Philosophy of Hinduism

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Contents

Chapter 1 Philosophy of Hinduism
Does Hinduism recognize Equality?
How does Hinduism stand in this matter?
Does Hinduism recognise Fraternity?
What is the alue of such a religion to man ?
!n what leel does Hindu morality stand?
!f what use is this philosophy of the "panishadas?


(The script published in the Writings and Speeches, vol. published by
!overnment of "aharashtra did not have any chapter names. #t $as divided in
# to %# parts. &or the sa'e of readership convenience $e are providing
additional hyperlin's to some paras by $ay of pro(ecting some )uestions in
the te*t. +

,ditorial -ote.
This script on Philosophy of Hinduism was found as a well-bound copy which we
feel is complete by itself. The whole script seems to be a Chapter of one big
scheme. This foolscap original typed copy consists of 169 pages. Editors

CH/PT,0 #
Philosophy of Hinduism
#
What is the philosophy of Hinduism? #his is a question which arises in its logical
sequence$ %ut apart from its logical sequence its importance is such that it can
neer &e omitted from consideration$ Without it no one can understand the aims and
ideals of Hinduism$
't is o&ious that such a study must &e preceded &y a certain amount of what may
&e called clearing of the ground and defining of the terms inoled$
(t the outset it may &e as)ed what does this proposed title comprehend? 's this
title of the Philosophy of Hinduism of the same nature as that of the Philosophy of
*eligion? ' wish ' could commit myself one way or the other on this point$ 'ndeed '
cannot$ ' hae read a good deal on the su&+ect, &ut ' confess ' hae not got a clear
idea of what is meant &y Philosophy of *eligion$ #his is pro&a&ly due to two facts$ 'n
the first place while religion is something definite, there is nothing definite-f1. as to
what is to &e included in the term philosophy$ 'n the second place Philosophy and
*eligion hae &een adersaries if not actual antagonists as may &e seen from the
story of the philosopher and the theologian$ (ccording to the story, the two were
engaged in disputation and the theologian accused the philosopher that he was /li)e
a &lind man in a dar) room, loo)ing for a &lac) cat which was not there/$ 'n reply the
philosopher charged the theologian saying that /he was li)e a &lind man in the dar)
room, loo)ing for a &lac) cat which was not there &ut he declared to hae found
there/$ Perhaps it is the unhappy choice of the title 0 Philosophy of *eligion0which
is responsi&le for causing confusion in the matter of the e1act definition of its field$
#he nearest approach to an intelligi&le statement as to the e1act su&+ect matter of
Philosophy of *eligion ' find in Prof$ Pringle2Pattison who o&seres
-f3.
40
/( few words may &e useful at the outset as an indication of what we commonly
mean &y the Philosophy of *eligion$ Plato descri&ed philosophy long ago as the
synoptic iew of things$ #hat is to say, it is the attempt to see things together2to )eep
all the main features of the world in iew, and to grasp them in their relation to one
another as parts of one whole$ !nly thus can we acquire a sense of proportion and
estimate aright the significance of any particular range of facts for our ultimate
conclusions a&out the nature of the world2process and the world2ground$
(ccordingly, the philosophy of any particular department of e1perience, the
Philosophy of *eligion, the Philosophy of (rt, the Philosophy of 5aw, is to &e ta)en
as meaning an analysis and interpretation of the e1perience in question in its
&earing upon our iew of man and the world in which he lies$ (nd when the facts
upon which we concentrate are so uniersal, and in their nature so remar)a&le, as
those disclosed &y the history of religion0the philosophy of man6s religious
e1perience0cannot &ut e1ercise a determining influence upon our general
philosophical conclusions$ 'n fact with many writers the particular discussion tends to
merge in the more general$/
/#he facts with which a philosophy of religion has to deal are supplied &y the
history of religion, in the most comprehensie sense of that term$ (s #iele puts it, /all
religions of the ciilised and unciilised world, dead and liing/, is a 7historical and
psychological phenomenon6 in all its manifestations$ #hese facts, it should &e noted,
constitute the data of the philosophy of religion8 they do not themseles constitute a
7philosophy6 or, in #iele6s use of the term, a 7science6 of religion$ 7'f, he says, 1 hae
minutely descri&ed all the religions in e1istence, their doctrines, myths and customs,
the o&serances they inculcate, and the organisation of their adherents, tracing the
different religions from their origin to their &loom and decay, ' hae merely$ Collected
the materials with which the science of religion wor)s6$ 6#he historical record,
howeer complete, is not enough8 pure history is not philosophy$ #o achiee a
philosophy of religion we should &e a&le to discoer in the aried manifestations a
common principle to whose roots in human nature we can point, whose eolution we
can trace &y intelligi&le2stages from lower to higher and more adequate forms, as
well as its intimate relations with the other main factors in human ciilisation/$
'f this is Philosophy of *eligion it appears to me that it is merely a different name
for that department of study, which is called comparatie religion with the added aim
of discoering a common principle in the aried manifestations of religion$ Whateer
&e the scope and alue of such a study, ' am using the title Philosophy of *eligion to
denote something quite different from the sense and aim gien to it &y Prof$ Pringle2
Pattison$ ' am using the word Philosophy in its original sense, which was two2fold$ 't
meant teachings as it did when people spo)e of the philosophy of 9ocrates or the
philosophy of Plato$ 'n another sense it meant critical reason used in passing
+udgements upon things and eents$ Proceeding on this &asis Philosophy of *eligion
is to me not a merely descriptie science$ ' regard it as &eing &oth descriptie as well
as normatie$ 'n so far as it deals with the teachings of a *eligion, Philosophy of
*eligion &ecomes a descriptie science$ 'n so far as it inoles the use of critical
reason for passing +udgement on those teachings, the Philosophy of *eligion
&ecomes a normatie science$ From this it will &e clear what ' shall &e concerned
with in this study of the Philosophy of Hinduism$ #o &e e1plicit ' shall &e putting
Hinduism on its trial to assess its worth as a way of life$
Here is one part of the ground cleared$ #here remains another part to &e cleared$
#hat concerns the ascertainment of the factors concerned and the definitions of the
terms ' shall &e using$
( study of the Philosophy of *eligion it seems to me inoles the determination of
three dimensions$ ' call them dimensions &ecause they are li)e the un)nown
quantities contained as factors in a product$ !ne must ascertain and define these
dimensions of the Philosophy of *eligion if an e1amination of it is to &e fruitful$
!f the three dimensions, *eligion is the first$ !ne must therefore define what he
understands &y religion in order to aoid argument &eing directed at cross2purposes$
#his is particularly necessary in the case of *eligion for the reason that there is no
agreement as to its e1act definition$ #his is no place to enter upon an ela&orate
consideration of this question$ ' will therefore content myself &y stating the meaning
in which ' am using the word in the discussion, which follows$
' am using the word *eligion to mean #heology$ #his will perhaps &e insufficient for
the purposes of definition$ For there are different )inds of #heologies and ' must
particularise which one ' mean$ Historically there hae &een two #heologies spo)en
of from ancient times$ ythical theology and Ci!il theology$ #he :ree)s who
distinguished them gae each a definite content$ %y ;ythical theology they meant
the tales of gods and their doings told in or implied &y current imaginatie literature$
Ciil theology according to them consisted of the )nowledge of the arious feasts
and fasts of the 9tate Calendar and the ritual appropriate to them$ ' am not using the
word theology in either of these two senses of that word$ ' mean &y theology natural
theology
-f<.
which is2the doctrine of :od and the diine, as an integral part of the
theory of nature$ (s traditionally understood there are three thesis which 7natural
theology6 propounds$ =1> #hat :od e1ists and is the author of what we call nature or
unierse =3> #hat :od controls all the eents which ma)e nature and =<> :od
e1ercises a goernment oer man)ind in accordance with his soereign moral law$
' am aware there is another class of theology )nown as "e!ealed Theology
spontaneous self disclosure of diine reality0which may &e distinguished from
#atural theology. %ut this distinction does not really matter$ For as has &een pointed
out
-f?.
that a reelation may either /leae the results won &y #atural theology
standing without modifications, merely supplementing them &y further )nowledge not
attaina&le &y unassisted human effort/ or it /may transform @atural theology in such
a way that all the truths of natural theology would acquire richer and deeper meaning
when seen in the light of a true reelation$/ %ut the iew that a genuine natural
theology and a genuine re!elation theology might stand in real contradiction may &e
safely e1cluded as not &eing possi&le$
#a)ing the three thesis of #heology namely =1> the e1istence of :od, =3> :od6s
proidential goernment of the unierse and =<> :od6s moral goernment of
man)ind, ' ta)e *eligion to mean the propounding of an ideal scheme of diine
goernance the aim and o&+ect of which is to ma)e the social order in which men lie
a moral order$ #his is what ' understand &y *eligion and this is the sense in which '
shall &e using the term *eligion in this discussion$
#he second dimension is to )now the ideal scheme for which a *eligion stands$ #o
define what is the fi1ed, permanent and dominant part in the religion of any society
and to separate its essential characteristics from those which are unessential is
often ery difficult$ #he reason for this difficulty in all pro&a&ility lies in the difficulty
pointed out &y Prof$ *o&ertson 9mith
-fA.
when he says40
/#he traditional usage of religion had grown up gradually in the course of many
centuries, and reflected ha&its of thought, characteristic of ery dierse stages of
man6s intellectual and moral deelopment$ @o conception of the nature of the gods
could possi&ly afford the clue to all parts of that motley comple1 of rites and
ceremonies which the later paganism had receied &y inheritance, from a series of
ancestors in eery state of culture from pure saagery upwards$ #he record of the
religious thought of man)ind, as it is em&odied in religious institutions, resem&les the
geological record of the history of the earth6s crust8 the new and the old are
presered side &y side, or rather layer upon layer/$
#he same thing has happened in 'ndia$ 9pea)ing a&out the growth of *eligion in
'ndia, says Prof$ ;a1 ;uller 40
/We hae seen a religion growing up from stage to stage, from the simplest
childish prayers to the highest metaphysical a&stractions$ 'n the ma+ority of the
hymns of the Beda we might recognise the childhood8 in the %rahmanas and their
sacrificial, domestic and moral ordinances the &usy manhood8 in the "panishads the
old age of the Bedic religion$ We could hae well understood if, with the historical
progress of the 'ndian mind, they had discarded the purely childish prayers as soon
as they had arried at the maturity of the %rahamans8 and if, when the anity of
sacrifices and the real character of the old god6s had once &een recognised, they
would hae &een superseded &y the more e1alted religion of the "panishads$ %ut it
was not so$ Eery religious thought that had once found e1pression in 'ndia, that had
once &een handed down as a sacred heirloom, was presered, and the thoughts of
the three historical periods, the childhood, the manhood, and the old age of the
'ndian nation, were made to do permanent serice in the three stages of the life of
eery indiidual$ #hus alone can we e1plain how the same sacred code, the Beda,
contains not only the records of different phases of religious thought, &ut of doctrines
which we may call almost diametrically opposed to each other$/
%ut this difficulty is not so great in the case of *eligions which are positi!e
religions$ #he fundamental characteristic of positi!e *eligions, is that they hae not
grown up li)e primitie religions, under the action$ of unconscious forces operating
silently from age to age, &ut trace their origin to the teaching of great religious
innoators, who spo)e as the organs of a diine reelation$ %eing the result of
conscious formulations the philosophy of a religion which is positie is easy to find
and easy to state$ Hinduism li)e Cudaism, Christianity and 'slam is in the main a
positie religion$ !ne does not hae to search for its scheme of diine goernance$ 't
is not li)e an unwritten constitution$ !n the Hindu scheme of diine goernance is
enshrined in a written constitution and any one who cares to )now it will find it laid
&are in that 9acred %oo) called the ;anu 9mriti, a diine Code which lays down the
rules which goern the religious, ritualistic and social life of the Hindus in minute
detail and which must &e regarded as the %i&le of the Hindus and containing the
philosophy of Hinduism$
#he third dimension in the philosophy of religion is the criterion
-fD.
to &e adopted for
+udging the alue of the ideal scheme of diine goernance for which a gien
*eligion stands$ *eligion must &e put on its trial$ %y what criterion shall it &e +udged?
#hat leads to the definition of the norm$ !f the three dimensions this third one is the
most difficult one to &e ascertained and defined$
"nfortunately the question does not appear to hae &een tac)led although much
has &een written on the philosophy of *eligion and certainly no method has &een
found for satisfactorily dealing with the pro&lem$ !ne is left to one6s own method for
determining the issue$ (s for myself ' thin) it is safe to proceed on the iew that to
)now the philosophy of any moement or any institution one must study the
reolutions which the moement or the institution has undergone$ *eolution is the
mother of philosophy and if it is not the mother of philosophy it is a lamp which
illuminates philosophy$ *eligion is no e1ception to this rule$ #o me therefore it seems
quite eident that the &est method to ascertain the criterion &y which to +udge the
philosophy of *eligion is to study the *eolutions which religion has undergone$
#hat is the method which ' propose to adopt$
9tudents of History are familiar with one *eligious *eolution$ #hat *eolution was
concerned with the sphere of *eligion and the e1tent of its authority$ #here was a
time when *eligion had coered the whole field of human )nowledge and claimed
infalli&ility for what it taught$ 't coered astronomy and taught a theory of the
unierse according to which the earth is at rest in the center of the unierse, while
the sun, moon, planets and system of fi1ed stars reole round it each in its own
sphere$ 't included &iology and geology and propounded the iew that the growth of
life on the earth had &een created all at once and had contained from the time of
creation onwards, all the heaenly &odies that it now contains and all )inds of
animals of plants$ 't claimed medicine to &e its proince and taught that disease was
either a diine isitation as punishment for sin or it was the wor) of demons and that
it could &e cured &y the interention of saints, either in person or through their holy
relics8 or &y prayers or
pilgrimages8 or =when due to demons> &y e1orcism and &y treatment which the
demons =and the patient> found disgusting$ 't also claimed physiology and
psychology to &e its domain and taught that the &ody and soul were two distinct
su&stances$
%it &y &it this ast Empire of *eligion was destroyed$ #he Copernican *eolution
freed astronomy from the domination of *eligion$ #he Darwinian *eolution freed
&iology and geology from the trammels of *eligion$ #he authority of theology in
medicine is not yet completely destroyed$ 'ts interention in medical questions still
continues$ !pinion on such su&+ects as &irth control, a&ortion and sterilisation of the
defectie are still influenced &y theological dogmas$ Psychology has not completely
freed itself from its entanglements$ @one the less Darwinism was such a seere
&low that the authority of theology was shattered all oer to such an e1tent that it
neer afterwards made any serious effort to remain its lost empire$
't is quite natural that this disruption of the Empire of *eligion should &e treated as
a great *eolution$ 't is the result of the warfare which science waged against
theology for ?EE years, in which many pitched &attles were fought &etween the two
and the e1citement caused &y them was so great that no&ody could fail to &e
impressed &y the reolution that was &lazing on$
#here is no dou&t that this religious reolution has &een a great &lessing$ 't has
esta&lished freedom of thought$ 't has ena&led society / to assume control of itself,
ma)ing its own the world it once shared with superstition, facing undaunted the
things of its former fears, and so caring out for itself, from the realm of mystery in
which it lies, a sphere of unhampered action and a field of independent thought/$
#he process of secularisation is not only welcomed &y scientists for ma)ing
ciilisation0as distinguished from culture0possi&le, een *eligious men and
women hae come to feel that much of what theology taught was unnecessary and a
mere hindrance to the religious life and that this chopping of its wild growth was a
welcome process$
%ut for ascertaining the norm for +udging the philosophy of *eligion we must turn to
another and a different )ind of *eolution which *eligion has undergone$ #hat
*eolution touches the nature and content of ruling conceptions of the relations of
:od to man, of 9ociety to man and of man to man$ How great was this reolution
can &e seen from the differences which diide saage society from ciilized society$
9trange as it may seem no systematic study of this *eligious *eolution has so far
&een made$ @one the less this *eolution is so great and so immense that it has
&rought a&out a complete transformation in the nature of *eligion as it is ta)en to &e
&y saage society and &y ciilised society although ery few seem to &e aware of it$
#o &egin with the comparison &etween saage society and ciilised society$
'n the religion of the saage one is struc) &y the presence of two things$ First is the
performance of rites and ceremonies, the practice of magic or ta&u and the worship
of fetish or totem$ #he second thing that is noticea&le is that the rites, ceremonies,
magic, ta&u, totem and fetish are conspicuous &y their connection with certain
occasions$ #hese occasions are chiefly those, which represent the crises of human
life$ #he eents such as &irth, the &irth of the first &orn, attaining manhood, reaching
pu&erty, marriage, sic)ness, death and war are the usual occasions which are
mar)ed out for the performance of rites and ceremonies, the use of magic and the
worship of the totem$
9tudents of the origin and history of *eligion hae sought to e1plain the origin and
su&stance of religion &y reference to either magic, ta&u and totem and the rites and
ceremonies connected therewith, and hae deemed the occasions with which they
are connected as of no account$ Consequently we hae theories e1plaining religion
as haing arisen in magic or as haing arisen in fetishism. @othing can &e a greater
error than this$ 't is true that saage society practices magic, &eliees in ta&u and
worships the totem$ %ut it is wrong to suppose that these constitute the religion or
form the source of religion$ #o ta)e such a iew is to eleate what is incidental to the
position of the principal$ #he principal thing in the *eligion of the saage are the
elemental facts of human e1istence such as life, death, &irth, marriage etc$ ;agic,
ta&u, totem are things which are incidental$ ;agic, ta&u, totem, fetish etc$, are not
the ends$ #hey are only the means$ #he end is life and the preseration of life$
;agic, ta&u etc$, are resorted to &y the saage society not for their own sa)e &ut to
consere life and to e$ercise eil influences from doing harm to life$ #hus
understood the religion of the saage society was concerned with life and the
preseration of life and it is these life processes which constitute the su&stance and
source of the religion of the saage society$ 9o great was the concern of the saage
society for life and the preseration of life that it made them the &asis of its religion$
9o central were the life processes in the religion of the saage society that
eerything, which affected them, &ecame part of its religion$ #he ceremonies of the
saage society were not only concerned with the eents of &irth, attaining of
manhood, pu&erty, marriage, sic)ness, death and war they were also concerned
with food$ (mong pastoral peoples the floc)s and herds are sacred$ (mong
agricultural peoples seedtime and harest are mar)ed &y ceremonials performed
with some reference to the growth and the preseration of the crops$ 5i)ewise
drought, pestilence, and other strange, irregular phenomena of nature occasion the
performance of ceremonials$ Why should such occasions as harest and famine &e
accompanied &y religious ceremonies? Why is magic, ta&u, totem &e of such
importance to the saage$ #he only answer is that they all affect the preseration of
life$ #he process of life and its preseration form the main purpose$ 5ife and
preseration of life is the core and centre of the *eligion of the saage society$ (s
pointed out &y Prof$ Crawley the religion of the saage &egins and ends with the
affirmation and conseration of life$
'n life and preseration of life consists the religion of the saage$ What is howeer
true of the religion of the saage is true of all religions whereer they are found for
the simple reason that constitutes the essence of religion$ 't is true that in the
present day society with its theological refinements this essence of religion has
&ecome hidden from iew and is een forgotten$ %ut that life and the preseration of
life constitute the essence of religion een in the present day society is &eyond
question$ #his is well illustrated &y Prof$ Crowley$ When spea)ing of the religious life
of man in the present day society, he says how0
/a man6s religion does not enter into his professional or social hours, his scientific
or artistic moments8 practically its chief claims are settled on one day in the wee)
from which ordinary worldly concerns are e1cluded$ 'n fact, his life is in two parts8 &ut
the moiety with which religion is concerned is the elemental$ 9erious thin)ing on
ultimate questions of life and death is, roughly spea)ing, the essence of his 9a&&ath8
add to this the ha&it of prayer, giing the than)s at meals, and the su&conscious
feeling that &irth and death, continuation and marriage are rightly solemnised &y
religion, while &usiness and pleasure may possi&ly &e consecrated, &ut only
metaphorically or &y an oerflow of religious feeling$/
Comparing this description of the religious concerns of the man in the present day
society with that of the saage, who can deny that the religion is essentially the
same, &oth in theory and practice whether one spea)s of the religion of the saage
society or of the ciilised society$
't is therefore clear that saage and ciilised societies agree in one respect$ 'n &oth
the central interests of religion0namely in the life processes &y which indiiduals
are presered and the race maintained0are the same$ 'n this there is no real
difference &etween the two$ %ut they differ in two other important respects$
'n the first place in the religion of the saage society there is no trace of the idea of
:od$ 'n the second place in the religion of the saage society there is no &ond
&etween morality and *eligion$ 'n the saage society there is religion without :od$ 'n
the saage society there is morality &ut it is independent of *eligion$
How and when the idea of :od &ecame fused in *eligion it is not possi&le to say$ 't
may &e that the idea of :od had its origin in the worship of the :reat ;an in 9ociety,
the Hero0giing rise to theism0with its faith in its liing :od$ 't may &e that the idea
of :od came into e1istence as a result of the purely philosophical speculation upon
the pro&lem as to who created life0giing rise to Deism0with its &elief in :od as
(rchitect of the "nierse$
-fF.
'n any case the idea of :od is not integral to *eligion$
How it got fused into *eligion it is difficult to e1plain$ With regard to the relation
&etween *eligion and ;orality this much may &e safely said$ #hough the relation
&etween :od and *eligion is not quite integral, the relation &etween *eligion and
morality is$ %oth religion and morality are connected with the same elemental facts
of human e1istence0namely life, death, &irth and marriage$ *eligion consecrates
these life processes while morality furnishes rules for their preseration$ *eligion in
consecrating the elemental facts and processes of life came to consecrate also the
rules laid down &y 9ociety for their preseration$ 5oo)ed at from this point it is easily
e1plained why the &ond &etween *eligion and ;orality too) place$ 't was more
intimate and more natural than the &ond &etween *eligion and :od$ %ut when
e1actly this fusion &etween *eligion and ;orality too) place it is not easy to say$
%e that as it may, the fact remains that the religion of the Ciilised 9ociety differs
from that of the 9aage 9ociety into two important features$ 'n ciilised society :od
comes in the scheme of *eligion$ 'n ciilised society morality &ecomes sanctified &y
*eligion$
#his is the first stage in the *eligious *eolution ' am spea)ing of$ #his *eligious
*eolution must not &e supposed to hae &een ended here with the emergence of
these two new features in the deelopment of religion$ #he two ideas haing &ecome
part of the constitution of the *eligion of the Ciilised 9ociety hae undergone
further changes which hae reolutionized their meaning and their moral
significance$ #he second stage of the *eligious *eolution mar)s a ery radical
change$ #he contrast is so &ig that ciilized society has &ecome split into two,
antique society and modern society, so that instead of spea)ing of the religion of the
ciilised society it &ecomes necessary to spea) of the religion of antique society as
against the religion of modern society$
#he religious reolution, which mar)s off antique society from modern society, is
far greater than the religious reolution, which diides saage society from ciilised
society$ 'ts dimensions will &e o&ious from the differences it has &rought a&out in
the conceptions regarding the relations &etween :od, 9ociety and ;an$ #he first
point of difference relates to the composition of society$ Eery human &eing, without
choice on his own part, &ut simply in irtue of his &irth and up&ringing, &ecomes a
mem&er of what we call a natural society$ He &elongs that is to a certain family and a
certain nation$ #his mem&ership lays upon him definite o&ligations and duties which
he is called upon to fulfil as a matter of course and on pain of social penalties and
disa&ilities while at the same time it confers upon him certain social rights and
adantages$ 'n this respect the ancient and modern worlds are ali)e$ %ut in the
words of Prof$ 9mith
-fG.
40
/#here is this important difference, that the tri&al or national societies of the
ancient world were not strictly natural in the modern sense of the word, for the
gods had their part and place in them equally with men$ #he circle into which a
man was &orn was not simply a group of )insfol) and fellow citizens, &ut em&raced
also certain diine &eings, the gods of the family and of the state, which to the
ancient mind were as much a part of the particular community with which they
stood connected as the human mem&ers of the social circle$ #he relation &etween
the gods of antiquity and their worshippers was e1pressed in the language of
human relationship, and this language was not ta)en in a figuratie sense &ut with
strict literally$ 'f a god was spo)en of as father and his worshippers as his offspring,
the meaning was that the worshippers were literally of his stoc), that he and they
made up one natural family with reciprocal family duties to one another$ !r, again,
if the god was addressed as )ing, and worshippers called themseles his serants,
they meant that the supreme guidance of the state was actually in his hands, and
accordingly the organisation of the state included proision for consulting his will
and o&taining his direction in all weighty matters, also proision for approaching
him as )ing with due homage and tri&ute$
/#hus a man was &orn into a fi1ed relation to certain gods as surely as he was
&orn into relation to his fellow men8 and his religion, that is, the part of conduct which
was determined &y his relation to the gods, was simply one side of the general
scheme of conduct prescri&ed for him &y his position as a mem&er of society$ #here
was no separation &etween the spheres of religion and of ordinary life$ Eery social
act had a reference to the gods as well as to men, for the social &ody was not made
up of men only, &ut of gods and men$/
#hus in ancient 9ociety men and their :ods formed a social and political as well as
a religious whole$ *eligion was founded on )inship &etween the :od and his
worshippers$ ;odern 9ociety has eliminated :od from its composition$ 't consists of
men only$
#he second point of difference &etween antique and modern society relates to the
&ond &etween :od and 9ociety$ 'n the antique world the arious communities
/&elieed in the e1istence of many :ods, for they accepted as real the :ods of
their enemies as well as their own, &ut they did not worship the strange :ods from
whom they had no faour to e1pect, and on whom their gifts and offerings would
hae &een thrown away$$$$ Each group had its own :od, or perhaps a :od and
:oddess, to whom the other :ods &ore no relation whateer, /
-fH.

#he :od of the antique society was an e1clusie :od$ :od was owned &y and
&ound to one singly community$ #his is largely to &e accounted for &y
/the share ta)en &y the :ods in the feuds and wars of their worshippers$ #he
enemies of the :od and the enemies of his people are identical8 een in the !ld
#estament 7the enemies of Cehoah6 are originally nothing else than the enemies of
'srael$ 'n &attle each :od fights for his own people, and to his aid success is
ascri&ed 8 Chemosh gies ictory to ;oa&, and (sshyr to (ssyria 8 and often the
diine image or sym&ol accompanies the host to &attle$ When the ar) was &rought
into the camp of 'srael, the Philistines said, /:ods are come into the camp 8 who can
delier us from their own practice, for when Daid defeated them at %aalperazirm,
part of the &ooty consisted in their idols which had &een carried into the field$ When
the Carthaginians, in their treaty with Phillip of ;acedon, spea) of /the :ods that
ta)e part in the campaign,/ they dou&tless refer to the inmates of the sacred tent
which was pitched in time of war &eside the tent of the general, and &efore which
prisoners were sacrificed after a ictory$ 9imilarly an (ra&ic poet says, /Iaguth went
forth with us against ;orad/8 that is, the image of the :od Iaguth was carried into
the fray/$
#his fact had produced a solidarity &etween :od and the community$
/Hence, on the principle of solidarity &etween :ods and their worshippers, the
particularism characteristic of political society could not &ut reappear in the sphere of
religion$ 'n the same measure as the :od of a clan or town had indisputa&le claim to
the reerence and serice of the community to which he &elonged, he was
necessarily an enemy to their enemies and a stranger to those to whom they were
strangers/$
-f1E.
