The Encyclopedia of World Religions

76 S cathedral

cleaned latrines. Pollution often comes from contact with body parts or with dead people or animals. The second group comprises foreigners. In traditional India “foreigners” were most often Muslims. The focus of the varna system is on the purity of males, since they are the ones who perform household rituals. As a result, men may marry women from a higher varna, but a man who mar ries a woman from a lower varna loses caste. At the same time, men who cannot find work in an occupation appropriate to their varnas may do the jobs of lower varnas, but not higher ones. Thus, sudras cannot become Vedic priests, for that would pollute the ritual. Finally, the three upper varnas—brahmins, kshatriyas, and vaisyas—are called “twice-born,” because the males born in these varnas undergo a “second birth,” initiation into the study of the most sacred Hindu scriptures, the V EDA . JATIS The varnas represent the way certain thinkers thought society ought to be classified. In actual practice, Hindus have belonged to a more restricted jati, Sanskrit for “birth group.” Jatis are relatively local groups that were ranked on the varna spec trum. There are literally thousands of jatis in Indian society. The occupation that members of a jati per form is specified quite narrowly: Members of one jati may be barbers or shoemakers, those of another may be grocers. Traditional marriages also take place between members of jatis rather than between members of the broader varna classification. In general it is not possible to change one’s varna ranking because it is not possible to change one’s jati. But even in traditional India a limited amount of mobility was possible. It is not unknown for the varna rank of a jati to alter when over sev eral generations its fortunes changed. At the same time, individuals of ability or ambition have not always been limited to jobs within their jati. For example, several dynasties of India were begun by persons of low status.

CASTE TODAY During the 20th century the caste system changed enormously. One of Mohandas G ANDHI ’s most cher ished goals was the elimination of untouchability, and the present constitution of India outlaws it. The Indian government has also established vig orous educational and employment quotas for underprivileged groups. Today caste is much less visible and perva sive in India than it was a century ago, but its influence has not disappeared. Prejudices against low-caste people like the Dalits still remain strong among the higher castes, and marriages, an over whelming majority of which are arranged, are still often performed within the boundaries of varna and jati. Further reading: Louis Dumont, Homo Hierarchicus (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980); J. H. Hutton, Caste in India (Bombay: Oxford University Press, 1963); Ursula Sharma, Caste (Buckingham, N.Y.: Open University Press, 1999). cathedral A type of church building in Chris tianity. It gets its name because it contains the cathedra or “chair” of the bishop. Bishops are religious leaders in Catholic, Orthodox, and some forms of Protestant C HRISTI ANITY . They have charge of all the churches in a certain area. In the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches the area is known as a diocese. Other branches of Christianity use other names. A cathedral is a bishop’s home church. It is the most important church building in a region. That importance is generally reflected in the size of the building. Cathedrals have tended to be mon umental structures. Until the middle of the 18th century, the cathe dral was one of the most important architectural structures in Europe. As a result, up to the mid 1700s the history of European architecture was largely a history of the changing styles of cathe drals. After the mid-1700s, cathedrals continued to be built. But developments like the Industrial, American, and French revolutions made them less