Purity rituals exist religion wide from baptism in Catholicism to Mikvah in Judaism and Amrit Sanchar in Sikhism. This idea of water as a cleansing factor to represent washing away sins of the mind, body, and soul and to emerge anew is repetitive in religion and understandable. The simple act of bathing oneself is a physical visualization of dirt and dust being swept away so the analogy isn’t very hard to comprehend. Therefore, making this association relatively straightforward.
However, relationships between purity and caste and virginal status I personally am not in accordance with; albeit also are very apparent in multiple religions. These are common themes that go hand in hand, rooted with time, and the perpetuance of tradition and culture. The hierarchal stratification among society is nothing new as it is immediately established with any group of individuals. However, the ideation that one caste is more pure than the other is nonsense in my opinon. Take Hinduism for example; there are 4 varnas where Brahmins, the pure ones, reside at the top and Shudras are the bottom-feeders. Their role was to serve and to be compliant with access restricted to streets and temples as even their shadow was thought to be impure.
TBC
-GG
aurumstella 