:od had &ecome attached to a community, and the community had &ecome
attached to their :od$ :od had &ecome the :od of the Community and the
Community had &ecome the chosen community of the :od$
#his iew had two consequences$ (ntique 9ociety neer came to conceie that
:od could &e uniersal :od, the :od of all$ (ntique 9ociety neer could conceie
that there was any such thing as humanity in general$
#he third point of difference &etween ancient and modern society, has reference to
the conception of the fatherhood of :od$ 'n the antique 9ociety :od was the Father
of his people &ut the &asis of this conception of Fatherhood was deemed to &e
physical$
/'n heathen religions the Fatherhood of the :ods is physical fatherhood$ (mong
the :ree)s, for e1ample, the idea that the :ods fashioned men out of clay, as
potters fashion images, is relatiely modern$ #he older conception is that the races
of men hae :ods for their ancestors, or are the children of the earth, the common
mother of :ods and men, so that men are really of the stoc) or )in of the :ods$ #hat
the same conception was familiar to the older 9emites appears from the %i&le$
Ceremiah descri&es idolaters as saying to a stoc), #hou art my father 8 and to a
stone, #hou has &rought me forth$ 'n the ancient poem, @um$ 11i$ 3H, #he ;oa&ites
are called the sons and daughters of Chemosh, and at a much more recent date the
prophet ;alachi calls a heathen woman /the daughter of a strange :od/$ #hese
phrases are dou&tless accommodations to the language, which the heathen
neigh&ours of 'srael used a&out themseles$ 'n 9yria and Palestine each clan, or
een comple1 of clans forming a small independent people, traced &ac) its origin to
a great first father 8 and they indicate that, +ust as in :reece this father or progenitor
of the race was commonly identified with the :od of the race$ With this it accords
that in the +udgment of most modern enquirers seeral names of deities appear in
the old genealogies of nations in the %oo) of :enesis$ Edom, for e1ample, the
progenitor of the Edomites, was identified &y the He&rews with Esau the &rother of
Caco&, &ut to the heathen he was a :od, as appears from the theophorous proper
name !&ededom, / worshipper of Edom/, the e1tant fragments of Phoenician and
%a&ylonian cosmogonies date from a time when tri&al religion and the connection of
indiidual :ods with particular )indreds was forgotten or had fallen into the
&ac)ground$ %ut in a generalized form the notion that men are the offspring of the
:ods still held its ground$ 'n the Phoenician cosmogony of Philo %a&lius it does so in
a confused shape, due to the authors euhemerism, that is, to his theory that deities
are nothing more than deified men who had &een great &enefactors to their species$
(gain, in the Chaldaean legend presered &y %erosus, the &elief that men are of the
&lood of the :ods is e1pressed in a form too crude not to &e ery ancient8 for
animals as well as men are said to hae &een formed out of clay mingled with the
&lood of a decapitated deity$ /
-f11.
#his conception of &lood )inship of :ods and men had one important
consequence$ #o the antique world :od was a human &eing and as such was not
capa&le of a&solute irtue and a&solute goodness$ :od shared the physical nature
of man and was afflicted with the passions infirmities and ices to which man was
su&+ect$ #he :od of the antique world had all the wants and appetites of man and he
often indulged in the ices in which many reelled$ Worshipers had to implore :od
not to lead them into temptations$
'n modern 9ociety the idea of diine fatherhood has &ecome entirely dissociated
from the physical &asis of natural fatherhood$ 'n its place man is conceied to &e
created in the image of :od 8 he is not deemed ' to &e &egotten &y :od$ #his
change in the conception of the fatherhood of :od loo)ed at from its moral aspect
has made a tremendous difference in the nature of :od as a :oernor of the
"nierse$ :od with his physical &asis was not capa&le of a&solute good and
a&solute irtue$ With :od wanting in righteousness the unierse could not insist on
righteousness as an immuta&le principle$ #his dissociation of :od from physical
contact with man has made it possi&le for :od to &e conceied of as capa&le of
a&solute good and a&solute irtue$
#he fourth point of difference relates to the part religion plays when a change of
nationality ta)es place$
'n the antique world there could &e no change of nationality unless it was
accompanied &y a change of *eligion$ 'n the antique world, /'t was impossi&le for
an$ indiidual to change his religion without changing his nationality, and a whole
community could hardly change its religion at all without &eing a&sor&ed into another
stoc) or nation$ *eligions li)e political ties were transmitted from father to son 8 for a
man could not choose a new :od at will 8 the :ods of his fathers were the only
deities on whom he could count as friendly and ready to accept his homage, unless
he forswore his own )indred and was receied into a new circle of ciil as well as
religious life$/
How change of religion was a condition precedent to a 9ocial fusion is well
illustrated &y the dialogue &etween @aomi and *uth in the !ld #estament$
/#hy 9ister/ says @aomi to *uth, /is gone &ac) unto her people and unto her
:ods/8 and *uth replies, /#hy people shall &e my people and thy :od my :od$/
't is quite clear that in the ancient world a change of nationality inoled a change
of cult$ 9ocial fusion meant religious fusion$
'n modern society a&andonment of religion or acceptance of another is not
necessary for social fusion$ #his is &est illustrated &y what is in modern terminology
and naturalisation, where&y the citizen of one state a&andons his citizenship of the
state and &ecomes a citizen of new state$ 'n this process of naturalisation religion
has no place$ !ne can hae a social fusion which is another name for naturalisation
without undergoing a religious fusion$
#o distinguish modern society from antique society it is not enough to say that
;odern 9ociety consists of men only$ 't must &e added that it consists of men who
are worshippers of different :ods$
#he fifth point of difference relates to the necessity of )nowledge as to the
nature of :od as part of religion$
/From the antique point of iew, indeed the question what the :ods are in
themseles is not a religious &ut a speculatie one 8 what is requisite to religion is a
practical acquaintance with the rules on ' which the deity acts and on which he
e1pects his worshippers to frame their conduct0what in 3 Jings 1ii$ 3D is called the
/manner/ or rather the /customary law / =misphat> of the :od of the land$ #his is true
een of the religion of 'srael$ When the prophets spea) of the )nowledge of the laws
and principles of His goernment in 'srael, and a summary e1pression for religion as
a whole is /the )nowledge and fear of Cehoah,/ i$e$ the )nowledge of what Cehoah
prescri&es, com&ined with a reerent o&edience$ (n e1treme s)epticism towards all
religious speculation is recommended in the %oo) of Ecclesiastes as the proper
attitude of piety, for no amount of discussion can carry a man &eyond the plain rule,
to /fear :od and )eep His Commandments/$ #his counsel the author puts into the
mouth of 9olomon, and so represents it, not un+ustly, as summing up the old iew of
religion, which in more modern days had unfortunately &egun to &e undermined$/
#he si1th point of difference relates to the place of &elief in *eligion$
'n ancient 9ociety 40
/*itual and practical usages were, strictly spea)ing, the sum total of ancient
religions$ *eligion in primitie times was not a system of &elief with practical
applications 8 it was a &ody of fi1ed traditional practices, to which eery mem&er of
society conformed as a matter of courage$ ;en would not &e men if they agreed to
do certain things without haing a reason for their action 8 &ut in ancient religion the
reason was not first formulated as a doctrine and then e1pressed in practice, &ut
conersely, practice preceded doctrinal theory$ ;en form general rule of conduct
&efore they &egin to e1press general principles in words 8 political institutions are
older than political theories and in li)e manner religious institutions are older than
religious theories$ #his analogy is not ar&itrarily chosen, for in fact the parallelism in
ancient society &etween religious and political institutions is complete$ 'n each
sphere great importance was attached to form and precedent, &ut the e1planation
why the precedent was followed consisted merely of legend as to its first
esta&lishment$ #hat the precedent, once esta&lished, was authoritatie did not
appear to require any proof$ #he rules of society were &ased on precedent, and the
continued e1istence of the society was sufficient reason why a precedent once set
should continue to &e followed$/
#he seenth point of difference relates to the place of indiidual coniction in
*eligion$ 'n ancient 9ociety 40
/*eligion was a part of the organized social life into which a man was &orn, and to
which he conformed through life in the same unconscious way in which men fall into
any ha&itual practice of the society in which they lie$ ;en too) the :ods and their
worship for granted, +ust as they too) the other usages of the state for granted, and if
they reason or speculated a&out them, they did so on the presupposition that the
traditional usages were fi1ed things, &ehind which their reasoning must not go, and
which no reasoning could &e allowed to oerturn$ #o us moderns religion is a&oe all
a matter of indiidual coniction and reasoned &elief, &ut to the ancients it was a part
of the citizen6s pu&lic life, reduced to fi1ed forms, which he was not &ound to
understand and was not at li&erty to criticize or to neglect$ *eligious non2conformity
was an offence against the state8 for if sacred tradition was tampered with the &ases
of society were undermined, and the faour of the :ods was forfeited$ %ut so long as
the prescri&ed forms were duly o&sered, a man was recognized as truly pious, and
no one as)ed how his religion was rooted in his heart or affected his reason$ 5i)e
political duty, of which indeed it was a part, religion was entirely comprehended in
the o&serance of certain fi1ed rules of outward conduct$/
#he eighth point of difference pertains to the relation of :od to 9ociety and man, of
9ociety to ;an in the matter of :od6s Proidence$
First as to the difference in the relation of :od to 9ociety$ 'n this connection three
points may &e noted$ #he faith of the antique world
/9ought nothing higher than a condition of physical bien etre. . . . #he good things
desired of the :ods were the &lessings of earthly life, not spiritual &ut carnal things$/
What the antique societies as)ed and &elieed themseles to receie from their :od
lay mainly in the following things 4
/(&undant harests, help against their enemies and counsel &y oracles or
soothsayers in matters of natural difficulty$/ 'n the antique world
/*eligion was not the affair of the indiidual &ut of the Community$ $ $ $ 't was the
community, and not the indiidual, that was sure of the permanent and the unfailing
hand of the deity$/ @e1t as to the difference in the relation of :od to man$
/'t was not the &usiness of the :ods of heathenish to watch, &y a series of special
proidence, oer the welfare of eery indiidual$ 't is true that indiiduals laid their
priate affairs &efore the :ods, and as)ed with prayers and iews for strictly
personal &lessings$ %ut they did this +ust as they might crae a personal &oon from a
)ing, or as a son craes a &oon from a father, without e1pecting to get all that was
as)ed$ What the :ods might do in this way was done as a matter of personal faour,
and was no part of their proper function as heads of the community$/
/#he :ods watched oer a man6s ciic life, they gae him his share in pu&lic
&enefits, the annual largess of the harest and the intage, national peace or ictory
oer enemies, and so forth, &ut they were not sure helpers in eery priate need,
and a&oe all they would not help him in matters that were against the interests of
the community as a whole$ #here was therefore a whole region of possi&le needs
and desires for which religion could and would do nothing$/ @e1t the difference in the
attitude of :od and 9ociety to man$
'n the antique world 9ociety was indifferent to indiidual welfare$ :od as no dou&t
&ound to 9ociety$ %ut
/#he compact &etween the :od and his worshippers was not held to pledge the
deity to ma)e the priate cares of each mem&er of the Community his own$/
/#he &enefits e1pected of :od were of a pu&lic character affecting the whole
community, especially fruitful seasons, increase of floc)s of herds and success in
war$ 9o long as community flourished the fact that an indiidual was misera&le
reflected no discredit on diine proidence$/
!n the contrary the antique world loo)ed upon the misery of a man as proof$
/#hat the sufferer was an eil2doer, +ustly hateful to the :ods$ 9uch a man was out
of place among the happy and the prosperous crowd that assem&led on feast days
&efore the alter$/ 't is in accordance with this iew that the leper and the mourner
were shut out from the e1ercise of religion as well as from the priileges of social life
and their food was not &rought into the house of :od$
(s for conflict &etween indiidual and indiidual and &etween society and the
indiidual :od had no concern$ 'n the antique world 4
/'t was not e1pected that =:od> should always &e &usy righting human affairs$ 'n
ordinary matters it was men6s &usiness to help themseles and their own )ins fol),
though the sense that the :od was always near, and could &e called upon at need,
was a moral force continually wor)ing in some degree for the maintenance of social
righteousness and order$ #he strength of this moral force was indeed ery uncertain,
for it was always possi&le for the eil2doer to flatter himself that his offence would &e
oerloo)ed$/ 'n the antique world man did not as) :od to &e righteous to him$
/Whether in ciil or in profane matters, the ha&it of the old world was to thin) much
of the community and little of the indiidual life, and no one felt this to &e un+ust een
though it &ore hardly on himself$ #he :od was the :od of the national or of the tri&e,
and he )new and cared for the indiidual only as a mem&er of the community$/
#hat was the attitude that man in the antique world too) of his own priate
misfortune$ ;an came to re+oice &efore his :od and /in re+oicing &efore his :od man
re+oiced with and for the welfare of his )indred, his neigh&ours and his country, and,
in renewing &y solemn act of worship the &ond that united him to :od, he also
renewed the &onds of family, social and national o&ligation$/ ;an in the antique
world did not call upon his ma)er to &e righteous to him$
9uch is this other *eolution in *eligion$ #here hae thus &een two *eligious
*eolutions$ !ne was an e1ternal *eolution$ #he other was an internal *eolution$
#he E1ternal *eolution was concerned with the field within which the authority of
*eligion was to preail$ #he 'nternal *eolution had to do with the changes in
*eligion as a scheme of diine :oernance for human society$ #he E1ternal
*eolution was not really a *eligious *eolution at all$ 't was a reolt of science
against the e1tra territorial +urisdiction assumed &y *eligion oer a field which did not
&elong$ #he 'nternal *eolution was a real *eolution or may &e compared to any
other political *eolution, such as the French *eolution or the *ussian *eolution$
't inoled a constitutional change$ %y this *eolution the 9cheme of diine
goernance came to &e altered, amended and reconstituted$
How profound hae &een the changes which this internal *eolution, has made in
the antique scheme of diine goernance can &e easily seen$ %y this *eolution
:od has ceased to &e a mem&er of a community$ #here&y he has &ecome impartial$
:od has ceased to &e the Father of ;an in the physical sense of the word$ He has
&ecome the creator of the "nierse$ #he &rea)ing of this &lood &ond has made it
possi&le to hold that :od is good$ %y this *eolution man has ceased to &e a &lind
worshipper of :od doing nothing &ut o&eying his commands$ #here&y man has
&ecome a responsi&le person required to +ustify his &elief in :od6s commandments
&y his coniction$ %y this *eolution :od has ceased to &e merely the protector of
9ociety and social interests in gross hae ceased to &e the center of the diine
!rder$ 9ociety and man hae changed places as centers of this diine order$ 't is
man who has &ecome the center of it$
(ll this analysis of the *eolution in the *uling concepts of *eligion as a scheme
of diine goernance had one purpose namely to discoer the norm for ealuating
the philosophy of a *eligion$ #he impatient reader may not as) where are these
norms and what are they? #he reader may not hae found the norms specified &y
their names in the foregoing discussion$ %ut he could not hae failed to notice that
the whole of this *eligious *eolution was raging around the norms for +udging what
is right and what is wrong$ 'f he has not, let me ma)e e1plicit what has &een implicit
in the whole of this discussion$ We &egan with the distinction &etween antique
society and modern society as has &een pointed out they differed in the type of
diine goernance they accepted as their *eligious ideals$ (t one end of the
*eolution was the antique society with its *eligious ideal in which the end was
9ociety$ (t the other end of the *eolution is the modern 9ociety with its *eligious
ideal in which the end is the indiidual$ #o put the same fact in terms of the norm it
can &e said that the norm or the criterion, for +udging right and wrong in the (ntique
9ociety was utility while the norm or the criterion for +udging right and wrong in the
modern 9ociety is %ustice. #he *eligious *eolution was not thus a reolution in the
religious organization of 9ociety resulting in the shifting of the center0from society
to the indiidual0it was a reolution in the norms$
9ome may demur to the norms ' hae suggested$ 't may &e that it is a new way of
reaching them$ %ut to my mind there is no dou&t that they are the real norms &y
which to +udge the philosophy of religion$ 'n the first place the norm must ena&le
people to +udge what is right and wrong in the conduct of men$ 'n the second place
the norm must &e appropriate to current notion of what constitutes the moral good$
From &oth these points of iew they appear to &e the true norms$ #hey ena&le us to
+udge what is right and wrong$ #hey are appropriate to the society which adopted
them$ "tility as a criterion was appropriate to the antique world in which society
&eing the end, the moral good was held to &e something which had social utility$
Custice as a criterion &ecame appropriate to the ;odern World in which indiidual
&eing the end, the moral good was held to &e something which does +ustice to the
indiidual$ #here may &e controersy as to which of the two norms is morally
superior$ %ut ' do not thin) there can &e any serious controersy that these are not
the norms$ 'f it is said that these norms are not transcendental enough 8 my reply is
that if a norm where&y one is to +udge the philosophy of religion must &e :odly, it
must also &e earthly$ (t any rate these are the norms ' propose to adopt in
e1amining the philosophy of Hinduism$
##
#his is a long detour$ %ut it was a necessary preliminary to any inquiry into the
main question$ Howeer, when one &egins the inquiry one meets with an initial
difficulty$ #he Hindu is not prepared to face the inquiry$ He either argues that religion
is of no importance or he ta)es shelter &ehind the iew0fostered &y the study of
comparatie *eligion0that all religions are good$ #here is no dou&t that &oth these
iews are mista)en and untena&le$
*eligion as a social force cannot &e ignored$ *eligion has &een aptly descri&ed &y
He&ert 9pencer as /the weft which eerywhere crosses the warp of history/$ #his is
true of eery 9ociety$ %ut *eligion has not only crossed eerywhere the warp of
'ndian History it forms the warp and woof of the Hindu mind$ #he life of the Hindu is
regulated &y *eligion at eery moment of his life$ 't orders him how during life he
should conduct himself and how on death his &ody shall &e disposed of$ 't tells him
how and when he shall indulge in his se1ual impulses$ 't tells him what ceremonies
are to &e performed when a child is &orn0how he should name, how he should cut
the hair on its head, how he should perform its first feeding$ 't tells him what
occupation he can ta)e to, what woman he should marry$ 't tells him with whom he
should dine and what food he should eat, what egeta&les are lawful and what are
for&idden$ 't tells how he should spend his day, how many times he should eat, how
many times he should pray$ #here is no act of the Hindu which is not coered or
ordained &y *eligion$ 't seems strange that the educated Hindus should come to
loo) upon it as though it was a matter of indifference$
%esides, *eligion is a social force$ (s ' hae pointed out *eligion stands for a
scheme of diine goernance$ #he scheme &ecomes an ideal for society to follow$
#he ideal may &e non2e1istent in the sense that it is something which is constructed$
%ut although non2e1istent, it is real$ For an ideal it has full operatie force which is
inherent in eery ideal$ #hose who deny the importance of religion not only forget
this, they also fail to realize how great is the potency and sanction that lies &ehind a
religious ideal as compound with that of a purely secular ideal$ #his is pro&a&ly due
to the lag which one sees &etween the real and the ideal which is always present
whether the ideal is religious or secular$ %ut the relatie potency of the two ideals is
to &e measured &y another test0namely their power to oerride the practical
instincts of man$ #he ideal is concerned with something that is remote$ #he practical
instincts of man are concerned with the immediate present$ @ow placed as against
the force of the practical instincts of man the two ideals show their difference in an
unmista)en manner$ #he practical instincts of man do yield to the prescriptions of a
religious ideal howeer much the two are opposed to each other$ #he practical
instincts of man do not on the other hand yield to the secular ideal if the two are in
conflict$ #his means that a religious ideal has a hold on man)ind, irrespectie of an
earthly gain$ #his can neer &e said of a purely secular ideal$ 'ts power depends
upon its power to confer material &enefit$ #his shows how great is the difference in
the potency and sanction of the two ideals oer the human mind$ ( religious ideal
neer fails to wor) so long as there is faith in that ideal$ #o ignore religion is to ignore
a lie wire$
(gain to hold that all religions are true and good is to cherish a &elief which is
positiely and demonstra&ly wrong$ #his &elief, one is sorry to say, is the result of
what is )nown as the study of comparatie religion$ Comparatie religion has done
one great serice to humanity$ 't has &ro)en down the claim and arrogance of
reealed religions as &eing the only true and good religions of study$ While it is true
that comparatie religion has a&rogated the capricious distinction &etween true and
false religions &ased on purely ar&itrary and a priori considerations, it has &rought in
its wa)e some false notions a&out religion$ #he most harmful one is the one ' hae
mentioned namely that all religions are equally good and that there is no necessity of
discriminating &etween them$ @othing can &e a greater error than this$ *eligion is an
institution or an influence and li)e all social influences and institutions, it may help or
it may harm a society which is in its grip$ (s pointed out &y Prof$ #iele
-f13.
religion is
/one of the mightiest motors in the history of man)ind, which formed as well as tore
asunder nations, united as well as diided empires, which sanctioned the most
atrocious and &ar&arous deeds, the most li&inous customs, inspired the most
admira&le acts of heroism, self renunciation, and deotion, which occasioned the
most sanguinary wars, re&ellions and persecutions, as well as &rought a&out the
freedom, happiness and peace of nations0at one time a partisan of tyranny, at
another &rea)ing its chains, now calling into e1istence and fostering a new and
&rilliant ciilization, then the deadly foe to progress, science and art$/
( force which shows such a strange contrast in its result can &e accepted as good
without e1amining the form it ta)es and the ideal it seres$ Eerything depends upon
what social ideal a gien religion as a diine scheme of goernance hold out$ #his is
a question which is not aowed &y the science of comparatie religion$ 'ndeed it
&egins where comparatie religion ends$ #he Hindu is merely trying to aoid it &y
saying that although religions are many they are equally good$ For they are not$
Howeer much the Hindu may see) to &ur)e the inquiry into the philosophy of
Hinduism there is no escape$ He must face it$
#ll
@ow to &egin with the su&+ect$ ' propose to apply &oth the tests, the test of +ustice
and the test of utility to +udge the philosophy of Hinduism$ First ' will apply the test of
+ustice$ %efore doing so ' want to e1plain what ' mean &y the principle of +ustice$
@o one has e1pounded it &etter than Professor %erg&on
-f1<.
$ (s interpreted &y him
the principle of +ustice is a compendious one and includes most of the other
principles which hae &ecome the foundation of a moral order$ Custice has always
eo)ed ideas of equality, of proportion of /compensation/$ Equity signifies equality$
*ules and regulations, right and righteousness are concerned with equality in alue$
'f all men are equal, all men are of the same essence and the common essence
entitled them to the same fundamental rights and to equal li&erty$
'n short +ustice is simply another name for li&erty equality and fraternity$ 't is in this
sense ' shall &e using
-f1?.
+ustice as a criterion to +udge Hinduism$
Which of these tenets does Hinduism recognize? 5et us ta)e the question one &y
one$
1. 2oes Hinduism recogni3e ,)uality4
#he question instantaneously &rings to one6s mind the caste system$ !ne stri)ing
feature of the caste system is that the different castes do not stand as an horizontal
series all on the same plane$ 't is a system in which the different castes are placed in
a ertical series one a&oe the other$ ;anu may not &e responsi&le for the creation
of caste$ ;anu preached the sanctity of the Barna and as ' hae shown Barna is the
parent of caste$ 'n that sense ;anu can &e charged with &eing the progenitor if not
the author of the Caste 9ystem$ Whateer &e the case as to the guilt of ;anu
regarding the Caste 9ystem there can &e no question that ;anu is responsi&le for
upholding the principle of gradation and ran)$
'n the scheme of ;anu the %rahmin is placed at the first in ran)$ &elow him is the
Jshatriya$ &elow Jshatriya is the Baishya$ &elow Baishya is the 9hudra and &elow
9hudra is the (ti29hudra =the "ntoucha&les>$ #his system of ran) and gradation is,
simply another way of enunciating the principle of inequality so that it may &e truly
said that Hinduism does not recognize equality$ #his inequality in status is not merely
the inequality that one sees in the warrant of precedence prescri&ed for a
ceremonial gathering at a Jing6s Court$ 't is a permanent social relationship among
the classes to &e o&sered0 to &e enforced0at all times in all places and for all
purposes$ 't will ta)e too long to show how in eery phase of life ;anu has
introduced and made inequality the ital force of life$ %ut ' will illustrate it &y ta)ing a
few e1amples such as slaery, marriage and *ule of 5aw$
;anu recognizes
-f1A.
9laery$ %ut he confined it to the 9hudras$ !nly 9hudras could
&e made slaes of the three higher classes$ %ut the higher classes could not &e the
slaes of the 9hudra$
%ut eidently practice differed from the law of ;anu and not only 9hudras
happened to &ecome slaes &ut mem&ers of the other three classes also &ecome
slaes$ When this was discoered to &e the case a new rule was enacted &y a
9uccessor of ;anu namely @arada
-f1D.
