worlds equal to sacrifice," and that " every one should perform it with devotion, with a pure heart, free from malice, and to the best

of his ability.”

How sentiments like these, which conduced to the progress the Hindus of those times made in the arts of life, came to be disregarded, and when did they give place to ideas like those found in later writings, is an interesting study both for the antiquarian and the patriot in India. All subjects of Indian chronology are, however, involved in great obscurity, and it is not safe to venture upon giving dates of any of the later writings to which the decline of Hinduism, as a religion of truth and healthy action, may be traced. All that can be said is that passages like those found in later writings, have done much to perpetuate the present state of things. Says the Suta Samhita, which is a part of the Skanda Purána: "For all orders the distinction of caste is due to birth and not to millions of Karmas, just as the class to which an animal belongs, is determined by its birth and not otherwise." Chapter 12, verse 51.) Sentiments like these, added to the decline of learning in the laity and its monopoly by the priesthood, led the latter ultimately to declare that in the Kali age there were no Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, and that there were either Brahmanas or Sudras. (Kalavády anatayoh-Sthitih) :: "In the Kali the first and the last only exist."

Caste in Modern India. - We have thus an infinite number of mutu ally repellant and exclusive groups of the community instead of the four castes of the ancient lawgivers. The Brahmins are not only divided into the Panch Gouras and the Panch Dravidas, according as they live to the north or the south of the Vindhya range, but these are also sub-divided into as many as 1,886 distinct tribes, the Sarswatas of the Punjab alone containing 469. In the last census the superior castes of Brahmins in the United Provinces contained 9 and the inferior 8 sub-divisions. The Rajputs contained about 42 and the Vaishyas 10. These are, however, only the principal sub-divisions amongst those who claim to be and are recognized as Brahmanas, Kshatriays or Vaisyas. Each of these has its local sub-divisions to an infinite extent, till you come to a few families each claiming to form an exclusive tribe or caste. Below them are a large number of people who claim to be either Bráhmanas, Rajputs or Vaishyas,

are

but are not so recognized. The sub-divisions of Sudras even more numerous, and this is not only the case in one province, but all over the country also. The question how such an innumerable variety of castes arose in the country is very difficult to answer. In some cases the names furnish an index to the orgin of a caste and show how functional tribes which were originally separate groups for purposes of a trade or profession, became subsequently crystallized into castes. For instance, among workers in leather the chamars are distinct from the mochis; among cowherds the ahirs are distinct from the goalas; among gardeners the koeris are distinct from the kachis. Then again a section of a community which was originally a portion of a caste organized itself on account of its religious beliefs into a separate caste, tracing its origin to a mythical ancestor and claiming equality with or even superiority over the parent tribe. Change of locality also led to the same result, as the names denote. Among Brahmans, for instance, the Kanya-kubja are those who originally came from Canouj, the Maithil those who lived in Mithila, the Goura from the Gour country (Bengal), the Sarwaria from the country around the Saryu river. In the case of some, crossing also led to the formation of separate castes. The offspring of men who married women of higher or lower castes, and the offspring of women who married men of higher and lower castes, could not belong to either the caste of the father or the mother, but had to form a separate caste which became further subdivided by subsequent crossings. It was so even in Manu's time. Then the son of a Brahman from a Vaisy a woman was an Ambastha, to whom belonged the art of healing, of a Brahman by a Sudra woman a Nisháda who lived by killing fish, of a Kshatriva father and Sudra mother an Ugra. On the other hand, the son of a Brahman woman from a Sudra father was a Chandala, and of a Sudra father and a Kshatriya mother an Ayogava. Now-a-days, also, many high-class Hindus who claim to be either Brahmins, Kshatriyas or Vaisyas like the Bhargavas, the Khetris, the Kayasthas were probably castes formed by such crossings. Change of custom also accounts for the formation of new castes. A section of a people discard or adopt a custom which other people follow and are at once regarded as a separate caste. The Jats, who claim to be Rajputs, for instance, practise widow

marriage, while those who are recognized as Rajputs proper do not. This change of custom is now-a-days also unfortunately dividing most classes of Hindus into those who permit and those who prohibit sea voyages. These and other causes of a like nature account for the present disintegration of Indian society.

Each of these sections refuses to recognize every other section formed out of the parent group as superior or in some cases even equal to it. The supremacy of the Brahmins is universally recognized by other castes. But among themselves there is no order of precedence, and one section of this community would not recognize another. The same is the case with the Kshatriyas and the Vaishyas. Both recognize the Brahmans as superior to them, but not those who belong to their own subdivisions. Among Vaisy as the supremacy of the Rajputs is not universally recognized, though of the Brahmans is.

