The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.45

v1.c17.45

The question now presents itself as to the extent to which in the period of the Rigveda the caste system had been developed. The existence of the caste system in any form in the age of the Rigveda has been denied by high authority¹, though it has been asserted of late with increasing insistence². In one sense, indeed, its presence in the Rigveda cannot be disputed. In the *Purusha-sūkta* the four castes of the later texts, Brāhmaṇa (‘priest’), Rājanya (‘prince’ or more broadly ‘warrior’), Vaiçya (‘commoner’), and Çūdra are mentioned. But this hymn is admittedly late and can prove nothing for the state of affairs prevailing when the bulk of the Rigveda was composed. On the other hand, as we have seen, the distinction between the Āryan colour (*varṇa*) and that of the aborigines is essential and forms a basis of caste. The question is thus narrowed down to the consideration of the arguments for and against the view that in the Āryans themselves caste divisions were appearing. On the one hand, it is argued that in the period of Vasishṭha and Viçvāmitra, when the great poetry of the Rigveda was being produced, neither the priestly class nor the warrior class was hereditary. The warriors of the community were the agricultural and industrial classes, and the priesthood was not yet hereditary. It has been held that the Brāhman priest was not necessarily the member of an hereditary class at all, that the term could be applied as well to any person who was distinguished by genius or virtue, or who for some reason was deemed specially receptive of the divine inspiration. The growth of the caste system is traced on this hypothesis to the complication of life ensuing on the further penetration of the Āryans from the Punjab towards the east. The petty tribes found it necessary, in order to defeat the solid forces of the aborigines, to mass themselves into centralised kingdoms. The petty tribal princes thus lost their full royal rank, but found employment and profit instead in becoming a standing armed force, ready to resist sudden incursion or to crush the attempts at rebellion of the defeated aborigines. On the other hand, the industrial and agricultural population, relying on the protection of the warrior class, abandoned the use of arms. Together with the growth in the size of the kingdom and the increasing complexity of civilisation, the simple ritual of an earlier period, when the king himself could sacrifice for his people, grew to an extent which rendered this impracticable, while at the same time an ever increasing importance came to be attached to the faithful and exact performance of the rites and the preservation of the traditional formulae. The result of this process was, it is suggested, the growth of a priesthood, of a warrior class, and of a third class, the Vaiçya, sharply distinguished from one another and strictly hereditary. But the comparatively late date of this development is shown by the fact that in later times the inhabitants of the North-West, the home of the Rigveda, were regarded as semi-barbarians by those of the Middle Country, in which the Brāhmanical civilisation had developed itself, on the ground that they did not follow the strict caste system.