1 6 PANJAB CASTES.
2 such as scavengers, eaters of carrion or vermin, and the like. There are
3 other and similarly artificial considerations which affect social standing, such
4 as the practice of secluding the women of the family, the custom of giving
5 daughters in marriage only to classes higher than their own, and the like ; but
6 these are of less general application than those first mentioned. INIany of these
7 >/ restrictions are exceedingly irksome. It is expensive to keep the wonien
8 secluded, for others have to be paid to do their work ; it is still more expensive
9 to purchase husbands for them from a higher grade of society, and so forth ;
10 and so there is a constant temptation to disregard these rules, even at the cost
11 of some loss of social position.
12 Thus we have, as the extended basis of caste, first occupation, and
13 within a common occupation political prominence and social standing,
14 the latter being partly regulated by a set of very arbitrary rules which
15 are peculiar to Indian caste, and which are almost the only part of the
16 system which is peculiar to it. It is neither tautology nor false logic
17 to say that social standing is dependent upon caste and caste upon social
18 standing, for the two depend each upon the other in different senses. The rise
19 in the social scale which accomjDanies increased political importance will present-
20 ly be followed by a rise in caste ; while the fall in the grades of caste which a
21 disregard of the arbitrary rules of the institution entails, wiU surely be ac-
22 companied by loss of social standing.
23 338. Instances of the mutability of caste. — The Brahmans are generally
24 husbandmen as well as Levites, for their numbers are so great that they are
25 obliged to supplement the income derived from theii' priestly office. But
26 when a Brahman drops his sacerdotal character, ceases to receive food or alms
27 as offerings acceptable to the gods, and becomes a cultivator pure and simple,
28 he also ceases to be a Brahman, and has to employ other Brahmans as priests.
29 Witness the Taga Brahmans of the Dehli division, who are Tagas, not Brah-
30 mans, because they have " abandoned '"' {(dg dena) their priestly character.
31 Indeed in the hills the very practice of agricultru-e as a calling or at least the
32 actual following of the plough is in itself sufficient to deprive a Brahman of all
33 but the name of his caste; for Mr. Lyall points out that in the following
34 quotation from Mr. Barnes " ploughing " should be read for " agriculture " or
35 " husbandry,'' there being very few, even of the highest Brahman famihes, who
36 abstain from other soils of field work.
37 " It will afford a tolerable idea of the endless ramification of caste to follow out the details of
38 " even the Sarsut tribe as established in these hills. Tlie reader acquainted with the country will
39 "know that Brahmins, though classed under a common appellation, are not all equal. There are
40 " primarily two great distinctions in every tribe claiming to be of such exalted origin as f ho
41 " Brahmins, — viz., those who follow and those who abstain from agriculture. This is the great
42 "touchstone of their creed. Those who have never defiled their hands witli the plough, but have
43 "restricted themselves to the legitimate pursuits of the caste, are held to be pure Brahmins ;
44 "while those who have once descended to the occupation of hasbandry retain indeed the name,
45 "but are no longer acknowledged by their brethren, nor held in the same reverence by the people
46 "at large."
47 So again if a Brahman takes to handicrafts he is no longer a Brahman,
48 as in the case of the Thilvis of the hills, some of whom were Brahmans in
49 the last generation. The Dharukras of Dehli are admittedly Brahmans who
50 have within the last few generations taken to widow marriage ; and the
51 Chamai'wa Sadhs and the whole class of the so-called Brahmans who minister
52 to the outcast classes, are no longer Brahmans in any respect beyond the mere
53 retention of the name. The Maha Brahman, so impure that in many villages