54. Note on the History of the Caste System. 



By A. M. T. Jackson, T.C.S. 



It is well known that, whereas the Hindu lawbooks recog- 

 nise no more than four castes, the number of castes actually ex- 

 isting is practically infinite. Many attempts have been made to 

 account for this divergence between theory and practice, buf- none 

 of the solutions that have been suggested has gained general 

 acceptance. The subject attracted the atteiition of Colebrooke, 

 for though he never published his views during his lifetime, he 



left belund him tlie heads of a memorandum on the matter, whicl 

 liave been printed in his biography (pp. 98 ff). He wrote that 

 *Vthe tribes (by which he means the four great castes) neces- 

 *' sarily had an internal government ; at the same time professions 

 *' were naturally formed into companies. From this source, while 

 *' the corporations (trade gilds) imitated the regulations of tribes 

 '' (castes), a multitude of new and arbitrary tribes (castes) sprang 

 " up, the origin of which, as assigned by Menu, etc., is pro- 

 " bably fanciful." The two significant points here are — (1) the 

 stress laid on the internal government of the castes, and (2) 

 the importance of the gilds for the liistory of the caste system. 



The question slept where Colebrooke left it until it was taken 

 up again by Senart after his visit to India in 1894 {see his Les 

 Castes Dans L' Inde). He holds that the so-called castes or varnas 

 of the lawbooks are really classes, which have always been divid- 

 ed into numerous sections similar to the endogamous snb-caste^ 

 of the present day. Jolly (Die Entstehung des Kastenwesens, 

 Z.D.M.G., 1. 507 if) has adopted Senart*s theory and furnished it 

 with further illustrations. Neither writer, however, accounts for 

 the existence of a theory so much at variance with the practice. 

 Risley (Census of India Report 1901, pp. 548-9) assumes that the 



Indians borrowed the theory of the four classes from Persia. Old- 

 enberg on the other hand (Zur Geschichte des Indischen Kas- 

 tenwesens, Z.D.M.C., li., pp. 267 ff) believes that the old Indian 

 theory of four castes was at first a true representation of the actual 

 state of things, and that the multiplication of castes was a gi^adual 

 process, favoured in some cases by the transformation of trade 

 guilds into castes. In this latter view, as we have seen, he was 

 anticipated by Colebrooke. 



The point, however, toAvhich I wnsh to invite attention at pre- 

 sent, is Colebrooke's other leading idea, of the importance of tbe 

 internal government of the castes. At the present day we find 

 that the castes enforce their rules in various ways, though the 

 ultimate sanction is in all cases expulsion from the caste, the social 

 consequences of which are like those of the Roman interdtctio aqttd 

 et igni. The machinery by which the sentence is passed may be 



