employed in many rites outside the temples, leading to further disintegration. The question whether they are Brahmans degraded by function or Sudras elevated by it is insoluble.

Criminal Tribes.

Like any other calling in India, crime tends to become hereditary and as sanctified by custom, almost respect able. This tendency has been strengthened in two ways, the pro tection of the criminal by territorial magnates and the patronage of a goddess. The notorious Thugs furnish the classic instance in Bhawani, the goddess who received homage from the fraternity. Similarly in Madras the Donga-Dasuri take omens for thieving excursions from their goddesses and also from Hanuman.

Templewomen.

A feature of South Indian religion is the dedication of women of many castes to a temple where they live immoral lives. Thus, when a Bedar family has no sons or a girl child falls ill, a vow is made that she or the next girl baby shall become a Basawi and she is branded if vowed to a male deity and styled "male Basawis" : if vowed to a goddess girls are known as female Basawis. The son of a Basawi is, however, affiliated to her father's family; but a daughter also becomes a Basawi. In some places a Basawi lives in her parents' house and is hand-fasted to a man, the sole object in this case being to prevent extinction of the family. The Devidasis, a god's handmaidens, are less reputable and are divided into right and left hand, the former only consorting with men of the former faction while the latter only draw the line at the lowest castes. It is hard to say how these usages arose. Possibly not earlier than the 9th century A.D., the temples seem to have taken over an older state-controlled institu tion. Basawi is the name also given to a cow dedicated to Shiva, but Devadasis also serve in Vishnu's temples. The latter are di vided into seven classes including the Vikrita who sells herself, the Bhritya who wishes to enrich her family, and the Bhakta who joins a temple out of devotion, but the Gopika or Rudraganika are sim ply hired by it. Both Gopika and Bhakta suggest a connection with Krishna. Traces occur in Northern India of girls of low caste be ing wedded to a god, and in Southern India both Basawis and Devadasis are so united to the idol by wedding rites. They are often highly accomplished, learning to read and write as well as sing and dance. Their attainments have in fact given female edu cation a distinct tinge of disrepute. Poor law relief exists in India in embryo. The practice of handing over deformed infants to re ligious mendicants is widespread. Thus in Madras infirm children are claimed by the Mudavandi or "lame" Andis, a special sect of professional beggars of the Shaiva persuasion who are subsidised by the Vellalas, a land-holding class, for this service. The children are well-treated and adopted into the Andi families. Generally a deformed child is supposed to be handed over to a god in fulfil ment of a vow for male issue, but quite possibly the vow is an apologetic fiction. Microcephalous infants are thus "vowed" to a so-called Muslim saint in the Punjab and are styled "Shah Daula's rats." They are exhibited by peripatetic beggars, but not mal treated. Owing to the intensity of family and caste solidarity the aged and unfortunate are almost universally given maintenance or found work. In famines, of course, much hardship is endured, es pecially by secluded women of high castes who cannot "break their purdah," i.e., emerge from privacy to find work. Some castes, like the Nuttukottai Chattis, are as noted for charity as for acquis itiveness, and alms-giving is an atonement for every sin including covetousness. That it is indiscriminate and ill-directed is undeni able, religious mendicancy having made begging reputable.

An odour of sanctity attaches to all forms of feeble-mindedness, and cruelty to the insane is rare though demoniacal possession may be deemed curable by flogging.

Slavery.

It is only of quite recent years that slavery in India has ceased, and marked traces of it can still be found from the Afghan borderland to the extreme south. It often originated in debt, a freeman selling himself for an advance of money or to pay off a debt, but praedial serfs like the Cheruman of Malabar and the Holeya of Mysore are races enslaved by conquest. Among the latter, local capitalism devised a system of hand-fasting female serfs to serfs lest marriage in a better caste should lead to emanci pation. Yet the serf often enjoyed strange privileges. Thus in South Travancore for some time of ter harvest a Pulaiyar who suc ceeds in casting a stone at a high-caste woman after sunset, unless escorted by a male over three years old, caused her excommunica tion and could compel her to accompany him. In 1695 a royal edict abrogated this usage under pain of death. Less extreme privileges of Saturnalia are common.

Feudalism.—The chronic warfare of India has played its part in the formation of castes. To defend their frontiers the kings of the great realm of Vijayanagar employed Mutrachas, now a caste, with the title of Palaiyukkaram, now Paligar, holder of a palaiyan or feudal estate (no connection with modern Greek pal leka) . A Telugu caste following various callings from agriculture down to palanquin-bearers, the Mutrachas are largely watchmen, but some having been petty chiefs claim Kshatriya status. They have a special tutelary goddess but little or no marriage, forming unions often permanent with women of their own caste. Another caste of Paligars is the Maravar and they stoutly defended Tinne velly against the British up to the beginning of the 19th century. They claim descent from the boatman who ferried Rama over to Ceylon, and the Raja of Ramnad, their head, has the title of Satupati, or "lord of the bridge," but inscriptions indicate that the title originated about A.D. 1400 though coins may antedate it by a couple of centuries. The Maravars are now mainly culti vating subtenants, but contain a large criminal element which till recently virtually ousted the police at Tinnevelly as detectives, acquiring considerable popularity.

Another feudal caste is the Bedar Kanarese-speaking and the Telugu-speaking Boyas who once formed a homogeneous caste, but many of their septs bear names which indicate that once it was a fusion of many elements. Both Bedar and Boya are now cross divided into Uru or villagers and Myasa or grass-land men each subdivided into buffalo-men, men of the herd, of the flower and fish-men, with each its own god. Caste government is to a great extent carried on by priests, a Vaishnava Brahman or officiants at shrines of Hanuman and other gods. But they have also such groups as Nayaka and Pallagar and as infantry were recruited not only by the Paligars but by Haidar Ali himself who had raised himself from the rank of nayaka in the Mysore service largely by their aid. At one time they seem to have been forced or converted into partial acceptance of Islam, since some of them eat beef, but not pork, and circumcise boys. Yet they are still Hindus, worshipping both Shiva and Vishnu, with many other gods, and ob serving Hindu rites. The Paligars proved so lawless that they had to be dispossessed.

In the Central Provinces the castes formed by military service seem to be mainly derived from non-Aryan tribes. With the Mahrathas the Khandaits received grants of land as a reward for, or a condition of, such service, and rank somewhat above the cultivating castes. The Rautias of Chota Nagpur formed mainly from Kol tribes are in much the same position, while the Paiks, "footmen," and Taonlas, not having received such grants, rank below those castes. The Bangi Dhangars, "spear-shepherds," or Hatkars, enlisted in Maratha armies and still rank slightly higher than other shepherds (Dhangars).