Book II. rank of the order; but was, by their influence, converted into a fund, not only respectable but venerable, not only useful but opulent. Begging alms is no inconsiderable source of priestly power. The noviciates to the sacerdotal office are commanded to find their subsistence by begging, and even to carry part of their earnings to their spiritual master.* The duties of the Brahmens may be summed up in few words. They are, to read the Vedas, to teach them to the young Brahmens, and to perform sacrifices and other religious acts. †

Brahmen he keeps the whole; from others a part goes to the magistrate; and from a Sooder all but two twelfths. Halhed's Gentoo Laws, ch. 21, sect 2.

* Laws of Menu. ch. ii. The mendicity of the priests seems to have been a general instrument of priestly imposture. It was so among the Romans; and no unproductive one. See Apuleius, Metam. 1. viii. p. 262. Cicero, in his Book of Laws, proposes to restrain the begging trade of the priests.-Stipem sustulimus, nisi eam quam ad paucos dies propriam Idææ Matris excepimus: Implet enim superstitione animos, exhaurit domos. Cic. de Legib. l. ii. 9, 16. The Popish mendicants are a notorious instance. See Middleton's Letter from Rome, in Works of Dr. Conyers Middleton, iii. 116.

+ See the Laws of Menu, passim. "The influence of priestcraft over superstition is no where so visible as in India. All the commerces of life have a strict analogy with the ceremonies of religion; and the Brachman has inculcated such a variety of strange persuasions, that the Gentoo finds himself every hour under the necessity of consulting his spiritual guide. The building of a pagoda, and maintaining within it a set of priests, is believed the best action which human virtue is capable of. Every offence is capable of being expiated by largesses to the Brachmans, prescribed by themselves according to their own measures of avarice and sensuality." Orme, On the Government and People of Indostan, 432.

"Since the Brahmen sprang from the most excellent part, since he was the first born, and since he possesses the Veda, he is by right the chief of this whole creation.

"Him, the Being, who exists of himself, produced in the beginning from his own mouth, that, having performed holy rites, he might present clarified butter to the Gods, and cakes of rice to the progenitors of mankind, for the preservation of this world:

"What created being then can surpass him, with whose mouth the Gods of the firmament continually feast on clarified butter, and the manes of ancestors, on hallowed cakes?

"Of created things, the most excellent are those which are animated; of the animated, those which subsist by intelligence; of the intelligent, mankind; and of men, the sacerdotal class; "Of priests, those eminent in learning; of the learned, those who know their duty; of those who know it, such as perform it virtuously; and of the virtuous, those who seek beatitude from a perfect acquaintance with scriptural doctrine.

"The very birth of Brahmens is a constant incarnation of Dherma, God of Justice; for the Brahmen is born to promote justice, and to procure ultimate happiness.

"When a Brahmen springs to light, he is born above the world, the chief of all creatures, assigned to guard the treasury of duties, religious and civil.

"Whatever exists in the universe is all in effect, though not in form, the wealth of the Brahmen; since the Brahmen is entitled to it all by his primogeniture and eminence of birth." Laws of Menu, i. 93-100.

II. The next in rank and dignity among the castes of the Hindus, is that of CHAP. II. the Cshatriyas, or the military class. As in the rude and early state of society man has provided few securities against the evils with which he is assailed, and his wisdom has enabled him to draw few general rules respecting the order of their recurrence, he lives in perpetual expectation of unhappy events, as well from nature as from his fellow men; and fear is the principal passion which in that situation usurps the government of his mind. The priest soothes his imagination in regard to the first and most awful source of his apprehensions, by undertaking to procure for him the favour of the mysterious powers of nature. The soldier, from whom he expects protection against the ravages of hostile men, is the second object of his veneration and gratitude; and in the history of society it will be generally found that the rank and influence of the military order are high in proportion as the civilization of the people is low.* To all but the Brahmens the caste of Cshatriyas are an object of unbounded respect. They are as much elevated above the classes below them, as the Brahmens stand exalted above human beings. Nor is superiority of rank among the Hindus an unavailing ceremony; the most important advantages are bestowed upon it; and the distance which is created between the different orders of men is immense and degrading. If a man of a superior class accuses a man of an inferior class, and his accusation proves to be unjust, he escapes not with impunity; but if a man of an inferior class accuses a man of a superior class, and fails in proving his accusation, a double punishment is decreed for him. † "If a man of an inferior caste," says the Gentoo code, "proudly affecting an equality with a person of superior caste, should speak at the same time with him, the magistrate in that case shall punish him to the extent of his abilities." For all assaults, the penalty rises in proportion as the party offending is of a low caste, and the party complaining is high. It is, indeed, a general and a remarkable part of the jurisprudence of this singular people, that all crimes are more slightly punished in the higher, than in the subordinate classes; the penalty ascending,

