The History of Indian Literature c8.26

Language: English

c8.26.1

Side by side with the Śrauta-Sútras we are met by a second family of ritual Sútras, the so-called Gṛihya-Sútras, which treat of domestic ceremonies, those celebrated at birth and before it, at marriage, as well as at death and after it. The origin of these works is sufficiently indicated by their title, since, in addition to the name of Gṛihya-Sútras, they also bear that of Smárta-Sútras, *i.e.*, “Sútras founded on the *Smṛiti*.” *Smṛiti*, ‘memory,’ *i.e.*, that which is the subject of memory, can evidently only be distinguished from *Śruti*, ‘hearing,’ *i.e.*, that which is the subject of hearing, in so far as the former impresses itself on the memory directly, without special instruction and provision for the purpose. It belongs to all, it is the property of the whole people, it is supported by the consciousness of all, and does not therefore need to be specially inculcated. Custom and law are common property and accessible to all; ritual, on the contrary, though in like manner arising originally from the common consciousness, is developed in its details by the speculations and suggestions of individuals, and remains so far the property of the few, who, favoured by external circumstances, understand how to inspire the people with a due awe of the importance and sanctity of their institutions. It is not, however, to be assumed from this that Smṛiti, custom and law, did not also undergo considerable alterations in the course of time.

c8.26.2

The mass of the immigrants had a great deal too much on their hands in the subjugation of the aborigines to be in a position to occupy themselves with other matters. Their whole energies had, in the first instance, to be concentrated upon the necessity of holding their own against the enemy. When this had been effected, and resistance was broken down, they awoke suddenly to find themselves bound and shackled in the hands of other and far more powerful enemies; or rather, they did not awake at all; their physical powers had been so long and so exclusively exercised and expended to the detriment of their intellectual energy, that the latter had gradually dwindled away altogether. The history of these new enemies was this: The knowledge of the ancient songs with which, in their ancient homes, the Indians had worshipped the powers of nature, and the knowledge of the ritual connected with these songs, became more and more the exclusive property of those whose ancestors perhaps composed them, and in whose families this knowledge had been hereditary. These same families remained in the possession of the traditions connected with them, and which were necessary to their explanation. To strangers in a foreign country, anything brought with them from home becomes invested with a halo of sacredness;

c8.26.3

and thus it came about that these families of singers became families of priests, whose influence was more and more consolidated in proportion as the distance between the people and their former home increased, and the more their ancient institutions were banished from their minds by external struggles. The guardians of the ancestral customs, of the primitive forms of worship, took an increasingly prominent position, became the representatives of these, and, finally, the representatives of the Divine itself. For so ably had they used their opportunities, that they succeeded in founding a hierarchy the like of which the world has never seen. To this position it would have been scarcely possible for them to attain but for the enervating climate of Hindustán, and the mode of life induced by it, which exercised a deteriorating influence upon a race unaccustomed to it. The families also of the petty kings who had formerly reigned over individual tribes, held a more prominent position in the larger kingdoms which were of necessity founded in Hindustán; and thus arose the military caste. Lastly, the people proper, the *Viśas*, or settlers, united to form a third caste, and they in their turn naturally reserved to themselves prerogatives over the fourth caste, or Śúdras.

c8.26.4

This last was composed of various mixed elements, partly, perhaps, of an Aryan race which had settled earlier in India, partly of the aborigines themselves, and partly again of those among the immigrants, or their Western kinsmen, who refused adherence to the new Brahmanical order. The royal families, the warriors, who, it may be supposed, strenuously supported the priesthood so long as it was a question of robbing the people of their rights, now that this was effected turned against their former allies, and sought to throw off the yoke that was likewise laid upon them. These efforts were, however, unavailing; the colossus was too firmly established. Obscure legends and isolated allusions are the only records left to us in the later writings, of the sacrilegious hands which ventured to attack the sacred and divinely consecrated majesty of the Brahmans; and these are careful to note, at the same time, the terrible punishments which befell those impious offenders. The fame of many a Barbarossa has here passed away and been forgotten!