Böcker av Shridhar Venkatesh Ketkar

Ketkar reveals the complex social and legal systems that underlie India's caste system, shedding new light on this ancient and controversial institution. A must-read for anyone interested in Indian history and culture.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

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 fulfillment 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, Vol. XI.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.