Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 55

THE FOUR MAIN CASTES
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because the subdivisions vary according to locality, and
a sub-caste existing in one province is not necessarily found
in another.
Amongst the Brahmins
of the south of the Peninsula,
for example, there are to be found three or four principal
divisions, and each of these again is subdivided into at
The lines of demarcation between
least twenty others.
them are so well defined as to prevent any kind of union
between one sub-caste and another, especially in the case
of marriage.
The Kshatriyas and Vaisyas are also split up into many
and subdivisions. In Southern India neither
Kshatriyas nor Vaisyas are very numerous but there are
considerable numbers of the former in Northern India.
Howbeit, the Brahmins assert that the true Kshatriya
caste no longer exists, and that those who pass for such
divisions
;
are in reality a debased race.
The Sudra caste is divided into most sub-castes. Nobody
in any of the provinces where I have lived has ever been
able to inform me as to the exact number and names of
them. It is a common saying, however, that there are
18 chief sub-castes, which are again split up into 108 lesser
divisions.
The Sudras are the most numerous of the four main
They form, in fact, the mass of the population,
and added to the Pariahs, or Outcastes, they represent at
When we consider
least nine-tenths of the inhabitants.
that the Sudras possess almost a monopoly of the various
forms of artisan employment and manual labour, and that
in India no person can exercise two professions at a time,
it is not surprising that the numerous individuals who
form this main caste are distributed over so many distinct
castes.
branches.
classes of Sudras that exist
Of all the provinces that
certain provinces.
I lived in, the Dravidian, or Tamil, country is the one
where the ramifications of caste appeared to me most
numerous. There are not nearly so many ramifications of
Nowhere in these latter
caste in Mysore or the Deccan.
provinces have I come across castes corresponding to
those which are known in the Tamil country under the
However, there are several
only
in