________________
107
took place, and the only check upon them was the degradation of the children. They were not even Súdras; they therefore formed new castes, distinguished according to their mixed descent and the occupation which came to be regarded as peculiarly their own. In the present day the only one of the original castes extant is the Brahman: the Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Súdra are extinct; and the innumerable eastes which are now met with are in part the representatives of the ancient mixed castes, but in a still greater degree are the progeny of later times, and distinctions unauthorizedly assumed by the people themselves. For it is a great mistake to imagine that caste in India is either a burden or a disgrace. The notion is European, springing like many others out of the belief, that our own customs and feelings furnish an infallible standard by which to measure those of other nations. The fact is, that even with the most abject classes caste is a privilege, not a shame: and in proportion as the scale of society descends, so are the people more tenacious of their caste. Even the Mohammedans, to whose religion such a distinction is as uncongenial as it is to Christianity, imitate in India their Hindu countrymen in this particular, and pique themselves upon their caste. The principle of the distinction is of course indefensible, and in some parts of India, or under particular circumstances. it is oppressively enforced. In practice, however, where European influence predominates, little more inconvenience results from it than from the distinctions
OF THE HINDUS.
