Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/191

should be members of their community. They will be able to exclude some of those who are already in the community and will also be able to extend the membership of their sacred circle to people from other castes whom they would consider fit. Brāhmaṇahood has many defects. The greatest of all defects is its tribalism. They are subdivided into about eight hundred sub-castes which do not inter-marry. A number of those divisions have been territorial in their origin, but now they have become tribal. Suppose a Kānyakubja Brāhmaṇa comes to Deccan, he has no chance of being regarded as a Dākshiṇatya. That Kānyakubja Brāhmaṇa has to go back to Kanoja to seek a wife, and his children in the Deccan will have to do the same when they want to marry. Pancha Gauda Brāhmaṇas and Pancha Dravida Brāhmaṇas, which were once only territorial divisions, have now become tribal divisions.

This is not the place to inquire as to why and how these various distinctions arose among the Brāhmaṇas. But some of the causes which convert territorial society into tribal society may be considered here. The first and most important reason has been mutual suspicion. When a man from northern India comes to southern India, and calls himself a Brāhmaṇa, many Brāhmaṇas in the south would suspect his claim and would have no connexion with him. The suspicion has its causes. Many cases of deception of this kind can be gleaned from folk-tales. Again, the ways of the northern Brāhmaṇa are different from those of the southern Brāhmaṇas, and the most important of the differences have been in the conception of what is pure and what is impure. For example, if a Brāhmaṇa from Gujerath comes to the Deccan and shows no scruples about