Christian missions in the Telugu country - Uecf.net

MALAS, MADIGAS, AND SUDRAS 75
The preservation of their civilisation and the preservation
of their colour would necessarily become very closely
associated. And thus quite early would arise that fierce
resistance to the threatened swamping of their civili-
sation, which took the form of absolute prohibition of
marriage with the darker race. It bears this out that
the Sanskrit word for caste, ' varna,' means also colour.
We may see the same tendency at work to-day in
countries where a small fair community is surrounded by
a large dark one. It may be noted, too, that the Brah-
mans, who represent those in whose interest chiefly the
caste system sprang into being, are to this day the
special guardians of the system.
The castes ranking just below that of the Brahmans
may reasonably be supposed to be the descendants of
Aryan invaders who mixed their blood in a less or
greater degree with that of the people of the country.
But it is more important to consider the case of those
aboriginal inhabitants who were not exterminated nor
displaced, but remained to form in most parts the vast
majority of the ensuing population.
In the Telugu country the problem is not a com- Sudras.
plicated one. The Aryan invaders probably came into
the country in very small numbers, as teachers or as
military leaders. The bulk of the population, when
converted to Hinduism, were classified under the head of
Sudras. To this day the Sudras contain all the classes
that would have been necessary for a somewhat more
primitive social organisation. We may regard the
Sudras, then, as the representatives of the original Dra-
vidian owners of the country. The out-castes, again,