Chapter CASIS to CASTE of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Camões, vii. 37.

By Burton :

“Two modes of men are known ; the nobles know
the name of Nayrs, who call the lower Caste
Pol\da\eas, whom their haughty laws contain
from intermingling with the higher strain.”

1612.—“As regards the castes (castas) the great impediment to the conversion of the Gentoos is the superstition which they maintain in relation to their castes, and which prevents them from touching, communicating, or mingling with others, whether superior or inferior ; these of one observance with those of another.”— Couto, Dec. V. vi. 4. See also as regards the Portuguese use of the word, Gouvea, ff. 103, 104, 105, 106b, 129b ; Synodo, 18b, &c.

1613.—“The Banians kill nothing ; there are thirtie and odd severall Casts of these that differ something in Religion, and may not eat with each other.”—N. Withington, in Purchas, i. 485 ; see also. Pilgrimage, pp. 997, 1003.

1630. — “The common Bramane hath eighty two Casts or Tribes, assuming to themselves the name of that tribe.…”— Lord’s Display of the Banians, p. 72.

1673.—“The mixture of Casts or Tribes of all India are distinguished by the different modes of binding their Turbats.”—Fryer, 115.

c. 1760.—“The distinction of the Gentoos into their tribes or Casts, forms another considerable object of their religion.”—Grose, i. 201.

1763—“The Casts or tribes into which the Indians are divided, are reckoned by travellers to be eighty-four.”—Orme (ed. 1803), i. 4.

[1820.—“The Kayasthas (pronounced Kaists, hence the word caste) follow next.” —W. Hamilton, Descr. of Hindostan, i. 109.]

1878—“There are thousands and thousands of these so-called Castes ; no man knows their number, no man can know it ; for the conception is a very flexible one, and moreover new castes continually spring up and pass away.”—F. Jagor, Ost-Indische Handwerk und Gewerbe, 13.

Castes are, according to Indian social views, either high or low.

1876.—“Low-caste Hindoos in their own land are, to all ordinary apprehension, slovenly, dirty, ungraceful, generally unacceptable in person and surroundings.…Yet offensive as is the low-caste Indian, were I estate- owner, or colonial governor, I had rather see the lowest Pariahs of the low, than a single trim, smooth- faced, smooth-wayed, clever high-caste Hindoo, on my lands or in my colony.”—W. G. Palgrave, in Fortnightly Rev., ex. 226.


In the Madras Pres. castes are also ‘Right-hand’ and ‘Left-hand.’ This distinction represents the agricultural classes on the one hand, and the artizans, &c., on the other, as was pointed out by F. W. Ellis. In the old days of Ft. St. George, faction-fights between the two were very common, and the terms right-hand and left-hand castes occur early in the old records of that settlement, and frequently

quently in Mr. Talboys Wheeler’s extracts from them. They are mentioned by Couto. [See Nelson, Madura, Pt. ii. p. 4 ; Oppert. Orig. Inhab. p. 57.]

Sir Walter Elliot considers this feud to be “nothing else than the occasional outbreak of the smouldering antagonism between Brahmanism and Buddhism, although in the lapse of ages both parties have lost sight of the fact. The points on which they split now are mere trifles, such as parading on horse-back or in a palankeen in procession, erecting a pandal or marriage-shed on a given number of pillars, and claiming to carry certain flags, &c. The right-hand party is headed by the Brahmans, and includes the Parias, who assume the van, beating their tom-toms when they come to blows. The chief of the left-hand are the Panchalars [i.e. the Five Classes, workers in metal and stone, &c.], followed by the Pallars and workers in leather, who sound their long trumpets and engage the Parias.” (In Journ. Ethnol. Soc. N.S. 1869, p. 112.)

1612.—“From these four castes are derived 196 ; and those again are divided into two parties, which they call Valanga and Elange [Tam. valangai, idangai], which is as much as to say ‘the right hand’ and ‘the left hand…”—Couto, u.s.


The word is current in French : 1842.—“Il est clair que les castes n’ont jamais pu exister solidement sans une veritable conservation religieuse.”—Comte, Cours de Phil. Positive, vi. 505

1877.—“Nous avons aboli les castes et les privilèges, nous avons inscrit partout le principe de l’égalité devant la loi, nous avons donné le suffrage à tous, mais voilà qu’on réclame maintenant l’égalité des conditions.” —E. de Laveleye, De la Propriété, p. iv.

Caste is also applied to breeds of animals, as ‘a high-caste Arab.’ In such cases the usage may possibly have come directly from the Port. alta casta, casta baixa, in the sense of breed or strain.