History of Bengali Language and Literature c7.s3.26

c7.s3.26

Besides these, there were lay Brāhmins, who could not boast of any particular merit beyond that of birth. But the whole Brāhmin community was imbued with the spirit of the Brāhmanical ideal on which the reverence of the people for the Brāhmins was mainly based. It is absurd to suppose that men who had no political power could enforce obedience, without first inspiring regard through their character and high attainments. The stories invented to glorify the Brāhmins beyond all measure, were due to a vague and exaggerated idea of the powers of the great Ṛiṣis of old—the ancestors of the modern Brāhmins. In the backwoods of Bengal one meets even now with wonderful instances of belief in the Brāhmin. There are people there who will not touch food before tasting water mixed with the dust of a Brāhmin's feet. Before a Brāhmin, they will tell no lie nor commit any other sinful act. Blind faith sometimes raises the character of illiterate people, in a way which it is easy to undo, but difficult to replace by the spread of education.