Indian Antiquary Vol 62

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 152

140
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JULY, 1933
that he has shown himself lacking in the capacity of the rules and restrictions which the caste system to deal with the exegois of the Veda and the Avesta involves, of the penalties which are provided for and with comparative philology. The case for the their breach, and of the way in which they are prosecution is supported by abundant evidence and enforced. The material thus provided has hitherto the verdict will surely be accepted by most Sanskrit remained inaccessible to the general public. Mr. and Iranian scholars.
O'Malley, who was Superintendent of Conaus in His own views may be briefly stated, though Bengal in 1911, has now worked up this and other justice cannot be done to them in a few lines. In material in the excellent little book under review. the first place he accepte the equation Sk. brahmans He gives a very clear exposition of the social con. Av. barsman, whose sponsors have been Haug ditions which prevail under the régime of carto, and Hillebrandt, and holds that the original meaning and shows how & mar must regulate his whole survives almost intact in the latter word. From the Ilfo according to the standards laid down by the meaning of a bundle of grass,' used mainly as community to which he belongs. He enumerates sacrificial strew, which may possibly still be traced many typical rules and restrictions and describes in one or two Vedie passages, we got the derived the penalties which a man may suffer for neglecting sense of magic carried out by such grus, still to them, and the way in which alleged offences are be found in the use of the muñja girdle. Thence dealt with, and the penalties imposed and enforced. it comes to signify generally 'magie,' magic rite,' In some parts of the book references are freely * magie action, magie spell.' A large number of given, but in others they are omitted. For Rigvedie verses are critically examined, and it is instance, no authority is quoted for the statement shown that such a range of moaninge gives them a that some castes' insist on a man marrying outmuch more forceful sense than they bear under the side his caste' (p. 2) and that some 'subcastes' ordinary indefinite interpretations. Finally it is also do so (p. 4). The book does not containe suggested that the word then developed on two definition of caste, but there can be no doubt that lines, firstly into hymn' and secondly into the endogamy is its most essential fosture. There mystic sense which is so well-known to us. In the are occasional exceptions to the general course of the discussion interesting sidelights are rule, but no group which prohibits endogamy can thrown on many passages, and bibliographical refer. be regarded as a true caste or subcaste. The ences are given on a generous scale. This inade rule of exogamy applies to the smaller groupe quate summary will have entirely failed of its (gotras) which in the aggregate make up the casto object if it does not induce readers, who have any or subcaste. interest in the Voda, to set to work at once on the
The chapter on the Untouchables' is of special atudy of an admirable book. In the reviewer it
interest at the present time. The people thus gave birth to the wish that, since the late Professor
designated are themselves divided into a numbor
of castes' which are just as exclusive as the higher Macdonell died without giving us his eagerly await.
Hindu castes. The only thing they have in common ed translation of the Rigveda, Professor Charpen is the slur of untouchability. This they can escape tier would step into the breach, and let us have the by conversion to Islam or Christianity, as mencomplete English translation, which we need 80 tioned in the footnote on p. 159. much and for which his learning and his command In the thoughtful chapter on modern tendencies of our language so admirably fits him.
more prominence might perhaps have been given E. H. J. to the rapid disappearance of communal restrictions
amongst the educated classes in towns, who often INDIAN CASTE CUSTOMs, by L. 8. 8. O'MALLEY,
dine freely not only with Hindus of other castes,
but also with Muhammadans and Christians. C.I.E. Cambridge University Press, 1932.
E. A. GAIT. The peculiar Indian institution known as Caste' has attracted widespread attention, and the num.
MEDIEVAL INDIA: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CON. ber of books relating to it is legion. Some writers,
DITIONS, by A. YUSUF ALI, M.A., C.B.E. Oxford such as Senart and his German critics, Dahlmann
and London, H. Milford, 1932. and Oldenberg, have discussed the way in which
This booklet, of about sixty pages all told, con. the caste system originated. There are many booka
tains an English worsion of four loctures delivered containing A description of individual castes, of originally in Urdu. Mr. Yusuf Ali defines medieval which Risley's Tribes and Castes of Bengal is one India as the period between Harsha and the Mogul of the earliest and best-known examples. But Empire, and he illustrates the life of the time by hitherto there has been no general and compre.sketching first the seventh, then the tenth and hensive account of the actual working of the caste
eleventh, and finally the fourteenth century, more Rystem and of its influence on the daily life of
attention being given to social than to beonownie
detail The main object of the lectures was to the people. A mass of information on this subject
arouse the interest of the hearers, and direct them is to be found in various official records, and 08.
to the sources of information, and they are well pecially in the series of reports on the census of calculated to serve this purpose in their English 1911, when the Census Commissioner invited the dress. Provincial Superintendents to make a special study!
W. H. M.