f any probability, and perhaps, therefore, instances of
them are unnecessary. Matches between a man of higher and a woman of
lower caste were called _anuloma_, or 'with the hair' or 'grain,'
and were regarded as suitable and becoming. Those between a man of
lower and a woman of higher caste were, on the other hand, known as
_pratiloma_ or 'against the hair,' and were considered as disgraceful
and almost incestuous. The offspring of such unions are held to
have constituted the lowest and most impure castes of scavengers,
dog-eaters and so on. This doctrine is to be accounted for by the
necessity of safeguarding the morality of women in a state of society
where kinship is reckoned solely by male descent. The blood of the
tribe and clan, and hence the right to membership and participation
in the communal sacrifices, is then communicated to the child through
the father; hence if the women are unchaste, children may be born
into the family who have no such rights, and the whole basis of
society is destroyed. For the same reason, since the tribal blood
and life is communicated through males, the birth and standing of
the mother are of little importance, and children are, as has been
seen, easily admitted to their father's rank. But already in Manu's
time the later and present view that both the father and mother must
be of full status in the clan, tribe or caste in order to produce a
legitimate child, has begun to prevail, and the children of all mixed
marriages are relegated to a lower group. The offspring of these mixed
unions did probably give rise to a class of different status in the
village community. The lower-caste mother would usually have been
taken into the father's house and her children would be brought up in
it. Thus they would eat the food of the household, even if they did
not participate in the sacrificial feasts; and a class of this kind
would be very useful for the performance of menial duties in and about
the household, such as personal service, bringing water, and so on,
for which the Sudras, owing to their impurity, would be unsuitable. In
the above manner a new grade of village menial might have arisen and
have gradually been extended to the other village industries, so that
a third group would be formed in the village community ranking between
the cultivators and labourers. This gradation of the village community
may perhaps still be discerned in the main social distinctions of the
different Hindu caste