$ #his new rule of @arada runs as follows 40
B <H$ 'n the inerse order of the four castes slaery is not ordained e1cept where a
man iolates the duties peculiar to his caste$ 9laery =in that respect> is analogous to
the condition of a wife$/
*ecognition of slaery was &ad enough$ %ut if the rule of slaery had &een left free
to ta)e its own course it would hae had at least one &eneficial effect$ 't would hae
&een a leelling force$ #he foundation of caste would hae &een destroyed$ For
under it a %rahmin might hae &ecome the slae of the "ntoucha&le and the
"ntoucha&le would hae &ecome the master of the %rahmin$ %ut it was seen that
unfettered slaery was an equalitarian principle and an attempt was made to nullify
it$ ;anu and his successors therefore while recognising slaery ordain that it shall
not &e recognised in its inerse order to the Barna 9ystem$ #hat means that a
%rahmin may &ecome the slae of another %rahmin$ %ut he shall not &e the slae of
a person of another Barna i$e$ of the Jshatriya, Baishya, 9hudra, or (ti29hudra$ !n
the other hand a %rahmin may hold as his slae any one &elonging to the four
Barnas$ ( Jshatriya can hae a Jshatriya, Baisha, 9hudra and (ti29hudra as his
slaes &ut not one who is a %rahmin$ ( Baishya can hae a Baishya, 9hudra and (ti2
9hudra as his slaes &ut not one who is a %rahmin or a Jshatriya$ ( 9hudra can
hold a 9hudra and (ti2shudra can hold an (ti29hudra as his slae &ut not one who is
a %rahmin, Jshatriya, Baishya or 9hudra$
Consider ;anu on marriage$ Here are his rules goerning intermarriage among the
different classes$ ;anu says 402
'''$ 13$ /For the first marriage of the twice &orn classes, a woman of the same class
is recommended &ut for such as are impelled &y inclination to marry again, women
in the direct order of the classes are to &e preferred$/
'''$ 1<$ /( 9hudra woman only must &e the wife of 9hudra 4 she and a Baisya, of a
Baisya8 they two and a Jshatriya, of a Jshatriya 8 those two and a %rahmani of a
%rahman$/
;anu is of course opposed to intermarriage$ His in+unction is for each class to
marry within his class$ %ut he does recognize marriage outside the defined class$
Here again he is particularly careful not to allow intermarriage to do harm to his
principle of inequality among classes$ 5i)e 9laery he permits intermarriage &ut not
in the inerse order$ ( %rahmin when marrying outside his class may marry any
woman from any of the classes &elow him$ ( Jshatriya is free to marry a woman
from the two classes ne1t &elow him namely the Baishya and 9hudra &ut must not
marry a woman from the %rahmin class which is a&oe him$ ( Baishya is free to
marry a woman from the 9hudra Class which is ne1t &elow him$ %ut he cannot marry
a woman from the %rahmin and the Jshatriya Class which are a&oe him$
Why this discrimination? #he only answer is that ;anu was most an1ious to
presere the rule of inequality which was his guiding principle$
#a)e *ule of 5aw$ *ule of 5aw is generally understood to mean equality &efore
law$ 5et any one interested to )now what ;anu has to say on the point ponder oer
the following *ules e1tracted from his code which for easy understanding ' hae
arranged under distinct headings$
's to witnesses.(ccording to ;anu they are to &e sworn as follows 40
B'''$ GF$ /'n the forenoon let the +udge, &eing purified, seerally call on the twice2
&orn, &eing purified also, to declare the truth, in the presence of some image, a
sym&ol of the diinity and of %rahmins, while the witnesses turn their faces either to
the north or to the east$/
B'''$ GG$ /#o a %rahman he must &egin with saying, 7Declare 8 to a Jshatriya, with
saying, 6 Declare the truth 68 to a Baisya, with comparing per+ury to the crime of
stealing )ine, grain or gold 8 to a 9udra, with comparing it in some or all of the
following sentences, to eery crime that men can commit$/$
B'''$ 11<$ /5et the +udge cause a priest to swear &y his eracity 8 a soldier, &y his
horse, or elephant, and his weapons 8 a merchant, &y his )ine, grain, and gold 8 a
mechanic or serile man, &y imprecating on his own head, if he spea) falsely, all
possi&le crimes 8/
;anu also deals with cases of witnesses giing false eidence$ (ccording to ;anu
giing false eidence is a crime, says ;anu 40
B'''$ 133$ /5earned men hae specified these punishments, which were ordained
&y sage legislators for per+ured witnesses, with a iew to preent a failure of +ustice
and to restrain iniquity$/
B'''$ 13<$ /5et a +ust prince &anish men of the three lower classes, if they gie false
eidence, haing first leied the fine 8 &ut a %rahman let him only &anish$/ %ut ;anu
made one e1ception 40
B'''$ 1 13$ /#o women, howeer, at a time of dalliance, or on a proposal of
marriage, in the case of grass or fruit eaten &y a cow, of wood ta)en for a sacrifice,
or of a promise made for the preseration of a %rahman, it is deadly sin to ta)e a
light oath$/ (s parties to proceedings0#heir position can &e illustrated &y quoting
the ordinances of ;anu relating to a few of the important criminal offences dealt with
&y ;anu$ #a)e the offence of Defamation$ ;anu says 40
B'''$ 3DF$ /( soldier, defaming a priest, shall &e fined a hundred panas, a merchant,
thus offending, an hundred and fifty, or two hundred8 &ut, for such an offence, a
mechanic or serile man shall &e shipped$/
'''$ 3DG$ /( priest shall &e fined fifty, if he slander a soldier8 twenty fie, if a
merchant 8 and twele, if he slander a man of the serile class$/ #a)e the offence of
'nsult0;anu says40
B'''$ 3FE$ /( once &orn man, who insults the twice2&orn with gross inecties,
ought to hae his tongue slit 8 for he sprang from the lowest part of %rahma$/
B'''$ 3F1$ /'f he mention their names and classes with contumely, as if he say, /!h
Deadatta, though refuse of %rahmin/, an iron style, ten fingers long, shall &e thrust
red into his mouth$/
B'''$ 3F3$ /9hould he, through pride, gie instruction to priests concerning their
duty, let the )ing order some hot oil to &e dropped into his mouth and his ear$/ #a)e
the offence of (&use0;anu says 40
B'''$ 3FD$ /For mutual a&use &y a priest and a soldier, this fine must &e imposed &y
a learned )ing8 the lowest amercement on the priest, and the middle2most on the
soldier$/
B'''$ 3FF$ /9uch e1actly, as &efore mentioned, must &e the punishment a merchant
and a mechanic, in respect of their seeral classes, e1cept the slitting of the tongue 8
this is a fi1ed rule of punishment$ / #a)e the offence of (ssault0;anu propounds 40
B'''$ 3FH$ /With whateer mem&er a low2&orn man shall assault or hurt a superior,
een that mem&er of his must &e slit, or cut more or less in proportion to the in+ury 8
this is an ordinance of ;anu$/
B'''$ 3GE$ /He who raises his hand or a staff against another, shall hae his hand
cut 8 and he, who )ic)s another in wrath, shall hae an incision made in his foot$/
#a)e the offence of (rrogance0(ccording to ;anu40
B'''$ 3G>$ /( man of the lowest class, who shall insolently place himself on the
same seat with one of the highest, shall either &e &anished with a mar) on his hinder
parts, or the )ing, shall cause a gash to &e made on his &uttoc)$/
B'''$ 3G3$ /9hould he spit on him through price, the )ing shall order &oth his lips to
&e gashed8 should he urine on him, his penis4 should he &rea) wing against him, his
anus$/
B'''$ 3G<$ /'f he seize the %rahman &y the loc)s, or &y the feet, or &y the &eard, or
&y the throat, or &y the scrotum, let the )ing without hesitation cause incisions to &e
made in his hands$/ #a)e the offence of (dultery$ 9ays ;anu40
B'''$ <AH$ /( man of the serile class, who commits actual adultery with the wife of
a priest, ought to suffer death8 the wies, indeed, of all the four classes must eer &e
most especially guarded$/
B'''$ <DD$ /( low man, who ma)es loe to a damsel of high &irth, ought to &e
punished corporal8 &ut he who addresses a maid of equal ran), shall gie the nuptial
present and marry her, if her father please$/
B'''$ <F?$ /( mechanic or serile man, haing an adulterous connection with a
woman of a twice2&orn class, whether guarded at home or unguarded, shall thus &e
punished 8 if she was unguarded, he shall lose the part offending, and his whole
su&stance 8 if guarded, and a priestess, eery thing, een his life$/
B'''$ <FA$ /For adultery with a guarded priestess, a merchant shall forfeit all his
wealth after imprisonment for a year8 a soldier shall &e fined a thousand panas, and
he &e shaed with the urine of an ass$/
B'''$ <FD$ /%ut, if a merchant or soldier commit adultery with a woman of the
sacerdotal class, whom her hus&and guards not at home, the )ing shall only fine the
merchant fie hundred, and the soldier a thousand8K
B'''$ <FF$ /%oth of them, howeer, if they commit that offence with a priestess not
only guarded &ut eminent for good qualities, shall &e punished li)e men of the serile
class, or &e &urned in a fire of dry grass or reeds$/
B'''$ <G3$ /'f a merchant conerse criminally with a guarded woman of the military,
or a soldier with one of the mercantile class, they &oth desere the same
punishment as in the case of a priestess unguarded$/
B'''$ <G<$ /%ut a %rahman, who shall commit adultery with a guarded woman of
those two classes, must &e fined a thousand panas 8 and for the life offence with a
guarded woman of the serile class, the fine of a soldier or a merchant shall &e also
one thousand$/
B'''$ <G?$ /For adultery with a woman of the military class, if guarded, the fine of a
merchant is fie hundred 8 &ut a soldier, for the conerse of that offence, must &e
shaed with urine, or pay the fine +ust mentioned$/
B'''$ <GA$ /( priest shall pay fie hundred panas if he connect himself criminally
with an unguarded woman of the military, commercial, or serile class, and a
thousand, for such a connection with a woman of a ile mi1ed &reed$/
#urning to the system of punishment for offences ;anu6s 9cheme throws an
interesting light on the su&+ect$ Consider the following ordinances 40
B'''$ <FH$ /'gnominious tonsure is ordained, instead of capital punishment, for an
adulterer of the priestly class, where the punishment of other classes may e1tend to
5oss of life$/
B'''$ <GE$ /@eer shall the )ing slay a %rahman, though conicted of all possi&le
crimes 8 let him &anish the offender from his realm, &ut with all his property secure,
and his &ody unhurt$/
L'$ 13F$ /For )illing intentionally a irtuous man of the military class, the penance
must &e a fourth part of that ordained for )illing a priest 8 for )illing a Baisya, only an
eighth, for )illing a 9udra, who had &een constant in discharging his duties, a
si1teenth part$/
L'$ 13G$ /%ut, if a %rahmen )ill a Jshatriya without malice, he must, after a full
performance of his religious rites, gie the priests one &ull together with a thousand
cows$/
L'$ 13H$ /!r he may perform for three years the penance for slaying a %rahmen,
mortifying his organs of sensation and action, letting his hair grow long, and liing
remote from the town, with the root of a tree for his mansion$/
L'$ 1<E$ /'f he )ill without malice a Baisya, who had a good moral character, he
may perform the same penance for one year, or gie the priests a hundred cows and
a &ull$/
L'$ 1<1$ /For si1 months must he perform this whole penance, if without intention
he )ill a 9udra 8 or he may gie ten white cows and a &ull to the priests$/
B'''$ <G1$ /@o greater crime is )nown on earth than slaying a %rahman 8 and the
)ing, therefore, must not een form in his mind an idea of )illing a priest$/
B'''$ 13D$ /5et the )ing haing considered and ascertained the frequency of a
similar offence, the place and time, the a&ility of the criminal to pay or suffer and the
crime itself, cause punishment to fall on those alone, who deseres it$/
B'''$ 13?$ /;anu, son of the 9elf2e1istent, has named ten places of punishment,
which are appropriated to the three lower classes, &ut a %rahman must depart from
the realm unhurt in any one of them$/
B'''$ 13A$ /#he part of generation, the &elly, the tongue, the two hands, and, fifthly,
the two feet, the eye, the nose, &oth ears, the property, and, in a capital case, the
whole &ody$/ How strange is the contrast &etween Hindu and @on2Hindu criminal
+urisprudence? How inequality is writ large in Hinduism as seen in its criminal
+urisprudence? 'n a penal code charged with the spirit of +ustice we find two things0
a section dealing defining the crime and a prescri&ing a rational form of punishment
for &reach of it and a rule that all offenders are lia&le to the same penalty$ 'n ;anu
what do we find? First an irrational system of punishment$ #he punishment for a
crime is inflicted on the organ concerned in the crime such as &elly, tongue, nose,
eyes, ears, organs of generation etc$, as if the offending organ was a sentient &eing
haing a will for its own and had not &een merely a seritor of human &eing$ 9econd
feature of ;anu6s penal code is the inhuman character of the punishment which has
no proportion to the graity of the offence$ %ut the most stri)ing feature of ;anu6s
Penal Code which stands out in all its na)edness is the inequality of punishment for
the same offence$ 'nequality designed not merely to punish the offender &ut to
protect also the dignity and to maintain the &aseness of the parties coming to a
Court of 5aw to see) +ustice in other words to maintain the social inequality on which
his whole scheme is founded$
9o far ' hae ta)en for illustrations such matters as sere to show ( how ;anu
has ordained social inequality$ ' now propose to ta)e other matters dealt with &y
;anu in order to illustrate that ;anu has also ordained *eligious inequality$ #hese
are matters which are connected with what are called sacraments and (shrams$
#he Hindus li)e the Christians &eliee in sacraments$ #he only difference is that
the Hindus hae so many of them that een the *oman Catholic Christians would &e
surprised at the e1traagant num&er o&sered &y the Hindus$ !riginally their num&er
was forty and coered the most triial as well as the most important occasions in ' a
person6s life$ First they were reduced to twenty$ 5ater on it was reduced to si1teen
-f1F.
and at that figure the sacraments of the Hindus hae remained sta&ilized$
%efore ' e1plain how at the core of these rules of sacraments there lies the spirit of
inequality the reader must )now what the rules are$ 't is impossi&le to e1amine all$ 't
will &e enough if ' deal with a few of them$ ' will ta)e only three categories of them,
those relating with 'nitiation, :ayatri and Daily 9acrifices$
First as to 'nitiation$ #his initiation is effected &y the inestitute of a person with the
sacred thread$ #he following are the most important rules of ;anu regarding the
sacrament of inestiture$
''$ <D$ /'n the eighth year from the conception of a %rahman, in the eleenth from
that of a Jshatriya, and in the twelfth from that of a Baisya, let the father inest the
child with the mar) of his class$/
''$ <F$ /9hould a %rahman, or his father for him, &e desirous of his adancement in
sacred )nowledge 8 a Jshatriya, of e1tending his power8 or a Baisya of engaging in
mercantile &usiness8 the inestitute may &e made in the fifth, si1th, or eighth years
respectiely$/
''$ <G$ /#he ceremony of inestitute hallowed &y the :ayatri must not &e delayed,
in the case of a priest, &eyond the si1teenth year 8 nor in that of a soldier, &eyond the
twenty second 8 nor in that of a merchant, &eyond the twenty fourth$/
''$ <H$ /(fter that, all youths of these three classes, who hae not &een inested at
the proper time, &ecome ratyas, or outcasts, degraded from the :ayatri, and
condemned &y the irtuous$/
''$ 1?F$ /5et a man consider that as a mere human &irth, which his parents gae
him for their mutual gratification, and which he receies after lying in the wom&$/
''$ 1?G$ /%ut that &irth which his principal acharya, who )nows the whole Beda,
procures for him &y his diine mother the :ayatri, is a true &irth 8 that &irth is e1empt
from age and from death$/
''$ 1DH$ /#he first &irth is from a natural mother8 the second, from the ligation of the
zone 8 the third from the due performance of the sacrifice 8 such are the &irths of him
who is usually called twice2&orn, according to a te1t of the Beda$/
''$ 1FE$ /(mong them his diine &irth is that, which is distinguished &y the ligation
of the zone, and sacrificial cord 8 and in that &irth the :ayatri is his mother, and the
(charya, his father$/ #hen let me come to :ayatri$ 't is a ;antra or an inocation of
special spiritual efficacy$ ;anu e1plains what it is$ ''$ FD$ /%rahma mil)ed out, as it
were, from the three Bedas, the letter (, the letter ", and the letter ; which form &y
their coalition the triliteral monosylla&le, together with three mysterious words, &hur,
&huah, swer, or earth, s)y, heaen$/
''$ FF$ /From the three Bedas, also the 5ord of creatures, incomprehensi&ly
e1alted, successiely mil)ed out the three measures of that ineffa&le te1t, &e ginning
with the word tad, and entitled 9aitri or :ayatri$/
''$ FG$ /( priest who shall )now the Beda, and shall pronounce to himself, &oth
morning and eening, that sylla&le and that holy te1t preceded &y the three words,
shall attain the sanctity which the Beda confers$/
''$ FH$ /(nd a twice &orn man, who shall a thousand times repeat those three =or
om, the yahritis, and the gayatri,> apart from the multitude, shall &e released in a
month een from a great offence, as a sna)e from his slough$/
''$ GE$ /#he priest, the soldier, and the merchant, who shall neglect this mysterious
te1t, and fail to perform in due season his peculiar acts of piety, shall meet with
contempt among the irtuous$/
11$G1 /#he great immuta&le words, preceded &y the triliteral sylla&le, and followed
&y the :ayatri which consists of three measures, must &e considered as the mouth,
or principal part of the Beda$/
''$ G3$ /Whoeer shall repeat, day &y day, for three years, without negligence, that
sacred te1t, shall hereafter approach the diine essence, moe as freely as air, and
assume an ethereal form$/
''$ G<$ /#he triliteral monosylla&le is an em&lem of the 9upreme, the suppressions
of &reath with a mind fi1ed on :od are
the highest deotion 8 &ut nothing is more e1alted than the gayatri 8 a declaration of
truth is more e1cellent than silence$/
''$ G?$ /(ll rights ordained in the Beda, o&lations to fire, and solemn sacrifices pass
away8 &ut that which passes not away, is declared to &e the syla&le om, thence
called acshare 8 since it is a sym&ol of :od, the 5ord of created &eings$/
''$ GA$ /#he act of repeating his Holy @ame is ten times &etter than the appointed
sacrifice4 an hundred times &etter when it is heard &y no man 8 and a thousand times
&etter when it is purely mental$/
''$ GD$ /#he four domestic sacraments which are accompanied with the appointed
sacrifice, are not equal, though all &e united, to a si1teenth part of the sacrifice
performed &y a repetition of the gayatri$/ @ow to the Daily 9acrifices$
'''$ DH$ /For the sa)e of e1piating offences committed ignorantly in those places
mentioned in order, the fie great sacrifices were appointed &y eminent sages to &e
performed each day &y such as )eep house$/
'''$ FE$ /#eaching =and studying> the scripture is the sacrifice to the Beda8 offering
ca)es and water, the sacrifice to the ;anes, an o&lation to fire, the sacrifice to the
Deities8 giing rice or other food to liing creatures, the sacraments of spirits8
receiing guests with honour, the sacrifice to men$/
'''$ F1$ /Whoeer omits not those fie great sacrifices, if he has a&ility to perform
them, is untainted &y the sons of the fie slaughtering places, een though he
constantly resides at home$/
#urning to the (shramas$ #he (shram theory is a peculiar feature of the philosophy
of Hinduism$ 't is not )nown to hae found a place in the teachings of any other
religion$ (ccording to the (shram theory life is to &e diided into four stages called
&rahmachari) *rahastha) +anaprastha and ,annyas. 'n the %rahamachari stage a
person is unmarried and deotes his time to the study and education$ (fter this stage
is oer he enters the stage of a :rahastha i$e$ he marries, rears a family and attends
to his worldly welfare$ #hereafter he enters the third stage and is then )nown as a
Banaprastha$ (s a Banaprastha he dwells in the forest as a hermit &ut without
seering his ties with his family or without a&andoning his rights to his worldly goods$
#hen comes the fourth and the last stage22that of 9annyas0which means complete
renunciation of the world in search of :od$ #he two stages of %raharnchari and
:rahastha are natural enough$ #he two last stages are only recommendatory$ #here
is no compulsion a&out them$ (ll that ;anu lays down is as follows4
B'$ 1$ ( twice &orn who has thus lied according to the law in the order of
householders, may, ta)ing a firm resolution and )eeping his organs in su&+ection,
dwell in the forest, duly =o&sering the rules gien &elow$>
B'$ 3$ When a householder sees his =s)in> wrin)led, and =his hair> white, and the
sons of his son, then he may resort to the forest$
B'$ <$ (&andoning all food raised &y cultiation, all his &elongings, he may depart
into the forest, either committing his wife to his sons, or accompanied &y her$
B'$ <<$ %ut haing passed the third pan of =a man6s natural term of> life in the
forest, he may lie as an ascetic during the fourth part of his e1istence, after
a&andoning all attachment to worldly o&+ects$
#he inequality em&odied in these rules is real although it may not &e quite o&ious$
!&sere that all these sacraments and (shramas are confined to the twice2&orn$
#he 9hudras are e1cluded
-f1G.
from their &enefit$ ;anu of course has no o&+ection to
their undergoing the forms of the ceremonies$ %ut he o&+ects to their use of the
9acred ;antras in the performance of the ceremonies$ !n this ;anu says4 0 L$
13F$ /Een 9hudras, who were an1ious to perform =heir entire duty, and )nowing
what they should perform, imitate the practice of good men in the household
sacraments, &ut without any holy te1t, e1cept those containing praise and salutation,
are so far from sinning, that they acquire +ust applause$/ 9ee the following te1t of
;anu for women4 0 2
''$ DD$ /#he same ceremonies, e1cept that of the sacrificial thread, must &e duly
performed for women at the same age and in the same order, that the &ody may &e
made perfect8 &ut without any te1t from the Beda$/
Why does ;anu prohi&it the 9hudras from the &enefit of the 9acraments? His
interdict against the 9hudras &ecoming a 9annyasi is a puzzle$ 9annyas means and
inoles renunciation, a&andonment of worldly o&+ect$ 'n legal language 9annyas is
interpreted as &eing equialent to ciil death$ 9o that when a man &ecomes a
9annyasi he is treated as &eing dead from that moment and his heir succeeds
immediately$ #his would &e the only consequence, which would follow if a 9hudra
&ecome a 9annyasi$ 9uch a consequence could hurt no&ody e1cept the 9hudra
himself$ Why then this interdict? #he issue is important and ' will quote ;anu to
e1plain the significance and importance of the 9acraments and 9annyas$ 5et us all
ponder oer the following releant te1ts of ;anu 4
''$ 3D$ With holy rites, prescri&ed &y the Beda, must the ceremony on conception
and other sacraments &e performed for twice2&orn men, which sanctify the &ody and
purify =from sin> in this =life> and after death$
''$ 3G$ %y the study of the Beda, &y ows, &y &urnt o&lations, &y =the recitation of>
sacred te1ts, &y the =acquisition of the> three sacred Bedas, &y offering =to the gods
*ishis and ;anes>, &y =the procreation of> sons, &y the :reat 9acrifices, and &y
=9rauta> rites this =human> &ody is made fit for =union with> %ramha$ #his is the aim
and o&+ect of the 9amscaras$ ;anu also e1plains the aim and o&+ect of 9annyas$
B'$ G1$ He =the 9annyasi> who has in this manner gradually gien up all
attachments and is freed from all the pairs =of opposites>, reposes in %rahman alone$
B'$ GA$ ( twice &orn man who &ecomes an ascetic, after the successie
performance of the a&oe2mentioned acts, sha)es off sin here &elow and reaches
the highest %rahman$ From these te1ts it is clear that according to ;anu himself the
o&+ect of the sacraments is to sanctify the &ody and purify it from sin in this life and
hereafter and to ma)e it fit for union with :od$ (ccording to ;anu the o&+ect of
9annyas to reach and repose in :od$ Iet ;anu says that the sacraments and
9annyas are the priileges of the higher classes$ #hey are not open to the 9hudra$
Why? Does not a 9hudra need sanctification of his &ody, purification of his soul?
MDoes not a 9hudra need to hae an aspiration to reach :od? ;anu pro&a&ly would
hae answered these questions in the affirmatie$ Why did he then ma)e such rules$
#he answer is that he was a staunch &elieer in social inequality and he )new the
danger of admitting religious Equality$ 'f ' am equal &efore :od why am ' not equal
on earth? ;anu was pro&a&ly terrified &y this question$ *ather than admit and allow
religious equality to affect social inequality he preferred to deny religious equality$
#hus in Hinduism you will find &oth social inequality and religious inequality
im&edded in its philosophy$
#o preent man from purifying himself from sinNN #o preent man from getting near
to :odNN #o any rational person such rules must appear to &e a&nominal and an
indication of a pererse mind$ 't is a glaring instance of how Hinduism is a denial not
only of equality &ut how it is denial of the sacred character of human personality$
#his is not all$ For ;anu does not stop with the non2recognition of human
personality$ He adocates a deli&erate de&asement of human personality$ ' will ta)e
only two instances to illustrate this feature of the philosophy of Hinduism$
(ll those who study the Caste 9ystem are naturally led to inquire into the origin of
it$ ;anu &eing the progenitor of Caste had to gie an e1planation of the origin of the
arious castes$ What is the origin which ;anu gies? His e1planation is simple$ He
says that leaing aside the four original castes the rest are simply &ase&ornNN He
says they are the progeny of fornication and adultery &etween men and women of
the four original castes$ #he immorality and looseness of character among men and
women of the four original castes must hae &een limitless to account for the rise of
innumera&le castes consisting of innumera&le soulsNN ;anu ma)es the wild
allegation without stopping to consider what aspersions he is casting upon men and
women of the four original castes$ For if the chandals0the old name for the
"ntoucha&les0are the progeny of a %rahman female and a 9hudra male then it is
o&ious that to account for such a large num&er of Chandals it must &e assumed
that eery %rahman woman was slut and a whore and eery 9hudra lied an
adulterous life with complete a&andon$ ;anu in his mad +ust for de&asing the
different castes &y ascri&ing to them an igno&le origin seems deli&erately to perert
historical facts$ ' will gie only two illustrations$ #a)e ;anu6s origin of agadha and
+aidehi- and compare it with the origin of the same castes as gien &y Panini the
great :rammarian$ ;anu says that agadha is a caste which is &orn from se1ual
intercourse &etween Baishya male and Jshatriya female$ ;anu says that +aidehi- is
a caste which is &orn from se1ual intercourse &etween a Baishya male and a
%rahmin female$ @ow turn to Panini$ Panini says that agadha means a person who
is resident of the country )nown as agadha. (s to +aidehi- Panini says that
+aidehi- means a person who is resident of the country )nown as +ideha. What a
contrastNN How cruel it is$ Panini lied not later than <EE %$C$ ;anu lied a&out
3EE($D$ How is it that people who &ore no stigma in the time of Panini &ecame so
stained in the hands of ;anu? #he answer is that ;anu was &ent on de&asing them$
Why ;anu was &ent on deli&erately de&asing people is a tas) which is still awaiting
e1ploration
-f1H.
'n the meantime we hae the strange contrast that while *eligion
eerywhere else is engaged in the tas) of raising and enno&ling man)ind Hinduism
is &usy in de&asing and degrading it$
#he other instance ' want to use for illustrating the spirit of de&asement which is
inherent in Hinduism pertains to rules regarding the naming of a Hindu child$
#he names among Hindus fall into four classes$ #hey are either connected with .i/
family deity .ii/ the month in which the child is &orn .iti/ with the planets under which
a child is &orn or .i!/ are purely temporal i$e$ connected with &usiness$ (ccording to
;anu the temporal name of a Hindu should consist of two parts and ;anu gies
directions as to what the first and the second part should denote$ #he second part of
a %rahmin6s name shall &e a word implying happiness 8 of a Jshatriya6s a word
implying protection8 of a Baishya6s a term e1pressie of prosperity and of a 9hudra6s
an e1pression denoting serice$ (ccordingly the %rahmins hae ,harma =happiness>
or 0e!a =:od>, the Jshatriyas hae "a1a =authority> or Berma =armour>, the Baishyas
hae :upta =gifts> or Datta =:ier> and the 9hudras hae 0as =serice> for the
second part of their names$ (s to the first part of their names ;anu says that in the
case of a %rahmin it should denote something auspicious, in the case of a Jshatriya
something connected with power, in the case of a Baishya something connected with
wealth$ %ut in the case of a 9hudra ;anu says the first part of his name should
denote something contempti&leNN #hose who thin) that such a philosophy is
incredi&le would li)e to )now the e1act reference$ For their satisfaction ' am
reproducing the following te1ts from ;anu$ *egarding the naming ceremony ;anu
says 40
''$ <E$ 5et =the father perform or> cause to &e performed the namadheya =the rite of
naming the child>, on the tenth or twelfth =day after &irth>, or on a luc)y lunar day, in
a luc)y muhurta under an auspicious constellation$
''$ <1$ 5et =the first part of> a %rahman6s name =denote> something auspicious, a
Jshatriya6s name &e connected with power, and a Baishya6s with wealth, &ut a
9hudra6s =e1press something> contempti&le$
''$ <3$ =#he second part of> a %rahman6s =name> shall &e =a word> implying
happiness, of a Jshatriya6s =a word> implying protection, of a Baishya6s =a term>
e1pressie of thriing, and of a 9hudra6s =an e1pression> denoting serice$
;anu will not tolerate the 9hudra to hae the comfort of a high sounding name$ He
must &e contempti&le &oth in fact and in name$
Enough has &een said to show how Hinduism is a denial of equality &oth social as
well as religious and how it is also a degradation of human personality$ Does
Hinduism recognise li&erty?
