The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.1

c6.1

In Hindu society, the brahmin stands supreme. Though he is, at least in principle, divested of temporal power, he is superior even to the king. His is the absolute purity, the yardstick of the socioreligious hierarchy, in relation to which the nonbrahmin gauges his own status.¹ He can be said to be the measure of things. Not only do the classical codes of social and religious behavior derive from him, but also, even to the present day, he represents the model that the others strive to imitate, as witnessed by the increase in "Sanskritization" (i.e., the conforming to brahminical norms of respectability) among nonbrahmins, and especially among the harijan.²