While perhaps a little off topic, below I have included what is an interesting, contemporary inclusion to this discussion on jati, etc found in NCERT's 12th grade high school text book. In chapter 3, pp 42-> . 

This link will take you to the pdf of ch. 3. 
http://epathshala.nic.in/wp-content/doc/book/flipbook/Class%20XII/12111-Indian%20Society-Sociology/Chapter%203/docs/Chapter%203.pdf

While there is nothing really 'new' here to add to this interesting discussion I think it is interesting, nonetheless, to see how these ideas find their way into school text books. The following is part of the text from pp 42-43. However, the discussion goes on for a few pages.

p42
As is well-known, the English word ‘caste’ is actually a borrowing from the Portuguese casta, meaning pure breed. The word refers to a broad institutional arrangement that in Indian languages (beginning with the ancient Sanskrit) is referred to by two distinct terms, varna and jati. Varna, literally ‘colour’, is the name given to a four-fold division of society into brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra, though this excludes a significant section of the population composed of the ‘outcastes’, foreigners, slaves, conquered peoples and others, sometimes refered to as the panchamas or fifth category. Jati is a generic term referring to species or kinds of anything, ranging from inanimate objects to plants, animals and human beings. Jati is the word most commonly used to refer to the institution of caste in Indian languages, though it is interesting to note that, increasingly, Indian language speakers are beginning to use the English word ‘caste’.

The precise relationship between varna and jati has been the subject of much speculation and debate among scholars. The most common interpretation is to treat varna as a broad all-India aggregative classification, while jati is taken to be a regional or local sub-classification involving a much more complex system consisting of hundreds or even thousands of castes and sub-castes. 

p43
This means that while the four varna classification is common to all of India, the jati hierarchy has more local classifications that vary from region to region.




All the best,

Patrick McCartney, PhD
School of Culture, History & Language
College of the Asia-Pacific
The Australian National University
Canberra, Australia, 0200


Skype - psdmccartney
Phone + Whatsapp:  +61 414 954 748
Twitter - @psdmccartney


On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 11:08 PM, Christophe Vielle <christophe.vielle@uclouvain.be> wrote:

Dear Don,

The problem is also epistemologically discussed by the Prabhakara-mimamsaka Śālikanātha in the Prakaraṇapañcikā, prakaraṇa 4 : Jātinirṇaya

 See short abstract of this chapter in

Potter K. H. éd. 2014, Philosophy of Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā, Delhi, Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies 16, pp. 308-309 (relying on Verpoorten and Pandurangi)

The 1961 Benares edition of the PP is available here :

http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/handle/2015/383225

(better scan than :

http://www.dli.ernet.in/handle/2015/541509

http://www.dli.ernet.in/handle/2015/311115  )

Here below an extract of the Sansknet input on GRETIL

http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/6_sastra/3_phil/mimamsa/prakp04u.htm 

(…)

tad idam apahastitam, yad āhuḥ 

"śabdatvam eva tattadasādhāraṇābhivyañjakadhvaninibandhanatayā nānāvarṇapeṇa viṣayībhavat tasya tasyārthasyāvagamāya kalpata" iti /

brāhmaṇatvādijātinirākaraṇam /

anayaiva ca diśā brāhmaṇatvādijātir api nivāritā /

nahi nānāstrīpuruṣavyaktiṣu puruṣatvādarthāntarabhūtamekamākāramātmasātkurvāntī matirāvirbhavati /

nahi kṣatriyādibhyo vyāvartamānaṃ sakalabrāhmaṇeṣvanuvartamānamekamākāramaticiramanusandadhato 'pi budhyante /

yadapyāhuḥ- 79yadyapyāpātasaṃjātayā dhiyā brāhmaṇyaṃ nāvasīyate, tathāpi brāhmaṇabhūtamātāpitṛsambandhānusandhānaprabhavāyāṃ banddhau taccakāstīti /

tadapi ca svamānasavisaṃvādi /

anusandadhāno 'pi mātāpitṛsambandhaṃ ko jātvekamākāramavaboddhuṃ prabhavati /

yaccopadarśitam---yathā vilīnamājyaṃ tailādavyatiricyamānaṃ gandhagrahaṇasahakāriṇā cakṣuṣaiva bhinnamavagamtaya---iti /

tadapi na sundaram /

nahi tadānīṃ cākṣuṣasya saṃvedanasya viṣayātirekaḥ, kintvanumānameva tatra sarpiṣaḥ /

yastu nipuṇadarśo sūkṣmamapi rūpamīkṣituṃ kṣamaḥ, sa cakṣuṣaivājyajātimapi pratyeti, na gandhagrahaṇamapekṣate /

nanvevaṃ bahvavahīnam, kiṃnibandhano hi tadānīmāhavanīyādisādhyakarmasu keṣāñcidadhikāro nānyeṣām; kiṃnibandhanā ca brāhmaṇaśabdasya pravṛttivyavasthā iti /