5i&erty to &e real must &e accompanied &y certain social conditions
-f3E.
$
'n the first place there should &e social equality$ /Priilege tilts the &alance of social
action in faour of its possessors$ #he more equal are the social rights of citizens,
the more a&le they are to utilise their freedomO 'f li&erty is to moe to its appointed
end it is important that there should &e equality$/
'n the second place there must &e economic security$ /( man may &e free to enter
any ocation he may choose$ $ $ $ Iet if he is depried of security in employment he
&ecomes a prey of mental and physical seritude incompati&le with the ery essence
of li&erty$$$$ #he perpetual fear of the morrow, its haunting sense of impending
disaster, its fitful search for happiness and &eauty which perpetually eludes, shows
that without economic security, li&erty is not worth haing$ ;en may well &e free and
yet remain una&le to realise the purposes of freedom/$
'n the third place there must &e )nowledge made aaila&le to all$ 'n the comple1
world man lies at his peril and he must find his way in it without losing his freedom$
/#here can, under these conditions, &e no freedom that is worthwhile unless the
mind is trained to use its freedom$ =:ien this fact> the right of man to education
&ecomes fundamental to his freedom$ Deprie a man of )nowledge and you will
ma)e him ineita&ly the slae of those more fortunate than himself$$$$ depriation of
)nowledge is a denial of the power to use li&erty for great ends$ (n ignorant man
may &e free$ $ $ $ =%ut> he cannot employ his freedom so as to gie him assurance of
happiness$/
Which of these conditions does Hinduism satisfy? How Hinduism is a denial of
equality has already &een made clear$ 't upholds priilege and inequality$ #hus in
Hinduism the ery first collection for li&erty is conspicuous &y its a&sence$
*egarding economic security three things shine out in Hinduism$ 'n the first place
Hinduism denies freedom of a ocation$ 'n the 9cheme of ;anu each man has his
aocation preordained for him &efore he is &orn$ Hinduism allows no choice$ #he
occupation &eing preordained it has no relation to capacity nor to inclination$
'n the second place Hinduism compels people to sere ends chosen &y others$
;anu tells the 9hudra that he is &orn to sere the higher classes$ He e1horts him to
ma)e that his ideal$ !&sere the following rules lay down &y ;anu$
L$ 131$ 'f a 9hudra =una&le to su&sist &y sering %rahmanas> see)s a lielihood,
he may sere Jshatriyas, or he may also see) to maintain himself &y attending on a
wealthy Baishya$
L$ 133$ %ut let a 9hudra sere %rahmans$$$$
;anu does not leae the matter of acting upto the ideal to the 9hudra$ He goes a
step further and proides that the 9hudra does not escape or aoid his destined
tas)$ For one of the duties en+oined &y ;anu upon the Jing is to see that all castes
including the 9hudra to discharge their appointed tas)s$
B'''$ ?1E$ /#he )ing should order each man of the mercantile class to practice
trade, or money lending, or agriculture and attendance on cattle 8 and each man of
the serile class to act in the serice of the twice &orn$/
B'''$ ?1G$ /With igilant care should the )ing e1ert himself in compelling merchants
and mechanics to perform their respectie duties 8 for, when such men swere from
their duty, they throw this world into confusion$/
Failure to maintain was made an offence in the Jing punisha&le at 5aw$
B'''$ <<A$ /@either a father, nor a preceptor, nor a friend, nor a mother, nor a wife,
nor a son, nor a domestic priest must &e left unpunished &y the Jing, if they adhere
not with firmness to their duty$/
B'''$ <<D$ /Where another man of lower &irth would &e fined one pana, the )ing
shall &e fined a thousand, and he shall gie the fine to the priests, or cast it into the
rier, this is a sacred rule$/ #hese rules hae a two2fold significance, spiritual as well
as economic$ 'n the spiritual sense they constitute the gospel of slaery$ #his may
not &e quite apparent to those who )now slaery only &y its legal outward form and
not &y reference to its inner meaning$ With reference to its inner meaning a slae as
defined &y Plato means a person who accepts from another the purposes which
control his conduct$ 'n this sense a slae is not an end in him$ He is only a means for
filling the ends desired &y others$ #hus understood the 9hudra is a slae$ 'n their
economic significance the *ules put an interdict on the economic independence of
the 9hudra$ ( 9hudra, says ;anu, must sere$ #here may not &e much in that to
complain of$ #he wrong howeer consists in that the rules require him to sere
others$ He is not to sere himself, which means that he must not strie after
economic independence$ He must foreer remain economically dependent on
others$ For as ;anu says40
1$ H1$ !ne occupation only the lord prescri&ed to the 9hudra to sere mee)ly een
these other three castes$ 'n the third place Hinduism leaes no scope for the 9hudra
to accumulate wealth$ ;anu6s rules regarding the wages to &e paid to the 9hudra
when employed &y the three higher classes are ery instructie on this point$
Dealing with the question of wages to the 9hudras, ;anu says 40
L$ 13?$ /#hey must allot to him =9hudra> out of their own family property a suita&le
maintenance, after considering his a&ility, his industry, and the num&er of those
whom he is &ound to support$/
L$ 13A$ /#he remnants of their food must &e gien to him, as well as their old
clothes, the refuse of their grain, and their old household furniture$
#his is ;anu6s law of wages$ 't is not a minimum wage law$ 't is a ma1imum wage
law$ 't was also an iron law fi1ed so low that there was no fear of the 9hudra
accumulating wealth and o&taining economic security$ %ut ;anu did not want to ta)e
chances and he went to the length of prohi&iting the 9hudra from accumulating
property$ He says imperatiely40
L$ 13H$ @o collection of wealth must &e made &y a 9hudra een though he &e a&le
to do it8 for a 9hudra who has acquired wealth gies pain to %rahmans$
#hus in Hinduism, there is no choice of aocation$ #here is no economic
independence and there is no economic security$ Economically, spea)ing of a
9hudra is a precarious thing$
'n the matter of the spread of )nowledge two conditions are prerequisites$ #here
must &e formal education$ #here must &e literacy$ Without these two, )nowledge
cannot spread$ Without formal education it is not possi&le to transmit all the
resources and achieements of a comple1 society$ Without formal education the
accumulated thought and e1perience relating to a su&+ect cannot &e made
accessi&le to the young and which they will neer get if they were left to pic) up their
training in informal association with others$ Without formal education he will not get
new perceptions$ His horizon will not &e widened and he will remain an ignorant
slae of his routine wor)$ %ut formal education inoles the esta&lishment of special
agencies such as schools, &oo)s, planned materials such as studies etc$ How can
any one ta)e adantage of these special agencies of formal education unless he is
literate and a&le to read and write? #he spread of the arts of reading and writing i$e$
literacy and formal education go hand in hand$ Without the e1istence of two there
can &e no spread of )nowledge$

Ho$ does Hinduism stand in this matter4
#he conception of formal education in Hinduism is of a ery limited character$
Formal education was confined only to the study of the Bedas$ #hat was only
natural$ For the Hindus &elieed that there was no )nowledge outside the Bedas$
#hat &eing so formal education was confined to the study of the Bedas$ (nother
consequence was that the Hindu recognised that its only duty was to study in the
schools esta&lished for the study of the Bedas$ #hese schools &enefited only the
%rahmins$ #he 9tate did not hold itself responsi&le for opening esta&lishments for
the study of arts and sciences, which concerned the life of the merchant and the
artisan$ @eglected &y the state they had to shift for themseles$
Each class managed to transmit to its mem&ers the ways of doing things it was
traditionally engaged in doing$ #he duties of the Baishya class required that a young
Baishya should )now the rudiments of commercial geography, arithmetic, some
languages as well as the practical details of trade$ #his he learned from his father in
the course of the &usiness$ #he (rtisan6s class or the Craftsman who sprang out of
the 79hudra class also taught the arts and crafts to their children in the same way$
Education was domestic$ Education was practical$ 't only increased the s)ill to do a
particular thing$ 't did not lead to new perceptions$ 't did not widen horizon, with the
result that the practical education taught him only an isolated and uniform way of
acting so that in a changing enironment the s)ill turned out to &e gross ineptitude$
'lliteracy &ecame an inherent part of Hinduism &y a process which is indirect &ut
integral to Hinduism$ #o understand this process it is necessary to draw attention to
rules framed &y ;anu in regard to the right to teach and study the Bedas$ #hey are
dealt with in the following *ules$
1$ GG$ #o the %rahmanas he =the creator> assigned teaching and studying the
Beda$
1$ GH$ #he Jshatriya he =the creator> commanded to study the Beda$
1$ HE$ #he Baishya he =the creator> commanded$ $ $ $ $ $ to study the Beda$
''$ 11D$ He who shall acquire )nowledge of the Beda without the assent of his
preceptor, incurs the guilt of stealing the scripture, and shall sin) to the region of
torment$/
'B$ HH$ He =the twice &orn> must neer read =the Beda>$ $ $ $ $ $ in the presence of
the 9hudras$
'L$ 1G$ Women hae no &usiness with the te1t of the +eda. L'$ 1HH$ ( twice &orn
man who has$$$$$$ =improperly> diulged the Beda =i$e$ to 9hudras and women>
=commits sin>, atones for his offence, if he su&sists a year on &arley$ 'n these te1ts
there are em&odied three distinct propositions$ #he %rahmin, Jshatriya and Baishya
can study the Bedas$ !f these the %rahmins alone hae the right to teach the Bedas$
%ut in the case of the 9hudra he has not only not to study the Bedas &ut he should
not &e allowed to hear it read$
#he successors of ;anu made the disa&ility of the 9hudra in the matter of the
study of the Beda into an offence inoling dire penalties$ For instance :autama
says4
L''$ ?$ 'f the 9hudra intentionally listens for committing to memory the Beda, then
his ears should &e filled with =molten> lead and lac 8 if he utters the Beda, then his
tongue should &e cut off8 if he has mastered the Beda his &ody should &e cut to
pieces$ #o the same effect is Jatyayana$
#he ancient world may &e said to hae &een guilty for failing to ta)e the
responsi&ility for the education of the masses$ %ut neer has any society &een guilty
of closing to the generality of its people the study of the &oo)s of its religion$ @eer
has society &een guilty of prohi&iting the mass of its people from acquiring
)nowledge$ @eer has society made any attempt to declare that any attempt made
&y the common man to acquire )nowledge shall &e punisha&le as a crime$ ;anu is
the only deine law gier who has denied the common man the right to )nowledge$
%ut ' cannot wait to dilate upon this$ ' am more immediately concerned in showing
how the prohi&ition against the study of the Bedas to the mass of the people came to
gie rise to illiteracy and ignorance in secular life$ #he answer is easy$ 't must &e
realized that reading and writing hae an integral connection with the teaching and
study of the Bedas$ *eading and writing were arts necessary for those who were
free and priileged to study the Bedas$ #hey were not necessary to those who were
not free to do so$ 'n this way reading and writing &ecame incidental to the study of
the Bedas$ #he result was that the theory of ;anu regarding the rights and
prohi&itions in the matter of the teaching and the study of Bedas came to &e
e1tended to the arts of reading and writing$ #hose who had the right to study the
Bedas were accorded the right to read and write$ #hose who had no right to study
the Bedas were depried of the right to read and write$ 9o that it can &e rightly said
according to the law of ;anu reading and writing has &ecome the right of the high
class few and illiteracy has &ecome the destiny of the low class many$
!nly a step in the process of this analysis will show how ;anu &y prohi&iting
literacy was responsi&le for the general ignorance in which the masses came to &e
eneloped$
#hus Hinduism far from encouraging spread of )nowledge is a gospel of dar)ness$
#a)ing these facts into consideration Hinduism is opposed to the conditions in
which li&erty can thrie$ 't is therefore denial of li&erty$
#%
2oes Hinduism recognise &raternity4
#here are two forces prealent in 9ociety$ 'ndiidualism and Fraternity$
'ndiidualism is eer present$ Eery indiidual is eer as)ing /' and my neigh&ours,
are we all &rothers, are we een fiftieth cousins, am ' their )eeper, why should ' do
right to them/ and under the pressure of his own particular interests acting as though
he was an end to himself, there&y deeloping a non2social and een an anti2social
self$ Fraternity is a force of opposite character$ Fraternity is another name for fellow
feeling$ 't consists in a sentiment which leads an indiidual to identify himself with
the good of others where&y /the good of others &ecomes to him a thing naturally and
necessarily to &e attended to li)e any of the physical conditions of our e1istence/$ 't
is &ecause of this sentiment of fraternity that the indiidual does not /&ring himself to
thin) of the rest of his fellow2creatures as struggling rials with him for the means of
happiness, whom he must desire to see defeated in their o&+ect in order that he may
succeed in his own$/ 'ndiidualism would produce anarchy$ 't is only fraternity, which
preents it and helps to sustain the moral order among men$ !f this there can &e no
dou&t$
How does this sentiment of Fraternity of fellow feeling arise? C$ 9$ ;ill says that
this sentiment is a natural sentiment$
/#he social state is at once so natural, so necessary, and so ha&itual to man, that,
e1cept in some unusual circumstances or &y an effort of oluntary a&straction he
neer conceies himself otherwise than as a mem&er of a &ody8 and this association
is rieted more and more, as man)ind are further remoed from the state of saage
independence$ (ny condition, therefore, which is essential to a state of society,
&ecomes more and more an insepara&le part of eery person6s conception of the
state of things which he is &orn into, and which is the destiny of a human &eing$
@ow, society &etween human &eings, e1cept in the relation of master and slae, is
manifestly impossi&le on any other footing than that the interests of all are to &e
consulted$ 9ociety &etween equals can only e1ist on the understanding that the
interests of all are to &e regarded equally$ (nd since in all states of ciilisation, eery
person, e1cept an a&solute monarch, has equals, eery one is o&liged to lie on
these terms with some &ody8 and in eery age some adance is made towards a
state in which it will &e impossi&le to lie permanently on other terms with any &ody$
'n this way people grow up una&le to conceie as possi&le to them a state of total
disregard of other people6s interests$/
Does this sentiment of fellow feeling find a place among the Hindus? #he following
facts throw a flood of light on this question$
#he first fact that stri)es one is the num&er of castes$ @o &ody has made an e1act
computation of their num&er$ %ut it is estimated that total is not less than 3EEE$ 't
might &e <EEE$ #his is not the only distressing aspect of this fact$ #here are others$
Castes are diided into su&2castes$ #heir num&er is legion$ #he total population of
the %rahmin Caste is a&out a crore and a half$ %ut there are 1GGD su&2castes of the
%rahmin Caste$ 'n the Pun+a& alone the 9araswat %rahmins of the Proince of
Pun+a& are diided into ?DH su&2castes$ #he Jayasthas of Pun+a& are diided into
AHE su&2castes$ !ne could go on giing figures to show this infinite process of
splitting social life into small fragments$
#he third aspect of this splitting process is the infinitely small fragments into which
the Castes are split$ 9ome of the %aniya su&2castes can count no more than 1EE
families$ #hey are so inter related they find e1tremely difficult to marry within their
castes without transgressing the rules of consanguinity$
't is noteworthy what small e1cuses suffice to &ring a&out this splitting$
Equally noteworthy is the hierarchical character of the Caste 9ystem$ Castes form
an hierarchy in which one caste is at the top and is the highest, another at the
&ottom and it is the lowest and in &etween there are castes eery one of which is at
once a&oe some castes and &elow some castes$ #he caste system is a system of
gradation in which eery caste e1cept the highest and the lowest has a priority and
precedence oer some other castes$
How is this precedence or this superiority determined ? #his order of superiority
and inferiority or this insu&ordination is determined &y *ules =1> which are connected
with religious rites and =3> which are connected with commensuality$
*eligion as a &asis of *ules of precedence manifests itself in three ways$ Firstly
through religious ceremonies, secondly through incantations that accompany the
religious ceremonies and thirdly through the position of the priest$
%eginning with the ceremonies as a source of rules of precedence it should &e
noted that the Hindu 9criptures prescri&e si1teen religious ceremonies$ (lthough
those are Hindu ceremonies eery Hindu Caste cannot &y right claim to perform all
the si1teen ceremonies$ Few can claim the right to perform all$ 9ome are allowed to
perform certain ceremonies, some are not allowed to perform certain of the
ceremonies$ For instance ta)e the ceremony of "panayan, wearing of the sacred
thread$ 9ome castes can6t$ Precedence follows this distinction in the matter of right
to perform the ceremonies$ ( caste which can claim to perform all the ceremonies is
higher in status than the caste which has a right to perform a few$
#urning to the ;antras, it is another source for rules of precedence$ (ccording to
the Hindu *eligion the same ceremony can &e performed in two different ways$ =1>
Bedo)ta and =3> Purano)ta$ 'n the Bedo)ta form the ceremonies are performed with
;antras =incantations> from the Bedas$ 'n the Purano)ta form the ceremony is
performed with ;antras =incantations> from the Puranas$ Hindu *eligious 9criptures
fall into two distinct categories =1> #he Bedas which are four, and =3> the Puranas
which are eighteen$ (lthough they are all respected as scriptures they do not all
hae the same sanctity$ #he Bedas hae the highest sanctity and the Puranas hae
the lowest sanctity$ #he way the ;antras gie rise to social precedence will &e
o&ious if it is &orne in mind that not eery caste is entitled to hae the ceremony
performed in the Bedo)ta form$ #hree castes may well claim the right to the
performance of one of the si1teen ceremonies$ %ut it will &e that one of it is entitled
to perform it in the Bedo)ta form, another in the Purano)ta form$ Precedence goes
with the )ind of ;antra that a caste is entitled to use in the performance of a
religious ceremony$ ( caste which is entitled to use Bedic ;antras is superior to a
caste which is entitled to use only Purano)ta ;antras$
#a)ing the priest as a second source of precedence connected with *eligion,
Hinduism requires the instrumentality of a priest for the deriation of the full &enefit
from the performance of a religious ceremony$ #he priest appointed &y the scripture
is the %rahmin$ ( %rahmin therefore is indispensa&le$ %ut the scriptures do not
require 2that a %rahmin shall accept the initation of any and eery Hindu
irrespectie of his caste to officiate at a religious ceremony$ #he initation of which
caste he will accept and of which he will refuse is a matter left to the wishes of the
%rahmin$ %y long and well2esta&lished custom it is now settled at which caste he will
officiate and at which caste he will not$ #his fact has &ecome the &asis of
precedence as &etween castes$ #he caste at which a %rahmin will officiate is held as
superior to a caste at whose religious functions a %rahmin will not officiate$
#he second source for rules of precedence is commonality$ 't will &e noticed that
rules of marriage hae not gien rise to rules of precedence as rules of commonality
hae$ #he reason lies in the distinction &etween the rules prohi&iting intermarriage
and inter2dining$ #hat difference is o&ious$ #he prohi&ition on intermarriage is such
that it cannot only &e respected &ut it can &e carried out quite strictly$ %ut the
prohi&ition of inter2dining creates difficulties$ 't cannot &e carried out quite strictly in
all places and under all circumstances$ ;an migrates and must migrate from place
to place$ 'n eery place he happens to go he may not find his caste2men$ He may
find himself landed in the midst of strangers$ ;arriage is not a matter of urgency &ut
food is$ He can wait for getting himself married till he returns to the 9ociety of his
caste2men$ %ut he cannot wait for his food$ He must find it from somewhere and
from someone$ Puestion arises from which caste he can ta)e food, if he has to$ #he
rule is that he will ta)e food from a caste a&oe him &ut will not ta)e food from a
caste, which is &elow him$ #here is no way of finding how it came to &e decided that
a Hindu can ta)e food from one caste and not from another$ %y long series of
precedent eery Hindu )nows from what caste he can ta)e food and from what caste
he cannot$ #his is determined chiefly &y the rule followed &y the %rahmin$ ( caste is
higher or lower according as the %rahmin ta)es from it food or not$ 'n this connection
the %rahmin has a ery ela&orate set of rules in the matter of food and water$ =1> He
will ta)e only water from some and not from others$ =3> ( &rahmin will not ta)e food
coo)ed in water &y any caste$ =<> He will ta)e only food coo)ed in oil from some
castes$ (gain he has a set of rules in the matter of the essels, in which he will
accept food and water$ He will ta)e food or water in an earthen essel from some
castes, only in metallic essel from some and only in glass essel from others$ #his
goes to determine the leel of the castes$ 'f he ta)es food coo)ed in oil from a caste
its status is higher than the caste from which he will not$ 'f he ta)es water from a
caste its status is higher than the caste from which he will not$ 'f he ta)es water in a
metallic essel that caste is higher than the caste from which he will ta)e water in an
earthen essel$ %oth these castes are higher than the caste from which he will ta)e
water in a glass essel$ :lass is a su&stance which is called =@irlep> =which
conseres no stain> therefore a %rahmin can ta)e water in it een from the lowest$
%ut other metals do consere stains$ Contaminating character of the stain depends
upon the status of the person who has used it$ #hat status depends upon the
%rahmins will to accept water in that essel$ #hese are some of the factors which
determine the place and status of a caste in this Hindu hierarchical system of castes$
#his hierarchical organisation of the caste system is responsi&le for producing a
social psychology, which is noteworthy$ 'n the first place it produces a spirit of rialry
among the different castes for dignity$ 9econdly it produces an ascending scale of
hatred and descending scale of contempt$
#his social psychology of mutual hatred and contempt is well illustrated &y the
innumera&le proer&s that are flying a&out in 'ndia$ (s e1amples ' record a few of
them$
-f31.

