1 Mixed castes.
2 43
3 In ancient times^ however, the effect of an union between two
4 different castes was ordinarily the formation of a new ^ caste \ No
5 doubt the intermarriage of two castes of more or less equal status had
6 not such a result^ or at least it only resulted in forming a new group of
7 much the same status. For instance the Brahmana Harichandra, surnamed
8 Kohilladhi,* had two views, a Brahman and a Kshatriya. His children
9 by both were called Pratihara,® but the sons of the former were Brahmana
10 Pratiharas and those of the latter Kshatriya Pratiharas. And the
11 Pratiharas, in spite of their Gujar origin, became a Rajput clan, one
12 of the four Agniknlas. But when the disparity between the contract-
13 ing parties was great, or when by what was termed 2i, pratiloma marriage
14 a man espoused a woman of higher caste than his own, a new caste was
15 generally formed. Numerous instances of such new castes could be
16 cited from Cclebrooke^s Us sat/ s. The late Sir Denzil Ibbetson excerpted
17 the following note from Colebrooke^s work : —
18 It would seem that the offspring of marriage and of illicit inter-
19 course between different castes were called by the same name ; but
20 this is open to some question (p. 272). Those begotten by a higher
21 or a lower are distinguished from those begotten by a lower or a higher
22 class (p. 273). The third is sprung from inter-marriages of the first
23 and second set; the fourth from different classes of the second ; the
24 fifth from the second and third, and the sixth from the second and
25 fourth. Manu adds to these tribes four sons of outcastes. The Tantrd
26 named many other castes (the above are apparently got from the Purdnas) :
27 (p. 2745). Except the mixed classes named by Manu, the rest are
28 terms for profession rather than tribes ; and they should be considered
29 as denoting companies of artisans rather than distinct races. The
30 mention of mixed classes and professions of artisans in the Amara Sinka
31 supports this conjecture (p. 274). The mentions 262 mixed
32 castes of the second set (above). They, like other mixed classes, are
33 included in Siidra ; but they are considered most abject ; and most of
34 them now" experience the same contemptuous treatment as the abject
35 mixed classes mentioned by Manu (p. 275). li\iQ T antra says, ^ avoid
36 the to ich of the Chandala and other abject classes ; and of them
37 who eat cow flesh, often utter forbidden words, and omit the pres-
38 cribed ceremonies.* they are called Mlechha, and going to the region
39 of ^ Yavana have become Yavanas/ Again ; ^ These seven, the Rajaka
40 (? mason), Karmahdra (smith), Nata (dancer, actor!), Barada
41 {? idrutsdz 1 ), Kaivarta (fisherman), M edahhilla^ are the last tribes ’
42 and pollute by contact, mediate or immediate. A man should make obla-
43 tions for, but should not dally with, women of Nata, Kapala, Rajaka,
44 1 The son of a Brahman who married a Kshatriya woman by anuloma was apparently
45 himself a Brahman.
46 ^ This surname surely poiu-s to a northern origin.
47 ® ‘ Chamberlain/ lit. door-keeper. This is, however, doubted by Professoy Bhaudar-
48 kar. The Pratiharas are represented in the modern Punjab by the Parihar Jats in Dera
49 Gh^Lzi Khan. Pratihara is the Sanskritizid form of Padihar. For the oflSce of pratihdra,
50 see Vogel’s Antiquities of Chamh i’t p 135 and 234.
51 4 Or rather ‘ Meds and Bhib. ^ Colebrooke does not explain all these names. Rajaka
52 is not traceable, Platts gives as a bard or bowman, but it can hardly =spo,vder-
53 maker.