The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s6.147

Language: English

c2.s6.147.1

Still another list gives us (xiii. 44. 3 ff.) the term *kṣātra*, or method peculiar to the warrior, as the one immediately after the one for the priests (*brāhma*), and it is described as where a bride is given according to the custom of the family, and is differentiated from the *rākṣasa*, with which in the Sūtras this name seems identical. The three lawful forms are here the *brāhma*, *kṣātra*, and *gāndharva*, and the two unlawful ones are *āsura* and *pāiçāca* = *rākṣasa*. It will at once occur to the reader that *prājāpatya* is identical with *svayaṃvara*, with which it interchanges in the lists above; and this is strengthened by the fact that in another passage from the same book as the last quotation we find *ārṣa*, *prājāpatya*, and *āsura* given as the three lawful forms (xiii. 19. 2), for the priestly, knightly, and mercantile castes, apparently. Of course *prājāpatya* is a late name, by analogy with *brāhma*, which in turn was misunderstood as ‘Brahma’s rite,’ though really ‘for the priests,’ as *kṣātra* is ‘for the warrior.’ The difference may, however, have been merely in the verses recited. In the Sūtras we find at first six marriages mentioned, of which the first three are in agreement with *Manu*; the fourth, fifth, and sixth are respectively the *gāndharva*, *kṣātra*, and *mānuṣa* (=*āsura*), according to Vasistha. To sum up, we have two peculiar methods of acquiring a girl open to a priest.

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He must not steal or buy her, but may receive her as a free gift or as a fee. There is one method, called the sages’ method, where a girl is sold for a yoke of cattle. This last is the only method known to the Greeks, but is reprehended, although acknowledged as an ancient custom, by the Hindu law-givers. There is one unceremonious connection, equivalent to a free-love union. There is one method called especially the warrior’s, where a girl is stolen by force. The next method is to buy the girl for money.* There remains the forbidden rape and the ceremonious *prājāpatya*. As no real wife is made without a wedding, we may take this to be the simplest explanation of allowed household connection with women. Deducting the first two for priests, the third, preserved, although disliked, as an ancient rule, we have the connection recognized for concubines who had no wedding ceremony: one for the warriors, by force; one for the merchants, by wealth. Connection by free-love and by force might afterwards be ratified by a wedding, and the girl then becomes a wife. Thus (xiii. 44. 24 ff.), we find that a girl may be sold for connubial connection, and the man is not to blame if he has the wedding-rite performed. Had the Epic election been an old ceremony, we should doubtless find it in the earlier law-literature, nor find *svayaṃvarā* (kept till late) merely as a girl that chooses†—that is, not one given by her parents.

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In the second list of the Epic we find too that the election is used in a very free way, rather applicable to the man than to the woman: thus, *svayaṃ kanyā varayāmāsa* is used by the suitor.‡ It is well-nigh impossible to suppose that the knightly election common in the Epic could have been a usual ceremony in earlier times, or we should see traces of it in the earlier literature; but here we find only that the girl chooses a husband; nothing of the great state and show of the Epic ceremony. It seems to me, therefore, that the identification of the Epic election as a later magnificent form of that method known to the law as one with a ceremony, and seemingly synonymous with it in our two earliest Epic lists, is well-nigh certain. Again, as the Epic election is common in the latest period, if assumed for a very early one it must have existed at the time when the Greek observers described India, and been continuously before the people. The Greeks know nothing of it, however; or are we to suppose that even historical sketches of the late kings (such as of Vikramāditya) would have described as historical elaborate election-scenes entirely unknown to that age?