Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/200

188 religious reformers in attacking the Brahmanic supersti tions, and of the Protestant missionaries, who are unable to offer in the British society of India a sympathizing and protecting caste in place of that which it costs the convert so much to leave. Probably owing to the extent of our Indian Empire, and the great varieties of caste custom which prevail, one hears very conflicting accounts and opinions of the institution. Writers such as Robertson and Dubois have regarded it as the great safeguard of social tranquillity, and therefore as the indispensable condition of the progress in certain arts and industries which the Hindus have undoubtedly made. Othars, such as James Mill, denounce it as now at least a great political blunder, fatal to free competition, and oppose to individual happi ness. The latter view assumes a state of facts which is denied by Mr Colebrooke, ona of the highest authorities on Indian matters. Writing in 1798 he says, 1 after point ing out that any person unable to earn a subsistence by the exercise of his profession may follow the trade of a lower caste or even of a higher ; Daily observation shows even Brahmins exercising the menial profession of a Sudra. We are aware that every caste forms itself into clubs or lodges, consisting of the several individuals of that caste residing within a small distance, and that these clubs or lodges govern themselves by particular rules or customs or by-laws. But though some restrictions and limitations, not founded on religious prejudices, are found among their by-laws, it may be received as a general maxim that the occupation appointed for each tribe is entitled merely to a preference. Every profession, with few exceptions, is open to every description of persons ; and the discouragement arising from religious prejudices is not greater than what exists in Great Britain from the effects of municipal and corporation laws. In Bengal the numbers of people actually willing to apply to any particular occupation are sufficient for the unlimited extension of any manufacture.&quot; This is corroborated by Elphinstone, who states that, during a long experience of India, he never heard of a single case of degradation from caste ; and it is illustrated by the experience of the British army, in which men of all castes unite. The popular notion of modern caste is that it involves certain restrictions on marriage, on profession, and on social intercourse, especially that implied in eating and drinking together. But how far intermarriage is permitted, what are the effects of a marriage permitted but looked on as irregular, what are the penalties of a marriage forbidden, whether the rules protecting trades and occupations are in effect more than a kind of unionism grown inveterate through custom, by what means caste is lost, and in what circumstances it may be regained, these are questions on which very little real or definite knowledge exists. It is very remarkable that the Vedas, on which the whole struc ture of Brahmanic faith and morals professes to rest, give no countenance to the later regulations of caste. The only passage bearing on the subject is in the Purusha Sukta, the 90th Hymn of the 10th Book of the Rigveda Sanhita. &quot; When they divided man, how many did they make him ? What was his mouth ? what his arms ? what are called his thighs and feet ? The Brahmana was his mouth, the Raganya was made his arms, the Vaisya became his thighs, the Sudra was born from his feet.&quot; Haug finds in this a subtle allegory that the Brahmans were teachers, the Kshatriyas the warriors of mankind. But this is opposed to the simple and direct language of the Vedic hymns, and to the fact that in the accounts of creation there the origin of many things besides classes of men is attributed in the same fanciful manner to parts of th3 divine person. It is in the Puranas and the Laws of Manu, neither of which claims direct inspiration, where they differ from the letter of the Veda, that the texts are to be found on which all that is objectionable in caste has been based. Even in the Vishnu Purana, however, the legend of caste speaks of the four classes as being ac first &quot; perfectly inclined to conduct springing from religious faith.&quot; It is not till after the whole human race has fallen into sin that separate social duties are assigned to the classes. The same hymn speaks of the evolution of qualities of Brahma. Sattva, or goodness, sprang from the mouth of Brahma ; Rajas, or passion, came from his breast ; Tamas, or dark ness, from his thighs ; others he created from his feet. For each one of these gunas, or primitive differences of quality, a thousand couples, male and female, have been created, to which the distinct heavens, or places of perfec tion of Prajapati, Indra, Maruts, and (jandharvas are assigned. To the gunas are related the yugas, or ages : 1st, the Krita, or glorious age of truth and piety, in which apparently no distinctions, at least no grades of excellence were known ; 2d, the Treta, or period of know ledge : 3d, the Dvapara, or period of sacrifice ; 4th, the Kali, or period of darkness. Bunsen supposes there may be an historical element in the legend that Pururava, a great conqueror of the Treta age founded caste. The yugas are hardly periods of historical chronology, but there is no doubt that the Vayu Purana assigns the definite origin of caste to the Treta period. &quot; The perfect beings of the first age, some tranquil, some fiery, some active, and some distressed, were again born in the Treta, as Brahmans, tkc., governed by the good and bad actions performed in former births.&quot; The same hymn proceeds to explain that the first arrangement did not work well, and that a sacond was made, by which force, criminal justice, and war were declared to be the business of the Kshatriyas ; officiating at sacrifices, sacred study, and the receipt of presents to belong to the Brahmans ; traffic, cattle, and agriculture to the Vaisyas ; the mechanical arts and service to the Sudras. The Ramayana hymn suggests that in the four great periods the castes successively arrive at the state of dharma or righteousness. Thus, a Sudra cannot, even by the most rigorous self-mortification, become righteous in the period proper to the salvation of the Vaisyas. As the hymn speaks in the Dvapara age, it speaks of the salvation of Sudras as future, and not yet possibl?. Wholly in opposition to the story of a fourfold birth from Brahma is the legend that the castes sprang from Manu himself, who is removed by several generations of gods and demi-gods from Brahma. Then, again, the Santiparvan alleges that the world, at first entirely Brahmanic, was separated into castes merely by the evil works of man. Castehood con sists in the exercise of certain virtues or vices. Munis, or persons born indiscriminately, frequently rise to the casto of Brahmans, and the offspring of Brahmans sinks to a lower level. The serpent observes : &quot; If a man is regarded by you as being a Brahman only in consequence of his con duct, then birth is vain, until action is shown.&quot; But this change of caste takes place only through a second birth, and not during the life which is spent in virtue. Another poetical conception of caste birth is expressed in the Harivansa. The Brahmans were formed from an imperish able element (Akshara), the Kshatriyas from a perishable element (Kshara), the Vaisyas from alteration, and the Sudras from a modification of smoke. The general result of the foregoing texts is that there are several contradictory accounts of the origin of caste, and that these are for the most part unintelligible. Caste is described as a late episode in creation, and as born from different parts of different gods, from the mortal Manu, from abstract