To this observation I know not that any exception can be adduced, which is not resolvable into the influence of a government purely or chiefly military. This, however, is the effect of art, or of forced circumstances, not of nature, or of reason. It is Mandeville, I think, who remarks, that fear is the origin of the admiration which has been generally bestowed upon the profession of arms; and in confirmation of this observes, that it is the most timid sex by whom the military character is the most admired. Mr. Hume, too, has remarked that it is the most timid sex who are the most devoted to superstition and the priests.

Book II. by gradation, from the gentle correction of the venerable Brahmen, to the harsh and sanguinary chastisement of the degraded Sudra.* Even in such an affair as the interest of money on loan, a striking distinction is made between the different castes; where the Brahmen pays two per cent, three per cent is exacted from the Cshatriya, four per cent from the Vaisya, and five per cent from the Sudra. The sovereign dignity, which usually follows the power of the sword, was origiginally appropriated to the military class, though in this particular it would appear that irregularity was pretty early introduced. To bear arms is the peculiar duty of the Cshatriya caste, and their maintenance is derived from the provision made by the sovereign for his soldiers.

III. The Vaisyas are the third caste of the Hindus. Their duties are to tend cattle, to carry on merchandize, and to cultivate the ground. They are superior only to the Sudras, who owe to them, however, the same awful respect and submission, which it is incumbent on them to pay to the military class.

IV. As much as the Brahmen is an object of intense veneration, so much is the Sudra an object of contempt, and even of abhorrence, to the other classes of his countrymen. The business of the Sudras is servile labour, and their degradation inhuman. Not only is the most abject and grovelling submission imposed upon them as a religious duty, but they are driven from their just and equal share in all the advantages of the social institution. The crimes which they commit against others are more severely punished than those of any other delinquents, while the crimes which others commit against them are more gently punished than those against any other sufferers.† Even their persons and labour are not free. "A man of the servile caste, whether bought or unbought, a Brahmen may compel to perform servile duty; because such a man was created by the Self-existent for the purpose of serving Brahmens." The law scarcely permits them to own property; for it is declared that "no collection of wealth must be made by a Sudra, even though he has power, since a servile man, who has amassed riches, gives pain even to Brahmens." § "A Brahmen may seize without hesitation the goods of his Sudra slave; for as that slave can have no property, his master may take his goods." || Any failure in the respect exacted of the Sudra towards the superior classes is avenged by the most dread

* See the Laws of Menu, and Halhed's Gentoo Code, passim. The case of theft is an exception, the higher classes being for this punished the most severely.

+ Ib.

Laws of Menu, ch. viii. 413.

§ Ib. x. 129. Ib. viii. 417. If he be distressed for subsistence, says the gloss of Culluca.

ful punishments. Adultery with a woman of a higher caste is expiated by bur- CHAP. II. ning to death on a bed of iron. The degradation of the wretched Sudra extends not only to every thing in this life, but even to sacred instruction and his chance of favour with the superior powers. A Brahmen must never read the Veda in the presence of Sudras.* "Let not a Brahmen," says the law of Menu, “give advice to a Sudra; nor what remains from his table; nor clarified butter, of which part has been offered; nor let him give spiritual counsel to such a man, nor inform him of the legal expiation for his sin: surely he who declares the law to a servile man, and he who instructs him in the mode of expiating sin, sinks with that very man into the hell named Asainvrita." +

