CHAPTER V.
TREATMENT OF CASTE BY THE BOOK.
1. Meaning of the Words.
We now come to the subject-matter, the treatment of caste in Manava dharma shāstra. Before giving the detailed precepts regarding different castes it is important to make every effort to understand the sense of the various terms which the writer used and which are supposed to have a bearing on caste.[1] We should also take notice of certain theories about caste which the writer believed in and without proper knowledge of which, his detailed instructions would be unintelligible. In particular we must understand the two words varna and jāti. Our author emphatically says that there are only four varnas and there is no fifth varna (x, 4)[2] while he admits over fifty jātis. Thus he uses varna as a comprehensive term which included several jātis. Varna according to him are four divisions into which these castes are grouped. But he often uses the word
- ↑ In this chapter and in several others, Western scholars are likely to think that I am answering some imaginary arguments. But I am not. On account of some unhappy mistakes by some Western scholars, and on account of their words passing as authority, a host of beliefs bare sprung up in the minds of Indians educated in English, who often display a lack of judgment in their estimate of the work of European scholars. And these beliefs often find their expression in the vernacular literature or through the English newspapers conducted by educated Hindus, which have their influence on the masses.
- ↑ Our writer has misused the word varna in one place. He speaks of fifteen varna in x, 31, where he simply meant fifteen jātis. The commentators have noticed this incongruity and have given the readers the proper warning.