#his spirit of hatred and contempt has not only found its place in proer&s &ut it
has found its place in Hindu literature also$ ' refer to a 9cripture )nown as the
,ahyadri-hand. 't is one of the Puranas which form a part of the Hindu 9acred
literature$ %ut its su&+ect matter is totally foreign to the su&+ect matter of other
Puranas$ 't deals with the Qorigin of the different castes$ 'n doing so it assigns no&le
origin to other castes while it assigns to the %rahmin caste the filthiest origin$ 't was
a reenge on ;anu$ 't was worst lampoon on the %rahmins as a caste$ #he
Peshwas ery naturally ordered its destruction$ 9ome suried the general
destruction$
' will +ust record one more fact &efore ' put the question$ Present day Hindus are
pro&a&ly the strongest opponents of ;ar1ism$ #hey are horrified at its doctrine of
class struggle$ %ut they forget that 'ndia has &een not merely the land of class
struggle &ut she has &een the land of class wars$
#he &itterest class war too) place &etween the %rahmins and the Jshatriyas$ #he
classical literature of the Hindus a&ounds in reference to class wars &etween these
two Barnas$
#he first recorded conflict was &etween the %rahmins and Jing Bena$ Bena was
the son of Jing (nga, of the race of (tri and was &orn of 9unitha, the daughter of
;rityu =Death>$ #his son of the daughter of Jala =death>, owing to the taint deried
from his maternal grandfather, threw his duties &ehind his &ac), and lied in
coetousness under the influence of desire$ #his )ing esta&lished an irreligious
system of conduct8 transgressing the ordinances of the Beda, he was deoted to
lawlessness$ 'n his reign men lied without study of the sacred &oo)s and the gods
had no soma2li&ations to drin) at sacrifices$ 7'6 he declared, 6am the o&+ect, and the
performer of sacrifice, and the sacrifice itself8 it is to me that sacrifice should &e
presented, and o&lation offered6$ #his transgressor of the rules of duty, who
arrogated to himself what was not his due, was then addressed &y all the great
rishis, headed &y ;arichi$ 6We are a&out to consecrate ourseles for a ceremony
which shall last for many years, practice not unrighteousness, ! Bena 4 this is not
the eternal rule of duty$ #hou art in eery deed a Pra+apati of (tri6s race, and thou
has engaged to protect thy su&+ects$6 #he foolish Bena, ignorant of what was right,
laughingly answered those great rishis who had so addressed him 8 6 Who &ut myself
is the ordained of duty or whom ought ' to o&ey? Who on earth equals me in sacred
)nowledge, in prowess, in austere ferour, in truth? Ies who are deluded and
senseless )now not that ' am the source of all &eings and duties$ Hesitate not to
&eliee that ', if ' willed, could &urn up the earth, or deluge it with water, or close up
heaen and earth$ 6 When owing to his delusion and arrogance Bena could not &e
goerned then the mighty rishis &ecoming incensed, seized the igorous and
struggling )ing, and ru&&ed his left thigh$ From this thigh, so ru&&ed, was produced a
&lac) man, ery short in stature, who, ' &eing alarmed, stood with +oined hands$
9eeing that he was agitated, (tri said to him 6 9it down6 =@ishada>$ He &ecame the
founder of the race of the @ishadas, and also progenitor of the Dhiaras =fishermen>,
who sprang from the corruption of Bena$ 9o two were produced from him the other
inha&itants of the Bindhya range, the #u)haras and #um&uras, who are prone to
lawlessness$ #hen the mighty sages, e1cited and incensed, again ru&&ed the right
hand of Bena, as men do the (rani wood, and from it arose Pritha, respondent in
&ody, glowing li)e the manifested (gni$/ /#he son of Bena =Pritha> then, with +oined
hands, addressed the great *ishis4 6( ery slender understanding for perceiing the
principles of duty has &een gien to me &y nature8 tell me truly how ' must employ it$
Dou&t not that ' shall perform whateer thy shall declare to me as my duty, and its
o&+ect 6$ #hen those gods and great ' rishis said to him4 6 Whateer duty is en+oined
perform it without hesitation, disregarding what though mayest li)e or disli)e, loo)ing
on all creatures with an equal eye, putting far from thy lust, anger, cupidity and pride$
*estrain &y the strength of thin arm all those men who swere from righteousness,
haing a constant regard to duty$ (nd in thought, act, and word ta)e upon thyself,
and continually renew, the engagement to protect the terrestrial %rahman =Beda or
%rahmins?>$ $ $$ $$ (nd promise that thou wilt e1empts the %rahmans from
punishment, and presere society from the confusion of Castes 6$ #he son of Bena
then replied to the gods, headed &y the rishis 4 6 #he great %rahmans, the chief of
men, shall &e reerenced &y me 6$ 79o &e it,6 re+oined those declare of the Beda$
9u)ra, the depository of diine )nowledge, &ecame his Purohita 8 the %ala)hilyas
and 9arasatyas his ministers8 and the enera&le :arga, the great rishi, his
astrologer$
#he second recorded conflict too) place &etween the %rahmins and the Jshatriya
)ing Pururaas$ ( &rief reference to it occurs in the (dipara of the ;aha&harat$
Pururaas was &orn of lla$ *uling oer thirteen islands of the ocean, and
surrounded &y &eings who were all superhuman, himself a man of great renown,
Pururaas, into1icated &y his prowess engaged in a conflict with the %rahmans, and
ro&&ed them of their +ewels, although they loudly remonstrated$ 9anat)umara came
from %rahma6s heaen, and addressed to him an admonition, which howeer, he did
not regard$ %eing then straightway cursed &y the incensed rishis, he perished, this
coetous monarch, who, through pride of power, had lost his understanding$ #his
glorious &eing =irat>, accompanied "rasi, &rought down for the performance of
sacred rites the fires which e1isted in the heaen of the :andharas, properly
distri&uted into three$
( third collision is reported to hae occurred &etween the %rahmins and Jing
@ahusha$ #he story is gien in great details in the "dyogapara of the ;aha&harat$
't is there recorded4
/(fter his slaughter of the demon Brittra, 'ndra &ecame alarmed at the idea of
haing ta)en the life of a %rahmin =for Brittra was regarded as such>, and hid himself
in waters$ 'n consequence of the disappearance of the )ing of gods, all affairs,
celestial as well as terrestrial, fell into confusion$ #he rishis and :ods then applied to
@ahusha to &e their )ing$ (fter at first e1cusing himself on the plea of want of power,
@ahusha at length, in compliance with their solicitations, accepted the high function$
"p to the period of his eleation he had led a irtuous life, &ut he now &ecame
addicted to amusement and sensual pleasure8 and een aspired to the possession
of 'ndrani, 'ndra6s wife, whom he had happened to see$ #he queen resorted to the
(ngiras Brihaspati, the preceptor of the :ods, who engaged to protect her$ @ahusha
was greatly incensed on hearing of this interference8 &ut the :ods endeaoured to
pacify him, and pointed out the immorality of appropriating another person6s wife$
@ahusha, howeer, would listen to no remonstrance, and insisted that in his
adulterous designs he was not worse than 'ndra himself8 /#he renowned (halya, a
rish6s wife, was formerly corrupted &y 'ndra in her hus&and6s lifetime8 why was he not
preented &y you? (nd many &ar&arous acts, and unrighteous deeds, and frauds
were perpetrated of &y old 'ndra8 Why was he not preented &y you?/ #he :ods,
urged &y @ahusha, then went to &ring 'ndrani8 &ut Brihaspati would not gie her up$
(t his recommendation, howeer, she solicited @ahusha for some delay, till she
should ascertain what had &ecome of her hus&and$ #his request was granted$ #he
:ods ne1t applied to Bishnu on &ehalf of 'ndra 8 and Bishnu promised that if 'ndra
would sacrifice to him, he should &e purged from his guilt, and recoer his dominion,
while @ahusha would &e destroyed$ 'ndra sacrificed accordingly8 and the result is
thus told 8 /Haing diided the guilt of %rahmanicide among trees, riers, mountains,
the earth, women and the elements, Basaa ='ndra>, lord of the :ods, &ecame freed
from suffering and sin, and self goerned$ /@ahusha was &y this means, sha)en
from his place$ %ut he must hae speedily regained his position, as we are told that
'ndra was again ruined, and &ecame inisi&le$ 'ndrani now went in search of her
hus&and8 and &y the help of "pasriti =the :oddess of night and reealer of secrets>
discoered him e1isting in a ery su&tle form in the stem of a lotus growing in a la)e
situated in a continent within an ocean north of the Himalaya$ 9he made )nown to
him the wic)ed intention of @ahusha, and entreated him to e1ert his power, rescue
her from danger, and resume his dominion$ 'ndra declined any immediate
interposition on the plea of @ahusha6s superior strength8 &ut suggested to his wife a
deice &y which the usurper might &e hurled from his position$ 9he was
recommended to say to @ahusha that /if he would isit her on a celestial ehicle
&orne &y rishis, she would with pleasure su&mit herself to him/$ #he question of the
:ods accordingly went to @ahusha, &y whom she was graciously receied, and
made this proposal4/ ' desire for thee, )ing of the :ods, a ehicle hitherto un)nown,
such as neither Bishnu, nor *udra, nor the asuras, nor the ra)shases employ$ 5et
the eminent rishis, all united, &ear thee, lord, in a car8 this idea pleases me/$
@ahusha receies faoura&ly this appeal to his anity, and in the course of his reply
thus gies utterance to his self congratulation4 /He is a personage of no mean
prowess who ma)es the unis his &earers$ ' am a ferid deotee of great might, lord
of the past, the future and the present$ 'f ' were angry the world would no longer
stand8 on me eerything depends$$$$ Wherefore, E :oddess ' shall, without dou&t,
carry out what you propose$ #he seen rishis, and all the %rahman rishis, shall carry
me$ %ehold &eautiful :oddess, my ma+esty and my prosperity$ /#he narratie goes
on4 /(ccordingly this wic)ed &eing, irreligious, iolent, into1icated &y the force of
conceit, and ar&itrary in his conduct, attached to his car the rishis, who su&mitted to
his commands, and compelled them to &ear him/$ 'ndrani then again resorts to
Brihaspati, who assures her that engeance will soon oerta)e @ahusha for his
presumption8 and promises that he will himself perform a sacrifice with a iew to the
destruction of the oppressor, and the discoery of 'ndra6s lur)ing place$ (gni is then
sent to discoer and &ring 'ndra to Brihaspati 8 and the latter, on 'ndra6s arrial,
informs him of all that had occurred during his a&sence$ While 'ndra with Juera,
Iama, 9oma, and Baruna, was deising means for the destruction of @ahusha, the
sage (gastya came up, congratulated 'ndra on the fall of his rial, and proceeded to
relate how it had occurred4 /Wearied with carrying the sinner @ahusha, the eminent
diine rishis, and the spotless &rahman2rishis as)ed that diine personage @ahusha
=to sole> a difficulty4 6Dost thou, Basaa, most e1cellent of conquerors, regard as
authoritatie or not those %rahmana te1ts which are recited at the immolation of
)ing?6 6@o6, replied @ahusha, whose understanding was eneloped in dar)ness$ #he
rishis re+oined4 6Engaged in unrighteousness, thou attainest not unto righteousness4
these te1ts, which were formerly uttered &y great rishis, are regarded &y us as
authoritatie$ 6#he =proceeds (gastya> disputing with the munis, impelled &y
unrighteousness, touched me on the head with his foot$ 'n consequence of this the
)ing6s glory was smitten and his prosperity departed$ When he had instantly &ecome
agitated and oppressed with fear, ' said to him, 6 9ince thou, ! fool, condiments that
sacred te1t, always held in honor, which has &een composed &y former sages, and
employed &y %rahman2rishis, and hast touched my head with thy foot, and
employest the %rahma0li)e and irresista&le rishis as &earers to carry thee,0
therefore, short of thy lustre and all thy merit e1hausted, sin) down, sinner, degraded
from heaen to earth$ For then thousand years thou shalt crawl in the form of a huge
serpent$ When that period is completed, thou shalt again ascend to heaen$ 79o fell
that wic)ed wretch from the soereignty of the :ods$/
@e1t there is a reference to the conflict &etween Jing @imi and the %rahmins$ #he
Bishnu Puran relates the story as follows 40
/@imi had requested the %rahman2rishi Basishtha to officiate at a sacrifice, which
was to last a thousand years, Basishtha in reply pleaded a pre2engagement to 'ndra
for fie hundred years, &ut promised to return at the end of that period$ #he )ing
made no remar), and Basishtha went away, supposing that he had assented to this
arrangement$ !n his return, howeer, the priest discoered that @imi had retained
:autama =who was equal with Basishtha a %rahman2rishi> and others to perform the
sacrifices 8 and &eing incensed at the neglect to gie him notice of what was
intended, he cursed the )ing, who was then asleep, to lose his corporeal form$ When
@imi awo)e and learnt that he had &een cursed without any preious warning, he
retorted, &y uttering a similar curse on Basishtha, and then died$ 'n consequence of
this curse the igour of Basistha, howeer, receied from them another &ody when
their seed had fallen from them at the sight of "rasi$ @imi6s &ody was em&almed$
(t the close of the sacrifice which he had &egun, the :ods were willing, on the
intercession of the priests, to restore him to life, &ut he declined the offer, and was
placed &y the deities, according to his desire, in the eyes of all liing creatures$ 't is
in consequence of this fact that they are always opening the shutting$ =nimishas
means /the twin)ling of the eye/>$/ ;anu mentions another conflict &etween the
%rahmins and Jing 9umu)ha$ %ut of this no details are aaila&le$
#hese are instances of conflict &etween the %rahmins and the Jshatriya Jings$
From this it must not &e supposed that the %rahmins and the Jshatriyas as two
classes did not clash$ #hat there were clashes &etween these two classes as
distinguished from conflicts with )ings is a&undantly proed &y material the historic
alue of which cannot &e dou&ted$ *eference may &e made to three eents$
First is the contest &etween two indiiduals Bishamitra the Jshatriya and
Basishtha the %rahmin$ #he issue &etween the two was whether a Jshatriya can
claim %rahmahood$ #he story is told in *amayana and is as follows 42/#here was
formerly, we are told, a )ing called Jusa, son of Pra+apati, who had a son called
Jushana&ha, who was father of :adhi, the father of Bisamitra$ #he latter ruled the
earth for many thousand years$ !n one occasion, when he was ma)ing a circuit of
the earth, he came to Basishtha6s hermitage, the pleasant a&ode of many saints,
sages, and holy deotees, where, after at first declining he allowed himself to &e
hospita&ly entertained with his followers$ Bisamitra, howeer, coeting the
wondrous cow, which had supplied all the dainties of the feast, first of alt as)ed that
she should &e gien to him in e1change for a hundred thousand common cows,
adding that /she was a gem, that gems were the property of the )ing, and that,
therefore, the cow was his &y right/$ !n this price &eing refused the )ing adances
immensely in his offers, &ut all without effect$
He then proceeds ery ungratefully and tyrannically, it must &e allowed0to hae
the cow remoed &y force, &ut she &rea)s away from his attendants, and rushes
&ac) to her master, complaining that he was deserting her$ He replied that he was
not deserting her, &ut that the )ing was much more powerful than he$ 9he answers,
/;en do not ascri&e strength to a Jshatriya8 the %rahmins are stronger$ #he
9trength of %rahmins is diine, and superior to that of Jshatriya$ #hy strength is
immeasura&le$ Bisamitra, though of great igour, is not more powerful than thou$
#hy energy is ininci&le$ Commission me, who hae &een acquired &y the
%rahmanical power, and ' will destroy the pride, and force, and attempt of this
wic)ed prince/$
9he accordingly &y her &ellowing creates hundreds of Pahlaas, who destroy the
entire host of Bisamitra, &ut are slain &y him in their turn$ 9a)as and Iaans, of
great power and alour, and well armed, were then produced who consumed the
)ing6s soldiers, &ut were routed &y him$ #he cow then calls into e1istence &y her
&ellowing, and from different parts of her &ody, other warriors of arious tri&es, who
again destroyed Bisamitra6s entire army, foot soldiers, elephants, horses, chariots,
and all$ /( hundred of the monarch6s sons, armed with arious weapons, then
rushed in great fury on Bashistha, &ut were all reduced to ashes in a moment &y the
&last of that sage6s mouth$ Bishamitra, &eing thus utterly anquished and hum&led,
appointed one of his sons to &e regent, and traelled to the Himalaya, where he
&etoo) himself to austerities, and there&y o&tained a ision of ;ahadea, who at his
desire reealed to him the science of arms in all its &ranches, and gae him celestial
weapons with which, elated and full of pride, he consumed the hermitage of
Bashishtha, and put its inha&itants to flight$
Bashishtha then threatens Bishamitra and uplifts his %rahminical mace$
Bishamitra too, raises his fiery weapon and calls out to his adersary to stand$
Bashishtha &ids him to show his strength, and &oasts that he will soon hum&le his
pride$ He as)s 4 /What comparison is there &etween a Jshatriya6s might, and the
great might of a %rahman? %ehold, thou contempti&le Jshatriya, my diine
%rahmanical power/$
#he dreadful fiery weapon uplifted &y the son of :adhi was then quenched &y the
rod of the %rahman, as fire is &y water$ ;any and arious other celestial missiles, as
the nooses of %rahma, Jala =time>, and Baruna, the discus of Bishnu, and the trident
9ia, were hurled &y Bishamitra at his antagonist, &ut the son of %rahma swallowed
them up in his all2deouring mace$ Finally, to the intense consternation of all the
:ods, the warrior shot off the terrific weapon of %rahma =%rahmastra> 8 &ut this was
equally ineffectual against the %rahmanical sage$ Bashishtha had now assumed a
direful appearance4 6Cets of fire mingled with smo)e darted from the pores of his
&ody8 the %rahminical mace &lazed in his hand li)e a smo)eless mundane
conflagration, or a second sceptre of Iama/$
%eing appeased, howeer, &y the munis, who proclaimed his superiority to his
rial, the sage stayed his engeance 8 and Bishamitra e1claimed with a groan 4
69hame on a Jshatriya6s strength 8 the strength of a %rahman6s might alone is
strength 8 &y the single %rahmanical mace all my weapons hae &een destroyed$ 6
@o alternatie now remains, to the humiliated monarch, &ut either to acquiesce in
this helpless inferiority, or to wor) out his own eleation to the %rahmanical order$ He
em&races the latter alternatie4 /Haing pondered well this defeat, ' shall &eta)e
myself, with composed senses and mind, to strenous austere ferour, which shall
e1alt me to the ran) of a %rahman/$ 'ntensely e1ed and mortified, groaning and full
of hatred against his enemy, he traelled with his queen to the south, and carried his
resolution into effect8 and we are first of all told that three sons Haishyanda,
;adhusyanda, and Dridhanetra were &orn to him$
(t the end of a thousand years %rahma appeared, and announced that he had
conquered the heaen of royal sages =*a+arshis> 8 and, in consequence of his
austere ferour, he was recognised as haing attained that ran)$ Bishamitra,
howeer, was ashamed, grieed, and incensed at the offer of so ery inadequate a
reward, and e1claimed4 / ' hae practised intense austerity, and the :ods and *ishis
regard me only as a *a+arshi and not as a %rahman$ /#here is conflict recorded
&etween the same persons or different persons of the same name though on a
somewhat different issue$
Jing #risan)u, one of ')sha)u6s descendants, had conceied the design of
cele&rating a sacrifice &y irtue of which he should ascent &odily to heaen$ (s
Bashistha, on &eing summoned, declared that the thing was impossi&le =asa)yam>,
#risan)u traelled to the south, where the sage6s hundred sons were engaged in
austerities, and applied to them to do what their father had declined$ #hough he
addressed them with the greatest reerence and humility, and added that /the
')sha)u regarded their family0priests as their highest resource in difficulties, and
that, after their father, he himself loo)ed to them as his tutelary deities /he receied
from the haughty priests the following re&u)e for his presumption 4 /(sa)yam/ /Fool,
thou hast &een refused &y thy truth spea)ing preceptor$ How is it that, disregarding
his authority, thou hast resorted to another school =sa)ha>$ #he family priest is the
highest oracle of all the ')sha)us6, and the command of that eracious personages
cannot &e transgressed$ Bashishtha, the diine *ishi, has declared that 6the thing
cannot &e68 and how can we underta)e thy sacrifice? #hou art foolish )ing8 return to
thy capital$ #he diine =Bashishtha> is competent to act as priest of the three worlds8
how can we shew him disrespect?/ #risan)u then gae them to understand that as
his preceptor and /his preceptor6s sons had declined compliance with his requests,
he should thin) of some other e1pedient/$ 'n consequence of his enturing to
e1press this presumptuous intention, they condemned him &y their imprecation to
&ecome a Chandala$
(s this curse soon too) effect, and the unhappy )ing6s form was changed into that
of a degraded outcast, he resorted to Bishamitra =who, as we hae seen, was also
dwelling at this period in the south>, enlarging on his own irtues and piety, and
&ewailing his fate$ Bishamitra commiserated his condition, and promised to
sacrifice on his &ehalf, and e1alt him to heaen in the same Chandala form to which
he had &een condemned &y his preceptor6s curse$ /Heaen is now as good as in thy
possession, since thou hast resorted to the son of Jusi)a/$ He then directed that
preparations should &e made for the sacrifice, and that all the *ishis, including the
family of Bashishtha should &e inited to the ceremony$ #he disciples of Bishamitra,
who had coneyed his message, reported the result on their return in these words 4
/Haing heard your message, all the %rahmans are assem&ling in all the countries,
and hae arried, e1cepting ;ahodaya =Bashishtha>? Hear what dreadful words
those hundred Bashishthas, their oices quiering with rage, hae uttered 4 / How
can the :ods and *ishis consume the o&lation at the sacrifice of that man,
especially if he &e a Chandala, for whom a Jshatriya is officiating priest? How can
illustrious %rahmans ascend to heaen after eating the food of a Chandala, and
&eing entertained &y Bishamitra? /#hese ruthless words all Bashishthas, together
with ;ahodaya, uttered, their eyes inflamed with anger$
Bishamitra, who was greatly incensed on receiing this, message &y a curse
doomed the sons of Bashishtha to &e reduced to ashes, and re&orn as degraded
outcasts =mritapah> for seen hundred &irths, and ;ahodaya to &ecome a @ishada$
Jnowing that this curse had ta)en effect, Bishamitra then after eulogizing #risan)u,
proposed to the assem&led *ishis that the sacrifice should &e cele&rated$ #o this
they assented, &eing actuated &y fear of the terri&le sage6s wrath$ Bishamitra
himself officiated at the sacrifices as a+a)as 8 and the other *ishis as priests
=*iti+ah> =with other functions> performed all the ceremonies$ Bishamitra ne1t
inited the gods to parta)e of the o&lations 8 /When, howeer, the deities did not
come to receie their portions, Bishamitra &ecame full of wrath, and raising aloft
the sacrificial ladle, thus addressed #risan)u 4 6%ehold, ! monarch, the power of
austere ferour acquired &y my own efforts$ ' myself, &y my own energy, will conduct
thy to heaen$
(scend to that celestial region which is so arduous to attain in an earthly &ody$ '
hae surely earned 9!;E reward of my austerity 6$ /#risan)u ascended instantly to
heaen in the sight of ;unis$ 'ndra, howeer, ordered him to &e gone, as a person
who, haing incurred the curse of his spiritual preceptors, was unfit for the a&ode of
the celestials 40and to fall down headlong to earth$ He accordingly &egan to
descend, ino)ing loudly, as he fell, the help of his spiritual patron$ Bishamitra,
greatly incensed, called out to him to stop4 /#hen &y the power of his diine
)nowledge and austere ferour created, li)e another Pra+apati, other 9een *ishis =a
constellation so called> in the southern part of the s)y$ Haing proceeded to this
quarter of the heaens, the renowned sage, in the midst of the *ishis, formed
another garland of stars, &eing oercome with fury$ E1claiming, 6' will create another
'ndra, or the world shall hae no 'ndra at all6, he &egan, in his rage, to call :ods also
into &eing/$
#he *ishis, :ods, =9uras>, and (suras now &ecame seriously alarmed and said to
Bishamitra, in a concilliatory tone, that #risan)u, /as he had &een cursed &y his
preceptors, should not &e admitted &odily into heaen, until he had undergone some
lustration/$ #he sage replied that he had gien a promise to #risan)u, and appealed
to the :ods to permit his portage to remain &odily in heaen, and the newly created
stars to retain their places in perpetuity$ #he :ods agreed that /these numerous
stars should remain, &ut &eyond the 9un6s path, and that #risan)u, li)e an immortal,
with his head downwards should shine among them, and &e followed &y them/,
adding /that his o&+ect would &e thus attained, and his renown secured, and he
would &e li)e a dweller in heaen/$ #hus was this great dispute ad+usted &y a
compromise, which Bishamitra accepted$
-f33.
