Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/122

84 creased in number and in influence, until they formed a hereditary caste of their own. The kings and warriors of the valley of the Ganges lived in more splendid courts, and had more gorgeous surroundings than the warriors of the Panjab, and soon separated themselves from the people and formed a caste of their own. The mass of the people the Vaisyas or Visas of the Rig-Veda became more feeble than their forefathers in the Panjab, and wore, without a protest, the chains which priests and warriors the Brahmans and the Kshatriy as threw around them. 'And lastly, the aborigines who were subjugated and had adopted the Aryan civilization formed the low caste of Sudras and were declared unfit to perform the Aryan religious rites or to acquire religious knowledge.

Such was the origin of the caste system in India, in the second period of Hindu history. The system arose out of weakness and lifelessness among the people, and, to a certain extent, it has perpetuated that weakness ever since. At the close of the period, however, there appears to have been a reaction, and the Kshatriyas at last tried to prove their equality with the Brahmans in learning and religious culture. Wea-