Caste and Race in India c8.110

c8.110

Naturally many are the privileges that are claimed for the Brahmins. We will mention only a few of them, not previously noticed. While in the last period it was only the Śūdra who was enjoined to serve the varnas and particularly the Brahmin, now all the three varnas are exhorted to serve the Brahmin, the theory being that each lower caste owes subservience to all the higher castes.² Nārada exhorts a king to be constantly showing honour to the Brahmins for "a field furnished with Brahmins is the root of the prosperity of the world". The king must show himself first in the morning to the Brahmins and salute them. To them belongs the right to collect flowers and such other things, to converse with other men's wives without any restraint, and to cross rivers without paying any fare for the ferry. If engaged in trade, they may use the ferry without paying any toll.³ Yet with all his exaltation a Brahmin is exhorted to follow the rules of conduct laid down for him lest he should miss the fruit of his Vedic studies. And the old saying, applauding the union of the Brahmin and the Kshatriya, is glibly paraded forth.⁴