History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.93

v2.c19.93

One very important question is whether the theory of the four varṇas with their peculiar privileges and duties described in the dharmasūtras and other smṛtis was merely a theory even in the most ancient times. When the Puruṣasūkta of the Ṛgveda speaks of Brāhmaṇa, Rājanya, Vaiśya and Śūdra or when the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa expressly says that they are four varṇas, it appears to me that they speak of facts existing in their times and not merely of a theory which was to be striven for as an ideal. Smṛti writers try to place all their dicta in the frame-work of the varṇas because the four varṇas and their duties and privileges had been more or less clearly defined in the times of the Vedas and Brāhmaṇas, which according to the authors of the smṛtis were śruti, eternal and infallible. They tried to approximate the state of society existing in their times to the varṇas which they held were of hoary antiquity. But there is nothing to show that the same difficulties were felt by the authors of the Vedic hymns and the Brāhmaṇas. The manner in which they refer to the privileges and disabilities of the several varṇas have such a deep ring of actuality that one must concede that the varṇas spoken of in them represented the real divisions of society at least to a very great extent, if not cent percent.