When all the :ods and rishis had departed at the conclusion of the sacrifice,
Bishamitra said to his attendant deotees 8 /#his has &een a great interruption =to
our austerities> which has occurred in the southern region 4 we must proceed in
another direction to continue our penances/$ He accordingly went to a forest in the
west, and &egan his austerities anew$ Here the narratie is again interrupted &y the
introduction of another story, that of )ing (m&arisha, )ing of (yodhya, who was,
according to the *amayana, the twenty eighth in descent from ')sha)u, and the
twenty second from #risan)u$ Bishamitra is neertheless represented as
flourishing contemporaneously with &oth of these princes$ #he story relates that
(m&arisha was engaged in performing a sacrifice, when 'ndra carried away the
ictim$ #he priest said that this ill2omened eent had occurred owing to the )ing6s
&ad administration 8 and would call for a great e1piation, unless a human ictim
could &e produced$ (fter a long search the royal rishi =(m&arisha> came upon the
%rahmin2rishi *ichi)a, a descendant of %hrigu, and as)ed him to sell one of his sons
for a ictim, at the price of a hundred thousand cows$ *ichi)a answered that he
would not sell his eldest son 8 and his wife added that she would not sell the
youngest 4 /Eldest sons,/ she o&sered, /&eing generally the faourites of their
fathers, and youngest sons of their mothers/$ #he second son, 9unassepa then said
that in that case he regarded himself as the one who was to &e sold, and desired the
)ing to remoe him$ #he hundred thousand cows, with ten millions of gold pieces
and heaps of +ewels, were paid down, and 9unassepa was carried away$ (s they
were passing through Pus)ara, 9unassepa &eheld his maternal uncle Bishamitra
who was engaged in austerities there with other rishis, threw himself into his arms,
and implored his assistance, urging his orphan, friendless, and helpless state, as
claims on the sage6s &eneolence$ Bisharnitra soothed him4 and pressed his own
sons to offer themseles as ictims in the room of 9unassepa$ #his proposition met
with no faour from ;adhushanda and the other sons of the royal hermit, who
answered with haughtiness and derison 4 /How is it that thou sacrificest thine own
sons, and see)est to rescue those of others? We loo) upon this as wrong, and li)e
the eating of one6s own flesh/$
#he sage was e1ceedingly wrath at this disregard of his in+unction, and doomed his
sons to &e &orn in the most degraded classes, li)e Bashishtha6s sons, and to eat
dog6s flesh, for a thousand years$ He then said to 9unassepa 4 /When thou art
&ound with hallowed cords, dec)ed with a red garland, and anointed with unguents,
and fastened to the sacrificial post of Bishnu, then address thyself to (gni, and sing
these two diine erses =gathas>, at the sacrifice of (m&arisha 8 then shall thou
attain the fulfilment of thy desire/$ %eing furnished with the two gathas, 9unassepa
proposed at once to Jing (m&arisha that they should set out for their destination$
#hen &ound at the sta)e to &e immolated, dressed in a red garment, /he cele&rated
the two :ods, 'ndra and his younger &rother =Bishnu>, with the e1cellent erses$ #he
thousand2eyed ='ndra> was pleased with the sacred hymn, and &estowed long life on
9unassepa/$ Jing (m&arisha also receied great &enefits from this sacrifice$
Bishamitra meanwhile proceeded with his austerities, which he prolonged for a
thousand years$ /(t the end of this time the :ods came to allot his reward8 and
%rahma announced that he had attained the ran) of a rishi, thus apparently
adancing an additional step$ Dissatisfied, as it would seem, with this, the sage
commenced his tas) of penance anew$ (fter a length of time he &eheld the nymph
=(psara> ;en)a, who had come to &athe in the la)e of Push)ara$
9he flashed on his iew, unequalled in her radiant &eauty, li)e lightning in a cloud$
He was smitten &y her charms, inited her to &e his companion in his hermitage, and
for ten years remained a slae to her witchery, to the great pre+udice of his
austerities$ (t length he &ecame ashamed of this igno&le su&+ection, and full of
indignation at what he &elieed to &e a deice of the :ods to distur& his deotion 8
and, dismissing the nymph with gentle accents, he departed for the northern
mountains, where he practised seere austerities for a thousand years on the &an)s
of the Jausi)i rier$ #he :ods &ecame alarmed at the progress he was ma)ing, and
decided that he should &e dignified with the appellation of great rishi =;aharshi> 8
and %rahma, giing effect to the general opinion of the deities, announced that he
had conferred that ran) upon him$ Coining his hands and &owing his head,
Bishamitra replied that he should consider himself to hae indeed completely
su&dued his senses, if the incompara&le title of %rahmin2rishi were conferred upon
him$ %rahma informed him in answer, that he had not yet acquired the power of
perfectly controlling his senses 8 &ut should ma)e further efforts with that iew$
#he sage then &egan to put himself through a yet more rigorous course of
austerities, standing with his arms erect, without support, feeding on air, in summer
e1posed to fie fires =i$e$ one on each of four sides, and the sun oerhead>, in the
rainy season remaining unsheltered from the wet, and in winter lying on a watery
couch night and day$ #his he continued for a thousand years$ (t last 'ndra and the
other deities &ecame greatly distressed at the idea of the merit he was storing up,
and the power which he was there&y acquiring8 and the chief of the celestials
desired the nymph *am&ha to go and &ewitch him &y her &landishments$ 9he
e1pressed great reluctance to e1pose herself to the wrath of the formida&le muni,
&ut o&eyed the repeated in+unction of 'ndra, who promised that he and Jandarpa
=the :od of loe> should stand &y her, and assumed her most attractie aspect with
the iew of oercoming the sage6s impassa&ility$ He, howeer, suspected this
design, and &ecoming greatly incensed, he doomed the nymph &y a curse to &e
turned into stone and to continue in that state for a thousand years$
#he curse too) effect, and Jandarpa and 'ndra sun) away$ 'n this way, though he
resisted the allurements of sensual loe, he lost the whole fruit of his austerities &y
yielding to anger8 and had to &egin his wor) oer again$ He resoled to chec) his
irresisti&ility, to remain silent, not een to &reathe for hundreds of years 8 to dry up
his &ody 8 and to fast and stop his &reath till he had o&tained the coeted character
of a %rahmin$ He then left the Himalaya and traelled to the east, where he
underwent a dreadful e1ercise, unequalled in the whole history of austerities,
maintaining silence, according to a ow, for a thousand years$ (t the end of this time
he had attained to perfection, and although thwarted &y many o&stacles, he
remained unmoed &y anger$ !n the e1piration of this course of austerity, he
prepared some food to eat8 which 'ndra, coming in the form of a %rahmin, &egged
that he would gie him$ Bishamitra did so, and though he had done left for himself,
and was o&liged to remain fasting, he said nothing to the %rahmin, on account of his
ow of silence$ /(s he continued to suspend his &reath, smo)e issued from his head,
to the great consternation and distress of the three worlds$/
#he :ods, rishis, etc$, then addressed %rahma$ /#he great muni Bishamitra has
&een allured and proo)ed in arious ways, &ut still adances in his sanctity$ 'f his
wish is not conceded, he will destroy the three worlds &y the force of his austerity$ (ll
the regions of the unierse are confounded, no light anywhere shines8 all the oceans
are tossed, and the mountains crum&le, the earth qua)es, and the wind &lows
confusedly$ We cannot, E %rahma, guarantee that man)ind shall not &ecome
atheistic$$$$$ %efore the great and glorious sage of fiery form resoles to destroy
=eerything> let him &e propitiated$ /#he :ods, headed &y %rahma, then addressed
Bishamitra 4 6Hail, %rahman rishi, we are gratified &y the austerity 8 ! Jausi)a, thou
hast, through their intensity, attained to %rahmahood$ ! %rahman, associated with
the ;aruts, confers on thee long life$ ;ay eery &lessing attend thee 8 depart where
eer thou wilt$6 #he sage, delighted, made his o&eisance to the :ods, and said4 6 'f '
hae o&tained %rahmahood, and long life, then let the mystic monosylla&le =orn)ara>
and the sacrificial formula =ashat)ara> and the Bedas recognise me in that capacity$
(nd let Bashishtha, the son of %rahmin, the most eminent of those who are s)illed in
the Jshatra2Beda, and the %rahma2Beda =the )nowledge of the Jshatriya and the
%rahmnical disciplines>, address me similarly 6$$$$$ (ccordingly Bashishtha, &eing
propitiated &y the :ods, &ecame reconciled to Bishamitra, and recognised his claim
to all the prerogaties of a %rahman rishi$ $$$$ Bishamitra, too haing attained the
%rahmanical ran), paid all honour to Bashishtha/$
#he second eent has a reference to the slaughter of the %rahmins &y the
Jshatriyas$ 't is related in the (dipara of the ;aha&harat from which the following
account is ta)en 40
/#here was a Jing named Jritrirya, &y whose li&erality the %hrigus, learned in the
Bedas, who officiated as his priests, had &een greatly enriched with corn and money$
(fter he had gone to heaen, his descendants were in want of money, and came to
&eg for a supply from the %hrigus, of whose wealth they were aware$ 9ome of the
latter hid their money under ground, others &estowed it on %rahmins, &eing afraid of
the Jshatriyas, while others again gae these last what they wanted$ 't happened,
howeer, that a Jshatriya, while digging the ground, discoered some money &uried
in the house of %hrigu$ #he Jshatriyas then assem&led and saw this treasure, and,
&eing incensed, slew in consequence all the %hrigus, who they regarded with
contempt, down to the children in the wom&$ #he widows, howeer, fled to the
Himalaya mountains$ !ne of them concealed her un&orn child in her thigh$ #he
Jshatriya, hearing of its e1istence from a %rahmani informant, sought to )ill it 8 &ut it
issued forth from its mother6s thigh with lustre, and &linded the persecutors$ (fter
wandering a&out &ewildered among the mountains for a time, they hum&ly
supplicated the mother of the child for the restoration of their sight 8 &ut she referred
them to her wonderful infant (ura into whom the whole Beda, with its si1 Bedangas,
had entered as the person who =in retaliation of the slaughter of his relaties> had
ro&&ed them of their eyesight, and who alone could restore it$ #hey accordingly had
recourse to him, and their eyesight was restored$ (ura, howeer, meditated the
destruction of all liing creatures, in reenge for the slaughter of the %hrigus$ and
entered on a course of austerities which alarmed &oth :ods, (suras, and men 8 &ut
his progenitors =Pitris> themseles appeared, and sought to turn him from his
purpose &y saying that they had no desire to &e reenged on the Jshatriyas4 /'t was
not from wea)ness that the deout %hrigus oerloo)ed the massacre perpetrated &y
the murderous Jshatriyas$
When we &ecame distressed &y old age, we ourseles desired to &e slaughtered
&y them$ #he money which was &uried &y someone in a %hrigu6s house was placed
there for the purpose of e1citing hatred, &y those who wished to proo)e the
Jshatriyas$ For what had we, who were desiring heaen, to do with money? /#hey
added that they hit upon this deice &ecause they did not wish to &e guilty of suicide,
and concluded &y calling upon (ura to restrain his wrath 8 and a&stain from the sin
he was meditating, /Destroy not the Jshatriyas$ !h, son, nor the seen worlds$
9uppress thy )indled anger which nullifies the power of austere ferour$/
(ura, howeer, replies that he cannot allow his threat to remain un2e1ecuted$ His
anger, unless wrea)ed upon some other o&+ect, will, he says, consume himself$ (nd
he argues on grounds of +ustice, e1pediency, and duty, against the clemency which
his progenitors recommend$ He is, howeer, persuaded &y the Pitris to throw the fire
of his anger into the sea, where they say it will find e1ercise in assailing the watery
element, and in this way his threat will &e fulfilled$/
#he third eent has reference to the slaughter of the Jshatriyas &y the %rahmins$
#his story is told in seeral places in the ;aha&harat$ #he magnificent and mighty
Jartairya, possessing a thousand arms, was lord of this whole world, liing in
;ahishmati$ #his Haihaya of unquestioned alour ruled oer the whole sea2girt
earth, with its oceans and continents$ He o&tained &oons from the ;uni Dattatreya,
a thousand arms wheneer he should go into &attle, power to ma)e the conquest of
the whole earth, a disposition to rule it with +ustice and the promise of instruction
from the irtuous in the eent of his going astray$ /#hen ascending his chariot
glorious as the resplendent 9un, he e1claimed in the into1ication of his prowess, 6
Who is li)e me in fortitude, courage, fame, heroism, energy, and igour?6
(t the end of this speech a &odiless oice in the s)y addressed him4 6#hou )nowest
not, E fool, that a %rahman is &etter than Jshatriya$ 't is with the help of the %rahman
that the Jshatriya rules his su&+ects$ 6 (r+una answers 4 6 'f ' am pleased, ' can
create, or, if displeased, annihilate liing &eings8 and no %rahman is superior to me
in act, thought or word$ #he first proposition is that the %rahmins are superior4 the
second that the Jshatriyas are superior8 &oth of these thou hast stated with their
grounds, &ut there is a difference &etween them =in point of force>$ #he %rahmins are
dependent on the Jshatriyas and not the Jshatriyas on the %rahmins, who wait upon
them, and only ma)e the Bedas a pretence$ Custice, the protection of the people,
has its seat in the Jshatriyas$ From them the %rahmins derie their lielihood8 how
then can the latter &e superior? ' always )eep in su&+ection myself those %rahmins,
the chief of all &eings, who su&sist on air and sand who hae a high opinion of
themseles$ For truth was spo)en &y that female the :ayatri in the s)y$ ' shall
su&due all those unruly %rahmins clad in hides$ @o one in the three worlds, god or
man can hurl me from my royal authority8 therefore ' am superior to any %rahman$
@ow shall ' turn the world in which %rahmins hae the upper hand into a place where
Jshatriyas shall hae the upper hand8 for no one dares to encounter my force in
&attle$ 6 Hearing this speech of (r+un, the female roing in the night &ecame alarmed$
#hen Bayu hoering in the air, said to (r+una4 6(&andon this sinful disposition, and
do o&eisance to the %rahmins$ 'f thou shall do them wrong, thy )ingdom shall &e
conulsed$ #hey will su&due thee8 those powerful men will hum&le thee, and e1pel
thee from thy country$ 6 #he Jing as)s him, 6Who art thou?/ Bayu replies, 6' am Bayu,
the messenger of the :ods$ and tell thee what is for thy &enefit$ 6 (r+una re+oins, 6
!h, thou displayest today a great warmth of deotion to the %rahmins$ %ut say that a
%rahman is li)e =any other> earth2horn creature$ /
#his )ing came into conflict with Parsuram the son of a %rahman sage Camadagni$
#he history of this conflict is as follows40
#here lied a )ing of Janya)u&+a, called :adhi, who had a daughter named
9atyaati$ #he marriage of this princess to the rishi *ichi)a, and the &irth of
Camadagni, are then told in nearly the same way as a&oe narrated$ Camadagni and
9atyaati had fie sons, the youngest of whom was the redou&ta&le Parasuram$ %y
his father6s command he )ills his mother =who, &y the indulgence of impure desire,
had fallen from her preious sanctity>, after the four elder sons had refused this
matricidal offence, and had in consequence &een depried of reason & their father6s
curse$ (t Parasuram6s desire, howeer, his mother is restored &y his father to life,
and his &rothers to reason8 and he himself is a&soled from all the guilt of murder 8
and o&tains the &oon of ininci&ility and long life from his father$
His history now &egins to &e connected with that of )ing (r+una =or Jartairya>$ #he
latter had come to Camadagni6s hermitage, and had &een respectfully receied &y
his wife8 &ut he had requited this honour &y carrying away &y force the calf of the
sage6s sacrificial cow, and &rea)ing down his lofty trees$ !n &eing informed of this
iolence, Parasurama was filled with indignation, attac)ed (r+una, cut off his
thousand arms, and slew him$ (r+una6s sons, in return slew the peaceful sage
Camadagni, in the a&sence of Parasuram$
*ama, after performing, on his return, his father6s funeral o&sequies, owed to
destroy the whole Jshatriya race 8 and e1ecucted his threat &y )illing first (r+un6s
sons and their followers$ #wenty one times did he sweep away all the Jshatriyas
from the earth, and formed fie la)es of &lood in 9amantpancha)a 8 in which he
satiated the manes of the %hrigus, and &eheld face to face =his grandfather>,
*ichi)a, who addressed himself to *ama$ #he latter gratified 'ndra &y offering to him
a grand sacrifice, and gae the earth to the officiating priests$ He &estowed also a
golden altar, ten fathoms long and nine high, on the mighty Jasyapa$
#his, &y his permission, the %rahmins diided among themseles, deriing thence
the name of Jhandaaanas$ Haing gien away the earth to Jasyapa, Parasuram
himself dwells on the mountain ;ahendra$ #hus did enmity arise &etween him and
Jshatriyas, and thus was the earth conquered &y Parasuram of &oundless might$/
#he Jshatriyas who were slain &y Parasuram are descri&ed in the Dronaparan of
the ;aha&harata as of arious proinces, iz$, Jasmiras, Daradas, Juntis,
Jshudra)as, ;alaas, (ngas, Bangas, Jalingas, Bidehas, #amralipta)as,
;artti)aatas, 9iis and other *a+anyas$
#he means &y which the Jshattriya race was restored is also told as part of this
story of annihilation of the Jshatriyas &y the %rahmins$ 't is said 40
/Haing one and twenty times swept away all the Jshatriyas from the earth, the
son of Camdagni engaged in austerities on ;ahendra the most e1cellent of
mountains$ (fter he had cleared the world of Jshatriyas, their widows came to the
%rahmins, praying for offspring$ #he religious %rahmins, free from any impulse of lust
coha&ited at the proper seasons with these women, who in consequence &ecame
pregnant, and &rought forth aliant Jshatriya &oys and girls, to continue the
Jshatriya stoc)$ #hus was the Jshatriya race irtuously &egotten &y %rahmins on
Jshatriya women, and &ecame multiplied and long lied$ #hence there arose four
castes inferior to the %rahmins$/ @o country has such a dismal record of class war
as Hindustan$ 't was the proud &oast of the %rahmin Parsuram that he e1terminated
the Jshatriyas twenty one times from the face of Hindustan and recreated them &y
%rahmans coha&iting with the widows of the Jshatriyas$
't must not &e supposed that this Class War in 'ndia is a matter of ancient History$
't has &een present all along$ 'ts e1istence was ery much noticea&le in ;aharashtra
during the ;aratha *ule$ 't destroyed the ;aratha Empire$ 't must not &e supposed
that these class Wars were li)e ordinary wars which are a momentary phenomena
which come and go and which leae no permanent chasms to diide the peoples of
the different nations$ 'n 'ndia the class war is a permanent phenomenon, which is
silently &ut surely wor)ing its way$ 't is a grain in the life and it has &ecome genius of
the Hindus$
#hese facts it will not &e denied are symptomatic in the sense they indicate health
and character$ Do they suggest that there is fraternity among Hindus? 'n the face of
these facts ' am sure it would &e impossi&le to gie an affirmatie answer$
What is the e1planation of this a&sence of fraternity among the Hindus? 't is
Hinduism and its philosophy that is responsi&le for it$ #he sentiment of fraternity as
;ill said is natural &ut it is a plant, which grows only where the soil is propitious and
the conditions for its growth e1ist$ #he fundamental condition for the growth of the
sentiment of fraternity is not preaching that we are children of :od or the realisation
that one6s life is dependent upon others$ 't is too rational to gie rise to a sentiment$
#he condition for the growth of this sentiment of fraternity lies in sharing in the ital
processes of life$ 't is sharing in the +oys and sorrows of &irth, death, marriage and
food$ #hose who participate in these come to feel as &rothers$ Prof$ 9mith ery
rightly emphasises the importance of sharing food as a prime factor in the creation of
community feeling when he says8
/#he sacrificial meal was an appropriate e1pression of the antique ideal of religious
life, not merely &ecause it was a social act and in which the :od and his
worshippers were conceied as parta)ing together, &ut &ecause, as has already
&een said, the ery act of eating and drin)ing with a man was a sym&ol and ? a
confirmation of fellowship and mutual social o&ligations$ #he one thing directly
e1pressed in the sacrificial meal is that the :od and his worshippers are common
sols &ut eery other point in their mutual relations is included in what this inoles$
#hose who sit at meal together are united for all social effects8 those who do not eat
together are aliens to one another, without fellowship in religion and without
reciprocal social duties/$
-f3<.
#here is no sharing among Hindus of +oys and sorrows inoled in the ital facts of
life$ Eerything is separate and e1clusie$ #he Hindu is separate and e1clusie all
through his life$ ( foreigner coming to 'ndia will not find men crying Hindu Pani
=water for Hindus> and ;usalman Pani =water for ;usalmans>$ He will find %rahmin
Coffee
Houses, %rahmin Eating2Houses, where no non2%rahmin Hindus can go$ He will
find %rahmin ;aternity Homes, ;aratha ;aternity Homes and %hatia ;aternity
homes although %rahmins, ;arathas and %hatias are all Hindus$ 'f there is a &irth at
the house of a %rahmin, no non2%rahmin will &e inited nor will he feel the desire to
+oin$ 'f there is marriage in the family of a %rahmin, no non2%rahmin will &e inited
nor will he feel the desire to +oin if a %rahmin dies, no non2%rahmin will &e inited to
+oin the funeral nor will he thin) it necessary to +oin in the procession$ 'f there is a
festiity in the house of a %rahmin, no non2%rahmin will &e called and no non2
%rahmin will feel any wrong a&out it$ Coys and sorrows of one caste are not the +oys
and sorrows of another$ !ne caste has no concern with other castes$ Een charity
has &ecome caste &ound$ (mong Hindus there is no pu&lic charity in the sense of its
&enefit &eing open to all$ Iou hae %rahmin Charity for %rahmins$ Within that you
hae Chitpaan %rahmin Charity for Chitpaan %rahmins only$ Deshastha %rahmin
Charity for Deshastha %rahmins only, Jarhada %rahmin Charity for Jarahda
%rahmins only$ Iou hae 9arasat %rahmin Charity$ Within that you hae
Judaldesh)ar %rahmin Charity$ !ne could go on with such instances ad nauseum to
show the e1clusie character of Hindu Charity0rather Charity among Hindus0for
there is no such thing as Hindu Charity$ #hus one Hindu will share nothing with
another Hindu while they are alie$ %ut they will &e separate and e1clusie een
when they are dead$ 9ome Hindus &ury their dead$ 9ome Hindus &urn their dead$
%ut those &ury will not share the same cemetery$ Each will appropriate a part of the
cemetery to &ury its dead$ #hose Who &urn will not &urn at the same &urning place$
'f they do, each will hae a separate funeral pan$
's there any wonder that the sentiment of fraternity is foreign to the Hindus? With a
complete refusal to share the +oys and sorrows of life how can the sentiment of
fraternity ta)e roots?
%ut the question of all questions is why do the Hindus refuse to share the +oys and
sorrows of life? 't needs no saying that he refuses to share &ecause his religion tells
him not to share them$ #his conclusion need cause no surprise$ For what does
Hinduism teach? 't teaches not to inter2dine, not to intermarry, not to associate$
#hese don6ts constitute the essence of its teaching$ (ll the shameful facts ' hae
referred to, to illustrate the separate and e1clusie character of the Hindus is the
direct outcome of this philosophy of Hindusim$ #he philosophy of Hinduism is a
direct denial of fraternity$
#his &rief analysis of the Philosophy of Hinduism from the point of iew of +ustice
reeals in a glaring manner how Hinduism is inimical to equality, antagonistic to
li&erty and opposed to fraternity$
Fraternity and li&erty are really deriatie notions$ #he &asic and fundamental
conceptions are equality and respect for human personality$ Fraternity and li&erty
ta)e their roots in these two fundamental conceptions$ Digging further down it may
&e said that equality is the original notion and respect for human personality is a
reflection of it$ 9o that where equality is denied, eerything else may &e ta)en to &e
denied$ 'n other words it was enough for me to hae shown that there was no
equality in Hinduism$ %ut as Hinduism has not &een e1amined so far in the manner '
hae done, ' did not thin) it sufficient to leae it to implication that Hinduism was a
denial of Fraternity and 5i&erty as well$
#here is one final o&seration with which ' wish to conclude this discussion with the
profound o&seration of 5ord (cton$ #he great 5ord says that inequality has grown
as a result of historical circumstances$ 't has neer &een adopted as a creed$ 't is
o&ious that in ma)ing this o&seration 5ord (cton must hae omitted to ta)e note of
Hinduism$ For in Hinduism inequality is a religious doctrine adopted and
conscientiously preached as a sacred dogma$ 't is an official creed and no&ody is
ashamed to profess it openly$ 'nequality for the Hindus is a diinely prescri&ed way
of life as a religious doctrine and as a prescri&ed way of life, it has &ecome incarnate
in Hindu 9ociety and is shaped and moulded &y it in its thoughts and in its doings$
'ndeed inequality is the 9oul of Hinduism$
5et me now turn to the e1amination of the philosophy of Hinduism from the point of
iew of "tility$
#his e1amination of Hinduism from this aspect need not &e long and detailed$ For
as ;ill pointed out there is no necessary antagonism &etween +ustice and utility$ 'n
other words what is un+ust to the indiidual cannot &e useful to society$ (part from
this we hae &efore us the consequences of caste staring us in the face$
#he ideal of caste was not mere ideal$ #he ideal was put into practice8 was
therefore something real$ 9o that, in the matter of the Chaturarna the Hindus hae
ery faithfully followed the :erman Philosopher @ietszche who said /*ealise the2
ideal and idealise the real/$
#he alue of the ideal must &e tested &y its results$ 'f e1perience therefore must &e
the criterion then the ideal of Chaturarna stands thrice condemned$ Purely as a
form of social organisation it stands condemned$ (s a producer6s organisation it
stands discredited$ (s an ideal scheme of distri&ution it has misera&ly failed$ 'f it is
an ideal form of organisation how is it that the Hinduism has &een una&le to form a
common front$ 'f it is an ideal form of production, how is it that its technique neer
adanced &eyond that of the primitie man$ 'f it is an ideal form of distri&ution, how is
it that it has produced appalling inequality of wealth, immense wealth side &y side
e1treme poerty$
%ut ' do not wish to dismiss the su&+ect so summarily, for ' )now many Hindus who
claim great social utility to the institution of caste and praise ;anu for haing &een
so wise and so thoughtful not only in deising it &ut in giing it a diine sanction$
#his iew of the caste is due to ta)ing the separate aspects of caste separately$
!ne must ta)e them in con+unction$ #he resultant social utility or distillate of caste
can &e ascertained only &y putting together the separate aspects of caste and +udge
them in their com&ination$ Following this line of attac)ing the pro&lem, the following
conclusions follow4 0
=1> Caste diides 5a&ourers =3> Caste disassociates wor) from interest =<> Caste
disconnects intelligence from manual la&our =?> Caste deitalises &y denying to him
the right to cultiate ital interest and =A> Caste preents mo&ilisation$ Caste 9ystem
is not merely diision of la&our$ 2T 2, '3,4 ' 02+2,24# 45 3'&46"7",. Ciilised
society undou&tedly needs diision of la&our$ %ut in no ciilised society is diision of
la&our accompanied &y this unnatural diision of la&ourers into watertight
compartments$ Caste 9ystem is not merely a diision of la&ourers, which is quite
different from diision of la&our it is an hierarchy in which the diisions of la&ourers
are graded one a&oe the other$ 'n no other country is the diision of la&our
accompanied &y this gradation of la&ourers$ #here is also a third point of criticism
against this iew of the Caste 9ystem$ #his diision of la&our is not spontaneous, it
is not &ased on natural aptitudes$ 9ocial and indiidual efficiency requires us to
deelop the capacity of an indiidual to the point of competency to chose and to
ma)e his own career$ #his principle is iolated in the Caste 9ystem in so far as it
inoles an attempt to appoint tas)s to indiiduals in adance, selected not on the
&asis of trained original capacities, &ut on that of the social status of the parents$
5oo)ed at from another point of iew this stratification of occupations which is the
result of the Caste 9ystem is positiely pernicious$ 'ndustry is neer static$ 't
undergoes rapid and a&rupt changes$ With such changes an indiidual must &e free
to change his occupations$ Without such freedom to ad+ust himself to changing
circumstances it would &e impossi&le for him to gain his lielihood$ @ow the Caste
9ystem will not allow Hindus to ta)e occupations where they are wanted if they do
not &elong to them &y heredity$ 'f a Hindu is seen to stare rather than ta)e to new
occupations not assigned to his Caste, the reason is to &e found in the Caste
9ystem$ %y not permitting read+ustment of occupations, caste &ecomes a direct
cause of much of the unemployment we see in the country$
(s a form of diision of la&our the Caste 9ystem suffers from another serious
defect$ #he diision of la&our &rought a&out &y the Caste 9ystem is not a diision
&ased on choice$ 'ndiidual sentiment, indiidual preference has no place in it$ 't is
&ased on the dogma of predestination$ Considerations of social efficiency would
compel us to recognise that the greatest eil in the industrial system is not so much
poerty and the suffering that it inoles, as the fact that so many persons hae
callings which ma)e no appeal to those who are engaged in them$ 9uch callings
constantly proo)e one to aersion, ill will and the desire to eade$ #here are many
occupations in 'ndia which on account of the fact that they are regarded as degraded
&y the Hindus proo)e those who are engaged in it to aersion$ #here is a constant
desire to eade and escape from such occupations which arises solely &ecause of
the &lighting effect which they produce upon those who follow them owing to the
slight and stigma cast upon them &y the Hindu religion$
#he second mischief it dose is to dissociate intelligence from wor) and create
contempt for la&our$ #he theory of the Caste is that a %rahmin who is permitted to
cultiate his intellect is not permitted to la&our, indeed is taught to loo) down upon
la&our$ While the 9hudra who is required to la&our is not permitted to cultiate his
intelligence$ #he disastrous consequences of this hae &een well portrayed &y ;r$
*$C$Dutt$-f3?.$$$$$ &arren$ Wealth without education and wealth is &rutal$ Each is
necessary to eery one$ #hey are necessary for the growth of a man$
#hat the %rahmin should cultiate )nowledge, Jshatriya should &ear arms, the
Baishya should trade and that the 9hudra should sere is presented as a theory of
mutual interdependence found in the family$ 't is as)ed why should the 9hudra need
trou&le to acquire wealth when the three Barnas are there to support him8 Why need
the 9hudra &other to ta)e to education when the %rahmin to whom he can go when
the occasion for reading or writing arises8 Why need the 9hudra worry to arm himself
&ecause there is the Jshatriya to protect him? #he theory of Chaturarnya
understood in this sense may &e said to loo) upon the 9hudra as the ward and the
three Barnas as his guardians$ #hus interpreted it is a simple and alluring theory$
(ssuming this to &e the correct iew of the underlying conception of Chaturarnya it
seems to me that the system is neither fool2proof nor )nae2proof$ What is to
happen if the %rahmins, Baishyas and Jshatriyas fail to pursue )nowledge, to
engage in economic enterprises and to &e efficient soldiers which are their
respectie functions? Contrary2wise, suppose that they discharge their functions &ut
flout their duty to the 9hudra or to one another? What is to happen to the 9hudra if
the three classes refuse to support him on fair terms or com&ine to )eep him down?
Who is to safeguard the interests of the 9hudra or for the matter of that of the
Baishya and Jshatriya when the person who is trying to ta)e adantage of his
ignorance is the %rahmin? Who is to defend the li&erty of the 9hudra or that of the
%rahmin and the Baishya, when the person who is ro&&ing him of it is the Jshatriya?
