The Mithila attitude

Caste has such deep roots in Southasian society that it would appear as if these divisions were primordial. Several equally plausible theories about the origins of caste are prevalent in villages around Janakpur, in Nepal's Tarai plains, a town believed to be situated at the site of the mythical capital of the Mithila of Valmiki's Ramayana. Hindu creationists, for instance, believe that the Brahmin emanated from the mouth of the primeval man, the Kshatriya from his arms, the Vaishya from his thighs and the Shudra from his feet. Rationalists, on the other hand, attribute the evolution of caste to varna, translated as skin colour in the Mahabharata, which says that a Brahman is white, a Kshatriya red, a Vaishya yellow and all Shudras black. A variation of the 'Aryan invasion' theory holds that the conquerors institutionalised their supremacy by imposing themselves upon the existing occupational groups.

In addition, there is the widely held belief that caste was originally a system of horizontal differentiation, in order to assign occupational duties in a coordinated manner. In this formulation, most castes, except Brahmins at the top and Dalits at the bottom, were fluid categories. Finally, the theory of karma propounds that one's caste in this life is a result of the virtues of the previous one. All that a person can do is acquire virtue in the present life, to be rewarded with promotions up the caste ladder by the divine manager.