NATURE 



561 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1897. 



HINDU CASTES AND SECTS. 

 Hindu Castes and Sects : an Exposition of the Origin of 

 the Hindu Caste System and the Bearing of the Sects ^ 

 towards each other and towards other Religious 

 Systems. By Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya, M.A., 

 D.L. Pp. xvii + 623. (Calcutta : ■ Thacker, Spink, 

 and Co., 1896.) 



IN spite of all the books, essays and census reports 

 dealing with the subject of Hindu castes, the 

 problem of the origin of caste still remains one of the 

 most difficult ethnological and sociological problems. 

 We owe excellent treatises on the caste system as pre- 

 vailing in certain parts of India at the present day to the 

 industry of men like John Wilson (" Indian Caste," 1877), 

 M. A. Sherring (" Hindu Tribes and Castes as Repre- 

 sented in Benares," 1872), D. C. J. Ibbetson ("Report 

 on the Census of the Panjab," 1881), E. J. Kitts (" Com- 

 pendium of the Castes and Tribes found in India," 1885), 

 J. C. Nesfield (" Brief View of the Caste System of the 

 North- Western Provinces and Gudh," 1885), H. H. 

 Risley ("The Tribes and Castes of Bengal," 1891-92), 

 W. Crooke ("The Tribes and Castes of the North- 

 western Provinces and Oudh," 1896), and others. 

 Eminent Sanskrit scholars, too, have devoted their atten- 

 tion to the caste system as represented to us in the most 

 important works of Sanskrit literature, e.g. A. Weber 

 (" Collectanea iiber die Castenv'erhaltnisse," in his 

 *' Indische Studien," vol. x.), and J. Muir (" Original | ethnologists will approve, 



historical development of the caste system, are the 

 opinions of scholars regarding the origin of caste. 

 While Mr. Risley considers it "scarcely a paradox to 

 say that a man's social status varies in inverse ratio to 

 the breadth of his nose," Mr. Nesfield asserts that "the 

 question of caste is not one of race at all, but of culture," 

 and Dr. Brockmann believes it to be proved that " the 

 racial origin of all must have been similar, and that the 

 foundation upon which the whole caste system in India 

 is based, is that of function, and not upon any real or 

 appreciable difference of blood." 



With such a divergence of opinions, it is not difficult 

 to prophesy that the caste problem is likely to occupy 

 the attention of both Sanskrit scholars and ethnologists 

 for some time to come, and Pandit Jogendra Nath 

 Bhattacharya's book on the " Hindu Castes and Sects " 

 may be welcomed as a solid contribution to the study of 

 one of the most important problems in the history of 

 India. This book has an additional value of its own, as 

 coming from the pen of an intelligent and highly educated 

 native, who at the same time is, if not an orthodox 

 Brahman, yet a proud member of the Brahman caste. 

 And it is of the greatest interest to see how such a native 

 views the caste system and the development of sects — so 

 intimately connected with that of castes— in his own 

 country. Besides, a native has opportunities of getting 

 information which it would be very difficult, and often 

 impossible, for any European to obtain. 



As to the origin of caste. Pandit Bhattacharya takes it 



for granted that the whole caste system is a creation of 



j the Brahmans and their Sastras — a view of which few 



Caste, like any other socia 



Sanskrit Texts," vol. i., 3rd ed., 1890), 



A short time ago M. E. Senart published a most im- 

 portant treatise on the caste system (" Les castes dans 

 rinde, les faits et le syst^me," 1896). Proceeding from 

 the modern system of castes, as described in the above- 

 mentioned works, he tries to explain by it the old system 

 of the four castes as found in the Vedic, epic, and legal 

 literatures of ancient India. According to him, the so- 

 called four castes of Sanskrit literature — Brahmans, 

 Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Siidras — represent not four 

 "" castes," but four " classes," viz. the priests, the warriors, 

 the Aryan people, and the non-Aryan slaves. But 

 behind this system of four classes M. Senart discovers 

 traces of a more complicated system, which he thinks 

 was, on the whole, analogous to the modern Hindu 

 system of numerous castes and sub-castes. Against this 

 view of the caste system in ancient India, Prof. H. Olden- 

 berg has quite recently (in the Zeitschrift der deutschen 

 morgenldndischen Gcsellschaft, vol. li. p. 267 J^^^^.) raised 

 serious objections. He shows that there is a natural 

 development from the caste system, as found in the 

 oldest Indian literature, to the theories of the San.skrit 

 law-books, and that the Buddhistic literature enables us 

 — at least to some extent — to bridge over the gulf be- 

 tween the caste system of ancient India and its modern 

 development. The caste system, as represented in the 

 Pali literature of the Buddhists, has been fully treated 

 by Dr. R. Fick (" Die soziale Gliederung im nordost- 

 lichen Indien zu Buddha's Zeit. Mit besonderer Beriick- 

 sichtigung der Kastenfrage," Kiel, 1897). 



Even more divergent than the views about the 

 NO. 1459, VOL. 56] 



institution, must, after all, be a product of natural 

 growth— though (just as is the case with other social 

 institutions) fostered and turned to their own selfish 

 ends by those who profited by it, in our case by the 

 Brahmans. Our author, indeed, as a staunch advocate 

 of Brahmanism, denies all such motives of selfishness on 

 the part of the Brahmans. " Caste," he says (p. 4 seq.), 



"has had its origin, no doubt, in Brahmanical legis- 

 lation. But there is no ground whatever for the doctrine 

 that it is the outcome of the policy embodied in the 

 Machiavelian maxim Divide and Rule. A very little 

 reflection ought to show that the caste system, intro- 

 duced and enforced by the Brahmanical Shastras, could 

 not possibly be the cause of any social split. On the 

 contrary, it provided bonds of union between races and 

 clans that had nothing in common before its intro- 

 duction. ..." He believes "that the legislation of the 

 Rishis was calculated not only to bring about union 

 between the isolated clans that lived in primitive India, 

 but to render it possible to assimilate within each group 

 the foreign hordes that were expected to pour into the 

 country from time to time. . . . The authors of such 

 legislation deserve certainly to be admired for their 

 large-hearted statesmanship, instead of being censured 

 for selfish ambition and narrowness." 



Yet when we read of the extravagant prerogatives of 

 the Brahman caste, we cannot help admitting that the 

 development, though not the origin, of the caste system 

 is largely due to the ambition and selfishness of the 

 Brahmans. The position of the Brahman in Hindu 

 society could not be what it is according to the Sanskrit 

 law-books and according to Pandit Bhattacharya's own 

 description (p. 19 seqq.\ if the Brahmans had not used 