If questions of the relative position of a caste arise, the Pandits are appealed to with varying results. For instance, if Kayasthas clain to be Kshatriyas and the Dhusar Brahmins, the dicta of Pandits are now in their favour, and now not. But even when they are, they are not thereby allowed to intermarry or interdine with Kshatriyas or Brahmins. Each caste, sectarian or functional, is a unit, and must remain a unit completely separate from other units. In ancient times kings now and then interfered in settling the social precedence of various castes, and in Bengal, Balal Sen degraded the Suvarnbaniks who claimed to be Vaishyas, and settled the grades of Brahmins. In Mithila the present matrimonial customs of Brahmins are due to the interference of certain kings. But nowa-days caste goes its own way without any inteference from the ruling power. The two tests whether the twice-born will take water and pucca food from the hands of its members, as well as whether Brahmins will act as priests on occasions of births, marriages or deaths, determine its comparative purity or otherwise. They do not, however, do more, and it must observe its own rules of endogamy and commensality. The prohibition or otherwise of widow re-marriage which also once determined the superiority of a caste, is now giving way before reform ideas of modern times, and a caste which allows its widows to re-marry shall soon not be looked down as an inferior caste. The introduction of child-marriage and the observance of parda, which at one time used to be considered as

indications of superior caste, are also giving way before modern reforms. And yet exclusiveness is the essence of the whole system. The rule of endogamy is applicable to all the castes of modern India. There are, however, one or two exceptions, for instance, the Vaishyas of Kumaon intermarry with Rajputs, though not with Khus Rajputs or Doms as stated by the Census Superintendent of the North-West Provinces at page 216 of his report.

We have, in short, the spectacle of a society split up into a number of infinitely small divisions, each holding itself entirely aloof from the rest and trying to make its exclusiveness as strong as possible. They are all so completely cut off from each other that there is a current saying among the Saryu Parí Bráhmanas of Northern India, that for nine of these Bráhmanas there would be ten kitchens. Not only is the present system the parent of the disintegration now so common in Indian society, but is also at the root of many of the evils of infanticide, sales of boys and girls for large and fabulous dowers, and the cause of so much misery now met with in India. Their circle of choice being extremely narrow, fathers of girls must either marry them on terms demanded by parents of bridegrooms, or let them go unmarried, and as no Hindu can afford to do the latter, he must either find money for the match, or, anticipating future trouble, must do away with his child's life as in some parts of the country is still done. In other respects, also, the descent from the ideal of the Sastras to the actual of modern India, is sufficient to drive many a reformer to despair. The descendants of those who were enjoined to devote themselves to the study of the Vedas and be the friends of all creatures, are in many parts of the country not only wielders of plough and agriculturists, but are now and then involved in crimes of the most Serious character, and every one concerned in the administration of justice will at once bear testimony to the fact that instead of suppression of anger, avoidance of quarrel and possession of selfrestraint, the opposite are the tendencies of those who claim to trace their descent from the rishis of India. Gifts, study and sacrifice, which, together with the protection of the people, were the chief duties of the Kshatriyas, have given place to wielding of implements of husbandry, ignorance of the very first principles of their religion, idleness, drink and cognate vices. It is only the Vaishyaclass which may be said to have fairly kept up its traditions.

It has still a large portion of the trade of the country in its hands, and has been the foremost to profit by the present system of government and the advantages offered by it. "Fair in complexion," says Mr. Sherring, "with rather delicate features and a certain refinement depicted upon their countenances, sharp of eye and intelligent of face, and polite of bearing, the Vaishy as must have fathers del ved, sowed

radically changed since the days when their

and reaped. And so great is the change that a heated controversy is going on in the Hindu society, whether the Bengali Banias or merchant-bankers are really of Vaishya descent, or of a higher

origin." (Hunter's Indian Empire, page 196.)

Are the Present Kshatriyas and Vaishyas representatives of the ancient classes of those names? The question whether there are any Vaishyas and Kshatriyas in the present time, was the subject of discussion in an assembly of Pandits lately held at Benares, and it was settled after a full discussion that the present Banias were really the Vaishyas of old, that they were equally entitled to the appellation of Dwija along with the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas, and that those of them among whom the ceremony of investiture with the thread håd fallen into disuse, ought to revive it. The same has been the dictum for Kshatriyas also. Manu speaks of various professions in his time, but does not classify them as castes, showing that Kshatriyas and Vaishy as formed different guilds in those times according to the different professions they followed. In course of centuries and thousands of years these different guilds have crystallized into the profession-castes of the modern times, all derived from the parent stock of Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, but assuming new caste-names as we have already shown. Those who think that the Vaishyas or the Kshatriyas are extinct are therefore in error.

Reform in the Caste System.-The point for consideration, however, is whether caste in the shape in which it is now met with in India, should remain or should it be modified to suit modern requirements? It has its bright side in encouraging toleration and preserving the bonds of society intact by affording as little room for discontent with one's social status as possible. But the evil it causes over powers the good. There is a noticeable movement upwards in some of the lower and the mixed castes of the Hindus. They are trying to have themselves recognized as forming