varna and jati

[Vishal Agarwal]

May I venture to point out that the expression 'blue blooded' is said to
have originated because the European aristocracy ventured into the sun so
little that their skins became pale and blue veins showed through. I cannot
provide you with a reference- just read it in a book several years back.

It would be worthwhile to investigate if the Indians in the territories of
Darius are ever mentioned as dark. Because according to AIT, the Indians in
the territories under the control of Persians could not have been residents
there for more than 6-10 centuries.

Vishal

----Original Message Follows----
From: Swaminathan Madhuresan <smadhuresan at YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: varna and jati
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 14:05:00 -0700

--- nanda chandran <vpcnk at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
 > >I do not know how much exposure you have to Keralan low classes;
 > >   as your writings are mainly concerned with `high classes'.
 > >   Kerala caste system, arranged vertically has more people of fair
 > >   complexion among `high classes' whom you are in contact with
 > >   and very many people who are quite dark among the `low classes'.
 >
 > This may well be due to the fact that the lower strata of the society are
 > usually engaged in manual labour, working in the fields etc and are
 > constantly exposed to the sun, thus resulting in a dark complexion.

    Sorry, Nanda, I beg to differ: The dark complexion of most number of
Shudras as contrased with the color of the top varna cannot just be
explained
away on the basis of "work" in the fields under the hot sun.






_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com


_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com