A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c7.68

c7.68

We have now to consider how the above doctrine was developed in other passages of the Brāhmaṇas into the dogma of joint lordship of the Brāhmaṇa and the Kṣatriya over the rest. In the passage of the Taitt. Sam. referred to above, the four classes are declared to correspond to as many separate categories of created beings.∗ The Brāhmaṇas, moreover, present alternative theories of the origin of society, which tend to exclude the lowest class from fellowship of the others, who alone are said to be created by the Supreme Deity. Thus according to a passage of the Taitt. Br. the Brāhmaṇas sprang from the gods and the Śūdras from Asuras (demons), while another passage declares the Śūdra to have sprung from non-existence.† A passage of the Śat. Br. mentions Prajāpati's creation of three triads, each of which is expressly stated to be co-extensive with the Universe. These comprise the series earth ether and sky, the Brāhmaṇa the Kṣatriya and the Vaiśya, as well as the self the human race and the animals.‡ Another passage of the Śat. Br. goes further, and seeks to exclude even the Vaiśya from the fellowship of the Brāhmaṇa and the Kṣatriya. Incomplete, it says, is he who is not either a noble or a domestic chaplain, while he who is either a noble or a domestic chaplain is everything.*