Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/185

 IV. ] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 155 dwipa to accept a grant from him, but the Raja received only a rebuke in return though the Brahmin was in an utterly destitute condition. Besides these, there were lay Brahmins, who The Jay could not boast of any particular merit beyond Brahmins. that of birth. But the whole Brahmin community was imbued with the spirit of the Brahmanical ideal on which the reverence of the people for the The
 * i : Brahmini-

Brahmins was mainly based. It is absurd to sup- cal ideal pervaded pose that men who had no political power could (76 5 enforce obedience, without first inspiring regard through their*character and high attainments. ‘The stories invented to glorify the Brahmins beyond all measure, were due to a vague and exaggerated idea of the powers of the great Risis of old—the ancestors of the modern Brahmins. In the back- woods of Bengal one meets even now with wonder- ful instances of belief in the Brahmin. There are people there who will not touch food before tasting water mixed with the dust of a Brahmin’s feet. Before a Brahmin, they will tell no he nor commit any other sinful act. Blind faith sometimes raises the character of illiterate people, in a way which it is easy to undo, but difficult to replace by the spread of education. Yet it is the Brahmanical ideal and not the Brahmin of flesh and blood that is really worship- ped by Hindu society.. It. is love of truth, abso- lute trust in God, utter indifference to worldly con- cerns, wonderful devotion and universa! charity which are still the governing principles in the ideal Brahmin’s life. The indifference of a Brahmin to worldly concernsis shown in the following story