The differences between hierarchical groups that Pocock noted for the Patidars of Gujarat and that obtain in other villages of the state, represent a trend that we see on a more general level in India as a whole; while there are some inversions and some exceptions (we do not expect to find absolute associations but rather statistical correlations), there are nevertheless significant trends. Take first of all the well-known situation regarding religion. High (ritually high) means abstinence from meat and often from other foods, while by and large low means omnivorous. Exceptions exist on a national plane, for while Rajputs are ‘higher’ than Baniyas, the former eat meat while the latter are vegetarian. The problem is that there is no single hierarchy of values or of achievement, the powerful are higher than the holy in some contexts, the rich in others. On the other hand, despite such apparent exceptions, this religious valuation of behaviour regarding food tends to prevail, partly because it is based on the authority of the written word as against that of the sword or of money. In the village of Ramkheri (in the Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh), Mayer noted that while the Vaiśya were below the Kṡhatriya in traditional (varṇa) terms, ‘the vegetarianism of the former is said by many to make the Vaiśya equal to, if not superior to, the Kṡhatriya’ (1966:141). This difference in valuation expresses itself in offerings to the gods as well as in consumption by humans.