Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 63

SUB-DIVISIONS OF CASTES
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Even the Brahmins do not hold the highest social rank
undisputed. The Panchalas, or five classes of artisans
already mentioned, refuse, in some districts, to acknow-
ledge Brahmin predominance, although these five classes
themselves are considered to be of very low rank amongst
the Sudras and are everywhere held in contempt. Brahmin
predominance is also still more warmly contested by the
Jains, of whom I have treated in one of the Appendices to
this work.
As to the particular subdivisions of each caste it is
difficult to decide the order of hierarchy observed amongst
them. Sub-castes which are despised in one district are
often greatly esteemed in another, according as they con-
duct themselves with greater propriety or follow more
important callings. Thus the caste to which the ruler of
a country belongs, however low it may be considered
elsewhere, ranks amongst the highest in the ruler's own
dominions, and every member of it derives some reflection
of dignity from its chief.
After all, public opinion is the surest guide of caste
superiority amongst the Sudras, and a very slight acquain-
tance with the customs of a province and with the private
life of its inhabitants will suffice for fixing the position
which each caste has acquired by common consent.
In general it will be found that those castes are most
honoured who are particular in keeping themselves pure
by constant bathing and by abstaining from animal
food, who are exact in the observance of marriage regula-
tions, who keep their women shut up and punish them
severely when they err, and who resolutely maintain the
customs and privileges of their order.
Of all the Hindus the Brahmins strive most to keep up
appearances of outward and inward purity by frequent
ablutions and severe abstinence not only from meat and
everything that has contained the principle of life, but
also from several natural products of the earth which
prejudice and superstition teach them to be impure and
defiling.
It is chiefly to the scrupulous observance of
such customs that the Brahmins owe the predominance of
their illustrious order, and the reverence
which they are everywhere treated.
and respect with