Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/109

II.] even in the narrow groove of one's own caste, the selection of a bride-groom has grown to be a serious problem with Hindu parents. The reactionary movement, as is natural in such cases, ran to excess, and small points took exaggerated proportions in the eyes of the people. Besides the Tantriks, there were other people near at hand, who disregarded prejudices of all kinds, in using meat as food. Buddhism, as I have said, had brought into India, a vast number of foreigners belonging to different Asiatic races. There were, amongst these, snake and cockroach eaters, not to speak of those whose daily food was ham and beef. The Hindu community had to be guarded against adopting the ways of such alien peoples, and as the Muhammoden conquerers could not be expected to take any interest in these matters, touching the well being of the people, the leaders of society became their natural guardians and dictated their actions. Raghunandan compiled a treatise which was much needed in an age of vice, resulting from unrestrained conduct.

I believe I have now explained what I understand by the word Āchāra, which, I said, is the chief basis of our modern Hindu society. Āchāra is a deliberate disavowal of this spirit of free-thinking. It is a reactionary step, taken to bring a loose and disorganised society into order and unity; and however absurd it may appear on a superficial view, it had a mission at the time when its stringent rules were first enacted and it cannot be declared with certainty that the good results which the revivalists had in view, are fully exhausted even now.