“One occupation only the Lord prescribed to the Shûdra: to serve meekly the other three castes."

The position claimed for the Brâhmans in this first, general definition, is comparatively modest, certainly not unreasonably arrogant; but we turn a few pages and the lawgiver goes into details and makes his meaning clearer.

"A Brâhman," we read, "coming into existence, is born as the highest on earth, the lord of all created beings, for the protection of the treasury of the law.

"Whatever exists in the world is the property of the Brâhman; on account of the excellence of his origin, the Brâhman is, indeed, entitled to it all.

"The Brahman eats but his own food, wears but his own apparel, bestows but his own in alms; other mortals subsist through the benevolence of the Brâhman.

. . . Know that a Brâhman of ten years and a Kshatriya of a hundred years stand to each other in the relation of father and son; but between those two the Brâhman is the father.

divinity.

A Brâhman, be he ignorant or learned, is a great

Though Brahmans employ themselves in all sorts of mean occupations, they must be honored in every way; for each of them is a very great deity.

The whole duty of kings is pithily summed up under these three heads: "Not to turn back in battle; to protect the people; to honor Brâhmans." "To worship Brahmans" is the expression repeatedly used; "to enrich them" is a point emphatically inculcated, and the king is solemnly warned not to provoke them to anger under any circumstances, "for they, when angered, could instantly destroy him, together with his army and vehicles." Many are

'The cow is Vasishtha's sacred and miraculous cow, the emblem of Brahmanic prayer and sacrifice.

the worldly privileges and exemptions which they demand and enjoy. Still, it is very certain that the material power was in the hands of the warrior caste and that the Brâhmans did not get quite as much in practice as they claimed in theory, and were perfectly aware that conciliation was, after all, their wisest policy. Indeed, after some of the most outrageous bragging and bullying, the priestly lawgiver suddenly descends to reasonable ground and lays down the following shrewd axiom, which, in all times and countries, has been the basis of the mutual understanding between Church and State:

"Kshatriyas prosper not without Brâhmans; Brâhmans prosper not without Kshatriyas. Brâhmans and Kshatriyas, being closely united, prosper in this world and the next.1

3. It will have been noticed that only the three first castes are enjoined to study the Veda. No mention of this duty is made among those of the fourth, the servile, caste. But this is not all. The Shûdras were not only not expected, they were for

1 Post-vedic Brahmanism, however, retains a vivid memory of a bitter struggle for supremacy between the Brâhman caste and that of the Kshatriyas. It is given in the form of a story both in the Mahabharata and the Purânas: The Kshatriyas had become so arrogant and oppressive that the interference of Vishnu himself was needed to repress them. The god took human form and was born in the family of the Bhrigu, a priestly race of divine descent, as PARASHU-RÂMA (" Râma with the axe") who became the exterminator of the warrior caste. "Thrice seven times did he clear the earth of the Kshatriya race and filled five lakes with their blood”after which he gave the earth to the Brahmans!

bidden, to share in the sacred inheritance of those whom to serve was their only mission. Their presence at a sacrifice would have polluted it; the sacred mantras were not to be sung or recited within hearing of a Shûdra, and had a Brâhman instructed one of the servile caste in the knowledge of the Veda, he would have been guilty of a wellnigh inexpiable offence. When a boy of one of the three higher castes attained a certain age, considered as "years of discretion," he was " initiated," i. e., admitted under solemn ceremonies into the religious community, after which he was placed under a guru or spiritual guide, invariably a Brâhman, for instruction in the Veda. This initiation was regarded as the youth's second birth, his birth into the spiritual life, wherefore the three higher castes took pride in the appellation of " twice-born" (dvi-ja). From this distinction the Shûdras, of course, were excluded. This is declared. most explicitly in Manu's Code:

"The Brâhman, the Kshatriya, and the Vaishya castes are the twice-born ones, but the fourth, the Shûdra, has no second birth. There is no fifth caste."

4. This brief survey of the original caste system has led us away from what is, properly speaking, our allotted subject, for we have strayed into post-vedic times. But the digression was necessary in order, precisely, to conclude it with the statement that castes, as a firmly established institution, were not

1 Any time between the eighth and sixteenth year for a Brâhman, between the eleventh and twenty-second for a Kshatriya, and between the twelfth and the twenty-fourth for a Vaishya.

as yet a feature of the Vedic period. Had they been, the fact must have transpired, even if indirectly, in the Rig-Veda, which faithfully reflects the state of society prevailing at the time that the collection was forming; and this is not the case, except in one solitary and noteworthy instance: the ninetieth hymn of the tenth book (X., 90), known as the “Purusha-hymn,” PURUSHA-SÛKTA. The hymn, as a whole, is exceedingly obscure and of entirely mystical import. It describes the act of creation in the guise of a huge sacrifice performed by the gods, in which the central figure and victim is a primeval giant, a being named Purusha (one of the names for man), probably because mankind is represented as being produced by this being or, more correctly, out of various portions of his body. This is the only passage of the hymn with which we are here concerned. Purusha, it is said, "is this whole universe, whatever has been and whatever shall be." Probably in a latent state, since the gods proceed to evolve out of him worlds and animals and men:

"When the gods divided Purusha, into how many parts did they cut him up? What was his mouth? What his arms? What his thighs and feet?

"The Brahman was his mouth; the Râjanya was made his arms; the Vaishya he was his thighs; the Shûdra sprang from his feet."

Now the tenth book, as a whole, is of later date than the rest. It was made a sort of receptacle for odd hymns and such as, important in themselves, did not fit well into the scheme of the others, or were attributed to odd authors, while each book (except