Page:The history of caste in India.pdf/104

 He has given a long list of what he supposed to be mixed castes. These mixed castes, which are about thirty in number, resolve themselves into three types:

1. Caste produced from two different pure castes; 2. Those produced by the mixture of pure castes on one side and mixed on the other; 3. And those produced from parents of mixed origin on both sides.

Let us see the sources of the doctrines given to us by our writer. The writers before him who have discussed mixed castes are Baudhāyana, Vasishtha, and Gautama. Vasishtha and Gautama have spoken about the mixed castes produced by unequal marriages. Of such castes, Vasishtha gives ten, Gautama gives two opinions; one opinion gives ten mixed castes while the other gives twelve.

The writer who gives "mixed castes" of all the three types stated above is Baudhāyana. Of the first type, i. e., castes born of pure parents of different castes, he enumeratos eleven. He names two low castes as born of parents, one of whom was pure, Shūdra, and the other was mixed; he also gives two castes where both parents were of mixed origin.

In our text the doctrines already enunciated by earlier writers appear to have been carried much further by our author. He has given nearly thirty of these mixed castes, which were arrived at by permutation and combination of those known before. It may also be observed that our writer did not take notice of certain castes enumerated by his predecessors. They are Rāmaka, Rathakara, Daushyanta, Mūrdhāvasikta, Dhivara and Mahishya. I intend to discuss elsewhere why the writers on castes felt the necessity of explaining the existence