[1820.—"The Kayasthas (pronounced Kaists, hence the word caste) follow next."—W. Hamilton, Descr. of Hindostan, i. 109.]
1878.—"There are thousands and thousands of these so-called Castes; no man knows their number, no man can know it; for the conception is a very flexible one, and moreover new castes continually spring up and pass away."—F. Jagor, Ost-Indische Handwerk und Gewerbe, 13.
Castes are, according to Indian social views, either high or low.
1876.—"Low-caste Hindoos in their own land are, to all ordinary apprehension, slovenly, dirty, ungraceful, generally unacceptable in person and surroundings.... Yet offensive as is the low-caste Indian, were I estate-owner, or colonial governor, I had rather see the lowest Pariahs of the low, than a single trim, smooth-faced, smooth-wayed, clever high-caste Hindoo, on my lands or in my colony."—W. G. Palgrave, in Fortnightly Rev., cx. 226.
In the Madras Pres. castes are also 'Right-hand' and 'Left-hand.' This distinction represents the agricultural classes on the one hand, and the artizans, &c., on the other, as was pointed out by F. W. Ellis. In the old days of Ft. St. George, faction-fights between the two were very common, and the terms right-hand and left-hand castes occur early in the old records of that settlement, and frequently in Mr. Talboys Wheeler's extracts from them. They are mentioned by Couto. [See Nelson, Madura, Pt. ii. p. 4; Oppert, Orig. Inhab. p. 57.]
Sir Walter Elliot considers this feud to be "nothing else than the occasional outbreak of the smouldering antagonism between Brahmanism and Buddhism, although in the lapse of ages both parties have lost sight of the fact. The points on which they split now are mere trifles, such as parading on horse-back or in a palankeen in procession, erecting a [pandal] or marriage-shed on a given number of pillars, and claiming to carry certain flags, &c. The right-hand party is headed by the Brahmans, and includes the Parias, who assume the van, beating their tom-toms when they come to blows. The chief of the left-hand are the Panchalars [i.e. the Five Classes, workers in metal and stone, &c.], followed by the Pallars and workers in leather, who sound their long trumpets and engage the Parias." (In Journ. Ethnol. Soc. N.S. 1869, p. 112.)
1612.—"From these four castes are derived 196; and those again are divided into two parties, which they call Valanga and Elange [Tam. valangai, idangai], which is as much as to say 'the right hand' and 'the left hand'...."—Couto, u. s.
The word is current in French:
1842.—"Il est clair que les castes n'ont jamais pu exister solidement sans une veritable conservation religieuse."—Comte, Cours de Phil. Positive, vi. 505.
1877.—"Nous avons aboli les castes et les privilèges, nous avons inscrit partout le principe de l'égalité devant la loi, nous avons donné le suffrage à tous, mais voilà qu'on réclame maintenant l'égalité des conditions."—E. de Laveleye, De la Propriété, p. iv.