SYMBOLS OF HINDUISM 147
system from the Varna system. Indeed the Class-caste system follows closely the class clevages of the Varna system.
Looking at the caste system from this point of view one comes across several lives of class clevage which run through this pyramid of castes dividing the pyramid into blocks of castes. The first line of clevage follows the line of division noticeable in the ancient Chaturvarna system. The old system of Chaturvarna made a distinction between the first three Varnas, the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the fourth Varna namely the Shudra. The three former were classes as the Regenerate classes. The Shudra was held as the Unregenerate class. This distinction was based upon the fact that the former were entitled to wear the sacred thread and study the Vedas. The Shudra was entitled to neither and that is why he was regarded as the unregenerate class. This line of clevage is still in existence and forms the basis of the present day class division separating the castes which have grown out of the vast class of Shudras from those which have grown out of the three classes of Brahmins, the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas. This line of class clevage is the one which is expressed by the terms High Castes and Low Castes and which are short forms for the High Class Castes and Low Class Castes.
Next after this line of clevage there runs through the pyramid a second line of class clevage. It runs just below the Low Class Castes. It sets above all the castes born out of the four Varnas i.e., the High Castes as well as the low castes above the remaining castes which 1 will merely describe as the ‘rest’. This line of class clevage is again a real one and follows the well-defined distinction which was a fundamental principle of the Chaturvarna system. The Chaturvarna system as is pointed out made a distinction between the four Varnas putting the three Varnas above the fourth. But it also made an equally clear distinction between those within the Chaturvarna and those outside the Chaturvarna. It had a terminology to express this distinction. Those within the Chaturvarna—high or low, Brahmin or Shudra were called Savarna i.e., those with the stamp of the Varna. Those outside the Chaturvarna were called Avarna i.e., those without the stamp of Varna. All the castes which have evolved out of the four varnas are called Savarna Hindus—which is rendered English by the term Caste Hindus—The ‘rest’ are the A varnas who in present parlance spoken of by Europeans as Non-caste Hindus i.e., those who are outside the four original castes or varnas.
Much that is written about the caste system has reference mostly to the caste-system among the Savarna Hindus. Very little is known about the Avarna Hindus. Who are these Avarna Hindus, what is their