entering more deeply into the internal principle of this singular
division and rigid separation of the social ranks, and into the
historical origin of this strange constitution of human society. When
the Greeks, who accompanied or followed Alexander into India, numbered
seven instead of four castes in that country, they did not judge
inaccurately the outward condition of things; but they paid not
sufficient attention to the Indian notions of castes; and their very
enumeration of those castes proves they had mistaken some points of
detail. In this enumeration they assign the first rank to the
_Brachmans_, or wise men; and by the artisans, they no doubt understood
the trading and manufacturing class of the Vaisyas. The councillors and
intendants of kings and princes do not constitute a distinct caste, but
are mere officers and functionaries; who, if they be lawyers, belong to,
and must be taken from, the caste of Brahmins; though the other two
upper castes are not always rigidly excluded from these functions. The
class again that tends the breeding of cattle, and lives by the chase,
forms not a distinct caste, but merely follows a peculiar kind of
employment. And when the Greeks make two castes of the agriculturists
and the warriors, they only mean to draw a distinction between the
labourers and the masters, or the real proprietors of the soil. Even the
name of _Cshatriyas_ signifies landed proprietor; and, as in the old
Germanic constitution, the arriere-ban was composed of landed
proprietors, and the very possession of the soil imposed on the nobility
the obligation of military service; so, in the Indian constitution, the
two ideas of property in land, and military service, are indissolubly
connected. Some modern enquirers have attached very great importance to
the undoubtedly wide and remarkable separation of the fourth or menial
caste of Sudras from the three upper castes. They have thought they
perceived, also, a very great difference in the bodily structure and
general physiognomy of this fourth caste from those of the others; and
have thence concluded that the caste of Sudras is descended from a
totally different race, some primitive and barbarous people whom a more
civilized nation, to whom the three upper castes must have belonged,
have conquered and subdued, and degraded to that menial condition, the
lowest grade in the social scale,--a grade to which the iron arm of law
eternally binds them down. This hypothesis is in itself not very
improbable; and it may be proved from history that the like has really
occurred in several Asiatic, and even European, countries. In the
back-ground of old, mighty and civilized nations we can almost always
trace the primeval inhabitants of the country, who, dispossessed of
their territory, have been either reduced to servitude by their
conquerors, or have gradually been incorporated with them. These
primitive inhabitants, when compared with their later and more civilized
conquerors, appear indeed in general rude and barbarous; though we find
among them a certain number of ancient customs and arts, which by no
means tend to confirm the notion of an original and universal savage
state of nature. It is possible that the same circumstances have
occurred in India; though this is by no means a necessary inference, for
humanity, in its progress, follows not one uniform course, but pursues
various and widely different paths; and, hitherto at least, no adequate
historical proof has, in my opinion, been adduced for the reality of
such an occurrence in India. It has also been conjectured that the caste
of warriors, or the princes and hereditary nobility, possessed
originally greater power and influence; and that it is only by degrees
the race of Brahmins has attained to that great preponderance which it
displays in later times, and which it even still possesses. We find,
indeed, in the old epic, mythological, and historical poems of the
Indians, many passages which describe a contest between these two
classes, and which represent the deified heroes of India victoriously
defending the wise and pious Brahmins from the attacks of the fierce and
presumptuous Cshatriyas. This account, however, is susceptible of
another interpretation, and should not be taken exclusively in this
political sense. That in the brilliant period of their ancient and
national dynasties and governments, the princes and warlike nobility
possessed greater weight and importance than at present, is quite in the
nature of things, and appears indeed to have been undoubtedly the case.
From many indications in the old Indian traditions and histories, it
would appear that the caste of Cshatriyas, was partially at least, of
foreign extraction; while those traditionary accounts constantly
represent the caste of Brahmins as the highest class, and nobler part,
nay, the corner-stone of the whole community.
The origin of an hereditary caste of warriors, when considered in
itself, may be easily accounted for, and it is no wise contrary to the
nature of things that, even in a state of society where legal rights are
yet undefined, the son, especially the eldest, should govern and
administer the territory or property which his deceased father
possessed, and even in those cases where it was necessary, should take
possession, administer, and defend this property by open force and the
aid of his dependents.
