ORIGIN OF PRIESTLY FAMILIES.

87

tribes

organized

nations, with castes, priests, and kings? We have seen that The Aryan although in their earlier colonies on the Indus each father was priest in his family, yet the Chieftain, or Lord of the Settlers, into called in some man specially learned in holy offerings to kingdoms. conduct the greater tribal sacrifices. Such men were highly honoured, and the famous quarrel which runs throughout the whole Veda sprang from the claims of two rival sages, Vasishtha and Viswamitra, to perform one of these ceremonies. The art of writing was unknown, and the hymns and sacrificial formulæ had to be handed down by word of mouth from father to son.

families.

It thus came to pass that the families who knew these Origin of holy words by heart became the hereditary owners of the priestly liturgies required at the most solemn offerings to the gods. Members of such households were chosen again and again to conduct the tribal sacrifices, to chant the battle-hymn, to implore the divine aid, or to pray away the divine wrath. Even the early Rig-Veda recognises the importance of these sacrifices. 'That king,' says a verse, 'before whom marches the priest, he alone dwells well established in his own house; to him the people bow down. The king who gives wealth to the priest, he will conquer; him the gods will protect.' The tribesmen. first hoped, then believed, that a hymn or prayer which had once acted successfully, and been followed by victory, would again produce the same results. The hymns became a valuable family property for those who had composed or learned them. The Rig-Veda tells how the prayer of Vasishtha prevailed in the battle of the ten kings,' and how that of Viswámitra 'preserves the tribe of the Bhárats.' The potent prayer was termed brahman (from the root brih vrih, to increase), and he who offered it, bráhman. Woe to him who despised either! Whosoever,' says the Rig-Veda, 'scoffs at the prayer which we have made, may hot plagues come upon him, may the sky burn up that hater of Brahmans.'1

Certain families thus came to have not only a hereditary Growing claim to conduct the great sacrifices, but also the exclusive numbers of priests. knowledge of the ancient hymns, or at any rate of the traditions which explained their symbolical meaning. They naturally tried to render the ceremonies solemn and imposing. degrees a vast array of ministrants grew up around each of the greater sacrifices. There were first the officiating priests and

By

1 The following pages are largely indebted to Professor Weber's History of Indian Literature (Trübner, 1878), – -a debt very gratefully acknowledged.

The four Vedas.

their assistants, who prepared the sacrificial ground, dressed the altar, slew the victims, and poured out the libations; second, the chanters of the Vedic hymns; third, the reciters of other parts of the service; fourth, the superior priests, who watched over the whole, and corrected mistakes.

The entire service was derived from the Veda, or 'inspired knowledge,' an old Aryan word which appears in the Latin vid-ere, 'to see or perceive ;' in the Greek feido of Homer, and oida, 'I know;' in the Old English, I wit; in the modern German and English, wissen, wisdom, etc. The Rig-Veda Kig-Veda. exhibits the hymns in their simplest form, arranged in ten 'circles,' according to the families of their composers, the Rishis. Some of the hymns are named after individual minstrels.

(1) The

(2) The SámaVeda.

(3) The Yajur Veda;

its (a) Black and

(b) White editions.

Veda.

But as the sacrifices grew more elaborate, the hymns were also arranged in four collections (sanhitás) or service-books for the ministering priests. Thus, the second, or Sáma-Veda, was made up of extracts from the Rig-Vedic hymns used at the Soma sacrifice. Some of its verses stamp themselves, by their antiquated grammatical forms, as older than their rendering in the Rig-Veda itself. The third, or Yajur-Veda, consists not only of Rig-Vedic verses, but also of prose sentences, to be used at the sacrifices of the New and Full Moon; and at the Great Horse Sacrifice, when 609 animals of various kinds were offered, perhaps in substitution for the earlier Man Sacrifice, which is also mentioned in the Yajur-Veda. The Yajur-Veda is divided into two editions, the Black and the White Yajur ; both belonging to a more modern period than either the Rig or the Sáma Vedas, and composed after the Aryans had spread far to the east of the Indus.

