Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 2.djvu/50

 14

HISTORY OF INDIA.

[Book IV,

A.D.

Caste iden- tical with profession.

Effects of ciste.

Hindoo Wkaver and Winder of Thread. From Solvyns" Costume of Hindoostan.

Bengal, gives a detailed list of forty -one, and concludes by saying that more might be added. This is indeed perfectly obvious, as almost every name in the list is that of a genus including under it several subdivisions as species. For instance,

the Tatee caste, or weavers, form- ing the tenth in the list, and said to have originated from a male 8udra and a female Cshatriya, includes six divisions, which, not- withstanding their common pro- genitors, refuse either to eat or to intermarry with each other. In like manner we have castes with subdivisions under the names of Kasarees, or workers and dealers in brass ; Agoorees, or farmers ; Napitas, or barbers; Modakas, or confectioners ; Kumbhakaras, or potters; Malakalas, or sellers of flowers, &c. All of these born to their trade must strictly adhere to it, however little they may be disposed to it by incHnation or suited to it by capacity.

This system of caste, accompanied with hereditary occupation, may have the effect of securing superiority of workmanship. The whole mind being employed on one branch of trade, and not permitted to look beyond it, must in a manner concentrate its faculties so as to devise the best means of performing the appointed task, while the bodily powers constantly engaged in the same operation must, as in the ordinary case of a minute division of lal^our, attain to great mechanical skill. These advantages, however, poorly compensate for the numerous evils with which they are inseparably connected. The mechanical skill which an hereditary weaver acquires, and the beautiful fabric which he produces by means of a loom of the simplest and rudest structure, cannot be viewed without some desfree of admiration ; but how soon is that admiration turned into reofret when it is considered that the same invariable routine has been followed for ages, and that improvement has not only not been attempted, but if attempted would have been fiercely and fjinatically resisted. Every man's boast is, that ho does exactly as his father did before him ; and thus amid a general stagnation of intellect, society is not permitted to take a single step in advance. There may be some truth in the observation, that if caste is unfav- ourable to progress it also tends to prevent degeneracy, and that hence, while other nations without caste have retrograded, India has maintained its ancient civilization. Dubois adopting this idea goes so far as to say, " I consider the