'nter2dependence of one class on another class is ineita&le$ Een dependence of
one class upon another may sometimes &ecome allowa&le$ %ut why ma)e one
person depend upon another in the matter of his ital needs? Education eery one
must hae$ ;eans of defence eery one must hae$ #hese are the paramount
requirements of eery man for his self2preseration$ How can the fact that his
neigh&our is educated and armed, help a man who is uneducated and disarmed$
#he whole theory is a&surd$ #hese are the questions which the defenders of
Chaturarnya do not seem to &e trou&led a&out$ %ut they are ery pertinent
questions$ (ssuming their conception of Chaturarnya that the relationship &etween
the different classes is that of ward and guardian is the real conception underlying
Chaturarnya, it must &e admitted that it ma)es no proision to safeguard the
interests of the ward from the misdeeds of the guardian$ Whether the relationship of
guardian and ward was the real underlying conception on which Chaturarnya was
&ased there is no dou&t that in practice the relation was that of master and serant$
#he three classes, %rahmins, Jshatriyas and Baishyas although not ery happy in
their mutual relationship managed to wor) &y compromise$ #he %rahmin flattered the
Jshatriya and &oth let the Baishya lie in order to &e a&le to lie upon him$ %ut the
three agreed to &eat down the 9hudra$ He was not allowed to acquire wealth lest he
should &e independent of the three Barnas$ He was prohi&ited from acquiring
)nowledge lest he should )eep a steady igil regarding his interests$ He was
prohi&ited from &earing arms lest he should hae the means to re&el against their
authority$ #hat this is how the 9hudras were treated &y the #rayaarni)as is
eidenced &y the 5aws of ;anu$ #here is no code of laws more infamous regarding
social rights than the 5aws of ;anu$ (ny instance from anywhere of social in+ustice
must pale &efore it$ Why hae the mass of people tolerated the social eils to which
they hae &een su&+ected? #here hae &een social reolutions in other countries of
the world$ Why hae there not &een social reolutions in 'ndia is a question which
has incessantly trou&led me$ #here is only one answer which ' can gie and it is that
the lower classes of Hindus hae &een completely disa&led for direct action on
account of this wretched system of Chaturarnya$ #hey could not &ear arms and
without arms they could not re&el$ #hey were all ploughmen or rather condemned to
&e ploughmen and they were allowed to conert their ploughshares into swords$
#hey had no &ayonets and therefore eeryone who chose ploughs did sit upon
them$ !n account of the Chaturarnya they could receie no education$ #hey could
not thin) out or )now the way to their salation$ #hey were condemned to &e lowly
and not )nowing the way of escape and not haing the means of escape, they
&ecame reconciled to eternal seritude which they accepted as their inescapa&le
fate$ 't is true that een in Europe the strong has not shrun) from the e1ploitation,
nay the spoliation of the wea) &ut in Europe, the strong hae neer contried to
ma)e the wea) helpless against e1ploitation so shamelessly as was the case in
'ndia among the Hindus$ 9ocial war has &een raging &etween the strong and the
wea) far more iolently in Europe than it has eer &een in 'ndia$ Iet the wea) in
Europe has had in him freedom of military serice his physical weapon, in suffrage
his political weapon and in education his moral weapon$ #hree weapons for
emancipation were neer withheld &y the strong from the wea) in Europe$ (ll these
weapons were howeer denied to the masses in 'ndia &y Chaturarnya$ #here
cannot &e a more degrading system of social organisation than Chaturarnya$ 't is
the system, which deadens, paralyses and cripples the people from helpful actiity$
#his is no e1aggeration$ History &ears ample eidence$ #here is only one period in
'ndian history, which is a period of freedom, greatness and glory$ #hat is the period
of the ;ourya Empire$ (t all other times the country suffered from defeat and
dar)ness$ %ut the ;ourya period was a period when Chaturarnya was completely
annihilated, when the 9hudras, who constituted the mass of the people came into
their own and &ecame the rulers of the country$ #he period of defeat and dar)ness is
the period when Chaturarnya flourished to the damnation of the greater part of the
people of the country$
Caste preents mo&ilisation$ !ccasions arise when society must mo&ilise all its
resources to one end in order to sae itself from a catastrophe$ #o ta)e a
catastrophe li)e war, 9ociety must mo&ilise all its resources for militarization$ Eery
one must do war$ Eery one must &e a soldier$ 's this possi&le under the theory of
caste? !&iously not$ 'ndeed the destiny of a defeat which has &een the lot of 'ndia
throughout history is due to caste$ Caste preented general mo&ilisation$ !r the
e1tent of mo&ilisation was of a ery limited character$ !nly the Jshatriyas were
e1pected to fight$ #he rest the %rahmins and the Baishyas were not armed and the
9hudras who formed the large ma+ority of the country were disarmed$ #he result was
that once the small class of Jshatriyas were defeated &y a foreign foe$ the whole
country fell at his feet$ 't could offer no resistance$ 't was not capa&le of resistance$
'ndian wars hae &een mostly wars of single &attles or single campaigns$ #his was
due to the fact that once the Jshatriyas fell eerything fell$ Why? 9imply &ecause
there was no general mo&ilisation and the theory deeply im&edded in the psychology
of the people$
'f these conclusions are sound, how can a philosophy which dissects society in
fragments, which dissociates wor) from interest, which disconnects intelligence from
la&our, which e1propriates the rights of man to interests ital to life and which
preented society from mo&ilising resources for common action in the hour of
danger, &e said to satisfy the test of 9ocial "tility$
%
#he Philosophy of Hinduism therefore neither satisfies the test of social utility nor
does it satisfy the test of indiidual +ustice$
#he result of my analysis is so odd that it will surprise many$ (stonished some may
een say that if the conclusions are so odd then there must &e something wrong in
my analysis of the philosophy of Hinduism$ ' must meet this o&+ection$ #o those who
refuse to accept my analysis ' say that they find my analysis odd &ecause they do
not hae a correct notion what is central in the philosophy of Hinduism$ 'f they do
they will feel no surprise at my conclusions$
#his matter is so important that ' must stop to e1plain it$ 't may &e recalled that the
foregoing analysis of the religious reolution showed that religious ideals as forms of
diine goernance for human 9ociety fall into two classes, one in which 9ociety is
the centre and the other in which the 'ndiidual is the centre$ #he same analysis
showed that for the former the appropriate test of what is good and what is right i$e$
the test of the moral order is utility while for the latter the test is +ustice$ @ow the
reason why the philosophy of Hinduism does not answer the test either of utility or of
+ustice is &ecause the religious ideal of Hinduism for diine goernance of human
society is an ideal, which falls into a separate class &y itself$ 't is an ideal in which
the indiidual is not the centre$ #he centre of the ideal is neither indiidual nor
society$ 't is a class 2 the class of 9upermen called %rahmins$ #hose who will &ear
the dominant and deastating fact in mind will understand why the philosophy of
Hinduism is not founded on indiidual +ustice or social utility$ #he philosophy of
Hinduism is founded on a totally different principle$ #o the question what is right and
what is good the answer, which the philosophy of Hinduism gies, is remar)a&le$ 't
holds that to &e right and good the act must sere the interest of this class of
supermen, namely, the %rahmins$ !scar Wilde said that to &e intelligi&le is to &e
found out$ ;anu is neither afraid nor ashamed of &eing found out$ 'ndeed ;anu
does not leae it to &e found out$ He e1presses his iew in resonant and ma+estic
notes as who are the 9upermen and anything which seres the interest of the
9upermen is alone entitled to &e called right and good$ 5et me quote ;anu$
L$ <$ /!n account of his pre2eminence, on account of the superiority of his origin,
on account of his o&serance of =particular> restrictie rules, and on account of his
particular sanctification the %rahman is the 5ord of =all> Barnas$/
He proceeds to amplify his reasons and does so in the following characteristic
manner 40
1$ H<$ /(s the %rahmana sprang from =Pra+apati6s i$e$ :ods> mouth, as he was first2
&orn, and as he possesses the Beda, he is &y right the lord of this whole creation/
1$ H?$ For the self e1istent =9ayam&hu i$e$:od>, haing performed austerities,
produced him first from his own mouth, in order that offerings might &e coneyed to
the :ods and ;anes and that this unierse might &e presered$/
1$ HA$ /What created &eing can surpass him, through whose mouth the gods
continually consume the sacrificial iands and the manes the offerings to the dead?/
1$ HD$ /!f created &eings the most e1cellent are said to &e those which are
animated 8 of the animated, those who su&sist &y intelligence 8 of the intelligent,
man)ind 8 and of the men, the %rahmanas/$
%esides the reason gien &y ;anu the %rahmin is first in ran) &ecause he was
produced &y :od from his mouth, in order that the offerings might &e coneyed to
the :ods and manes$ ;anu gies another reason for the supremacy of the
%rahmins$ He says 40
1$ HG$ /#he ery &irth of a %rahmana is an eternal incarnation of the sacred 5aw
=Beda> 8 for he is &orn to =fulfil> the sacred law, and &ecomes one with %rahman
=:od>$/
1$ HH$ /( %rahamana, coming into e1istence, is &orn as the highest on earth, the
lord of all created &eings, for the protection of the treasury of the 5aw$/ ;anu
concludes &y saying that40
1$ 1E1$ /#he %rahman eats &ut his own food, wears &ut his own apparel, &estows
&ut his own in alms 8 other mortals su&sist through the &eneolence of the
%rahamana$/ %ecause according to ;anu40
''$ 1EE$ /Whateer e1ists in the world is the property of the %rahmana 8 on account
of the e1cellence of his origin the %rahmana is, indeed, entitled to it all$/ ;anu
directs40
B''$ <D$ /5et the Jing, after rising early in the morning, worship %rahmans who are
well ersed in the three2fold sacred science and learned =in polity>, and follow their
adice/$
B''$ <G$ /5et him daily worship aged %rahmans who )now the Beda and are
pure$ $ $ $ $/
B''$ <F$ /5et the )ing, haing risen at early dawn, respectfully attend to %rahman,
learned in the three Bedas and in the science of ethics, and &y their decision let him
a&ide$/
B''$ <G$ /Constantly must he show respect to %rahmans, who hae grown old, &oth
in years and in piety, who )now the scriptures, who in &ody and mind are pure 8 for
he, who honours the aged, will perpetually &e honoured een &y cruel demons$/
'L$ <1<$ /5et him not, although in the greatest distress for money, proo)e
%rahmans to anger &y ta)ing their property 8 for they, once enraged, could
immediately &y sacrifices and imprecations destroy him with his troops, elephants,
horses and cars$/
Finally ;anu says 40
L'$ <A$ /#he %rahman is =here&y> declared =to &e> the creator =of the world>, the
punisher, the teacher, =and hence> a &enefactor =of all created &eings> 8 to him let no
man say anything unpropitious 8 nor use any harsh words/$
M #o conclude and complete the theory of supermen and of what is right and good
let me reproduce the following two te1ts from ;anu 40
L$ 133$ %ut let a 9hudra sere %rahmans, either for the sa)e of heaen or with a
iew to &oth this life and the ne1t, for he who is called the serant of a %rahman
there&y gains all his ends$
L$ 13<$ #he serice of the %rahmana alone is declared to &e an e1cellent
occupation for a 9hudra8 for whateer else &esides this he may perform will &ear no
fruit$ (nd ;anu adds 40
L$ 13H$ @o collection of wealth must &e made &y a 9hudra, een though he &e a&le
to do it 8 for a 9hudra who has acquired wealth gies pain to %rahman$
#he a&oe te1ts from ;anu disclose the core and the heart of the philosophy of
Hinduism$ Hinduism is the gospel of the superman and it teaches that what is right
for the superman is the only thing which is called morally right and morally good$
's there any parallel to this philosophy? ' hate to suggest it$ %ut it is so o&ious$
#he parallel to this philosophy of Hinduism is to &e found in @ietzsche$ #he Hindus
will &e angry at this suggestion$ 't is quite natural$ For the philosophy of @ietzsche
stands in great odium$ 't neer too) roots, 'n his own words he was /sometimes
deified as the philosopher of the aristocracy and squirearchy, sometimes hooted at,
sometimes pitied and sometimes &oycotted as an inhuman &eing/$ @ietzsche6s
philosophy had &ecome identified with will to power, iolence, denial of spiritual
alues, superman and the sacrifice, serility and de&asement of the common man$
His philosophy with these high spots had created a certain loathsomeness and
horror in the minds of the people of his own generation$ He was utterly neglected if
not shunned and @ietzsche himself too) comfort &y placing himself among the
/posthumous men/$ He foresaw for himself a remote pu&lic, centuries after his own
time to appreciate him$ Here too @ietzsche was destined to &e disappointed$ 'nstead
of there &eing any appreciation of his philosophy, the lapse of time has only
augmented the horror and loathing which people of his generation felt for @ietzsche$
#his is principally due to the reelation that the philosophy of @ietzsche is capa&le of
producing @azism$ His friends hae ehemently protested against such a
construction$
-f3A.
%ut it is not difficult to see that his philosophy can &e as easily
applied to eole a super state as to superman$ #his is what the @azis hae done$ (t
any rate the @azis trace their ancestry from @ietzsche and regard him as their
spiritual parent$ Hitler has himself photographed &eside a &ust of @ietzsche 8 he
ta)es the manuscripts of the master under his own special guardianship 8 e1tracts
are chosen from @ietzsche6s writings and loudly proclaimed at the ceremonies of
@azism, as the @ew :erman Faith$ @or is the claim &y the @azis of spiritual ancestry
with @ietzsche denied &y his near relations$ @ietzsche6s own cousin *ichard !chler
approingly says that @ietzsche6s thought is Hitler in action and that @ietzsche was
the foremost pioneer of the @azi accession to power$ @ietzsche6s own sister, few
months &efore her death, than)s the Feurhar for the honour he graciously &estows
on her &rother declaring that she sees in him that incarnation of the /9upermanK
foretold &y Rarathustra$
#o identify @ietzsche, whose name and whose philosophy e1cites so much horror
and so much loathing8 with ;anu is sure to cause astonishment and resentment in
the mind of the Hindus$ %ut of the fact itself there can &e no dou&t$ @ietszche himself
has openly declared that in his philosophy he is only following the scheme of ;anu$
'n his 'nti Christ this is what @ietzsche says 40
/(fter all, the question is, to what end are falsehoods perpetrated? #he fact that, in
Christianity, 7holy6 ends are entirely a&sent, constitutes my o&+ection to the means it
employs$ 'ts ends are only &ad ends8 the poisoning, the calumniation and the denial
of life, the contempt of the &ody, the degradation and self pollution of man &y irtue
of the concept of sin, 2 consequently its means are &ad as well$ ;y feelings are quite
the reerse, When ' read the law &oo) of ;anu, an incompara&ly intellectual and
superior wor), it would &e a sin against the spirit een to mention in the same &reath
with the %i&le$ Iou will guess immediately why8 it has a genuine philosophy &ehind it,
in it, not merely an eil2smelling Cewish distillation of *a&&inism and superstition 2 it
gies something to chew een to the most fastidious psychologist$ (nd, not to forget
the most important point of all, it is fundamentally different from eery )ind of %i&le4
&y means of it the no&le classes, the philosophers and the warriors guard and guide
the masses8 it is replete with no&le alues, it is filled with a feeling of perfection, with
saying yea to life, and triumphant sense of well2&eing in regard to itself and to life, 2
the 9un shines upon the whole &oo)$ (ll those things which Christianity smothers
with its &ottomless ulgarity8 procreation, woman, marriage, are here treated with
earnestness, with reerence, with loe and confidence$ How can one possi&ly place
in the hands of children and women, a &oo) that contains those ile words 4 /to aoid
fornication, let eery man hae his own wife, and let eery woman hae her own
hus&and$ $ $ $ $ it is &etter to marry than to &urn/$ (nd is it decent to &e a Christian so
long as the ery origin of man is Christianised, 2 that is to say, &efouled, &y the idea
of the immaculate conception?$$$ ' )now of no &oo) in which so many delicate and
)indly things are said to woman, as in the 5aw %oo) of ;anu 8 these old grey2&eards
and saints hae a manner of &eing gallant to woman which, perhaps, cannot &e
surpassed$ /#he mouth of a woman/, says ;anu on one occasion, /the &reast of a
maiden, the prayer of a child, and the smo)e of the sacrifice, are always pure/$
Elsewhere he says4 /there is nothing purer than the light of the 9un, the shadow cast
&y a cow, air water, fire and the &reath of a ;aiden/$ (nd finally2perhaps this is also
a holy lie40 /all the openings of the &ody a&oe the nael are pure, all those &elow
the nael are impure$ !nly in a maiden is the whole &ody pure$/
#his leaes no dou&t that Rarathustra is a new name for ;anu and that Thus
,pa-e 8arathustra is a new edition of anu ,mriti.
'f there is any difference &etween ;anu and @ietzsche it lies in this$ @ietzsche was
genuinely interested in creating a new race of men which will &e a race of supermen
as compared with the e1isting race of men$ ;anu on the other hand was interested
in maintaining the priileges of a class who had come to arrogate to itself the claim
of &eing supermen$ @ietzsche6s supermen were supermen &y reason of their worth$
;anu6s supermen were supermen &y reason of their &irth$ @ietzsche was a genuine
disinterested philosopher$ ;anu on the contrary was an hireling engaged to
propound a philosophy which sered the interests of a class &orn in a group and
whose title to &eing supermen was not to &e lost een if they lost their irtue$
Compare the following te1ts from ;anu$
L$ G1$ /Iet a %rahman, una&le to su&sist &y his duties +ust mentioned, may lie &y
the duty of a soldier8 for that is the ne1t ran)$/
L$ G3$ /'f it &e as)ed, how he must lie, should he &e una&le to get a su&sistence
&y either of those employment 8 the answer is, he may su&sist as a mercantile man,
applying himself into tillage and attendance on cattle$/
;anu adds 4
'L$ <1F$ /( %rahmana, &e he ignorant or learned, is a great diinity, +ust as the fire,
whether carried forth =for the performance of a &urnt o&lation> or not carried forth, is
a great diinity/$
'L$<3<$ /#hus, though the %rahmans employ themseles in all =sorts> of mean
occupation, they must &e honoured in eery way8 =for each of> them is a ery great
deity/$
#hus ;anu6s is a degraded and degenerate philosophy of superman as compared
with that of @ietzsche and therefore far more odious and loathsome than the
philosophy of @ietzsche$
#his e1plains why the philosophy of Hinduism does not satisfy the test of +ustice or
of utility$ Hinduism is not interested in the common man$ Hinduism is not interested
in 9ociety as a whole$ #he centre of its interest lies in a class and its philosophy is
concerned in sustaining and supporting the rights of that class$ #hat is why in the
Philosophy of Hinduism the interests of the common man as well as of society are
denied, suppressed and sacrificed to the interest of this class of 9upermen$
What is the alue of such a religion to man ? ;r$ %alfour in spea)ing on the merits
of positiism as *eligion as)ed the positiists certain questions which are worth
recalling$ He ery pertinently as)ed 8
/What has =Positiism> to say to the more o&scure multitude who are a&sor&ed,
and well nigh oerwhelmed, in the constant struggle with daily needs and narrow
cares8 who hae &ut little leisure or inclination to consider the precise role they are
called on to play in the great drama of 7humanity6 and who might in any case &e
puzzled to discoer its interest or its importance ? Can it assure them that there is no
human &eing so insignificant as not to &e of infinite worth in the eyes of Him who
created the Heaens, or so fee&le &ut that his action may hae consequence of
infinite moment long after this material system shall hae crum&led into
nothingness? Does it offer consolation to those who are &ereaed, strength to the
wea), forgieness to the sinful, rest to those who are weary and heay laden? /
#he same questions may &e as)ed of ;anu$ #he answer to each one of them must
&e in the affirmatie$ 'n short the philosophy of Hinduism is such that it cannot &e
called the *eligion of humanity$ #hat is why to use the language of %alfour,
Hinduism, if it penetrates, does not itrify the inmost life of ordinary humanity$ 'ndeed
if it does anything it paralyses it$ #here is in Hinduism no nourishment for ordinary
human souls, no comfort for ordinary human sorrow, no help for ordinary human
wea)ness$ 't leaes men in dar)ness face to face with the unthin)ing energies of
nature, which gies them &irth to which after a few fruitless struggles they succum&$
@ot less cruel than the crudest irreligious, does it leae men diorced from all
communions with :od$
9uch is the philosophy of Hinduism$ 't is 9uperman6s heaen and the common
man6s damnation$
' am conscious that my position regarding the philosophy of Hinduism will &e
assailed from different sides$ 9o contrary it is to the current iews a&out it that it is
&ound to &e assailed$ #he attac) may come from arious sides$
't will &e said that ' am wrong in ta)ing the ;anu 9mriti as the &oo) of Hindu
religion and that the true gospel of Hinduism is contained in the Bedas and the
%hagwat :ita$
' am sure no orthodo1 Hindu will &e &old enough to repudiate the authority of ;anu
9mriti as a &oo) of Hindu *eligion$ 9uch a charge can &e made only &y some
reformed sects of Hinduism such as the (rya 9ama+ists$ %ut there can &e no dou&t
that this charge is not well founded$ #o refute this charge it is perhaps desira&le to
e1plain
-f3D.
how the 9mritis o&tained a place and position of authority among the
Hindus$
#he 9mritis originally were a collection of rules relating to social traditions, customs
and conentions approed of and recommended &y those who were learned in the
Bedas$ For a long time these rules e1isted only in the memory of those learned in
the Bedas, so they &egan to &e called 9mritis i$e$ things which are remem&ered in
contrast to Bedas or 9hruti that is things which were heard$ 'n the &eginning the
9mritis een when they were codified were treated as rules of inferior alue as
compared with the rules contained in the Bedas$
#he difference in their authority and &inding force was the result of the natural
difference &etween the trustworthiness of what is heard as compared to what is only
remem&ered$ #here was also another reason of this differentiation in the two sorts of
Dharma 9hastra literature$ #his was &ased upon the status of their authors$ #he
authors of the Bedas were *ishis$ #he authors of the 9mritis were only learned men$
#he *ishis were superior in status and sanctity than those who were merely learned$
Consequently the Bedas were treated as more authoritatie than the 9mritis$
#he consequence arising from this was well e1pressed in the Hindu theological
formula according to which if there was a conflict in the rules of two Bedas on the
same su&+ect it meant option for a rule of Bedas cannot &e deemed to &e
inoperatie$ !n the other hand, in a conflict &etween a rule of 9hriti and a rule of
9mriti the rule of 9hruti preailed &ecuse for the reasons stated a&oe 9mriti was
inferior in authority to the 9hruti$ %ut as pointed out &y Prof$ (lte)ar, the 9mritis in
course of time came to &e inested with the same authority as &elonged to the
Bedas$ Barious means were adopted to accomplish this purpose$ 'n the first place
the authors of the 9mritis were eleated to the status of *ishis$ #he early Dharma
9hastra writers li)e :autama, and %audhayana were neer gien the status of a
*ishi$ %ut ;anu and Ia+naal)ya are rec)oned as *ishis$ %y this means the status
of the 9mritis was equated to that of the 9hrutis$ #he second means adopted was to
regard the 9mriti as the record from memory of a 9hruti which was lost$ #hus 9mriti
instead of &eing regarded as something quite different from 9hruti came to &e
regarded as a)in to and indistinguisha&le from 9hruti$ #he result of these steps was
a complete change in the rules regarding the authority of the two$ !riginally if there
was a conflict &etween a 9mriti and a 9hruti, the 9hruti preailed$ #he new rule was
that in case of conflict there was an option which meant that the 9mriti rule was as
operatie as the *ule of 9hruti$ #his new rule has &een e1pressly laid down &y
Jumarila in his commentary on the Puramimansa 9utra where&y the 9mritis were
made as authoritatie as 9hrutis$
While originally Hindu 9ociety was &ound to the Bedas and could not follow any
rule which was contrary to the Bedas, the new rule altered the situation and left it to
the option of society either to follow the 9hruti or the 9mriti$ %ut een this option was
later on ta)en away$ #his was done &y ma)ing the study of the 9mritis as
compulsory as that of the 9hruti$
#his was done gradually$ 'n the first place it was suggested that the 9hrutis and
9mritis are the two eyes of the %rahamana, if he is deoid of one he &ecomes a one2
eyed person$ #hen came the theory that %rahmanyam is possi&le only as the result
of a +oint study of &oth the Bedas and the 9mritis$ Finally came the rule according to
which the study of the 9mruti only was recognised and a contempt of the 9mriti was
made a sin and a person guilty of it was declared to &e condemned to &e &orn as a
&east for 31 generations$
#his is how the 9mritis hae &een recognised as a source of Hindu *eligion and
there is no dou&t that, to quote Prof$ (lte)ar, the 9mritis 8
/hae played a great part in determining the features of many a social and socio2
religious institutions and customs and in moulding the deelopment of modern
Hinduism$/
't cannot therefore &e maintained that ' was wrong in ta)ing ;anu 9mriti as
containing the philosophy of Hinduism$
#his wor) of eleating the 9mritis to the status of the Bedas was underta)en &y the
%rahmins for a most selfish reason$ #he 9mritis contain in all its wild and lu1urious
growth the doctrine of Caste, the doctrine of the superiority of the %rahmins, their
rights and priileges, the doctrine of the su&ordination of the Jshatriyas and
Baishyas and the doctrine of the degradation of the 9hudras$ 9uch &eing the
philosophy of the 9mritis, the %rahmins were directly interested in inesting the
9mritis with the authority which was claimed for the Bedas and in which they
ultimately succeeded to their adantage &ut to the ruination of the whole country$ %ut
conceding0which orthodo1 and pious Hindu would do that the 9mritis do not
contain the philosophy of Hinduism &ut that the same is to &e found in the Bedas
and the %hagwat :eeta the question is what difference would this ma)e in the result$
't seems to me that it matters ery little whether one ta)es the 9mritis, or the Bedas
or the %hagwat :eeta$
Do the Bedas teach something, which is fundamentally different from what the
9mritis do? Does the %hagwat :eeta run contrary to the in+unctions of the 9mritis$ (
few illustrations will ma)e the matter clear$
't is indisputa&le that the Bedas lay down the theory of Chaturarna in what is
)nown as the Purushasu)ta$ #his Purushasu)ta recognises two &asic principles$ 't
recognises the diision of society into four sections as an ideal$ 't also recognises
that the ideal relationship &etween the four sections is inequality$
What the %hagwat :eeta teaches is also &eyond controersy$ 'ts teaching may &e
summarised in the following four pronouncements made &y Jrishna in the %hagwat
:eeta$
=1> /' myself hae created the arrangement )nown as Chaturarna =i$e$ the fourfold
diision of society into four castes %rahmins, Jshatriyas, Baishyas and 9hudras>
assigning them different occupations in accordance with the natie capacities$ 't is '
who am the ma)er of this Chaturarna/0 :ita$ 'B$ 1<
=3> /Een if it may &e easier to follow the occupation of another +arna yet to follow
the occupation of one6s own Barna is more meritorious, although one may not &e
a&le to do it quite efficiently$ #here is &liss in following the occupation of one6s own
Barna, een if death were to result in performing it 8 &ut to follow the occupation of
another +arna is ris)y/$0:eeta$ H'$ <A$
=<> /#he educated should not unsettle the faith of the uneducated who hae
&ecome attached to their occupation$ He himself should perform the occupation of
his Barna and ma)e others perform theirs accordingly$ (n educated man may not
&ecome attached to his occupation$ %ut the uneducated and dull2minded people who
hae &ecome attached to their occupation should not &e spoiled &y the educated &y
putting them on a wrong path &y a&andoning their own occupation/0 :eeta '''$ 3D,
3H$
=?> /!h, (r+un N Wheneer this religion of duties and occupations =i$e$ this religion
of Chaturarna> declines, then ' myself will come to &irth to punish those who are
responsi&le for its downfall and to restore it0:eeta 'B, F2G$
9uch is the position of :eeta$ What difference is there &etween it and the ;anu
9mriti? :eeta is ;anu in a nutshell$ #hose who run away from ;anu 9mriti and
want to ta)e refuge in :eeta either do not )now :ita or are prepared to omit from
their consideration that soul of :eeta which ma)es it a)in to ;anu 9mriti$
Compare the teachings of the Beda, of the %hagwat :eeta with what is contained
in the ;anu 9mriti which ' hae ta)en as the te1t for elucidating the philosophy of
Hinduism$ What difference does one find? #he only difference one can find is that
the Bedas and the %hagwat :eeta deal with :eneral #heory while the 9mritis are
concerned in wor)ing out the particulars and details of that theory$ %ut so far as the
essence is concerned all of them0the 9mritis, the Bedas and the %hagwat :eeta0
are woen on the same pattern, the same thread runs through them and are really
parts of the same fa&ric$
#he reason for this is o&ious$ #he %rahmins who were the authors of the whole
&ody of Hindu *eligious 5iterature0e1cept the "panishad 5iterature0too) good
care to in+ect the doctrines formulated &y them in the 9mritis, into the Bedas and the
%hagwat :eeta$ @othing is to &e gained in pic)ing and choosing &etween them$ #he
Philosophy of Hinduism will &e the same whether one ta)es the ;anu 9mriti as its
:ospel or whether one ta)es the Bedas and the %hagwat :eeta as the gospel of
Hinduism$
9econdly it will &e contended that ;anu 9mriti is a %oo) of 5aws and not a code of
ethics and that what ' hae presented as a philosophy of Hinduism is only legal
philosophy and is not the moral philosophy of Hinduism$
;y answer to this contention is simple$ ' hold that in Hinduism there is no
distinction &etween legal philosophy and moral philosophy$ #hat is &ecause in
Hinduism there is no distinction &etween the 5egal and the ;oral, the 5egal &eing
also the ;oral$
@ot much eidence is necessary to support my contention$ #a)e the
meaning
-f3F.
of the word Dharma in the *ig Beda$ #he word Dharma occurs in the *ig
Beda AG times$ 't is used in si1 different senses$ 't is used to denote =1> (ncient
custom, =3> 5aws, =<> (ny arrangement which maintains law and order in society, =?>
#he course of nature, =A> #he quality of a su&stance and =D> Duty of good and eil$ 't
will thus &e seen that from the ery &eginning the word Dharma in Hinduism has a
two fold connotation$ 't means &oth law and moral$ #hat is one reason why in the
philosophy of Hinduism there can &e no distinction &etween legal philosophy and
moral philosophy$
#his is not to say that the Hindus hae no code of morality$ #o &e sure they hae$
%ut it is ery pertinent to as) the nature and character of conduct, which the Hindu
Code of Ethics declares to &e moral$
#o hae an idea of the nature of conduct which the Hindu thin)s moral, it is &etter
to &egin &y recognising that there are three leels of conduct
-f3G.
