Paulinus a Sancto Bartholomaeo (1748-1806) was an Austrian Carmelite missionary - of Croatian origin - who worked in India and published a
Systema Brahmanicum liturgicum mythologicum civile
(
The Brāhmanical Liturgical, Mythological and Civil System
) in 1791 which was edited and translated into German in 1797 as
Darstellung der brahmanisch-indischen Götterlehre, religionsgebräuche und bürgerlichen Verfassung
An Account of the Brāhmanical Indian Mythology, Religious Customs and Civil Constitution
) by the naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-1798). The present translation of four chapters from this work dealing with the four main castes of India makes available to the English-speaking reader one of the earliest European accounts of the caste system as it existed in India at the end of the eighteenth century.