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128 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [Afml, 1875. purity of the twice-born classes by restraining mixed marriages as far as possible ; it therefore lay upon him to make out that cross-breeding, so to speak, was the sole aud efficient cause of all caste distinction. But it seems apparent, on his own showing, that there were natural forces in action under which sub- castes gradually arose, grew, and altered their relations inter se. The course which society had hitherto run can be readily imagined : there had been a period of time during which the Aryans had developed into three broad hereditary classes, — a sacerdotal class, an aristocracy, and a free plebeian class, while a fourth class comprised all who were foreign, subject, or not free. But the develop- ment did not end here ; this arrangement could not possess finality. For instance, an ever- increasing exclusive aristocracy could not possi- bly, in its integrity, maintain its place, and accordingly the K s h a t r i y a s had, as we may infer from the passage just now quoted, early broken down. Something of the like kind had also evidently happened to the Brahmans, for many passages of the Institute* (p. 59, p, 64. 89, 3, and p. 290) are directed to the saving of class to Brahman a, as well as to the meml >ei 1 of the other two twice-born classes, who under emergency might betake themselves to secular or abnormal pursuits. Then followed a second period, when the small sub-castes had come to be the real practical social divisions, and the former broader divisions were comparatively disregarded. Indeed, as time went on, these be- came obliterated or merged into one ; on the one hand, sub-castes dropped wholly out of them, as in the case ofKshatriyas mentioned by Mann, and were indistinguishable by privilege from the sub-castes of the S u d r a class. On the other liand, snb-castes, which managed to usurp or gain privilege, took care to attach themselves to the class of highest reputation, namely, the Brahmans. There was no lon- ger cause effective to keep separate the three privileged classes of Brahmans, K r h a - triyas, Vaisyas, when each had been broken into snb-castes, and neither of them, ex- cept in a degree the D r a h m a n , retained any exclusive area of employment. All that was then left was the line of demarcation between those who claimed to be privilflged and those who were not privileged. In t^e end all the former came to be reckoned Brahma n s, and all the 1: urn- > udras, the Kshatriyas and Vaisyas having disappeared as distinct class- es. And this pretty well represents the state of things subsisting in India in the present day. Avery large portion of the DJwrma S&stm is devoted to the instruction of Brahmans in their proper daily conduct throughout the whole period of life, from the cradle to the grave ; and probably the picture thus sketched out may rightly be taken to represent the ideal perfection of man of that day. It is not, how- ever, altogether a pleasant one to contemplate. Although humanity, truthfulness, horn cleanliness and chastity* are in so many W< inculcated as the cardinal duties incumbent upon all men, the Lawgiver is not content to leave the understanding and discharge of them to his hearers' judgment ; he prescribes the utmost details of conduct to which they lead, and thus takes occasion to make us acquainted with much that is gross and offensive. Indeed, the disci- pline and petty observances to which the model Brahman was subjected during the two first stages of his life, i. c. the periods of studentship and of housekeeping, must have gone far to make him ready to embrace the asceticism which was prescribed to him as bis last stage, had he been there left to himself; but, unfortunately, Mann followed him to the jnngle and made his last clays even a worse state of slavery to mortifying rule than his previous life had been. It is almost impossible to believe that any general body of men, such as a whole tribal division of the people, could have actually lived their lives in any close conformity with the minute injunctions of the Dharma StUtrQ •• and with the conscientious the failure to carry out the practice enjoined must have greatly weak- iiicd the desire and endeavour to realize the principle. The result which was apparently aimed at, irrespective of the means, is in- structi v e. The child of the Br&hman class was to be placed under a spiritual preceptor, whom ho should reverence almost as a cUity, certainly with a respect superior to that which he owed to his own parents (p. 46, 22o IT,). ' A teacher of the Veda is the image of God, a natural father the image of Brahma, a mother the imago of the earth. . . . Let every man constantly do what may please his parents, and on all occasions • p. 290, C3, the Five of Mime