I. INTRODUCTION Are you really what you eat? Why are people born with certain unique tendencies? Are matter and spirit separate, or the same? Although seemingly unrelated, these questions are unified by the subject under consideration in this paper: the Hindu caste system. The caste system itself is unified by the concern of ritual purity. According to the Encyclop?dia Britannica: the caste system has been a dominating aspect of social organization for thousands of …showed first 75 words of 3837 total…

…showed last 75 words of 3837 total…is very complex. The underlying philosophy turns out to be deeper than what appears on the surface. However, one must not get lost in the labyrinth of ideas. When dealing with the living social reality, what counts is not the fine metaphysical concepts embodied in great religious works of a people, but the home-spun ideas that have percolated into the consciousness of the masses and become a part of their world view. (Cunningham and Menon 10) 9