The Brahman body, however, lacked one very important element of
strength. They were apparently never organised nor controlled by
any central authority such as that which made the Roman church so
powerful and cohesive. Colleges and seats of learning existed at
Benares and other places, at which their youth were trained in the
knowledge of religion and of the measure of their own pretensions,
and the means by which these were to be sustained. But probably
only a small minority can have attended them, and even these when
they returned home must have been left practically to themselves,
spread as the Brahmans were over the whole of India with no means of
postal communication or rapid transit. And by this fact the chaotic
character of the Hindu religion, its freedom of belief and worship,
its innumerable deities, and the almost complete absence of dogmas
may probably be to a great extent explained. And further the Brahman
caste itself cannot have been so strictly organised that outsiders and
the priests of the lower alien religions never obtained entrance to
it. As shown by Mr. Crooke, many foreign elements, both individuals
and groups, have at various times been admitted into the caste.