, which must &e,
distinguished$ =1> Conduct arising from instincts and fundamental need =3> Conduct
regulated &y standards of ' society and =<> Conduct regulated &y indiidual
conscience$ Conduct on the first leel, we do not call moral conduct$ 't is of course
not immoral8 it is merely unmoral$ 't is goerned &y forces not as moral in purpose
&ut as alua&le in result$ #he forces are &iological or sociological or psychological$
#hese hae purpose, such as to satisfy hunger, or to forge a weapon against an
enemy$ %ut the end is one set up &y our physical or instinctie nature$ 9o long as
this is merely accepted as an ineita&le end and not compared with others, alued,
and chosen) it is not properly moral$ Conduct on the second leel is no dou&t social$
Whereer groups of men are liing there are certain ways of acting which are
common to the group0/fol)ways/$ #here are appro!ed ways of acting, common to a
group, and handed down from generation to generation$ 9uch approed ways of
acting are called the mores or the morals of the group$ #hey imply the +udgement of
the group that they are to &e followed$ #he welfare of the group is regarded as in
some sense im&edded in them$ 't &ecomes the duty of the indiidual to follow them
and if any one acts contrary to them he is made to feel the group6s disapproal$ We
cannot strictly spea)ing call the conduct moral$ %ecause the end is accepted as a
standard of 7good6 prescri&ed &y society$ 'f it had spo)en of a moral conduct it is only
&ecause it conforms to the mores or morals of the 9ociety$ 't may &e called
customary morality$ Conduct on the third leel is conduct, which alone is truly and
completely moral$ #hat is &ecause in it the 'ndiidual recognises the right or chooses
the good, and freely deotes himself heartily to its fulfilment$ He does not merely
accept what is ineita&le or follow what is approed &y society$ He alues and
chooses the end and &ecomes personally responsi&le$ His is reflectie morality$
!n what leel does Hindu morality stand? !&iously it is not on the third leel$ #his
means that a Hindu is social &ut not moral in the strict sense of the term$ ( Hindu
ta)es no responsi&ility for the ends he seres$ He is a willing tool in the hands of his
society, content to follow$ He is not a free agent afraid to differ$ His notions of sin gie
remar)a&le proof of his unmoral character$ 'nstitutes of Bishnu gies a list of sins
which are diided into nine classes40
1$ Deadly sins0atipata-a. #hese are certain forms of incest, to &e atoned for only
&y &urning$
3$ :reat sins0mahapata-a. #hese are )illing a %rahman, drin)ing spirituous liquor,
stealing the gold of a %rahman, connection with a :uru6s wife 8 also social
intercourse with those guilty of such sins$
<$ ;inor sins of a similar character0 anupata-a. #hese include the )illing of
certain other classes of persons, giing false eidence and )illing a friend, stealing
lands or deposits of a %rahman, certain forms of incest and adultery$
?$ ;inor sins0 upapata-a. 9ins of false statement, neglect of certain religious
duties, adultery, unlawful occupation, offences connected with marrying &efore an
elder &rother Sc$, not paying one6s de&ts to the :ods, and manes, atheism Sc$
A$ 9ins effecting loss of caste 1atibramsa-ara. Causing &odily pain to a %rahman,
smelling things, which should not &e smelt, dishonest dealing, and certain unnatural
crimes$
D$ 9ins which degrade to a mi1ed caste sam-ari-arana. Jilling domestic or wild
animals$
F$ 9ins which render one unworthy to receie alms0 apatri-arana. *eceiing
presents and alms from despica&le persons, trade, money lending, lying, and
sering a 9hudra$
G$ 9ins cause defilement0 mala!aha. Jilling &irds, amphi&ious animals, and
aquatic animals, worms and insects8 eating nutmegs or other plants similar in their
effects to into1icating liquors$ H$ ;iscellaneous sins0 pra-irna-a. #hose not already
mentioned$ #his list of sins is not e1haustie &ut it, is long enough and illustratie
enough to gie us the idea which underlies the Hindu notion of 9in$ 'n the first place
it connotes the fall of man from a prescri&ed form of conduct$ 'n the second place it
means to &e defiled, to &ecome unclean$ #his is the root meaning of the term Pata-.
't means Patana =falling away> and it means 'sowcha =&eing rendered unclean>$ 'n
either case sin according to Hindu notion is a decease of the soul$ 'n the first sense
it is merely &reach of a rule of e1ternal conduct$ 'n the other sense it is a defilement
of the &ody to &e cleaned and purified &y &oth or &y pilgrimage or &y sacrificial
offering$ %ut it is neer the spiritual defilement, which is associated with the
har&ouring of eil thoughts and purposes$
#his shows the morality of the Hindu is purely social$ #his means that the leel of
his morality is purely traditional and customary$ #here are two eils of customary
morality$ 'n the first place there is no surety that it will always &e charged with
sincerity and purity of motie$ For it is only when morality penetrates to the deepest
springs of purpose and feeling in the indiidual that pretence will cease to find a
place in human &ehaiour$ 'n the second place customary morality is an anchor and
a drag$ 't holds up the aerage man and holds &ac) the man who forges ahead$
Customary morality is only another name for moral stagnation$ #his is true of all
cases where morality is only customary morality$ %ut the customary morality of the
Hindus has an eil feature, which is peculiar to it$ Customary morality is a matter of
meritorious conduct$ !rdinarily this meritorious conduct is something, which is good
from the general or pu&lic point of iew$ %ut among the Hinduism the meritorious
conduct is not concerned with the worship of :od or the general good of community$
;eritorious conduct in Hinduism is concerned with the giing of presents, of good
and of honour to the %rahmins$ Hindu Ethics is worship of the superman$
What difference would it hae made if ' had ta)en Hindu Ethics as the &asis for
deducing the philosophy of Hinduism? ;ost students of Hinduism forget that +ust as
in Hinduism there is no difference &etween law and *eligion so there is no difference
&etween law and ethics$ %oth are concerned with the same thing namely regulating
the conduct of the low class Hindus to subser!e the ends of high Caste Hindus$
#hirdly it will &e o&+ected that ' presented an altogether false picture of Hinduism in
as much as ' hae omitted to ta)e into account the "panishads which are the true
source of Hindu philosophy$
' admit that ' hae not ta)en the "panishads into account$ %ut ' hae a reason and
' &eliee ery good reason for doing so$ ' am concerned with the philosophy of
Hinduism as a part of the philosophy of *eligion$ ' am not concerned with Hindu
philosophy$ 'f ' were, it would hae &een necessary to e1amine the "panishads$ %ut
' am quite willing to deal with it so as to leae no dou&t that what ' hae shown to &e
the philosophy of Hinduism is the philosophy of "panishads$
#he philosophy of the "panishads can &e stated in ery few words$ 't has &een
well summarised &y Hu1ley
-f3H.
when he says that the "panishad philosophy agreed4
0
/'n supposing the e1istence of a permanent reality, or 7su&stance6, &eneath the
shifting series of phenomena, whether of matter or of mind$ #he su&stance of the
cosmos was 7%rahma6, that of the indiidual man 7(tman68 and the latter was
separated from the former only, if ' may so spea), &y its phenomenal enelope, &y
the casing of sensations, thoughts and desires, pleasures and pains, which ma)e up
the illusie phantasmagoria of life$ #his the ignorant, ta)e for reality8 their 7(tman6
therefore remains eternally imprisoned in delusions, &ound &y the fetters of desire
and scourged &y the whip of misery$
!f what use is this philosophy of the "panishadas? #he philosophy of the
"panishadas meant withdrawal from the struggle for e1istence &y resort to
asceticism and a destruction of desire &y self2mortification$ (s a way of life it was
condemned &y Hu1ley
-f<E.
in scathing terms 40
/@o more thorough mortification of the flesh has eer &een attempted than that
achieed &y the 'ndian ascetic anchorite8 no later monarchism has so nearly
succeeded in reducing the human mind to that condition of impassie quasi2
somnam&ulism, which, &ut for its ac)nowledged holiness, might run the ris) of &eing
confounded with idiocy$/
%ut the condemnation of the philosophy of the "panishads is nothing as compared
to the denunciation of the same &y 5ala Hardyal
-f<1.
40
/#he "panishads claim to e1pound 7that, &y )nowing which eerything is )nown 6$
#his quest for 6 the a&solute 6 is the &asis of all the spurious metaphysics of 'ndia$
#he treatises are full of a&surd conceits, quaint fancies, and chaotic speculations$
(nd we hae not learned that they are worthless$ We )eep moing in the old rut8 we
edit and re2edit the old &oo)s instead of translating the classics of European social
thought$ What could Europe &e if Frederic Harrison, %rieu1, %e&el, (natole France,
Here, Hae)el, :iddings, and ;arshall should employ their time in composing
treatises on Duns, 9cotus and #homas (quinas, and discussing the merits of the
laws of the Pentateuch and the poetry of %eowulf? 'ndian pundits and graduates
seem to suffer from a )ind of mania for what is effete and antiquated$ #hus an
institution, esta&lished &y progressie men, aims at leading our youths through
9ans)rit grammar to the Badasia the 9i1 DarshanasN What a false moe in the
quest for wisdom N 't is as if a caraan should trael across the desert to the shores
of the Dead 9ea in search of fresh waterN Ioung men of 'ndia, loo) not for wisdom in
the musty parchments of your metaphysical treatises$ #here is nothing &ut an
endless round of er&al +ugglary there$ *ead *ousseau and Boltaire, Plato and
(ristotle, Haec)el and 9pencer, ;ar1 and #olstoi, *us)in and Comte, and other
European thin)ers, if you wish to understand life and its pro&lems$/ %ut
denunciations apart, did the "panishad philosophy hae any influence on Hinduism
as a social and political system? #here is no dou&t that it turned out to &e most
ineffectie and inconsequential piece of speculation with no effect on the moral and
social order of the Hindus$
't may not &e out of place to inquire into the reasons for this unfortunate result$
!ne reason is o&ious$ #he philosophy of "panishad remained incomplete and
therefore did not yield the fruit, which it ought to hae done$ #his will &e quite clear if
one as)s what is the )eynote of the "panishads$ 'n the words of Prof$ ;a1 ;uller
-f<3.
the )eynote of the "panishads is 7Jnow thy 9elf/$ #he 7Jnow thy 9elf of the
"panishads, means, )now thy true 9elf, that which underlies thin ego and find it and
)now it in the highest, the eternal self, the !ne without a 9econd, which underlies
the whole world$/
#hat (tman and %rahman were one was the truth, the great truth which the
"panishads said they had discoered and they as)ed man to )now this truth$ @ow
the reasons why the philosophy of "panishads, &ecame ineffectie are many$ ' will
discuss them elsewhere$ (t this place ' will mention only one$ #he philosophers of
"panishads did not realise that to )now truth was not enough$ !ne must learn to
loe truth$ #he difference &etween philosophy and religion may &e put in two ways$
Philosophy is concerned with )nowing truth$ *eligion is concerned with the loe of
truth$ Philosophy is static$ *eligion is dynamic$ #hese differences are merely two
aspects of one and the same thing$ Philosophy is static &ecause it is concerned only
with )nowing truth$ *eligion is dynamic &ecause it is concerned with loe of truth$ (s
has &een well said &y ;a1 Plowman
-f<<.
40
/$ $ $ $"nless religion is dynamic and &egets in us the emotion of loe for
something, then it is &etter to &e without any thing that we can call religion8 for
religion is perception of truth and if our perception of truth is not accompanied &y our
loe for it then it were &etter not seen at all8 #he Deil himself is one who has seen
the truth only to hate it$ #ennyson said /We must loe the highest when we see it/$ 't
does not follow$ 9een in pure o&+ectiity the highest repels &y its difference and
distance8 what we fear it, and what we fear we come to hate$ $ $ $ $/
#his is the fate of all transcendental philosophies$ #hey hae no influence on the
way of life$ (s %la)e said /*eligion is politics and politics is %rotherhood$ Philosophy
must &ecome *eligion that is it must &ecome a Wor)ing Ethic$ 't must not remain
mere metaphysics$ (s ;r$ Plowman says0
/'f religion were a ;etaphysic and nothing else, one thing is certain, it would neer
&e the concern of the simple and hum&le men$
/#o )eep it wholly in the realm of ;etaphysic is to ma)e non2sense of it$ For &elief
in religion as in something not directly and itally effectie of politics is ultimately
&elief that is strictly spea)ing idiotic8 &ecause in the effectie sense such a &elief
ma)es no difference, and in the world of time and space what 6ma)es no difference6
does not e1ist$/
't is for these ery reasons that the philosophy of the "panishads proed so
ineffectie$
't is therefore incontroerti&le that notwithstanding the Hindu Code of Ethics,
notwithstanding the philosophy of the "panishads not a little not a +ot did a&ate from
the philosophy of Hinduism as propounded &y ;anu$ #hey were ineffectie and
powerless to erase the infamy preached &y ;anu in the name of religion$
@otwithstanding their e1istence one can still say /HinduismN #hy name is inequalityN/
%#
'nequality is the soul of Hinduism$ #he morality of Hinduism is only social$ 't is
unmoral and inhuman to say the least$ What is unmoral and inhuman easily
&ecomes immoral, inhuman and infamous$ #his is what Hinduism has &ecome$
#hose who dou&t this or deny this proposition should e1amine the social
composition of the Hindu 9ociety and ponder oer the condition of some of the
elements in it$ #a)e the following cases$
First as to the Primitie #ri&es$ 'n what state of ciilisation are they ?
#he history of human ciilisation includes the entire period of human progress from
9aagery to %ar&arism and from %ar&arism to Ciilisation$ #he transition from one to
other has &een mar)ed &y some discoery or intention in some department of
)nowledge of (rt resulting in adancing the onward march of man$
#he deelopment of articulate speech was the first thing which, from the point of
iew of human progress, diided man from the &rute$ 't mar)s the first stage of
saagery$ #he ;iddle period of the state of saagery &egan with the )nowledge of
the manufacture and use of fire$ #his wonderful discoery ena&led man to e1tend his
ha&it almost indefinitely$ He could leae his forest home, go to different and colder
climates, and increase his food supply &y including flesh and fish$ #he ne1t
discoery was the %ow and (rrow$ #his was the greatest achieement of primitie
man and mar)s the highest state of saage man$ 't was indeed a wonderful
implement$ #he possessor of this deice could &ring down the fleetest animal and
could defend himself against the most predatory$
#he transition from 9aagery to %ar&arism was mar)ed &y the discoery of pottery$
Hitherto man had no utensils that could withstand the action of fire$ Without utensils
man could not store nor could he coo)$ "ndou&tedly pottery was a great ciilising
influence$
#he ;iddle 9tate of %ar&arism &egan when man learned to domesticate wild
animals$ ;an learned that captie animals could &e of serice to him$ ;an now
&ecame a herdsman, no longer dependent for food upon the precarious chase of
wild animals$ ;il) procura&le at all seasons made a highly important addition to his
dietary$ With the aid of horse and camel he traersed wide areas hitherto
impassa&le$ #he captie animals &ecame aids to commerce, which resulted in the
dissemination of commodities as well as of ideas$
#he ne1t discoery was of the (rt of smelting iron$ #his mar)s the highest stage of
adancement of &ar&aric man$ With this discoery man &ecame a /tool2ma)ing
animal/ who with his tool could fashion wood and stone and &uild houses and
&ridges$ #his mar)s the close of the adancement made &y &ar&aric man$ #he
diiding line which mar)s off %ar&aric people from Ciilised people, in the fullest
sense of the word Ciilisation, is the art of ma)ing ideas tangi&le &y means of
graphic signs0 which is called the art of writing$ With this man conquered time as
he had with the earlier inentions conquered space$ He could now record his deeds
and his thoughts$ Henceforth, his )nowledge, his poetical dreams, his moral
aspirations might &e recorded in such form as to &e read not merely &y his
contemporaries &ut &y successie generations of remote posterity$ For man his
history &ecame safe and secure$ #his was the steepest assent and the clim&ing of it
mar)s the &eginnings of ciilisation$ 9topping here for the moment let us as) in what
state of ciilisation are the Primitie #ri&es$
#he name Primitie #ri&es
-f<?.
is e1pressie of the present state of people who are
called &y that name$ #hey lie in small2scattered huts in forests$ #hey lie on wild
fruits, nuts and roots$ Fishing and hunting are also resorted to for the purpose of
securing food$ (griculture plays a ery small part in their social economy$ Food
supplies &eing e1tremely precarious, they lead a life of semi2staration from which
there is no escape$ (s to clothes they economise them to a anishing point$ #hey
moe almost in a state of complete na)edness$ #here is a tri&e, which is )nown as
T%onda Pora+asK which, means /@a)ed Pora+as/$ !f these people it is said that the
women wear a ery narrow strip which seres as a petticoat almost identical with
what is worn &y the ;om+a) @agas in (ssam, the ends hardly meeting at the top on
the left thigh$ #hese petticoats are woen at home out of the fi&re of a forest tree$
:irls wear a fillet of &eads and of palmyra leaf and an enormous quantity of &eads
and nec) ornaments e1tremely li)e those worn &y many Jom+a) women$ !therwise
the women wear nothing$ #he women shae their heads entirely$ $ $ $ $ !f these
Chenchus, a tri&e residing near Farha&ad in the @izam6s Dominions it is said that
/their houses are conical, rather slight in structure made of &am&oo sloping to the
central point and coered with a thin layer of thatch$$$$$ #hey hae ery little, indeed,
in the way of material effects, the scanty clothes they wear, consisting of a langoti
and a cloth in the case of men, and a short &odice and a petticoat in the case of
women, &eing practically all, &esides a few coo)ing pots and a &as)et or two which
perhaps sometimes contains grain$ #hey )eep cattle and goats and in this particular
illage do a little cultiation, elsewhere su&sisting on honey and forest produce
which they sell/$ *egarding the ;orias, another Primitie tri&e, it is stated the men
generally wear a single cloth round the waist with a slap coming down in the front$
#hey also hae a nec)lace of &eads and when they dance put on coc)6s plumes and
peacoc)6s feathers in their tur&ans$ ;any girls are profusely tattooed, especially on
their faces, and some of them on their legs as well$ #he type of tattooing is said to
&e according to the taste of the indiidual and it is done with thorns and needles$ 'n
their hair many of them stic) the feathers of +ungle coc)s and their heads are also
adorned with com&s of wood and tin and &rass$
#hese Primitie #ri&es hae no hesitation a&out eating anything, een worms and
insects, and, in fact, there is ery little meat that they will not eat, whether the animal
has died a natural death or has &een )illed four days or more &efore &y a tiger$
#he ne1t groups of the people he will come across are the Criminal #ri&es$
#he Criminal #ri&es lie not in Forests as the Primitie #ri&es do &ut in the plains in
close pro1imity to, and often in the midst of ciilised life$ Hollis in his /Criminal #ri&es
of the "nited Proinces/ gies an account of their actiities$ #hey lie entirely &y
crime$ ( few may &e ostensi&ly engaged in agriculture, &ut this is only to coer up
their real actiities$ #heir nefarious practices find largest scope in dacoity or ro&&ery
&y iolence, &ut &eing a community organised for crime, nothing comes amiss to
them$ !n deciding to commit a dacoity in any particular locality spies are sent out to
select a suita&le ictim, study the general ha&its of the illagers, and the distance
from any effectie aid, and enumerate the num&er of men and firearms$ #he raid
usually ta)es place at midnight$ (cting on the information gien &y the spies, men
are posted at arious points in the illage and &y firing off their guns attract attention
from the main gang which attac)s the particular house or houses preiously
appointed$ #he gang usually consists of <E to ?E men$
't is essential to emphasis the great part played &y crime in the general life of these
peoples$ ( &oy is initiated into crime as soon as he is a&le to wal) and tal)$ @o dou&t
the motie is practical, to a great e1tent, in so far as it is always &etter to ris) a child
in petty theft, who, if he is caught, would pro&a&ly &e cuffed, while an adult would
immediately &e arrested$ (n important part is also played &y women, who, although
they do not participate in the actual raids, hae many heay responsi&ilities$ %esides
&eing cleer in disposing off stolen property the women of the Criminal #ri&es are
e1perts in shop lifting$
(t one time the Criminal #ri&es included such well2organised Confederacies of
Professional Criminals as the Pindharies and the #hugs$
#he Pindharies were a predatory &ody of armed gangsters$ #heir organisation was
an open military organisation of free&ooters who could muster 3EEEE fine horse and
een more$ #hey were under the command of &rigand chiefs$ Chitu one of the most
powerful commanders had under his single command 1EEEE horse, including AEEE
good caalry, &esides infantry and guns$ #he Pindharies had no military pro+ects for
employing their loose &ands of irregular soldiery, which deeloped into &odies of
professional plunderers$ #he Pindharies aimed at no conquests$ #heir o&+ect was to
secure &ooty and cash for themseles$ :eneral loot and rapine was their
occupation$ #hey recognised no rulers$ #hey were su&+ects of none$ #hey rendered
loyalty to none$ #hey respected none, and plundered all, high and low, rich and poor,
without fear or compunction$
#he #hugs
-f<A.
were a well organised &ody of professional assassins, who, in gangs
of from 1E to 1EE wandered in arious guises throughout 'ndia, wor)ed themseles
into the confidence of wayfarers of the wealthier class, and, when a faoura&le
opportunity occurred, strangled them &y throwing a hand)erchief or noose round
their nec)s, and then plundered and &uried them$ (ll this was done according to
certain ancient and rigidly prescri&ed forms and after the performance of special
religious rites, in which was the consecration of the pac)age, and the sacrifice of
sugar$ #hey were staunch worshippers of Jali, the Hindu :oddess of destruction$
(ssassination for gain was with them a religious duty, and was considered a holy
and honoura&le profession$ #hey had, in fact, no idea of doing wrong, and their
moral feelings did not come into play$ #he will of the :oddess, &y whose command
and in whose honour they followed there calling, was reealed to them through a
ery complicated system of omens$
'n o&edience to these they often traelled een the distance of hundred miles in
company with, or in the wa)e of, their intended ictims &efore a safe opportunity had
presented itself for e1ecuting their design8 and when the deed was done, rites were
performed in honour of that tutelary deity, and a goodly portion of the spoil was set
apart for her$ #he #hugs had also a +argon of their own, as well as certain signs &y
which its mem&ers recognised each other in the remotest part of 'ndia$ Een those
who from age or infirmities could no longer ta)e an actie part in the operations used
to aid the cause as watchmen, spies or dressers of food$ 't was owing to their
thorough organisation, the secrecy and security with which they went to wor), &ut
chiefly to the religious gar& in which they shrouded their murders, that they could
continue for centuries to practise their craft$ #he e1traordinary fact was that #hugee
was regarded as a regular profession &y 'ndian *ulers of the day, &oth Hindu and
;ahomedans$ #he #hugs paid ta1es to the state and the state left them unmolested$
't was not until the %ritish &ecame rulers of the country that an attempt was made
to suppress the #hugs$ %y 1G<A, <G3 #hugs were hanged and HGD were transported
or imprisoned for life$ Een as late as 1GFH the num&er of registered #hugs was <??
and the #hugee and the Dacoity department of the :oernment of 'ndia continued to
e1ist until 1HE? when its place was ta)en &y the Central Criminal 'ntelligence
Department$ While it is not possi&le for the criminal tri&es to lie &y organized &odies
of criminals, crime continues to &e their main occupation$
%esides these two classes there is a third class which comprises a &ody of people
who are )nown as "ntoucha&les$
%elow the "ntoucha&les there are others who are )nown as unapproacha&le$
"ntoucha&les are those who cause pollution only if they touch$ #he "napproacha&le
are those who cause pollution if they come within a certain distance$ 't is said of the
@ayadis0a people, who fall into the category of the "napproacha&le, /that they are
the lowest caste among the Hindus0the dog2eaters$
#hey are the most persistent in their clamour for charity, and will follow at a
respectful distance, for miles together any person wal)ing, driing or &oating$ 'f any
thing is gien to them, it must &e laid down, and after the person offering it has
proceeded a sufficient distance, the recipient comes timidly forward, and remoes it$
/!f the same people ;r$ #hurston says, /#he su&+ect =i$e$ the @ayadis> whom '
e1amined and measured at 9horanus, though liing only a&out three miles off, had,
&y reason of the pollution which they traditionally carry with them to aoid wal)ing
oer the long &ridge which spans the rier, and follow a circuitous route of many
miles/$ %elow the "napproacha&le are the "nseea&les$ 'n the #inneelley District of
the ;adras Presidency there is a class of unseea&les called Purada Bannans$ !f
them it is said, /that they are not allowed to come out during day time &ecause their
sight is enough to cause pollution$ #hese unfortunate people are 7compelled6 to
follow the nocturnal ha&its, leaing their dens after dar) and scuttling home at the
false dawn li)e the &adger, the hyena, the aordar)$/
Consider the total population of these classes$ #he Primitie #ri&es form a total of
3A million souls$ #he Criminal #ri&es num&er ?1U3 millions and the "ntoucha&les
num&er AE millions$ #his ma)es a grand total of FH1U3 millions$ @ow as) how these
people could hae remained in the state of moral, material, social and spiritual
degradation surrounded as they hae &een &y Hinduism$ Hindus say that their
ciilisation is older than any ciilisation, that Hinduism as a religion is superior to any
other religion$ 'f this is so how is that Hinduism failed to eleate these people, &ring
them enlightenment and hope8 how is it that it failed een to reclaim them 8 how is it
that it stood with folded hands when millions and millions were ta)ing to life to
shame and crime? What is the answer to this? #he only answer is that Hinduism is
oerwhelmed with the fear of pollution$ 't has not got the power to purify$ 't has not
the impulse to sere and that is &ecause &y its ery nature it is inhuman and
unmoral$ 't is a misnomer to call it religion$ 'ts philosophy is opposed to ery thing for
which religion stands$