caste.

Again, very occasionally a caste may be formed from a religious sect
or order. The Bishnois were originally a Vaishnava sect, worshipping
Vishnu as an unseen god, and refusing to employ Brahmans. They have now
become cultivators, and though they retain their sectarian beliefs, and
have no Brahman priests, are generally regarded as a Hindu cultivating
caste. The Pankas are members of the impure Ganda caste who adhered to
the Kabirpanthi sect. They are now a separate caste and are usually
employed as village watchmen, ranking with menials above the Gandas
and other similar castes. The Lingayats are a large sect of southern
India, devoted to the worship of Siva and called after the _lingam_ or
phallic emblem which they wear. They have their own priests, denying
the authority of Brahmans, but the tendency now is for members of
those castes which have become Lingayats to marry among themselves
and retain their relative social status, thus forming a sort of inner
microcosm of Hinduism.

44. Caste occupations divinely ordained.

Occupation is the real determining factor of social status in India
as in all other societies of at all advanced organisation. But though
in reality the status of occupations and of castes depends roughly on
the degree to which they are lucrative and respectable, this is not
ostensibly the case, but their precedence, as already seen, is held to
be regulated by the degree of ceremonial purity or impurity attaching
to them. The Hindus have retained, in form at any rate, the religious
constitution which is common or universal in primitive societies. The
majority of castes are provided with a legend devised by the Brahmans
to show that their first ancestor was especially created by a god to
follow their caste calling, or at least that this was assigned to him
by a god. The ancestors of the bearer-caste of Kahars were created by
Siva or Mahadeo from the dust to carry his consort Parvati in a litter
when she was tired; the first Mang was made by Mahadeo from his own
sweat to castrate the divine bull Nandi when he was fractious, and
his descendants have ever since followed the same calling, the impiety
of mutilating the sacred bull in such a manner being thus excused by
the divine sanction accorded to it. The first Mali or gardener gave a
garland to Krishna. The first Chamar or tanner made sandals for Siva
from a piece of his own skin; the ancestor of the Kayasth or writer
caste, Chitragupta