(4) The The fourth, or Atharva-Veda, was compiled from the least Atharva ancient hymns of the Rig-Veda in the tenth book; and from the still later songs of the Bráhmans, after they had established their priestly power. It supplies the connecting link between the simple Aryan worship of the Shining Ones exhibited in the Rig-Veda, and the complex Bráhmanical system which followed. It was only allowed to rank as part of the Veda after a long struggle.

The four
Vedas

become in

The four Vedas thus described, namely, the Rig-Veda, the Sáma, the Yajur, and the Atharva, formed an immense body sufficient. of sacrificial poetry. But as the priests grew in number and power, they went on elaborating their ceremonies, until even the four Vedas became insufficient guides for them. They The Bráh accordingly compiled prose treatises, called Brahmanas, attached to each of the four Vedas, in order to more fully explain the

manas

compiled.

Truth.

or Sacred

functions of the officiating priests. Thus the Brahmana of the Rig-Veda deals with the duties of the Reciter of the Hymns (hotar); the Bráhmana of the Sáma-Veda, with those of the Singer at the Soma sacrifice (udgátar); the Brahmana of the Yajur Veda, with those of the actual performer of the Sacrifice (adhvaryu); while the Bráhmana of the Atharva-Veda is a medley of legends and speculations, having but little direct connection with the Veda whose name it bears. All the Sruti, or Brahmanas, indeed, besides explaining the ritual, lay down Revealed religious precepts and dogmas. Like the four Vedas, they are held to be the very Word of God. The Vedas and the Brahmanas form the Revealed Scriptures (sruti) of the Hindus; the Vedas supplying their divinely-inspired psalms, and the Brahmanas their divinely-inspired theology or body of doctrine. Even this ample literature did not suffice. The priests The Sútras accordingly composed a number of new works, called Sútras, Traditions; which elaborated still further their system of sacrifice, and which asserted still more strongly their own claims as a separate and superior caste. They alleged that these Sútras, although not directly revealed by God, were founded on the inspired Vedas and Bráhmanas, and that they had therefore a divine authority as sacred traditions (smriti). The Sútras, literally, Smriti ; 'strings' of aphorisms, were composed in the form of short not ' revealed.' sentences, for the sake of brevity, and in order that their vast number might be the better remembered in an age when writing was little practised, or unknown. Some of them, such as their the Kalpa-Sútras, deal with the ritual and sacrifices; others, subjectlike the 'Household' or Grihya-Sútras, prescribe the ceremonies at birth, marriage, and death; a still larger class of Sútras treat of the doctrines, duties, and privileges of the priests. The Sútras thus became the foundation of the whole legislation and philosophy of the Brahmans in later times. They exhibit the The Brahmans no longer as the individual sacrificers of the Vedic caste fully period, but as a powerful hereditary caste, claiming supremacy formed. alike over king and people.

matter.

Brahman

of the

Meanwhile, other castes had been gradually formed. As Growth the Aryans moved eastwards from the Indus, some of the warrior warriors were more fortunate than others, or received larger caste shares of the conquered lands. Such families had not to till (Kshattriyas). their fields with their own hands, but could leave that work to be done by the aboriginal races whom they subdued. In this way there grew up a class of warriors, freed from the labour of husbandry, who surrounded the chief or king, and were always ready for battle. It seems likely that these kinsmen

The cultivating

caste

and companions of the king formed an important class among the early Aryan tribes in India, as they certainly did among the medieval branches of the race in Europe, and still do at the petty courts of India. Their old Sanskrit names, Kshattriya, Rájanya, and Rájbansi, mean 'connected with the royal power,' or 'of the royal line;' their usual modern name Rajput means 'of royal descent.' In process of time, when the Aryans settled down, not as mere fighting clans, but as powerful nations, in the Middle Land along the Jumna and Ganges, this warrior class grew in numbers and in power. The black races had been reduced to serfdom, or driven back towards the Himalayas and the Vindhyas, on the north and on the south of the central tract. The incessant fighting, which had formed the common lot of the tribes on their actual migration eastwards from the Indus, now ceased.

