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Article: Classifying the Universe: The Ancient Indian Varna System and the Origins of Caste.
- Article from:
- The Journal of the American Oriental Society
- Article date:
- April 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 American Oriental Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The next time you run into a neo-Hindu chauvinist - say on a train between Varanasi and Lucknow, or at a health food store in New Mexico - who delivers an impromptu (and unwanted) lecture on the unity of all the peoples of ancient India and the absence of the evil of the caste system in the Vedas, you can come prepared to beat this benighted perpetrator of bliss and harmony into submission with a copy of Brian K. Smith's Classifying the Universe. For B.K.S.'s primary contention, which he pursues relentlessly, is that not only was the varna system thoroughly in effect in the "Vedic Age," but it served, at least in the Vedas, as the primary means of organizing and thinking ...