No doubt also, as the fusion of races proceeded, and bodies of the indigenous tribes who were cultivators adopted Hinduism, the status of a cultivator sank to some extent, and his Vaishyan ancestry was forgotten.

But though the Vaishya himself has practically disappeared, his status as a cultivator and member of the village community appears to remain in that of the modern cultivating castes, as will be shown subsequently.
15.

Mixed unions of the four classes.
The settlement of the Aryans in India was in villages and not in towns, and the Hindus have ever since remained a rural people.

In 1911 less than a tenth of the population of India was urban, and nearly three-quarters of the total were directly supported by agriculture.

Apparently, therefore, the basis or embryo of the gradation of Hindu society or the caste system should be sought in the village.