A section of the people accordingly laid aside their armis, and, devoting themselves to agriculture or other peaceful pur(Vaisyas). suits, became the Vaisyas. The sultry heats of the Middle Land must have abated their old northern energy, and inclined them to repose. Those who, from family ties or from personal inclination, preferred a soldier's life, had to go beyond the frontier to find an enemy. Distant expeditions of this sort could be undertaken much less conveniently by the husbandman than in the ancient time, when his fields lay on the very border of the enemy's country, and had just been wrested from it. Such expeditions required and probably developed a military class; endowed with lands, and with serfs to till the soil during the master's absence at the wars. The old companions and kinsmen of the king formed a nucleus round which gathered the more daring spirits. They became in time a distinct military caste.

The four

mans,

(2) Kshat
triyas,
(3) Vais-

yas,

The Aryans on the Ganges, in the Middle Land,' thus castes : found themselves divided into three classes-first, the priests, (1) Bráhor Brahmans; second, the warriors and king's companions, called in ancient times Kshattriyas, at the present day Rájputs: third, the husbandmen, or agricultural settlers, who retained the old name of Vaisyas, from the root vis, which in the Vedic period had included the whole 'people.' These three classes gradually became separate castes; intermarriage between them was forbidden, and each kept more and more strictly to its hereditary employment. But they were all recognised as belonging to 'Twice-born,' or Aryan race; they were all present at the great national sacrifices; and all worshipped the same Bright Gods.

(4) Súdras.

Beneath them was a fourth or servile class, called Súdras, the

THE FOUR CASTES DIFFERENTIATE.

91

remnants of the vanquished aboriginal tribes whose lives had
been spared. These were 'the slave-bands of black descent,' the
Dásas of the Veda. They were distinguished from their 'Twice-
born' Aryan conquerors as being only Once-born,' and by
many contemptuous epithets. They were
present at the great national sacrifices, or
followed them. They could never rise
condition; and to them was assigned the severest toil in the
fields, and all the hard and dirty work of the village community.

not allowed to be at the feasts which out of their servile

In

Kshat

increase.

Of the four Indian castes, three had a tendency to increase. The BráhAs the Aryan conquests spread, more aboriginal tribes were mans, reduced to serfdom, as Súdras. The warriors, or Kshattriyas, triyas, and would constantly receive additions from wealthy or enterprising Súdras members of the cultivating class. When an expedition or migration went forth to subdue new territory, the whole colonists would for a time lead a military life, and their sons would probably all regard themselves as Kshattriyas. ancient times, entire tribes, and at the present day the mass of the population throughout large tracts, thus claim to be of the warrior or Rájput caste. Moreover, the kings and fighting-men of aboriginal races who, without being conquered by the Aryans, entered into alliance with them, would probably assume for themselves the warrior or Kshattriya rank. We see this process going on at the present day among many of the aboriginal peoples. The Bráhmans, in their turn, appear at first to have received into their body distinguished families of Kshattriya descent. In later times, too, we find that sections of aboriginal races were also 'manufactured' wholesale into Bráhmans. Unmistakeable cases of such 'manufactures' or ethnical syncretisms are recorded; and besides the upperclass agricultural Bráhmans, there are throughout India many local castes of Bráhmans who follow the humble callings of fishermen, blacksmiths, ploughmen, and potato-growers.1

diminish.

The Vaisya or cultivating caste did not tend, in this manner, The to increase. No one felt ambitious to win his way into it, Vaisyas except perhaps the enslaved Súdras, to whom any change of condition was forbidden. The Vaisyas themselves tended in early times to rise into the more honourable warrior class; and at a later period, to be mingled with the labouring multitude of Súdras, or with the castes of mixed descent. In many Provinces they have now almost disappeared as a distinct. In ancient India, as at the present day, the three conspicuous castes were (1) the priests and (2) warriors of 1 See Hunter's Orissa, vol. i. pp. 239-264 (1872).

caste.