Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/647

 V.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. . 607 and at the present day there is no Kayastha gos- wamt or priest in the Vaishnava community, who can claim a Brahmin disciple. The only caste next to the Brahmins that still claims Brahmin disciples, is the Vaidya, and the descendents of Narahari Sarkar of Crikhanda have a considerable following of Brahmin disciples up till now, though their _ number has greatly fallen off. Thus do we find _ Hindu society to be almost proof against any he Hindu attempt to break down the Brahminical caste- aire as system. Hindu society has often been seen to itself. yield for a time to the inspired efforts of a great genius to level all ranks, but, as often, it has been found to reassert itself when the new order, after its brief hey-day of glory, gradually succumbs to the power of older institutions. Buddhism, Vaisnavism and even Brahmaism, all of which began with an ideal of all-embracing love seem each in turn to have lost its hold upon the masses gradually. There is an inherent power in the social organisa- tion of Hinduism,—the power to draw from all faiths and nourish itself on the best elements of other creeds. Each religion, that comes in contact with it, prevails so long as a genius acts in its support, but when such inspired help is gone, it finds that its strongest points have all passed over to the other-side leaving it incapable of coping with the resources of the older institution. But though much of the influence of Vaisnavism has been lost in course of time yet it retains a considerable hold এ upon the masses. Widow-marriage and a disregard Vaismava of the hard and fast rules laid down in the Hindu ier Bees castras characterise the lay Vaishnava community, and the Vaisnavas still preach the doctrines of