nd southern Bihar the Bhuiyas
living in Hindu villages have become a separate impure caste with
the opprobrious designation of Musahar or rat-eater. The great Mahar
caste of the Maratha country or Bombay are weavers and labourers,
and formerly cured hides, like the Chamars and Koris of northern
India. They are regarded as impure and were the serfs or villeins
of the Kunbis, attached to the land. An alternative name for them is
Dher, and this is supposed to be a corruption of Dharada a hillman,
a name applied in Manu to all the indigenous races of India. Though
the connection cannot be traced in all cases, there is thus no reason
to doubt that the existing impure castes represent the subjected or
enslaved section of the primitive non-Aryan tribes.

42. Occupation the basis of the caste system.

It has been seen that the old Aryan polity comprised four classes:
the Brahmans and Kshatriyas or priestly and military aristocracy;
the Vaishyas or body of the Aryans, who were ceremonially pure
and could join in sacrifices; and the Sudras or servile and impure
class of labourers. The Vaishyas became cultivators and herdsmen,
and their status of ceremonial purity was gradually transferred to
the cultivating members of the village community, because land was
the main source of wealth. Between the last two there arose another
class of village menials and craftsmen, originating principally from
the offspring of fathers of the Aryan classes and Sudra women, to
whom was left the practice of the village industries, despised by the
cultivators. In spite of the almost complete fusion of races which
the intercourse of centuries has effected, and the multiplication
and rearrangement of castes produced by the diversity of occupation
and other social factors, the divisions of the village community can
still be recognised in the existing social gradation.

It has been seen also that occupation is the real basis of the division
and social precedence of castes in India, as in all communities
which have made any substantial progress in civilisation and social
development. Distinctions of race, religion and family gradually
disappear, and are merged in the gradation according to wealth or
profession. The enormous majority of castes are occupational and their
social position depends on their caste calling. Thus in the case of
an important industry like weaving, there are separate castes who
weave the finer kinds of cloth, as the Tantis an