BOOK I. But, though the three chief classes are confined to this tract, a Súdra distressed for subsistence may sojourn wherever he chooses." It seems impossible not to conclude from all this, that the twice-born men were a conquering people; that the servile class were the subdued aborigines; and that the independent Súdra towns were in such of the small territories, into which Hindostan was divided, as still retained their independence, while the whole of the tract beyond the Vindya mountains remained as yet untouched by the invaders, and unpenetrated by their religion. A doubt, however, soon suggests itself, whether the conquerors were a foreign people, or a local tribe, like the Dorians in Greece; or whether, indeed, they were not merely a portion of one of the native states (a religious sect, for instance) which had outstripped their fellow citizens in knowledge, and appropriated all the advantages of the society to themselves. The different appearance of the higher classes from the Súdras, which is so observable to this day, might incline us to think them foreigners; but, without entirely denying this argument, (as far, at least, as relates to the Bramins and Cshetryas,) we must advert to some considerations which greatly weaken its force. The class most unlike the Bramins are the Chandalas, who are, nevertheless, originally the offspring of a Bramin mother; and who might have been expected to have preserved their resemblance to their parent stock, as, from the very lowness of their cast, they are prevented mixing with any race but their own. Difference of habits and employments is, of itself, sufficient to create as great a dissimilarity as exists between the Bramin and the Súdra; and the hereditary separation of professions in India would contribute to keep up and to increase such a distinction." It is opposed to their foreign origin, that neither in the Code, nor, I believe, in the Védas, nor in any book that is certainly older than the Code, is there any allusion to a prior residence, or to a knowledge of more than the name of any country out of India. Even mythology goes no further than the Hémaláya chain, in which is fixed the habitation of the gods. The common origin of the Shanscrit language with those of the west leaves no doubt that there was once a connection between the nations by whom they are used; but it proves nothing regarding the place where such a connection subsisted, nor about the time, which might have been in so early a stage of their society as to pre w Observe the difference which even a few years can produce between two individuals, who were alike when they began life; between a soldier of a well-disciplined regiment, for instance, and a man of the least active and healthy of the classes in a manufacturing town. CHAP. BOOK I. vent its throwing any light on the history of thè individual nations. To say that it spread from a central point is a gratuitous assumption, and even contrary to analogy; for emigration and civilisation have not spread in a circle, but from east to west. Where, also, could the central point be, from which a language could spread over India, Greece, and Italy, and yet leave Chaldea, Syria, and Arabia untouched? The question, therefore, is still open. There is no reason whatever for thinking that the Hindús ever inhabited any country but their present one; and as little for denying that they may have done so before the earliest trace of their records or traditions. Assuming that they were a conquering tribe, we may suppose the progress of their society to have been something like the following: that the richer or more warlike members continued to confine themselves to the profession of arms: that the less eminent betook themselves to agriculture, arts, and commerce: that the priests were, at first, individuals who took advantage of the superstition of their neighbours, and who may have transmitted their art and office to their sons, but did not form a separate class: that the separation of classes by refusing to intermarry originated in the pride of the military body, and was imitated by the priests that the conquered people were always a class apart, at first cultivating the land for the conquerors, and afterwards converted by the interest and convenience of their masters into free tenants: V. that the government was in the hands of the mili- CHAP. tary leaders, and probably exercised by one chief: that the chief availed himself of the aid of the priests in planning laws and obtaining a religious sanction to them: that the priests, as they rose into♦ consequence, began to combine and act in concert: that they invented the genealogy of casts, and other fables, to support the existing institutions, and to introduce such alterations as they thought desirable: that, while they raised the power of the chief to the highest pitch, they secured as much influence to their own order as could be got without creating jealousy or destroying the ascendency they derived from the public opinion of their austerity and virtue: that the first Code framed was principally a record of existing usages; and may have been compiled by a private person, and adopted for convenience; or may have been drawn up by Bramins of influence, and passed off as an ancient revelation from the Divinity: that, as changes arose in the progress of society, or in the policy of the rulers, alterations were made in the law, and new codes formed incorporating the old one; but that, at length, the text of the Code became fixed, and all subsequent changes were introduced in the form of glosses on the original, or of new laws promulgated by the royal authority. To all appearance, the present Code was not compiled until long after the community had passed the earliest stages of civilisation. BOOK I. Peculiari ties relating to the Bra mins. In making a general review of the Code, we are struck with two peculiarities in its relation to the class of Bramins by whom it seems to have been planned. The first is the little importance attached by them to the direction of public worship and religious ceremonies of all sorts. Considering the reverence derived by the ministers of religion from their apparent mediation between the laity and the Divinity, and also the power that might be obtained by means of oracles, and other modes of deception, it might rather have been expected that such means of influence should be neglected by the priesthood, in the security arising from long possession of temporal authority, than renounced in an early Code, the main object of which is to confirm and increase the power of the Bramins. The effects of this neglect are also deserving of observation. It was natural that the degradation of public worship should introduce the indifference now so observable in the performance of it; but it is surprising that the regular practice of it by all classes should still be kept up at all; and that, on some occasions, as pilgrimages, festivals, &c., it should be able to kindle enthusiasm. The second peculiarity is the regulation of all the actions of life, in a manner as strict and minute as could be enforced in a single convent, maintained over so numerous a body of men as the Bramins, scattered through an extensive region, living with their families like other citizens, and subject to no common chief or council, and to no |