Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/140

 Aran, 1875.] ANCIENT INDIA ACCORDING TO MANTJ. 127 would be reckoned as Aryan, or rather as Hin- du, in comparison with the aborigines, and a gradation of colour and features would be effect- ed such as is now to be seen in passing- from Peshawar along the Gangetic trough to Orissa. Also, by survival of the fittest, the darker tints accompanying an Aryan physiognomy would come to prevail in the tracts of the tropical del- tas. But it is not likely that any large propor- tion of this more extended growth would be recognized as belonging to the older privileged orders. It seems more reasonable to suppose that it would remain, as a rule, undistinguish- ed from the general mass of the unprivileged, and would go to swell the body of B udr as. There appears to have been, too, a lower social stratum still (p. 268, 179), not dignified by the designation of caste, the members of which were slaves to the S u d r a a. Or, perhaps, some Sil- dras managed to attain to a position of wealth and freedom, and then could command the ser- vices of other Siulras, as if themselves actually members of a higher class. Besides these four principal castes, and iu a sense comprehended within (Lem.wasa veiy considerable body ofso- called mixed castes (p. 200 et £"?-), which, Manu is at great pains to explain, arose from the irregular intermingling of the others : but ho be- trays the true cause of their formation and per- petuation when he says that they may all be known by their occupations (p. -'•' k 40). We see thai, in all countries during the earlier stages of civilization there is a universal tendency in the various businesses and occupations to be here- ditary ; as i he father is, so is the son, and it is seldom tliut any one takes up, or indeed has the opportunity of 63 b u a business differ- ent from that followed by his father ; marriages also commonly take place within the limits of the families which pursue tho same avocaricm, and* every man is known or spoken of by the name of his calling. From this cause such de- Taylor. Glover, and so on, became surnames in England. In India, even at this day, the fami- ly has not yet disintegrated into its constituent members. Individuals are held together in a family, and families are connected together in groups by the operation of forces of conserva- tion which have long ceased to exist in the Western Aryan races. Given a community of origin, whether personal, local, or other, suffici- ently marked to constitute a characteristic, and a community of occupation or situation, the ele- ments are present out of which a caste with its own peculiar customs and traditions will grow ; and castes do in this way originate and grow under our eyes, even in these modern times. It is obvious that the mixed castes of Manu are essentially different in kind from the great tribal castes of Brahmans, Kshatriyas, &c. ; they are, in truth, rather sub-castes than mixed castes, and bear the same relation to the tribal castes which til of plants in systematic botany do to the classes. Also, it seems pro- bable that the very reasons which gave rise to the sub-caste designation would generally in the long run cause it to prevail over the tribal. With the great body of the people the family and its employment must have been of a greatly more distinguishing importance than the tribe. It would be mainly the upper classes of society who, wanting in the particular discriminating element furnished by the employment, would keep up the distinction of tribe. It might perhaps be imagined that the reli- gions rite of institution, and the privilege at- tached to its observance of wearing the thread, which marked off the three Aryan tribal divi- sions from the Sudras, and constituted the quality of twice-born, would have been clung to and never lost- Nevertheless, this was not so j for Mann himself says (p. 294, 43): "The following races" (afterwards naming them) ''of Kshatriyas, by then* omission of holy and by seeing no Brahmans, have gradually sunk among men to the lowest of the four classes." And, again, he says three verses lower : " Those sons of the twice-born who are said to be de- graded, and who are considered as low-born, subsist only by such employments as the twice-born despise." He also discloses the fact that the converse process was going on in hue, when he declares (p. 204, 4,'j) "By the force of extreme devotion and of exalted lathers, all of them " (Lhe issue of certain speci- fied marriages) "may rise to high birth.;" and in another passage (p. 297, G4) : " Should the tribe sprung from a Bra hman by aSudra woman produce children by the marriages of its women with other Brahmans, tlje low tribe sliall be raised to tho highest in the seventh genera- tion." It was a principal object with Mann to glorify the Brahmans, and to preserve the
 * ions as Smith, Pinder, Hay ward, Pedlar,