Caste has such deep roots in Southasian society that it would appear as if these divisions were primordial. Several equally plausible theories about the origins of caste are prevalent in villages around Janakpur, in Nepal's Tarai plains, a town believed to be situated at the site of the mythical capital of the Mithila of Valmiki's Ramayana. Hindu creationists, for instance, believe that the Brahmin emanated from the mouth of the primeval man, the Kshatriya from his arms, the Vaishya from his thighs and the Shudra from his feet. Rationalists, on the other hand, attribute the evolution of caste to varna, translated as skin colour in the Mahabharata, which says that a Brahman is white, a Kshatriya red, a Vaishya yellow and all Shudras black. A variation of the 'Aryan invasion' theory holds that the conquerors institutionalised their supremacy by imposing themselves upon the existing occupational groups.
In addition, there is the widely held belief that caste was originally a system of horizontal differentiation, in order to assign occupational duties in a coordinated manner. In this formulation, most castes, except Brahmins at the top and Dalits at the bottom, were fluid categories. Finally, the theory of karma propounds that one's caste in this life is a result of the virtues of the previous one. All that a person can do is acquire virtue in the present life, to be rewarded with promotions up the caste ladder by the divine manager.
Whatever the theory, endless conflict appears to be built into the system of caste divisions. Yet different castes have lived together in the villages of the Nepali Tarai for millennia without major clashes. Part of the explanation behind the 'peaceful coexistence' may lie in the subordinate position of the 'low' castes in economic terms. At least some role was played by the subsistence agriculture that made cooperation a necessary condition of survival. However, a system of layered stratification, rather than hierarchy, seems to have been the mainstay of the caste system in the Mithila region. Different groups live together because they were neither high nor low but merely different, each with its own customs and deities. In the social arena, they have had to cooperate for collective survival.
Water everywhere
According to legends in Mithila, the popular geographic term tarai owes its origin to massive lakes that once existed below the Shivalik (Chure in Nepal) foothills of the Mahabharata ranges. In all probability, these were wetlands left by changes in the courses of the mighty Himalayan rivers, which, once out of the mountains, meander in the plains to meet the Ganga. Today, all cultural symbols of Mithila are water-based. Makhan, lotus seeds, grow in shallow water; fish are caught from rivers and ponds; and betel leaves grow best in the shade of trees near watercourses. Makhan, machha and paan are essential elements of almost all rituals of every caste in this area.