e no social distinctions. This is true not only of teachers whose
orthodoxy is dubious, such as Nanak, the founder of the Sikhs, and
Basava, the founder of the Lingayats,[420] but also of Vallabhacarya
and Caitanya. But in nearly all cases caste reasserts itself. The
religious teachers of the sect receive extravagant respect and form a
body apart. This phenomenon, which recurs in nearly all communities,
shows how the Brahmans established their position. At the same time
social distinctions make themselves felt among the laity, and those
who claim to be of good position dissociate themselves from those of
lower birth. The sect ends by observing caste on ordinary occasions,
and it is only in some temples (such as that of Jagannath at
Puri)[421] that the worshippers mix and eat a sacred meal together.
Sometimes, however, the sect which renounces caste becomes itself a
caste. Thus, the Sikhs have become almost a nation and other modern
castes arising out of sects are the Atiths, who are Sivaites, the
Saraks, who appear to have been originally Buddhists, and the
Baishnabs (Vaishnavas), a name commonly given in Bengal to those
followers of Caitanya who persist in the original rule of disregarding
caste regulations within the sect, and hence now form a separate
community. But as a rule sect and caste are not co-extensive and the
caste is not a religious corporation. Thus the different subdivisions
of the Baniyas belong to different sects and even in the same
subdivision there is no religious uniformity.[422]

Caste in its later developments is so complex and irregular, that it
is impossible to summarize it in a formula or explain it as the
development of one principle. In the earliest form known two
principles are already in operation. We have first racial distinction.
The three upper castes represent the invading Aryans, the fourth the
races whom they found in India. In the modern system of caste, race is
not a strong factor. Many who claim to be Brahmans and Kshatriyas have
no Aryan blood, but still the Aryan element is strongest in the
highest castes and decreases as we descend the social scale and also
decreases in the higher castes in proportion as we move from the
north-west to the east and south. But secondly in the three upper
castes the dividing principle, as reported in the earliest accounts,
is not race but occupation. We find in most Aryan countries a division
into nobles and people, but in India these two classes