Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/77

 among the orthodox Brāhmaṇas to stop reciting Mantras from the Vedas in the presence of a Shūdra, but they have no objection if the Shūdras listen to Upanishads. The revolution in ideas which is above referred to was this. There had been a change in the ideas of the nature of the divine being, of the use of animal sacrifices, the doctrine of vicarious suffering was abandoned, and the theories of Karma and transmigration of souls, which taught the man the necessity of suffering in his own person for his sins either in this or future lives, were promulgated. Though most of these ideas are discoverable in the later portion of Mantras and Brāhmaṇas, the spirit of these two portions of the Vedas was materially antagonistic to these new ideas. Under those conditions, it was necessary that the study of the Vedas by the masses should fall into disuse. Those books became documents fit to be studied by the philosophers only.

When any people cease to believe in any sacred, traditional work, they can discourage the use of the work only in two ways. They can call it a foolish and heathen document, or they may discourage its use or can prevent its study by the ignorant masses, and restrict it to philosophers only. The first course is possible only when the revolution in ideas takes place on account of the promulgation of some foreign creed, but when the new ideas or religions are of native growth, then they cannot brush aside the ancient document contemptuously. A parallel case can be quoted from modern occidental experience. Christianity was first started among the Jews, and thus the Old Testament became a sacred book. To-day many Christians do not believe in the ideas, doctrines and precepts of the Old Testament, or believe in it only so far as to explain