Caste and Race in India c12.16

c12.16

The hereditary and prescriptive right of the Brahmins to act as priests to all castes of the Hindus, with only a few exceptions, has been the one uniform and general principle inhering in caste-society through all its vicissitudes. Later on we shall describe the attitude of the people towards this question; but here we should like to point out how certain decisions of the High Courts have emboldened the non-brahmanic castes to dislodge the Brahmins from their monopoly of priesthood. In Bengal and in North India generally it is now settled that there is no office of priest recognized as such in law, and a householder may employ anyone he likes for the performance of any priestly service and pay the fees to him. A similar view has been taken in the Madras Presidency.⁴ When in the Maratha country the non-Brahmin reformists started the practice of performing their religious rites without the aid of the Brahmin priests, the latter lodged a complaint asking for an injunction against the persons so violating their rights. The High Court of Bombay decreed that people could engage any priest they liked, and were not at all bound to call for the services of the hereditary priests; but unlike the High Court of Madras, they decreed that the hereditary priest must be paid some fees by way of compensation.¹