with contumely, as if he say, “O thou refuse of Brahmins,” an iron style, ten fingers long, shall be thrust red-hot into his mouth. Should he, through pride, give instructions to the priests concerning their duty, let the king order some hot oil to be poured into his mouth and ears[1].’”
All this is horrible enough, certainly, and abundance of similar dogmas are to be found in the Hindu sacred books, were it, or had it been ever enforced. It is impossible to say it never was; but the probability is that, at most, it might have occurred once in a century, under the dominion of some very bigoted prince, ruled by some still more bigoted Brahmin. These sort of dicta exist not in the present day; nor have they been, perhaps, for centuries, held in any more estimation, terror, or respect, practically, than the bulls or anathemas issued by Pope Gregory the Seventh are at this moment in England. It is true they are part of Hindu law, and Ward has, with his usual prejudice and illiberality towards the Hindus, published those above, and many others, together with his own comments, in which he has exaggerated the evil as much as possible, so as to give an impression that they are at this moment the practical law of the land. That the above cruel penalties should form part of the Hindu law is not surprising, when we consider that Hindu law is nothing but a collection of dogmas, written at various times, by different individuals among the Brahmins, who each wrote what he pleased from the dictates of his own bigoted, ignorant, and intolerant spirit; but whether, and to what extent, they were ever enforced, is a very different question.
So far from its being the truth that the Shoodras are condemned for ever to serve the Brahmins, it depends much less upon caste than upon the wealth of the parties, which shall serve the other. The low caste rajah never found even the Brahmin at all backward to enter his service; and were even a choomar or a sweeper to acquire considerable wealth, he would experience no difficulty in procuring Brahmins to serve him as lacqueys, cooks, or in other menial capacities. We learn from books
- ↑ The punishments are even more severe than are here described; some passages are omitted from the quotations on the score of decency.
