Page:Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists.djvu/30

Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists priests and philosophers; Kshatriyas, the ruling and knightly class; Vaishyas, traders and agriculturists; and Shūdras—servants of the other three, who alone are "twice-born," that is, receive priestly initiation in early manhood. Besides these, there are recognized a vast number of subdivisions of the four main classes, arising theoretically by intermarriage, and distinguishable in practice as occupation-castes.

For each Colour Hindu theory recognizes an appropriate duty and morality (dharma): to follow any but the "own-dharma" of a man's caste constituted a most disastrous sin, meriting condign punishment. In this conception of own-dharma there appears at once the profound distinction of Hindu from all absolutist moralities, such as the Mosaic or Buddhist. To take one concrete example, the Mosaic Decalogue lays down the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," and this commandment is nominally binding equally upon the philosopher, the soldier, and the merchant—a somewhat illogical position. But Hinduism, permeated though it be by the doctrine of ahimsa, harmlessness, does not attempt to enforce it upon the Kshatriyas or Shūdras: it is the hermit and philosopher above all who must not kill or hurt any living thing, while the knight who shrank, in time of need, from slaying men or animals would not be praise worthy as a humanitarian, but blameworthy as one who neglected to follow his own-morality. This very question is raised in the Rāmāyana, when Sītā suggests to Rāma that, as they are now dwelling in the forests, the resort of hermits, they should adopt the yogī-morality, and refrain from slaying, not merely beasts, but even the rākshasas; 10