172 S. C. Yidyabhugana— Vrfttya and Satnkara Theories of Caste-. [No. 2, 
Origin of Sa?nkara Castes, —It should be observed here that in the 
primitive stage of the Hindu society, when the foreigners and aborigines 
first came in contact with each other, intermarriage among different 
castes did perhaps prevail. The Brahmana could marry girls of all the 
four castes, the Ksatriya of three castes, the Yaigya of two castes, and 
the S'udra of his own caste only. The children born of parents of 
different castes generally got the rank of their father. Manu* diseusses 
the point thus:— * ; - -~ 
“ 69. As good seed, springing up in good soil, turns out perfectly 
well, even so the son of an Aryan by an Aryan woman is worthy of all 
the sacraments. 
“70. Some sages declare the seed to be more important, and others 
the field ; and again others assert that the seed and the field are equally 
important; but the legal decision on this point is as follows :— 
“ 71. Seed sown on barren ground perishes in it; a fertile field also, 
in which no good seed is sown, will remain barren. 
“72. As through the power of the seed, sons born of animals be¬ 
came sages who are honoured and praised, hence the seed is declared to 
be more important.” 
Regarding the distribution of assets among the sons born of wives 
of different castes, Manuf lays down :—• 
“Let the son of the Brahman! wife take three shares of the estate, 
the son of the Ksatriya two, the son of the Ya^ya a share and a half, 
and the son of the S'udra may take one share.” 
Intermarriage is of two kinds: Anuloma and Pratiloma. The 
former is that in which a man of a higher caste marries a woman of a 
lower caste, and the latter is quite reverse of the former. Manu’s laws 
concern themselves with anulomaja children. There is no definite law 
regarding the pratilomaja children. They get the rank of either of the 
parents according to expediency. Thus, the Anulomaja and Pratilomaja 
children did not constitute the Samkara castes, but became absorbed in 
one or other of the Lour original castes. 
The anuloma marriage sanctioned by Manu and other lawgivers 
prevailed at a time when each of the four original castes possessed the 
power of assimilating in itself people of the other castes; nay, all people 
—foreigners or aborigines. In course of time the four original castes, 
having lost this power of assimilation, became stereotyped.' At that 
stage the foreigners and aborigines had to perform the purificatory 
ceremony called Yratya-stoma before they could get admittance into 
society of Brahmana, Ksatriya, or Yai 9 ya. The four castes which had 
* G. Buhler’s Manusamhita, Book X (translated in S.B.E. series). 
f G. Buhler’s Manusamhita, Book IX. 
