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 224 The Religion of the Veda

polled to look: for instruction to King Pravahana Jaivali, who receives him graciously and condescends to become his teacher... In the course of his preach..- ment the King says to the Brahman:

“ Because, as then hast told me, this doctrine are this and up to thy time has not been in vogue among the Brahmans, therefore in all the world sovereignty has re- mained in the hands of the warrior caste. As surely as we desire that thou and all thy ancestors shall remain

well~disposed towards us, so surely has to this day no Brahman ever possessed this knowledge.”

I doubt whether this statement, and others of a similar nature, justify us in regarding the warrior caste as the spiritual saviors of India. As regards King Pravahana Jaivali’s statement, it is specious on the face of it. For what have royalty and transmi~ gration to do with one another? In its essence the doctrine of transmigration has no more regard for royalty than for the lowest caste, because its purpose is release from any form of individual existence (see the sixth lecture). Then again, the very texts that narrate these exploits of the Kshatriyas are un- questionably Brahmanic. Would the arrogance and selﬁshness of the Brahmans have allowed them to preserve and prepagate facts calculated to injure permanently their own standing? Surely not.

The situation is somewhat as follows: there never

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