n absolutely essential dogma of Hinduism, though it is the nearest
approach to one. As a definition or test of Hinduism it is, however,
obviously inadequate. Caste, on the other hand, regulates the whole of
a Hindu's life, his social position and, usually, his occupation. It
is the only tribunal which punishes religious and social offences,
and when a man is out of caste he has, for so long as this condition
continues, no place in Hinduism. Theoretically he cannot eat with any
other Hindu nor marry his child to any Hindu. If he dies out of caste
the caste-men will not bury or burn his body, which is regarded as
impure. The binding tie of caste is, according to the argument given
above, the communal meal or feast of grain cooked with water, and this,
it would therefore seem, may correctly be termed the chief religious
function of Hinduism. Caste also obtains among the Jains and Sikhs,
but Sikhism is really little more than a Hindu sect, while the Jains,
who are nearly all Banias, scarcely differ from Vaishnava Hindu Banias,
and have accepted caste, though it is not in accordance with the real
tenets of their religion. The lower industrial classes of Muhammadans
have also formed castes in imitation of the Hindus. Many of these
are however the descendants of converted Hindus, and nearly all of
them have a number of Hindu practices.

96. The Hindu reformers.

There have not been wanting reformers in Hinduism, and the ultimate
object of their preaching seems to have been the abolition of the
caste system. The totem-clans, perhaps, supposed that each species
of animals and plants which they distinguished had a different
kind of life, the qualities of each species being considered as
part of its life. This belief may have been the original basis of
the idea of difference of blood arising from nobility of lineage
or descent, and it may also have been that from which the theory of
caste distinctions was derived. Though the sacrificial food of each
caste is the same, yet its members may have held themselves to be
partaking of a different sacrificial feast and absorbing a different
life; just as the sacrificial feasts and the gods of the different
Greek and Latin city-states were held to be distinct and hostile,
and a citizen of one state could not join in the sacrificial feast
of another, though the gods and sacrificial animals might be as a
matter of fact the same. And the earth-goddess of each village was a
separate for