lf, and are
already, in many noble qualities, revealing to the native Christians
of the East the way of ascent to nobility of character and to the
highest Christian possession.

CHAPTER IV

THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM

The word "caste" is derived from the Latin term _castus_, which
signified purity of breed. It was the term used by Vasco da Gama and
his fellow-Portuguese adventurers, four centuries ago, as they landed
upon the southwestern coast of India and began to study the social and
religious condition of the people. The word expressed to them the
remarkable bond which held the people together; the subsequent
generations of foreigners and English-speaking natives have adopted it
as the most appropriate term to express the unique system which
prevails all over India. No other people, in the history of the world,
have erected a social structure comparable to this of India. For
twenty-five centuries it has controlled the life of nearly one-sixth
of the human race. Other countries have, or have had, tribal
connections, class distinctions, trade unions, religious sects,
philanthropic fraternities, social guilds, and various other
organizations. But India is the only land where all these are
practically welded together into one consistent and mighty whole,
which dictates the every detail of human relationship and controls the
whole destiny of man for time and eternity. For it should be
remembered that India has consistently declined to recognize any
distinction between the social and the religious. These are the
reverse and the obverse of life; they are brought to the same rules
and must yield obedience to the same authority. Religion, to the
Hindu, permeates the whole social domain; and social order draws its
sanctions from, and is enforced by the penalties of, religion. To
marry outside one's caste, to eat food cooked by an outcast, to cross
the ocean, to delay unduly the marriage of a daughter,--these, and a
thousand other delinquencies which may seem absolutely harmless to a
Westerner, are not only regarded as social irregularities, but also as
sins whose penalties will harass the soul beyond the grave or
burning-ground. Herein does caste reveal its uniqueness, and from this
does it pass on to the exercise of its extraordinary tyranny over the
people.

I

The origin of caste is a subject of much uncertainty and debate. In
ancient Vedic times, caste was unknown. Society, in those days, was
more elastic a