70 / 822
Eternal
India
encyclopedia
PEOPLE
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:
MEN
WOMEN
Brahmin
Brahmin; Kshatriya;
Brahmin
Brahmin
Vaishya; Sudra.
Kshatriya
Kshatriya; Brahmin.
Kshatriya
Kshatriya; Vaishya;
Vaishya
Vaishya; Kshatriya;
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
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