Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s1.25

v2.c27.s1.25

¹ Manu, in his rules on government, commands the king to impart his momentous counsel and entrust all transactions to a learned and distinguished Brahman (*Laws*, vii. 58). There is no being more aristocratic in his ideas than the secular Brahman or priest, who deems the bare name a passport to respect. The Kulin Brahman of Bengal piques himself upon this title of nobility granted by the last Hindu king of Kanauj (whence they migrated to Bengal), and in virtue of which his alliance in matrimony is courted. But although Manu has imposed obligations towards the Brahman little short of adoration, these are limited to the “learned in the Vedas”: he classes the unlearned Brahman with “an elephant made of wood, or an antelope of leather”; nullities, save in name. And he adds further, that “as liberality to a fool is useless, so is a Brahman useless if he read not the holy texts”: comparing the person who gives to such an one, to a husbandman “who, sowing seed in a barren soil, reaps no gain”; so the Brahman “obtains no reward in heaven.” These sentiments are repeated in numerous texts, holding out the most powerful inducements to the sacerdotal class to cultivate their minds, since their power consists solely in their wisdom. For such, there are no privileges too extensive, no homage too great. “A king, even though dying with want, must not receive any tax from a Brahman learned in the Vedas.” His person is sacred. “Never shall the king slay a Brahman, though convicted of all possible crimes,” is a premium at least to unbounded insolence, and unfits them for members of society, more especially for soldiers; banishment, with person and property untouched, is the declared punishment for even the most heinous crimes. “A Brahman may seize without hesitation, if he be distressed for a subsistence, the goods of his Sudra slave.” But the following text is the climax: “What prince could gain wealth by oppressing these [Brahmans], who, if angry, could frame other worlds, and regents of worlds, and could give birth to new gods and mortals?” (Manu, *Laws*, ii. iii. vii. viii. ix.).