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Caste and purity: A study in the language of the Dharma literature

University of Texas at Austin, Texas 78712-1194, USA

The caste system, according to the currently prevalent view, is based on purity, each caste being located on a hierarchical gradation of purity, a thesis laid out most compellingly by Louis Dumont. It has generally bern assumed that purity is the basis of hierarchy in ancient India. This paper examines the ancient texts on Dharma relating to purity and social hierarchy and finds that the texts establish no link between the two and that they rarely, if ever, refer to purity as an abstract condition or state. The language of purity itself is multifaceted, containing numerous terms with significant differences in meaning, and it makes a clear distinction between persons and things. With respect to persons, the vocabulary clearly indicates that the focus is not on any permanent, or even transitory, condition of purity but rather on the transition from impurity to purity, on the recovery of lost purity; the dynamic meaning dominates the use of the major Sanskrit terms for pure.

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