How did the caste system in India evolve?
Caste marks do not, in fact, exist. The caste system, of course, does but the concept has been grossly degraded by 19th century colonialist historians who saw only its surface rigidities and made sweeping generalizations, (condemnatory for the most part), based on too little knowledge and even less experience. It is however ironic, that they never saw the parallels with the European system of guilds that divided artisans into separate social and economic entities on the basis of their specialization and sub-specializations. For that is in simplified terms what the caste system is all about – a stratified and hierarchical socio-economic organization of society that evolved as India’s ancient civilizations, (with its own social order, moral and ritual codes), absorbed the nomadic, Sanskrit speaking Aryan populations who crossed the mountain passes from the steppes of Central Asia and settled in Northern India. The ancient Hindus, literally meaning the peoples of the valley of the Indus r