But afterwards, when the social relations became more clearly fixed by
law, and an union on a larger scale was formed by a general league, as
the duties of military service were annexed to the soil, so the right to
the soil was again determined by, and depended on, military service;
now, in that primitive period of history, such a political union might
have been formed by a common subordination to a higher power, or by a
confederacy between several potentates; and this has really been the
origin of an hereditary landed nobility in many countries.
The hereditary continuance or transmission of arts and trades, whereby
the son pursues the occupation of the father, and learns and applies
what the latter has discovered, has nothing singular in itself, and
appears indeed to contain its own explanation. But it is not easy, or at
least equally so, to account for the exclusive distribution and the
exact and rigid separation of castes, particularly by any religious
motives and principles, which are, however, indubitably connected with
this institution. Still less can we understand the existence of a great
hereditary class of priests, eternally divided from the rest of the
community, such as existed both in India and Egypt. To comprehend this
strange phenomenon, we must endeavour to discover its origin, and trace
it back, as far as is possible, to the primitive ages of the world.--If,
for the sake of brevity, I have used the expression, "a class of
_hereditary priests_," I ought to add, in order to explain my meaning
more clearly, that the word _priests_ must not be taken in that limited
sense which antiquity attached to it; that the Brahmins are not merely
confined to the functions of prayer, but are strictly and eminently
theologians, since they alone are permitted to read and interpret the
Vedas, while the other castes can read only with their sanction such
passages of those sacred writings as are adapted to their circumstances,
and the fourth caste are entirely prohibited from hearing any portion of
them. The Brahmins are also the lawyers and physicians of India, and
hence the Greeks did not designate them erroneously when they termed
them the _caste of philosophers_.
We have already had occasion to observe that the Mosaic narrative,--that
first monument of all history, (which a very intellectual German writer
has called the primitive document of the human race, and which it indeed
is even in a mere historical sense, and in the literal acceptation of
the word,) that the Mosaic narrative, we say, ascribes to the Cainites
the origin of hereditary arts and trades. And there are two which are
particularly worthy of remark, and to which I drew your attention--the
knowledge of metals, and the art of music. I used the general
expression, the knowledge of metals, because in the primitive ages of
the world, the art of working mines, or of exploring and extracting
metals from the earth, was essentially connected with the art of
preparing and polishing them; and this knowledge of metals was very
instrumental in forwarding the infant civilization of the primitive
world, as the art of working and polishing them has ever contributed to
the refinement of mankind. By the music of the Cainites, I said we were
not to understand our own more elaborate and sublime system of melody.
This art was chiefly consecrated in those ancient times, to the uses of
divine service; still older, perhaps, was the medicinal, or rather the
magical, use and influence of music. This is at least indicated by the
tradition and mythology of all nations; and such a supposition is quite
conformable to the spirit of those early ages; and I would here remind
you that, in the primitive symbolical writing of the Chinese, the sign
of a magician represents also a priest--a character which, as Remusat
has observed, is not to be found in the narrow circle of their symbols.
I added, that the existence of an hereditary caste of warriors among the
Cainites was possible, and even probable; though not so, in my opinion,
the existence of an hereditary sacerdotal caste. But though such an
institution did not emanate from the Cainites, it may at least have been
occasioned by them. As I said before, the Mosaic history represents the
vast, boundless, prodigious corruption of the world in the age
immediately preceding the deluge, as produced solely by the union of the
better and godly portion of mankind with the lawless descendants of
Cain. Thus this would supposes a certain dread and apprehension of any
alliance and intercourse with a race laden with malediction, and
pregnant with calamity. And may not this very circumstance have given
rise to the establishment of a distinctly separate and hereditary class,
not of priests in the later signification of that word, but of men
chosen and consecrated by God, and entirely devoted to his service? and,
consequently, is it not among the later Sethites, we must look for the
origin of this institution?
