Occupational origin of the Râjputs. 16. Still less homogeneous is the mass of septs grouped under the name of Kshatriyas or Râjputs. We have already seen how the Dravidian Gond races have been in quite recent times enrolled as Râjputs. The Râja of Singrauli, in Mirzapur, nearly a pure Kharwâr, has within the last generation or two come to rank as a Benbansi Chhatri. Colonel Sleeman gives the case of an Oudh Pâsi, who within the memory of man became a Râjput by giving his daughter to a man of the Puâr sept.[22] The names of many septs again, such as the Baghel, Ahban, Kalhans, and Nâgbansi suggest a totemistic origin which would bring [[xxiii]]them in line with the Chandrabansi, who are promoted Dravidian Cheros and other similar septs of undoubtedly aboriginal race. Mr. Carnegy went perhaps too far in assuming a similar development of many of the Oudh septs; but the traditions of many of these, which will be found in the special articles dealing with them, such as the Bhâlê Sultân, Bisen, Chandel, Gaur, Kânhpuriya and Bandhalgoti, afford significant evidence that their claims to blue blood must be accepted with caution. The same inference arises from the fact, of which evidence is given elsewhere, of the impossibility of drawing the line between the Jât and Râjput of the Western Districts, and the Bhuînhâr and Chhatri of the East: in fact many of the septs of the latter claim indifferently to belong to both races, and some, like the Bisen, have an admitted Kurmi branch.
17. Among the Râjputs, again, this process of assimilation of lower races has been undoubtedly encouraged by the prevalence of female infanticide which renders it impossible for the poorer members of the race to obtain legitimately born brides. This has naturally led to cohabitation with women of inferior castes and the creation of definite classes of illegitimate Râjputs, such as the Gaurua of the Central and the degraded Chauhâns of the Upper Ganges-Jumna Duâb. A recent report on the outbreak of dacoity in the Agra and Rohilkhand Divisions shows that many of the perpetrators of these outrages were half-bred Râjputs, whose mothers were drawn from criminal or nomadic tribes like the Nat, Beriya, Sânsiya and the like, and the association of Râjput [[xxiv]]youths with women of this class has brought them into the companionship of their gypsy male relatives and driven them into a life of crime.
18. It is needless to say that the records of our courts swarm with examples of the association of men of the Râjput class with women of the lower races, and in this stratum of village society there is not even a pretence of moral continence. The effect of this state of things is obvious and requires no further illustration.
The occupational origin of the Vaisyas. 19. The same remarks largely apply to the so-called modern representatives of the Vaisya class, the aggregate of tribes now grouped under the general name of Banya. Some of these, such as the Agarwâlas and Oswâls, are in appearance perhaps among the best bred races of Northern India. Others are obviously occupational groups recruited from the lower races which have grouped themselves under the generic title of Banya or Mahâjan. The Bohra asserts Brâhmanical origin. Others again in name and function are in all probability connected with various classes of artizans—the Kasarwâni and Kasaundhan with the Kasera, the Lohiya with the Lohâr, and the same inference may perhaps be drawn from the grades of Dasa and Bîsa, “the tens” and “the twenties,” which appear among the Agarwâlas, and can hardly indicate anything but a gradation in purity of descent.
The Sûdra group. 20. As to the congeries of castes known to the early Hindus as Sûdras we find all the varying grades of social respectability from industrious artisans and cultivators down to [[xxv]]vagrants like the Sânsya or Gandhîla and scavengers like the Dom or Bhangi. The word Sûdra has now no determinate meaning; it is merely used as a convenient term of abuse to designate persons who are, or are assumed to be, of degraded caste. It is probably a term derived from the languages of one of the inferior races.[23] As has been already remarked, it is a comparatively modern word and appears only once in the Rig Veda. It may have been a synonym for Dasyu, “those of the black skin,” who represented the contrast between the aborigines and the conquering Aryans. The stress that is laid in the old hymns on the breadth of their noses would perhaps go to identify them with the broad-nosed Dravidians. But the accounts of their forts and cities show that when they came into contact with the writers of the Vedic hymns they had already attained a considerable degree of culture.
Anthropometry the only safe basis of enquiry. 21. The only safe criterion of the relation of these races to the so-called “twice-born” tribes can be gained from the evidence of anthropometry, which must be left for another chapter.
Summary of theories of origin of caste. 22. Meanwhile to sum up the results of these remarks—
- (a) The Vedas, as we possess them, give no clear indication of any form of caste, except that of the occupational or trade guild type. [[xxvi]]
- (b) The first trace of modern caste is found in the “Institutes” of Manu: but here the rules of food, connubium and intercourse between the various castes are very different from what we find at present.
- (c) Caste so far from being eternal and changeless is constantly subject to modification, and this has been the case through the whole range of Hindu myth and history.
- (d) Caste is not an institution peculiar to Indian soil; but in its occupational form at least is widely prevalent elsewhere.
- (e) Caste is in its nature rather a matter of sociology than of religion.
- (f) The primitive so-called division of the people into Brâhmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sûdras does not agree with existing facts, and these terms do not now denote definite ethnological groups.
- (g) The only trustworthy basis for the ethnological survey of Upper India must be based on anthropometry.
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