atrocyate /

anādau saṃsāre janyajanakabhāvena vyavasthitāstāvat kāścideva strīpuruṣasantatayaḥ santi, tāsāmanyonyavyatikareṇa jātāḥ strīpuṃsavyaktayo brāhmaṇaśabdavācyāḥ /

anidamprathamatayā ca santateḥ sarveṣāṃ tatsantatipatitatvāt siddhā brāhmaṇaśabdavācyatā /

tena santativiśeṣaprabhavatvameva brāhmaṇaśabdapravṛttāvupādhiḥ /

tatprabhavānāmeva karmasvadhikāra iti na kiñcidavahīnam /

ke punaste santativiśeṣāḥ /

na te parigaṇayya nirdeṣṭuṃ śakyante, kintu lokata eva prasiddhāḥ pratyetavyāḥ /

tathā ca tajjanyatve 'vagate brāhmaṇaśabdaṃ prayuñjate lokāḥ /

(…)

Best wishes,

Christophe

Le 16 juin 2016 à 20:41, Donald R Davis <drdj@austin.utexas.edu> a écrit :

My thanks to Sam Wright who pointed me to the following:

Wilhelm Halbfass, “Homo Hierarchicus: The Conceptualization of the Varna System in Indian Thought,” in Tradition and Reflecton. SUNY Press, 1991. [contains a long discussion of the jati as caste and as universal in the works of several authors, including Jayanta and, especially, Kumarila on pp. 363ff.]

Samuel Wright, "History in the Abstract: ‘Brahman-ness’ and the Discipline of Nyaya in Seventeenth-Century Varanasi.” Journal of Indian Philosophy, forthcoming. 

The issue is discussed on page 204 in Sukla, S. N. (Ed.). (1971). Nyāyamañjarī of Jayanta Bhaṭṭa (Part I). The Kashi Sanskrit Series 106, Nyaya Section No. 15. Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office.

Best, Don

From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces@list.indology.info> on behalf of Johannes Bronkhorst <johannes.bronkhorst@unil.ch>
Date: Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 11:40 AM
To: rajam <rajam@earthlink.net>
Cc: Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk@gmail.com>, "indology@list.indology.info" <indology@list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] J?ti as Caste in Ny?ya?

Vincent Eltschinger’s « Caste » et philosophie bouddhique (Vienna 2000) seems relevant in this connection. An English version of this book is also available:

Caste and Buddhist Philosophy: Continuity of Some Buddhist Arguments Against the Realist Interpretation of Social Denominations (Motilal Banarsidass 2012)

Johannes

On 16 juin 2016, at 18:37, rajam <rajam@earthlink.net> wrote:

Many thanks to the originator of this thread!

Right now, I just want to register the fact that I’m very much interested in this topic.

Last year (May 2015), I had a publication (in Tamil) about references to, or a lack there of, “jāti” and “caste” (as we understand it today) in Old Tamil literature/grammar, also known as Sangam literature/grammar.

I don’t know how many of you are aware of the fact that the English word “caste” has its origin in the Portuguese word “casta,” which was first recorded in Arte da Lingua Malabar written by Fr. Henrique Henriques in the mid-16th century. 

If one wants to dig deep into the understanding of the terms such as “jāti” and “caste” … one has to have a minimal understanding of the origins of the Western contact with India, which happened in the early 16-th century through Portuguese arrival in South India.

Thanks and regards,
V.S.Rajam
On Jun 16, 2016, at 8:53 AM, Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk@gmail.com> wrote:

​Dear Don,

This interests me a lot, and I'd be grateful to read what you might write about it in future.  It's on my back-burner, but I've long wondered whether Sanskritic narratives about jati and varna can be thought about in ways similar to eighteenth and nineteenth century European narratives about races and species.  Were people of different varnas formally considered to be of different "species?"   It's a bit shocking to think in these terms, but I've been wondering about it.  If you ever put flesh on these bones, one way or another, or can point me to existing discussions on this, I'd be really interested.

Best,
Dominik

--
Professor Dominik Wujastyk*
Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
 University of Alberta, Canada

On 16 June 2016 at 08:53, Donald R Davis <drdj@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Dear Colleagues,

I would be grateful for additional references to an argument mentioned in Jayanta Bhatta’s Āgamaḍambara 4.143-4 (in Dezso’s edition in the Clay series).  The question is whether the jāti of Brahmins, etc. is like the jāti of cow-ness, etc. in being empirically observable or directly perceivable.  Jayanta refers to those who say that verbal/textual testimony alone (śabdamātreṇa) establishes the four-varṇa system.  This prefigures an argument made in Vijñāneśvara’s Mitākṣarā (on Yaj 1.90) where the same distinction is drawn to refute an objection.

I assumed Jayanta would have made a similar argument in his Nyāyamañjarī, but I have not been able to locate it (probably because I barely know the Nyāya literature).  If anyone could point me toward other instances of this issue, whether in original sources or contemporary research, I’d appreciate it.

Best,

Don Davis
Dept of Asian Studies
University of Texas at Austin

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