Vol. Ill, No. 7,] Note on the History of the Caste System. 511 



the customs of the Brahmans of Kosala would differ in detail from 

 those of the Brahmans of Magadha, and so on. Now, the political 

 condition of ancient India was such as to favour in a high degree 

 this splitting up of the original castes, for, as far Iback as our 

 knowledofe goes, we find the country divided into small tribal king- 

 doms. Megasthenes (B.C. 300), as reported by Arrian, had before 

 him a list of 118 of these, covering the whole area of India. The 

 Buddhist scriptures show us the same state of things existing at 

 an earlier date {see Oldenberg's Buddha, 1897, Exc. 1, and Rhys 

 David^s Buddhist India) and we can follow it still further back 

 as far as the Ritrveda itself (A-eeZimmer, Alt Indisches Leben). As 

 Prof. Macdonell says (Sanskrit Literature, 157-8) :".... the Vedic 

 *' Aryans were split up into numerous tribes, which, though con- 

 " Scions of their unity in race, language and religion, had no political 

 "cohesion. They 'occasionally formed coalitions, it is true, but 

 " were just as often at war with one another. The tribe, in fact, 

 "was the political unit, organised much in the same way as the 

 "Afghans are at the present day, or the Germans were in the 

 "time of Tacitus." Each tribe, being under a different king, 

 would tend to diverge from all the others in tlie matter of 

 caste customs, owing to the different jurisdiction to which 

 it was subject. The tribal kingdoms did not lose their identity 

 even if they were conquered and incorpoi*ated into larger em- 

 pires, for it was the Indian custom to place on the throne of a con- 

 quered province a member of the old royal family. For instance 

 Manu says (YII. 201-3, Biibler's translation) : " When he has 

 " gained victory, let him duly worship the gods, and honour righte- 

 " ous Brahmanas, let him grant exemptions, and let him cause pro- 

 mises of safety to be proclaimed. But, having fully ascertained the 

 wishes of all the (conquered), let him place there a relation of the 

 " (vanquished ruler on the throne) and let him impose his condi- 

 "tions. Let him make authoritative the lawful (customs) of the 

 " (inhabitants), just as they are stated (to be), and let him honour 

 " the (new king) and his chief servants with precious gifts. '* 

 Similarly the Vishnu Smriti says (III. 47-9, Jolly's translation) : 

 '* A king, having conquered the capital of his foe, should invest 

 " there a prince of the royal race of that country with the royal 

 " dignity. Let him not extirpate the royal race, unless the royal 

 "race be of ignoble descent. " The passage from Manu, in parti- 

 cular, shows most clearly that the jurisdiction in caste questions 

 emained unaffected by foreign conquest. 



But it may be asked, if the multiplication of castes dates back 

 as far as the days of the old tribal kingdoms, how is it that so few 

 of the existing sub-castes are mentioned in Indian literature? 

 The answer is that the name of the sub-caste is used only when it 

 has to be distinguished from another sub-caste. Thus, a writer 

 living at Kanauj naturally speaks of a Kanaujiya Brahman as a 

 Brahman simply, just as a writer in England might speak of an 

 attorney as a lawyer, while a writer in Scotland might use the 

 same word for a *' writer to the signet.'* In the Census Reports 

 it is often found that that portion of a sub-caste, which is still 



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