Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/21

The four varņas in India were never four castes. The history of caste in India is not a history of the multiplication of castes out of the original four. The belief that all the three thousand castes have been the result of the split- ting of the original four castes is hopelessly wrong. The theory of four varņas originally implied that every society is divided into four classes and that these classes are made according to their function (karma) in society and according to their merit.

When the Brāhmaṇas held fast the theory of four varņas and thought that the varna was something similar to a jati (as they themselves were both varna and jati) they began to imagine that the various castes in India which have different caste names are either products of the mixture of the original four castes or due to the degradation of a section of the four castes. Some of the castes and tribes were classed by them as Kshatriyas, some as Vaishyas, and some as Shūdras. This classification was not made by them in any systematic manner taking all the castes and tribes in India into consideration. Their classification was casual. Every case was decided as it came. They followed one rule. Every tribe or person they may come in contact with was a Shūdra unless there is some special reason to class any of these as Vaishya or Kshatriya. Thus the history of four varņas means the history of classifications of the various tribes and definitions of each of the four varņas in terms of castes. It also includes the further development of the four varņa theory.

History of the Development of Hindu Community.—The facts regarding the history of the Hindu community may thus be summarized.

Prior to the immigration of the Rigvedic Aryans India