nd free, and resembled that of other lands. And yet it
showed a tendency toward a mechanical division which later grew into
the caste system. It was not until the time of the great lawgiver,
Manu, about twenty-five centuries ago, that the system crystallized
into laws, and the organization became so compact as to force itself
upon all the people and become an integral part of recognized Hindu
law. Manu and other lawgivers found the basis of caste rules in the
traditions of an ancient Brahman tribe. These they elaborated and
enforced.

The ancient name for caste was _varna_, which means "colour." This
name is suggestive, and has led many authorities to trace back the
whole system to original race-purity, as indicated by the colour of
the skin. The first incursion of the fair Aryans from the northwest
settled down, it is claimed, in the northern portions of the country.
They gradually mingled and intermarried with the dark-skinned
Dravidian and aboriginal population, with the natural consequence of
a loss of race-purity and of whiteness of complexion. A subsequent
descent of a new Aryan host upon the plains of northern India found
the descendants of their predecessors of darker hue than themselves,
which bespoke their race degeneracy; so they kept aloof from them.
Later, however, they began to mingle with the former inhabitants, so
that their descendants partly lost the ancestral complexion. A still
later Aryan incursion declined to have intercourse with the
descendants of those who last preceded them. Thus we have four classes
divided upon the basis of colour, or _varna_, which may correspond
with the four great original castes of India.

The traditional theory of the Hindus themselves, in reference to caste
origin, is admirably simple and quite adequate to satisfy ninety-nine
per cent of the devotees of that faith to-day. Brahma, the first god
of the Hindu triad, the Creator, was the immediate source and founder
of the caste order; for he caused, it is said, the august Brahman to
proceed out of his divine mouth, while the warlike and royal Kshatriya
emanated from his shoulders, the trading, commercial Vaisya, from his
thighs, and the menial Sudra, from his feet. And from these four
primal classes have descended, through myriads of permutations and
minglings, the present hydra-headed caste organization.

But modern and scientific students of the social order of India
entirely discard and ignore all Hindu mythical expl