Quotes4study

It is still the general law that to constitute a good marriage the parties must belong to the same caste, but to unconnected families. Undoubtedly, however, the three higher castes were always permitted to intermarry with the caste next below their own, the issue taking the lower caste or sometimes forming a new class. A Sudra need not marry a wife of the same caste or sect as himself. In 1871 it was decided by the judicial committee of the privy council that a marriage between a zemindar (land-owner) of the Malavar class, a subdivision of the Sudra caste, with a woman of the Vellala class of Sudras is lawful. Generally also a woman may not marry beneath her own caste. The feeling is not so strong against a man marrying even in the lowest caste, for Manu permits the son of a Brahman and a Sudra mother to raise his family to the highest caste in the seventh generation. The illegitimacy resulting from an invalid marriage does not render incapable of caste; at least it does not so disqualify the lawful children of the bastard. On a forfeiture of caste by either spouse intercourse ceases between the spouses: if the out-caste be a sonless woman, she is accounted dead, and funeral rites are performed for her; if she have a son, he is bound to maintain her. It is remarkable that the professional concubinage of the dancing-girl does not involve degradation, if it be with a person of the same caste. This suggests that whatever may be the function of caste, it is not a safe guardian of public morality. The rules as to prohibited degrees in marriage used to be very strict, but they are now relaxed. An act of 1856 legalized remarriage by widows in all the castes, with a conditional forfeiture of the deceased husband's estate, unless the husband has expressly sanctioned the second marriage. The later Indian Marriage Act was directed against the iniquitous child marriages; it requires a _minimum_ age. In many ways the theoretical inferiority of the Sudra absolves him from the restraints which the letter of the law lays on the higher castes. Thus a Sudra may adopt a daughter's or sister's son, though this is contrary to the general rule that the adopter should be able to marry the mother of the adopted person. The rule requiring the person adopted to be of the same caste and _gotra_ or family as the adopter is also dispensed with in the case of Sudras. In fact, it is only a married person whom a Sudra may not adopt. As regards inheritance the Sudra does not come off so well in competition with the other castes. "The sons of a Brahamana in the several tribes have four shares or three or two or one; the children of a Kshatriya have three portions or two or one; and those of a Vaisya take two parts or one." This refers to the case permitted by law, and not unknown in practice, of a Brahman having four wives of different castes, a Kshatriya three, and so on. But all sons of inferior caste are excluded from property coming by gift to the father; and a Sudra son is also excluded from land acquired by purchase. It must be recollected, however, that under an act of 1850, _loss_ of caste no longer affects the capacity to inherit or to be adopted. In cases of succession _ab intestato_ on failure of the preceptor, pupil, and fellow-student (heirs called by the Hindu law after relatives), a priest, or any Brahman, many succeed. Where a Sudra is the only son of a Brahman, the Sapinda, or next of kin, would take two-thirds of the inheritance; where he is the only son of any other twice-born father, the Sapinda would take one-half. Possibly, the rule of equal division among sons of equal caste did not at first apply to Brahmans, who, as the eldest sons of God, would perhaps observe the custom of primogeniture among themselves. On the other hand it was laid down in the judicial committee in 1869, contrary to the collected opinions of the Pundits of the Sudder court, that, in default of lawful children, the illegitimate children of the Sudra caste inherit their putative father's estate, and, even if there be lawful children, are entitled to maintenance out of the estate. It had previously been decided by Sir Edward Ryan in 1857 that the illegitimate children of a Rajput, or of any other member of a superior caste, have no right of inheritance even under will, but a mere right to maintenance, provided the children are docile. It seems then that the Kshatriya and Vaisya castes, though in one sense non-existent, still control Hindu succession. Entry: CASTE

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 4 "Carnegie Andrew" to "Casus Belli"     1910-1911

