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Jaina Community-A Social Survey
- Uptil now many efforts have been made by various scholars to give a workable definition of caste with a view to present its all remarkable aspects. But the system is such a peculiar and complex thing that no satisfactory definition, it seems, is possible and no unanimity on the subject could be expected. Senart states that a caste is a close corporation, exclusive and in theory, at any rate, rigorously hereditary. It is equipped with a certain traditional and independent organisation, including a chief and a council; meeting on occasions in assemblies endowed with more or less full authority. Often united in the celebration of certain festivals, it is further bound together by a common occupation and by the practice of common customs which relate more particularly to marriage, food and questions of ceremonial pollution. Finally, it rules its members by the exercise of a jurisdiction the extent of which is fairly wide and which by the sanction of certain penalties, especially of exclusion, either absolute or revocable, from the group, succeeds in enforcing the authority of the community. 42 According to Sir H. Risley, a caste may be defined as a collection of families or groups of families bearing a common name; claiming common descent from a mythical ancestor, human or divine; and regarded by those who are competent to give opinion as forming a single homogeneous community. The name generally denotes or is associated with a specific occupation. A caste is almost invariably endogamous in the sense that a member of the large circle denoted by the common name may not marry outside that circle, but within the circle there are usually a number of smaller circles each of which is also endogamous.43 Sir E. A. Gait observes that the main characteristics of a caste are the belief in a common origin held by all the members and the possession of the traditional occupation. It may be defined as an endogamous group or collection of such groups bearing a common name, having the same traditional occupation, claiming descent from the same source, and commonly regarded as forming a single homogeneous community. 44 Dr. S. V. Ketkar considers caste as a social group having two characteristics (i) membership is confined to those who are born of members and includes all persons so born; (ii) the members are forbidden by an inexorable social law to marry outside the group. Each one of such groups has a special name by which it is called. Several of such small aggregates are grouped
