History of Caste in India

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I have said regarding the scope of the book in the introductory chapter and here I make only such remarks, which I could not include in the book itself.

The second and seventh chapters of this book were reported to the general seminary of the Department of History and Political Science at Cornell University during the year 1907-8. I am indebted to the professors and students for their valuable criticisms made on the occasion. The second chapter formed part of the dissertation which was submitted as a partial fulfilment of the requirements of master's degree. The radical defects of ethnology which I have discussed in the appendix have appeared already in the quarterly American Anthropologist.

During the compilation of the book, I had availed myself of the material in the Boston Public Library and the libraries at Cornell, Columbia, Yale, and Harvard. I found the library of Harvard best suited for my work; the oriental collection there, is undoubtedly the best in the country. Professor Lanman at Harvard had allowed me the privilege of using his own excellent and extensive collection.

In the preparation of the index besides those of a general reader, the special needs of the students of society, antiquity, Sanskrit literature and Indian history have been considered and I hope the index would be of some service to them.

While adapting the Roman alphabet to represent Indian words, I have distinguished long vowels by a maeron, italised, t, d, n to represent the non-dental sounds and re to represent the peculiar Sanskrit vowel The letters j n denotes the peculiar pelatal compound of frequent occurrence in Sanskrit words. I have avoided all other niceties. In the case of some words which have already become English I have given the current English spelling.

My sincere thanks are due to Professor Lanman of Harvard and Professor Hopkins of Yale, for their perusal of the manuscript and for some very valuable suggestions. I should also thank Messrs. J. B. Lyon & Co. for their careful typography, and Mr. Henry C. Hasbrouck of Troy; N. Y., for going over the proofs.

**Contents and Sample Pages**