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agricultural implements or supplied new ones, and got their small share of grains during the harvesting season from each farmer’s family in the village. This is true of other professional castes too like the basket maker or the cobbler, who are similarly remunerated. Many castes have caste panchayats or one elderly head for one village or a group of villages to settle disputes, fix marriages and permit divorce and decide common caste matters. Even today this institution prevails, though with nominal influence. Any violation of caste norms by a member could cause expulsion of such a person from the caste which implies regarding him as an outcaste. It is a kind of social stigma which also consisted of excommunication, a practical punishment to subdue the offender and make him accept his guilt. No caste person in the village (including his family members) would give him food or water. It is the process of isolating him which would be unbearable. Such a punishment might be lifted by allowing him to pay a fine to the caste panchayat or giving a feast to his caste fellows. He would also perform some rite to be readmitted into the caste fold. The varna system entertained inter- varna marriages; whereas the caste system was firmly against it. However in practice inter-caste marriage relations used to occur. One type of such a relationship known as anuloma was tolerated in society. It brought the high caste man into contact with a lower caste woman for which there was no serious objection either from the law-giver or the woman's family. Although a man does not in many cases lose caste status or ritual purity, by marrying a lower caste woman, his children may however suffer from partial lowering from the father's caste status. Therefore Manu and some ancient law makers stipulated ''Anuloma'' (hypergamous) marriages under which a man can marry either from his own caste or from a specified lower caste only. Similarly women were not expected to marry into lower caste "Pratiloma" (Hypogamy). Following tables indicate permissible caste/intercaste marriages in case of men and women:

Thiyas and in Tamil Nadu they are Nadars, the last two named speaking their respective regional languages. There were times when the toddy- tappers were treated as untouchables by other higher castes, but not now. The castes for long served as some kind of trade union, assuring each person a livelihood by following a hereditary profession, and in course of time, no person was prevented from following another pro- fession which was found remunerative. The Brahmins took to admin- istrative and military posts, and also to trade as in the case of Gauda Saraswaths on the West Coast, but they were not expected to resort to ploughing. But considerable sections of Brahmins took to agriculture and gardening, by engaging coolies of other castes. The Chitpavan Brahmins of Maharashtra and the Haviks of Karnataka are expert raisers of betelnut plantations. There are Brahmins engaged in agricul- ture in Gujarat too. But Brahmins engaged as acrobats called Vipra Vinodins during medieval times were expelled from the caste. Every varna has been sub-divided into various castes, with the Brahmins having sections like the Saraswat Kashmiri Pandits, Kan- yakubjas (Kanojis), Sarayuparis (those on the other side of the Sarayu river), Maithilas (Bihar), Chitpavans (Maharashtra), Karhades, Deshast- has (who include both the Madhwas and Smarthas), Aiyars (Tamil- speaking Shaivites) and Iyengars (Tamil -speaking Srivaishnavas) and the Nambudiris (Malayali Smarthas). The list is not exhaustive. Other castes also have similar regional and linguistic variations as already noted. New religious sects created further divisions among various professional castes, and a Veerashaiva (Lingayat) potter or barber does not consider a non-Lingay at member of his own profession as belong- ing to the same caste. People of the first three varnas were treated as the twice-born ( Dvijas ), having the privilege of wearing the sacred thread. Caste differences and rigidities in course of time became severe and each caste became exclusive, and inter-dining and inter-marrying between various castes was almost banned during the middle ages, especially after the advent of Islam. To prevent the ‘Mlecchas’ (‘the impure’) from making inroads into Hindu society every caste became a ‘fort’ banning inter-dining and inter-marrying (Na roti- Na beti) with any other caste with a view to maintaining its own purity. This was mainly to prevent the Hindus from mingling with the Muslims, contacts with whom were considered as total loss of caste. A1 Beruni has pointed out that Hindu soldiers who had been taken captive by Muslim invaders were not accepted in their original caste after their release and were forced to embrace Islam. This phenomenon of each caste becoming rigidly exclusive was found necessary by each caste to protect itself and it became a ‘fortress’ to conserve the ‘realm’ of Hinduism. This rigidity strengthened the feeling of already existing hi- erarchical arrangement and the concept of superiority of some caste over some other was proclaimed with greater seriousness. These caste rigidities and restrictions did help Hindu society to conserve itself dur- ing the middle ages, but the restriction of marriage and feeding contin- ued even after the problem of military inroads had ended, dividing Indian society into innumerable exclusive groups, causing disabili- ties, inconveniences and humiliations to various low castes, and mainly the so-called untouchables. Though Buddha, the saint poets and religious reformers like Jnanadev, Basaveshwara, Ramanuja, Tukaram, Kabir, Nanak, Chaitanya, Kanakadasa and others and modern reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Dayananda Saraswati, Phuley, Agarkar, Savarkar, Narayana Guru and Periyar (Ramaswamy Naikar) opposed it, the caste

MEN

WOMEN

Brahmin

Brahmin; Kshatriya;

Brahmin

Brahmin

Vaishya; Sudra.

Kshatriya

Kshatriya; Brahmin. Vaishya; Kshatriya;

Kshatriya

Kshatriya; Vaishya;

Vaishya

Sudra.

Brahmin.

Vaishya

Vaishya; Sudra.

Sudra

Sudra; Vaishya; Ksha-

Sudra

Sudra.

triya; Brahmin.

As opposed to this practice there was pratiloma (a low caste-man marrying a high-caste woman) which was not generally encouraged; however there used to be pratiloma relationships here and there. Jama- dagni, a Brahmin, married Renuka, a kshatriya princess, and such instances are numerous. Such marriages gave rise to a large number of new castes, though initially the children of such marriages were identified with the caste of the father. Regional and language differ- ences also added to the multiplicity of castes, and thus a Telugu - speaking barber does not belong to the caste of the Marathi-speaking barber, or a Oriya potter does not belong to the same caste of his Telugu-speaking counterpart. The toddy tappers in Maharashtra are called Bhandaris; in Dakshina Kannada district where they speak Tulu they are called Baiderlu (who are also worshippers of village deities and are called Poojaris); in the Dharwad area they are called Kalals speaking Kannada; in the princely Mysore area they are called Idi- gas, (speaking Telugu or Kannada); in Kerala they are addressed as