We should transport ourselves in imagination to the age of the
Patriarchs, and then consider that, with the high powers which they
still possessed, they must have watched with the most jealous and
far-sighted solicitude over the fate of their posterity, in order to
preserve them in their original purity and high hereditary dignity. The
Indian traditions acknowledge and revere the succession of the first
ancestors of mankind, or the holy Patriarchs of the primitive world,
under the name of the seven great _Rishis_, or sages of hoary antiquity;
though they invest their history with a cloud of fictions. They place
all these Patriarchs in the primitive world, and assign them to the race
of Brahmins;--a circumstance which cannot here appear unfitting. It has
been often observed that the Indians have no regular histories, no works
of real historical science; and the reason is that with them the sense
of the primitive world is still fresh and lively, and that not only do
they clothe their ideas in a poetical garb, but all their conceptions of
human affairs and events are exclusively mythological; so that all the
real events of later historical times are absorbed in the element of
mythology, or at least strongly tinged with its colours. It is in the
same way, the Panegyrists of the Chinese language remark that the almost
total absence of grammar in that language, among a people of such highly
cultivated intellect, should not be taken merely to denote the poverty
and jejuneness of the infancy of speech, as this in a great measure
originated in the fact that the profound primitive emotions, which gave
birth to those first languages, were too absorbed in the subject of
their contemplation, too much bent on giving utterance to the most
effective word, or expressing themselves with the most condensed
brevity, to perplex or trouble themselves with nicer distinctions, and
minor and often superfluous rules.
The providential care of these first Patriarchs for the preservation and
prosperity of their offspring and race is evinced in those Patriarchal
scenes described not only in the Sagas of other primitive nations, but
also in the sacred writings of the Hebrews; and where the hoary
grand-sire imparts and transmits to his sons and grand-sons the power of
his benediction, which was not a mere empty form of words, as the
special inheritance of each. We see, too, that, after assigning the
first rank to the eldest son, or to some favourite child, perhaps,
originally chosen and preferred by God, the venerable Patriarch utters
some words of warning which the succeeding history but too well
justifies; or darkly indicates a deep, presentiment of some great
impending calamity. But there is, in particular, a passage relative to
the first great progenitor of mankind which deserves to be here noticed.
When the calamitous epoch of the first fraternal contest, and the first
fatal fratricide had elapsed, it is said in Holy Writ, "Adam begat a son
in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth." The
first thing that must strike us in this passage is the great and
humiliating inferiority which it involves. Adam was created after the
likeness of Almighty God; but Seth is begotten after the likeness of
Adam. Yet there is no doubt that, from the peculiar style and manner of
Holy Writ, a very high pre-eminence was here conferred on Seth. For in
the same way as we have seen that the Patriarchs were wont to impart
their blessings to their sons and their posterity, Adam granted and
communicated to Seth, as to his first-born in this second commencement
of the human race, and as his inheritance and exclusive birth-right, all
those prerogatives and high gifts and powers, which he himself had
originally received from his Creator, and which, on his reconciliation
with his God, he had once more obtained. Nothing similar is said of the
other sons and daughters afterwards begotten by Adam, and through whom
other nations have derived their descent from the common parent. This
circumstance confirms and explains that high pre-eminence which,
according to sacred tradition, was conferred on the race of Seth. As to
the high powers which the father of mankind had preserved after his
fall, or had a second time received, we may well suppose that, after the
crime and flight of Cain, he would endeavour to retrieve his errors by
the establishment of the better race of Seth, and by a consequent
renovation of humanity. This is not a mere arbitrary supposition, for it
is expressly said in Holy Writ that the first man, ordained to be "the
father of the whole earth," (as he is there called,) became on his
reconciliation with his Maker, the wisest of all men, and, according to
tradition, the greatest of prophets, who, in his far-reaching ken,
foresaw the destinies of all mankind, in all successive ages down to the
end of the world. All this must be taken in a strict historical sense,
for the moral interpretation we abandon to others. The pre-eminence of
the Sethites, chosen by God, and entirely devoted to his service, must
be received as an undoubted historical fact, to which we find many
pointed allusions even in the traditions of the other Asiatic nations.
