Note 4 — Chapter I

3. We do read that men are said to be distinguished into five sorts or classes, or literally five men or beings (Pancha Ksitayah). “The commentator explains this to mean the four castes—Brâhman, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sûdra and the barbarous or Nishâda. But Sâyana, of course, expresses the received impressions of his own age. We do not meet with the denomination Kshatriya or Sûdra in any text of the first book, nor with that of Vaisya, for vis, which does occur, is a synonym of man in general. Brâhman is met with, but in what sense is questionable.”4