"If," says the Gentoo code, "a man of the Sooder reads the beids of the Shaster, or the Pooran, to a Brahmen, a Chehter, or a Bin, then the magistrate shall heat some bitter oil, and pour it into the aforesaid Sooder's mouth; and if a Sooder listens to the beids of the Shaster, then the oil, heated as before, shall be poured into his ears, and arzeez and wax shall be melted together, and the orifice of his ears shall be stopped up therewith. If a Sooder gets by heart the beids of the Shaster, the magistrate shall put him to death. If a Sooder always performs worship and the jugg, the magistrate shall put him to death. If a Sooder gives much and frequent molestation to a Brahmen, the magistrate shall put him to death." +

Halhed's Code of Gentoo Laws, ch. xxi, sect. 7. It is among the most barbarous tribes, that we in general find the principle of subordination abused to the greatest excess. Perhaps no instance is equal to that which exhibits itself among the Hindus. 66 Among the Natchez,” (says Robertson, Hist. Americ. ii. 139,) "a powerful tribe now extinct, on the banks of the Mississippi, a difference of rank took place, with which the northern tribes were altogether unacquainted. Some families were reputed noble, and enjoyed hereditary dignity. The body of the people was considered as vile, and formed only for subjection. This distinction was marked by appellations which intimated the high elevation of the one state, and the ignominious depression of the other: the former were called Respectable; the latter, the Stinkards."—" To be a servant" (says Millar, Distinction of Ranks, ch. v. sect. 1.) " in these primitive times was almost universally the same thing as to be a slave. The master assumed an unlimited jurisdiction over his servants, and the privilege of selling them at pleasure. He gave them no wages beside their maintenance; and he allowed them to have no property, but claimed to his own use whatever, by their labour, or by any other means, they happened to acquire. Thus the practice of domestic slavery appears to have been early established among the nations of antiquity; among the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Jews, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans.-The same practice obtains at present among all those tribes of barbarians, in different parts of the world, with which we have any correspondence."

BOOK II.

Although the adherence of each class to the particular employment assigned to it was secured by the most rigid laws and the severest penalties, there were extraordinary cases in which a limited departure was permitted. When a Brahmen cannot obtain subsistance by the proper business of his order, he may apply himself to that of the Cshratiya or the Vaisya, but must never become so far degraded as to engage in that of the Sudra. The Cshatriya and Vaisya, in like necessitous circumstances, may have recourse respectively to the business of the class or classes below them, even that of the Sudra, but are strictly interdicted from profaning the employment of any class above them. The Sudra having, originally, no inferior class, was probably abandoned to his necessities, though afterwards, in the employments of the mixed classes, a resource was opened also for him.* In this arrangement, as usually happens in the laws of the Hindus, the advantages are all on the side of the superior orders. The Brahmen has open to him, if need be, the occupations of all the respectable classes; he can overload them with additional numbers in the season of distress, a season at which it is natural for them to be overloaded without him, while his own occupation is exempt from the encroachment or competition of any other description of men. The Cshatriya, while he has the occupations open to him of two of the castes, is liable to the interference of one of them only. The Vaisya, on the other hand, can have recourse to none but the lowest of employments, that of the Sudra, while he is liable to be straitened in his own occupation by the interference and competition of both the orders above him. The unfortunate Sudra, who has no resource, may be driven from his employment, and his means of subsistence, mediately or immediately, by all the other classes of the community.

This distribution of the whole people into four classes only, and the appropriation of them to four species of employment; an arrangement which, in the very simple state of society in which it must have been introduced, was a great step in improvement, must have become productive of innumerable inconveniences as the wants of society multiplied. The bare necessaries of life, with a small number of its rudest accommodations, form all the means of gratification with which it prepares to meet the desires of man. As those desires, however, speedily extend beyond such narrow limits, a struggle must have early ensued between the first principle of human nature and those of the political establish

* Laws of Menu, ch. x. passim. Mr. Colebrooke on the Indian Classes, Asiat. Researches,

v. 63.