Nay the hostility between the Sethites and Cainites, and the mutual
relations of these two races, form the chief clue to the history of the
primitive world, and even of many particular nations of antiquity. That,
after the violent but transient interruption occasioned by the deluge,
the remembrance of many things might revive, and the same or a similar
hostility between the two races; which had existed in the ante-diluvian
world, might be a second time displayed, is a matter which it is
unnecessary to examine any further. Equally needless would it be to shew
that, in the increasing degeneracy of man, every thing was soon more and
more disfigured and deranged, and finally became for the most part
undistinguishable, till it was afterwards a problem for the historical
enquirer to reduce to the simple elements of their origin the greatest,
most extraordinary and most remarkable phenomena which still remained,
or were remembered, of the primitive ages.
If I think it not impossible that the Indian constitution of castes, and
its most important branch, the Brahminical class--that is to say, the
moral and general conception of this ancient institution, may be
connected with the scriptural history and the sacred tradition
respecting the race of Seth; I must observe that to this hypothesis an
objection can no more be taken from the present character and moral
condition of the Brahmins, than we can estimate the high gifts, the
great men and the mighty Prophets, that the Almighty once accorded to
the Jewish nation, or such noble natures as those of Moses and Elias, by
the present fallen state of that dispersed people.
These remarks may suffice to give an idea of the most important feature
in Indian society. Before I attempt to examine the second great
characteristic of this people,--the doctrine of the transmigration of
souls, a principle which, if it has not produced, has at least given the
peculiar bent to their whole philosophy; I wish to take a general view
of Polytheism, particularly as our notions of it, chiefly derived from
the Greeks, are by no means perfectly applicable to the primitive
nations of Asia.
We are wont to regard the Grecian mythology, and its many-coloured world
of fables, only as the beautiful effusion of poetry, or a playful
creation of fancy; and we never think of enquiring deeply or minutely
into its details, or of examining its moral import and influence. It is
the more natural that the mythology of the Greeks should produce this
impression on our minds, and that we should regard it in this light, as
all the higher ideas and severer doctrines on the God-head, its
sovereign nature and infinite might, on the eternal wisdom and
providence that conducts and directs all things to their proper end, on
the infinite Mind, and supreme Intelligence that created all things, and
that is raised far above external nature; all these higher ideas and
severer doctrines have been expounded more or less perfectly by
Pythagoras, or by Anaxagoras and Socrates; and have been developed in
the most beautiful and luminous manner by Plato and the philosophers
that followed him. But all this did not pass into the popular religion
of the Greeks, and it remained for the most part a stranger to these
exalted doctrines; and, though we find in this mythology many things
capable of a deeper import and more spiritual signification,
yet they appear but as rare vestiges of ancient truth--vague
presentiments--fugitive tones--momentary flashes, revealing a belief in
a supreme Being, an almighty Creator of the universe, and the common
Father of mankind.
But it is far otherwise in the Indian mythology. There, amid a sensual
idolatry of nature more passionate and enthusiastic still than that of
the Greeks, amid Pagan fictions and conceptions far more gigantic than
those of the latter, we find almost all the truths of natural theology,
not indeed without a considerable admixture of error, expressed with the
utmost earnestness and dignity. We meet too, in this mythology, with the
most rigidly scientific and metaphysical notions of the Supreme Being,
his attributes and his relations; and it is the peculiar character of
the Indian mythology to combine a gigantic wildness of fantasy, and a
boundless enthusiasm for nature, with a deep mystical import, and a
profound philosophic sense. If the Pythagoreans had succeeded in the
design, which they in all probability entertained, of rendering their
lofty notions on the Deity and on man, on the immortality of the soul,
and the invisible world, more generally prevalent, and of introducing
these ideas into the popular religion; as it was not their intention
entirely to reject the vulgar creed, but only to mould it to their own
principles, and impart to it a higher and more spiritual sense, (an
attempt which was afterwards made by the New Platonists and the Emperor
Julian, out of hatred to Christianity, though, as the time had then long
gone by, their enterprise was attended with no permanent effects); if
the Pythagoreans, we say, had succeeded in their design, the Greek
mythology might then have borne some resemblance to the Indian, and we
might have instituted a comparison between the two. In the Indian
mythology this strange combination, this inconsistent junction of the
sublimest truth with the most sensual error, of the wildest and most
extravagant fiction with the most abstract metaphysics, and even the
purest natural theology (if we may thus call the divine Revelation of
the primitive world); this strange combination, we say, has not been the
effect of artful interpolation, but the fruit of native growth and of
earliest development.