_Geology._--The greater portion of the hilly region in the south of the county forms part of the Silurian tableland of the south of Scotland. Along its north margin there is a belt of elevated ground consisting mainly of Old Red Sandstone strata, while the tract of fertile low ground is chiefly occupied by younger Palaeozoic rocks. The Silurian belt stretching eastwards from the mouth of Loch Ryan to the Merrick range is composed of grits, greywackes and shales with thin leaves of black shales, containing graptolites of Upper Llandeilo age which are repeated by folding and cover a broad area. Near their northern limit Radiolarian cherts, mudstones and lavas of Arenig age rise from underneath the former along anticlines striking north-east and south-west. In the Ballantrae region there is a remarkable development of volcanic rocks--lavas, tuffs and agglomerates--of Arenig age, their horizon being defined by graptolites occurring in cherty mudstones and black shales interleaved in lavas and agglomerates. These volcanic materials are pierced by serpentine, gabbro and granite. The serpentine forms two belts running inland from near Bennane Head and from Burnfoot, being typically developed on Balhamie Hill near Colmonell. Gabbro appears on the shore north of Lendalfoot, while on the Byne and Grey Hills south of Girvan there are patches of granite and quartz-diorite which seem to pass into more basic varieties. These volcanic and plutonic rocks and Radiolarian cherts are covered unconformably by conglomerates (Bennan Hill near Straiton and Kennedy's Pass) which are associated with limestones of Upper Llandeilo age that have been wrought in the Stinchar valley and at Craighead. South of the river Girvan there is a sequence from Llandeilo--Caradoc to Llandovery--Tarannon strata, excellent sections of which are seen on the shore north of Kennedy's Pass and in Penwhapple Glen near Girvan. Llandovery strata again appear north of the Girvan at Dailly, where they form an inlier surrounded by the Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous formations. Representatives of Wenlock rocks form a narrow belt near the village of Straiton. Some of the Silurian sediments of the Girvan province are highly fossiliferous, but the order of succession is determined by the graptolites. Near Muirkirk and in the Douglas Water there are inliers of Wenlock, Ludlow and Downtonian rocks, coming to the surface along anticlines truncated by faults and surrounded by Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous strata. In the south-east of the county there is a part of the large granite mass that stretches from Loch Doon south to Loch Dee, giving rise to wild scenery and bounded by the high ground near the head of the Girvan Water, boulders of which have been distributed over a wide area during the glacial period. Along the northern margin of the uplands the Lower Old Red Sandstone is usually faulted against the Silurian strata, but on Hadyard Hill south of the Girvan valley they rest on the folded and denuded members of the latter system. The three divisions of this formation are well represented. The lower group of conglomerates and sandstones are well displayed on Hadyard Hill and on the tract near Maybole; the middle volcanic series on the shore south of the Heads of Ayr and from the Stinchar valley along the Old Red belt towards Dalmellington and New Cumnock; while the upper group, comprising conglomerates and sandstones, form a well-marked synclinal ford at Corsancone north-east of New Cumnock. The Upper Old Red Sandstone appears as a fringe round the south-west margin of the Carboniferous rocks of the county, and it rises from beneath them on the shore of the Firth of Clyde south of Wemyss Bay. The Carboniferous strata of the central low ground form a great basin traversed by faults, all the subdivisions of the system being represented save the Millstone Grit. Round the north and north-east margin there is a great development of volcanic rocks--lavas, tuffs and agglomerates--belonging to the Calciferous Sandstone series, and passing upwards into the Carboniferous Limestone. The lower limestones of the latter division are typically represented near Dalry and Beith, where in one instance they reach a thickness of over 100 ft. They are followed by the coal-bearing group (Edge coals of Midlothian) which have been wrought in the Dalry and Patna districts and at Dailly. The position of the Millstone Grit is occupied by lavas and tuffs, extending almost continually as a narrow fringe round the northern margin of the Coal Measures from Saltcoats by Kilmaurs to the Crawfordland Water. The workable coals of the true Coal Measures have a wide distribution from Kilwinning by Kilmarnock to Galston and again in the districts of Coylton, Dalmellington, Lugar and Cumnock. These members are overlaid by a set of upper barren red sandstones, probably the equivalents of the red beds of Uddingston, Dalkeith and Wemyss in Fife, visible in the ravines of Lugar near Ochiltree and of Ayr at Catrine. In various parts of the Ayrshire coalfield the coal-seams are rendered useless by intrusive sheets of dolerite as near Kilmarnock and Dalmellington. In the central part of the field there is an oval-shaped area of red sandstones now grouped with the Trias, extending from near Tarbolton to Mauchline, where they are largely worked for building stone. They are underlaid by a volcanic series which forms a continuous belt between the underlying red sandstones of the Coal Measures and the overlying Trias. In the north part of the county, as near Wemyss Bay, the strata are traversed by dykes of dolerite and basalt trending in a north-west direction and probably of Tertiary age. Entry: AYRSHIRE

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon"     1910-1911