unique tendencies? Are matter and spirit separate, or the same? Although seemingly

unrelated, these questions are unified by the subject under consideration in this paper: the

Hindu caste system. The caste system itself is unified by the concern of ritual purity.

According to the Encyclop?dia Britannica: the caste system has been a dominating aspect

of social organization for thousands of years. A caste, generally designated by the term jati

("birth"), refers to a strictly regulated social community into which one is born. In general,

a person is expected to marry someone within the same jati, follow a particular set of rules

for proper behavior (in such matters as kinship, occupation, and diet), and interact with

other jatis according to the group's position in the social hierarchy. ("India") Among

Hindus, the thousands of jatis are grouped into four large clusters called varnas, which is

loosely translated as “color”. Whether this refers to skin color or to attributes of character

depends on one’s perspective. Kelly Ross, a non-Hindu college philosophy instructor,

believes that “these sound suspiciously like skin colors; and, indee

further distant being integrated later (Stein 185 and 206). Each, as a closed group, was

having come from Northern Eurasia (Wasson 209). The Aryan tribes were already split

at the pinnacle of the social ladder, probably influenced by their claims to superior purity.

gained, should always be protected with care by avoiding the stain of contact with persons

(the code for members of each of the four varnas) by referring to the sacrificial superman

rain would not fall, epidemics might prevail, and so on (Basham 241). Thus, “the threat of

between the “clean” and “unclean” castes. The higher states of purity, then, fundamentally

Some topics in this essay:
Marriott Inden, Wong Hindus, Dubois Bougle, Havik Brahmin, Gradually Aryans, Marriott Inden’s, Caste System, Ronald Inden, Vaishyas Sudras, Jainism Sastri, caste system, ritually pure, ritual purity, coded particles, marriott inden, lower castes, hindu caste system, status brahmana, west bengal, hindu caste, inden 233, marriott inden 233, brahmana incapable acquisition, male uterine blood, uterine blood female,