CASTE, a term applied chiefly to distinct classes or sections of society in India, and, in a modified sense, to social distinctions of an exclusive nature among the nations of the west. When, at the end of the 15th c., the Portuguese began to penetrate to India by the cape of Good Hope, and to trade with the Deccan or southern portion of the Indian peninsula, they found arbitrary social laws, full of intricate regulations which con stantly interfered with their intercourse with the natives, especially in matters involving the subdivision of labor. They found certain pursuits invariably followed by a certain class, and any attempt to induce a man to perform offices not appointed for the class of which he was a member, met with violent opposition, though such offices might. accord ing to European notions, be more honorable than many he was content to fulfill. They observed, also, that these different classes often varied in appearance, the result, in some cases, of their addiction for many generations to the same pursuits; in others, of their having actually arisen from a different stock. Hence they applied to these various divi sions of society the term casta—a Portuguese and Spanish word, meaning a breed. As applied to these classes of Hindu society, the word has passed into most European lan guages. From its frequent use in India, it has sometimes been erroneously considered of Hindu origin.* Of late, it has been spelled caste, but by old authors cast; and it is even a question whether the word may not be as genuine English, as casta is Spanish.
In the s. of India, the Portuguese became acquainted with what is considered the most exaggerated evil of caste. There are found there large numbers of a class called pariahs, or, in other districts of India, chandalas. They are probably the relics of some early conquered race, who have been degraded by uninterrupted ages of oppression, as is represented to have been the case with the Helots of Sparta, and people in a similar condition. These pariahs were always identified with outcasts—i.e., persons who had forfeited the privileges of their original order. No one of any C. would have any com munication with them. If one of them even touched a Na r, or warrior of high C., he might with impunity kill him. Some sorts of food were defiled by even their shadow passing over them; and the name of Pariah or Chandala conveyed to the Hindu the idea of the utmost vileness and disgust. All who violated the institutions of their class were held to sink into this class—a condition which involved the loss of all human respecta bility and comfort. These regulations were, moreover, referred to religion.
As India was at this time the land of the marvelous, and its inhabitants, though as various as the different nations of Europe, viewed as one homogeneous people, what was only time of one portion of the peninsula, was considered as prevailing everywhere, and as identical with the divisions of the Indians into seven tribes or castes, mentioned in olden times by Strabo, by Diodorus Siculus, and by Arrian. Nor was it forgotten that the Egyptians, whose early civilization was as undoubted as that of India, were also divided, according to Herodotus, into seven classes of priests, warriors, herdsmen, swineherds, tradesmen, interpreters, and pilots, to each of which were assigned particu lar districts.
About the middle of the 16th c., however, Abraham Roger, chaplain of the Dutch factory at Pulicat, gained the confidence of a Brahman, acquainted with the Sanscrit language, and by this means learned pretty exactly the account of the origin of C. given in the Laws of Menu, a work inferred to have been written not later than 900 n.c., which was long known only by name in Europe, until about the end of the last century, when a copy was obtained, and translated by sir William Jones. The whole of the Hindus are represented by Menu as divided into four classes: 1. The Brahmans, or sacerdotal class, who are said, at the moment of creation, to have issued from the mouth of Brahma. Their business is reading and teaching the Vedas, and the performance of sacrifice for themselves and others. They are to be the chief of all created beings; the rest of mortals enjoy life through them. By their imprecations, they can destroy kings, with all their troops, and elephants, and pomps. Indra, when cursed by one of them, was hurled from his own heaven, and compelled to animate a cat. Hence, the Brahman is to be treated with the most profound respect, even by kings. His life and person are protected by the severest laws in this world, and the most tremendous denunciations for the next. His own offenses are treated with singular lenity; all offenses against him, with terrible severity. He is forbidden to live by service, but on alms, and it is incumbent upon virtuous men and kings to support him with liberality; and all ceremonies of religion involve feasts and presents to him. The first part of his life is to be devoted to an unremitting study of the Vedas —books, be it observed, older than the code of Menu, and yet, except, perhaps, one of the later hymns, containing no mention of C. as a religious ordinance. Ile is to per form servile offices for his preceptor, and beg from door to door. In the second quar ter, he lives with his wife, reads and teaches the Vedas, assists at sacrifices, and, ''clean and decent, his hair and beard clipped, his passions subdued, his mantle white, his body pure, with a staff and a copy of the Vedas in his hand, and bright golden rings in his ears," he leads a studious and decorous life. The third quarter of his life he must spend in the woods, as an anchorite, clad in bark, without fire, wholly silent, and feed ing on roots and fruits. The last period he is released from external forms and morti fications, and is to spend his time meditating on the divinity, until at length he quits the body, as a bird leaves the branch of a tree, at pleasure. ' 2. The Kshatrya, or Chuttree, or military Moot, sprang from the area of Bramha, and bear something of a sacred character. It is stated that the sacerdotal order cannot prosper without the military, or the military without the sacerdotal; and the prosperity of both, as well in this world as in the next, is made to depend on their cordial union. The Kshatrya are to give alms, to sacrifice, to read the Vedas, and defend the people. Though Brahmans are to draw up and interpret laws. they are carefully excluded from them. The executive government is vested in the Kshatryas alone.