SOCIAL SCIENTIST ized as being necessary for the smooth functioning of society. The European observers did not fail to find correlations of the caste system with their own social organizations. In fact, the excerpt from Ribeiro quite clearly indicates that he viewed the caste system in tehns of the oligarchic rule of the Portuguese fidalgos and the servile population who serviced them. In his references to the tom-tom beaters, there is an unsaid resemblance to the guild-system of his time. The functional attitude then, is based on a relativistic attitude to feudalism. Some modern writers on caste, even today, stress this aspect. Bryce Ryan, whose 'Caste in Modern Ceylon' is still the most articulated work on castes in Sri Lanka, writes The application of the term 'feudal' to Ceylon is not to use a European concept for an Asian development only superficially similar. The linkage of obligation to land in reference to both secular and religious authorities was present in Ceylon as much as it was in medieval Europe. Gradations and classes of tenure show a surprising conformity with those of Norman England, as do provisions for commutation of service, payment of death duties, etc. Ceylon had feudalism in every connotation of the term; unlike Europe, Ceylon also had caste. From Robert Knox we have a succinct description of Sinhalese feudalism in its secular aspects, hinting as well at guild elements embodied in it.3 In other words, Sri Lankan feudalism was Norman English feudalism with caste or an Oriental version of feudalism (Likewise, the English sailor, Robert Knox, who was a 'forced guest' of the king of the indigenous kingdom of Kandy, during the years 1660 to 1679, tended to see much of the Sri Lankan caste scene in the terms of oligarchic-feudal England of his days).4 Driven by his desire to isolate the function-nexus in the caste system, Ryan exhibits hi his book, a panopoly of various castes (existing, obsolescent and obsolute) in hierarchical order, with sub-groupings. This list runs up to some 25 castes, with the Goyigama (cultivators) at the top and the Demala-Gattara (Tamil 'outcastes') at the bottom.5 Some of these have sub-divisions. The Goyigama have eight; the Karava (fishermen) have one; the Salagama (cinnamon peelers) have two.6 Previously, in his book, Ryan has furnished the rankings of earlier European writers. Some of their rankings are even mpre meticulously articulate than Ryan's. For instance, the Dutch traveller, Francois Valentyn in 1726, recognized nine sub-castes among the Karava, ten among the Durava (coconut palm tappers), nine among the Navandinno (artificers), four among the Chitty (merchants), and thirteen among the Goyigama.7 Robert Knox in his total tally of twelve castes, found three sub-castes of smiths.8 Rev. James Cordiner, Chaplain of Colombo, in 1&07, referred to nineteen castes in Sri Lanka.9 John Davy, medical man and brother of Sir Humphrey D$vy, who served in Ceylon, divided the caste structure in two broad divisions; the Wiessia wanse (agriculturists/traders) and the Kshoodra wanse (inferior castes). To the former, he assigned Goewanse (cultivators) and the Nillemakareya/Pattea (shepherds). In the Kshoodra wanse, he lumped all the other castes, totalling twenty. Of these, he recognized