Nor does C., at the present day, tie a man down to follow his father's business, except, perhaps, in the case of the more sacred functions of the Brahmans. For the rest, Brah mans serve as soldiers, and even as cooks. Men of all castes have risen to power, just as in England our statesman have sprung from every class of society. Nor, again, is loss of C. anything so terrible as has been represented; in most cases, it may be recov ered by a frugal repast given to the members of the C.; or the outcast joins another C., among whops Lewill commonly be received with the heartiness due to a new convert. The question of the restoration of a Christian convert wishing to rejoin the Brahmanical C., has been differently decided by his fellow caste-men in different places.
As in the west, so in the east, C. enters into all the most ordinary relations of life, pro ducing laws often most tyrannical and too anomalous to admit of generalization. In the west, however, whilst good sense and Christianity have ever tended to ameliorate social differences, the feeble mind of the Hindu and the records of his religion have had a contrary effect.
These modified views of C., which have begun to prevail • in recent years, will be found more fully developed in Shore On Indian Affairs, Irving's Theory and Practice of Caste. Full accounts of the petty regulations of as laid down in the code of Menu,
may be seen in sir William Jones's Translation of the Code of Menu, Robertson's .Disqui sition on India, Richard's India, Elphinstone's Histmw of India, Dubois's India, Cole brooke's Asiatic Transactions, vol. v., and in various articles in the Calcutta Review, The most authoritative account of the subject of caste is to be found in the first volume of Dr. John Muir's Original Sanscrit Texts on the Origin and Progress of the Religion and Institutions on _India; collected, translated into English, and illustrated by Xotes (5 vols., Lond. 1S07-71; vols. 1 to 4, new ed.), a work of the utmost value.
The question how C. is to be dealt with in converts to Christianity, has now been determined by common consent of missionaries in India; and it receives no recognition within the Christian church. An opposite policy, in former times, founded on. the opinion that C. might be regarded as merely a civil or social institution, and not as a part of the religion of the Hindus, is now believed to have been among the principal causes of the comparative decay of the churches or congregations founded during the 18th c. in the s. of India.