Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/176

 142 A CHINESE ACCOUNT BY HIUAN TSANG some dwelling-place, or, finding no place of refuge, become wanderers; or sometimes they go back to their old occupation (i. e. resume lay life). With respect to the divisions of caste, there are four classes. The first is called the Brahman (Chinese Po- lo-men), men of pure lives. They adhere to the teach- ings of the religion, live clean lives, and observe the most correct principles. The second is called Ksha- triya (Chinese T'sa-ti-li), the royal caste. For ages they have been the ruling class: they apply themselves to benevolence and mercy. The third is called Vaisyas (Chinese Fei-she-li), the merchant class; they engage in commercial transactions and seek for profit at home and abroad. The fourth is called Sudra (Chinese Shu- t'o-lo), the agricultural class; they engage in cultivat- ing the soil and occupy themselves with sowing and reaping. These four castes form different classes of various degrees of ceremonial purity. The members of a caste marry within their own class; the high and the low are kept quite separate. They do not allow promiscuous marriages between relations either on the father's side or on the mother's side. A woman once married can never take another husband. Besides these there are mixed castes, a variety of classes formed by different grades of people intermarrying. It would be difficult to speak of these in detail. The succession of kings' is confined to the Kshatriya (Chinese T'sa-ti-li) caste; usurpation and bloodshed have occasionally arisen (in the matter of succession), and even other castes have assumed the dignity.