We must now be on our guard not to admit too lightly or too quickly the
coincidence of certain symbols and conceptions of mythology with truths
and doctrines familiar to ourselves. How much, for instance, would a man
err, who would suppose that there was any analogy in the Indian symbol
and notion of _Trimurti_, or the divine Triad, I do not say with the
Christian doctrine of the Trinity, but with the opinion of either of the
Platonic schools on the triple essence, or the triple Personality of the
one God. In this symbol the heads of the three principal Hindoo
divinities, Brahma, Vishnoo, and Siva, the Gods of creation,
preservation and destruction, are united in one figure; and this union
undoubtedly indicates the primary energy common to all three. If we
examine each in particular, we shall see that the attributes assigned to
Brahma, and the expressions usually applied to his person, when divested
of their poetical garb, and mythic accompaniments, may often, almost
literally and in strict truth, be referred to the Deity. The
all-pervading and self-transforming Vishnoo is much more the wonderful
Prometheus of nature, than a real and well defined divinity. The third
in this divine Triad, the formidable and destructive Siva, has but a
very remote analogy with the Deity that judges and chastises the world
according to justice. This God of destruction, whose worshippers appear
to have been formerly the most numerous in India, as those of Vishnoo
are at the present day; this God of destruction, with his serpents and
bracelets of human skulls, appears evidently to be that demon of
corruption who brought death into all creation, and who here,
whimsically and inconsistently enough, has been introduced into the
symbol, and made a part of the Deity itself. This union or confusion of
Eternal Perfection with the Evil Principle is made in another way by the
Indian philosophers; as some of them explain the doctrine of Trimurti,
or the divine Triad by reference to the _Traigunyan_, or the three
_qualities_. These three different regions, or degrees, into which,
according to the Indian doctrine, all existence is divided, are the pure
world of eternal truth, or of light, the middle region of vain
appearance and illusion, and the abyss of darkness. However, it must be
observed that the Indians do not express the pure and metaphysical idea
of the Supreme Being by either of the names of the two last-mentioned
popular divinities; nor do they even denote this idea by the name of
Brahma, the first person of their trinity, but by the word _Brahm_, a
neuter noun which signifies the Supreme Being.
As there were now two conflicting elements in the breast of man--the old
inheritance or original dowry of truth, which God had imparted to him in
the primitive revelation; and error, or the foundation for error in his
degraded sense and spirit now turned from God to Nature--how easily must
error have sprung up, when the precious gem of divine truth was no
longer guarded with jealous care, nor preserved in its pristine purity;
how much must truth have been obscured, as error advanced in all its
formidable might, and in all its power of seduction; and how soon must
not this have happened among a people, like the Indians, with whom
imagination and a very deep, but still sensual, feeling for Nature, were
so predominant!--It was thus a wild enthusiasm, and a sensual idolatry
of Nature, generally superseded the simple worship of Almighty God, and
set aside or disfigured the pure belief in the eternal, uncreated
Spirit. The great powers and elements of nature, and the vital principle
of production and procreation through all generations, then the
celestial spirits, or the heavenly host (to speak the language of
antiquity), the luminous choir of stars, which the whole ancient world
regarded not as mere globes of light or bodies of fire, but as animated
substances; next the Genii and tutelar spirits, and even the souls of
the dead received now divine worship; and men, instead of honouring the
Creator in these, and of regarding these in reference to their Creator,
considered them as Gods. Such is, when we have once supposed that man
had turned away from God to Nature, such is the natural origin of
Polytheism, which in every nation assumed a different form according to
the peculiar modes of life, and the prevailing principles of life, in
each.