Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 3-4.djvu/54

 308 OWEN BERKELEY-HILL

each son to follow his father's occupation'. Certainly, we do fitid in the celebrated 'Purusha hymn' of the Rig-veda (Mandala X. 90) an allusion to the distinction of 'castes', but this hymn is admitted to be a' comparatively modern production. It is not until we come to that form of Brahmaniam which may be termed the Nomistic or Preceptive phase, because it represents that period in Indian religious history when the Brahmans com- posed codes of law (Kalpa-Sutras) and laid down precise precepts for the constitution of the Hindu social fabric, that we encounter definite expressions of separate divisions of the Hindus.

Now however one may attempt to rationalise the sub-divisions as the outcome of purely social and economical, or even political, considerations, as has been done hitherto by all writers on the subject, we cannot get away from the fact that the basal prin- ciple underlying this organisation is one that is wholly con- cerned with a 'pollution-complex', for which assumption there could not exist better nor more conclusive evidence tlian the conception of the existence of a class of 'Untouchables'. As I have already observed, it is the idea of 'pollution' with its con- committant creation of a section of the body politic into 'Out- castes', 'shut out in their filth and in their poverty', that makes the Hindus unique among the other races of mankind. To estabUsh this view more fully it will now be necessary to embark on a review of the history of Hindu religious and philosoph- ical systems as well as of the practices and beliefs to which these systems have given rise.

It has already been observed that the early Vedic religion, as epitomised in the Samhitas, does not afford such numerous examples of the part played at that epoch by anal-erotic impulses as we find in later manifestations of Hindu belief and practice. Nevertheless, in the triad of deities which constitute the true gods of the Veda— namely, the Fire-god (Agni), the Rain-god (Indra), and the Sun-god (Surya or Savirti), we have examples of the association of ideas traceable to an unconscious 'flatus- complex.'

Ernest Jones ^ in a most interesting monograph has dealt with some of the aspects of the part played in art and religion by this complex, so that it is perhaps out of place to mention

• Ernest Jones 'Die Empfangnis der Jungfrau Maria durch das Ohr', Jakrh. d. Psa. Bd. VI, 1914.