Caste and Race in India c5.68

c5.68

Brahminic ceremonies are to be performed with the help of a ritual, and two types of rituals have been evolved: the Vedic and the Puranic. The Vedic ritual is based on the Vedic mantras and is regarded as of great sanctity, while the Puranic is based on formulæ of less sanctity, and not on revealed knowledge. How great this feeling of sanctity about Vedic lore was can be gauged from the fact that in 1843 a Brahmin professor advised the Bombay Board of Education not to publish a certain book because it contained quotations from Pāṇini's grammar which, if printed, would be desecrated.⁵ The Śūdras are asked to content themselves with the latter ritual, while for the impure castes, a Brahmin, unless he is a pseudo-Brahmin or an apostate, would not minister at all. It is only from the hands of the clean Śūdras, again, that a Brahmin will accept any gifts which are meant to store up merit for the donor. Such an advanced caste as the Prabhus in the Maratha country had to establish its right of carrying on the sacred rites according to the Vedic formulæ which was being questioned during the period of the later Peshwas.¹ Certain sacraments cannot be performed by any other caste than the Brahmins. The most sacred literature cannot be studied by the Śūdras. No caste can employ any other priests than the Brahmins, with very few exceptions in Southern India. The artisans of Madras seem to employ their own priests; and the goldsmith caste of the Maratha region established their right of employing their caste-fellows as priests during the last part of the Peshwa-rule.² The innermost recesses of temples can only be approached by the Brahmins, clean Śūdras and other high castes having to keep outside the sacred precincts. The impure castes, and particularly the untouchables, cannot enter even the outer portions of a temple but must keep to the courtyards. In South Malabar, the high castes do not allow the Tiyans to cremate their dead.³