1
ll|i
1.2
Com-
r..rii9
ill
1
£.^-ii
■m.
^l
caiits.
Scliools.
S
zSo
o
American Societies.
American Board
29
ST
22
106
1SS
2,494
5,2.52
Presbyterian Board .
37
3fi
B
4
144
5T2
6,726
United Presbyterians
5
9
..
Reform. Dutch Board
'('
3
15
64
534
558
American Evangel-) ical Lutherans . . j
4
Methodist Episco-1 pal Board f
19
18
3
29
231
4T6
3,T16
Baptist Miss. Union.
36
42
79
265
77
4,T.'!T
Free-Will Baptists . .
0
7
9
191
1,078
Baptist Free Mis-) siouary Society.. [
3
3
1
8,000
2,073
American Mission-)
1
2
ary Association./
EurojKan Societies.
Ensrlish Church ) Mission. Society.!
125
130
75
1T41
13,016
32,790
Soc. for the Prop-]
agation of the >
H5
44
600
4,000
Gospel )
Loudon Miss. Society
48
2S
275
3,394
1.5,044
Wesleyau Miss. Soc.
32
31
325
2,184
8,2TS
Baptist Miss. Society
38
42
0
152
2,009
.3,371
General Baptists
4
8
12
.'ilO
1,453
Church of Scotland..
8
11
3
3
.-50
91 S
2.800
Free Church of ) Scotland /
10
30
3
119
598
8,661
Irish Presbyterians .
R
9
14
130
1,150
Mission to llillTribes
2
1
;•<
3
Basle Evang. Miss.) Society j
Leipsic Evangelic.) Lnth. Miss. Soc. . /
39
52
3
43
85
1866
2,3.30
16
IS
5
4
139
0291
1,CS4
Gossuer's Mission-) ary Society /
9
25
1
85
£5
4700
1,400
Hermaunsbung ( Mission. Society./
5
Danish Miss. Society Total
2
3
4
1
ISO
60
501 319
1109 13844
74,S10
103,767
Indian Caste. The social distinctions indicated by this term are much more numerous, tixed, and ex- clusive in India than anywhere else. The ancient Egyptians had similar ranks, but they were not so strict- ly hereditary, nor did they form such impassable bar- riers in ordinary intercourse. See Egypt, The Hin-
INDIAN CASTE
557
INDIAN CASTE
dus, indeed, regard these as absolute, original, and per- manent dcmarkations of 7-ace rather than of mere posi- tion or occupation,
1. Orif/in. — From a very early period the Hindu writers have propounded a great variety of speculations regarding the origin of mankind, and of the classes or castes into which their community is divided. The most commonly received of these explanations is that contained in the ancient story, of which Mr. ]\Iuir thinks no trace is found in the Itig Veda (excepting one in Purusha Silkta), but which is found in the Santi Parva of the Mahdblidrata, where a conversation occurs be- tween I'ururax'as, the son of Ila, and IMatariswan, or Vilj-u, the wind god. Pururavas asks, "Whence was the Brahman, and whence were the other three castes produced, and whence is the superiority of the first V" and Vayu answers, "The Brahman was created from the mouth of Brahm, the Kshattriya from his arms, Vaisya from his thighs, and to serve these three castes the fourth caste was fashioned, and so the Sudra sprung from his feet." The sacred books of the Hindus, how- ever, contain no miiform or consistent accoimt of the origin of castes, but offer " raj'Stical, mythical, and ra- tionalistic" explanations of it, or fanciful conjecture con- cerning it. In the llarivamsa (sec. 211, v. 11808 sq.), Janamijaya says, " I have heard the description of the Brahma Yug, the tirst of the ages; I desire now to be accurately informed about the Kshatriya Age," and he receives the following answer: "Vishnu, sprung from Brahm, exalted above the power of sense, and absorbed in devotion, becomes the patriarch Daksha, and creates numerous human beings. The beautiful Brahmans were fi^rmed from an unchangeable element {cihshurii), the Kshattriyas from a changeable substance (ksha?-a), tlie Vaisyas from alteration {vikdra), and the Sudras from a modification of smoke." Another account makes the Brahmans to have been fashioned with white, red, j'cllow, and blue colors. Thence creatiu-es attained in the wolld the state of fourfold caste, being of one type, but with different duties. Still another account (Santi Parvati of the Mahdhhdrata, sec. 188, 189), after giving a statement of the creation of men, etc., propounds the following : " Desire, anger, fear, cupidity, grief, anxiety, hunger, fatigue, 'prevail in all; all have bodily secre- tions, with phlegm, bile, and blood ; and the bodies of all decay — by what, then, is caste distinguished? .... There is no distinction of caste; the whole world is form- ed of Brahma; for, having been formerly created b)' him, it became separated into castes by means of works." In the Bhayavat Piirdnd we read that there was for- merly only one Veda, one God, one caste. Sometimes the different castes are said to have sprung from the v.ords Bhuh, etc.; from different Vedas ; from different sets of prayers ; from the gods ; from nonentity ; from the imperishable, the perishable, and other principles. They are sometimes made to be coeval with the creation, and as liaving different attributes involving different moral qualities, while in other places, as in the Epic poems, the creation of mankind is described without the least allusion to the separate production of the progeni- tors of the four castes. Sometimes all men are the off- spring of :Manu. Thus it is clear that the separate ori- gin of the four castes could not have been an object of belief among the older Hindus, while the variety and inconsistency of these accounts help us not at all in de- termining its origin.