History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c20.121.1

v2.c20.121.1

It should not be supposed that the brāhmaṇas inserted these eulogies solely for the purpose of increasing their importance and tightening their hold on the other classes. If the other classes had not themselves more or less shared these ideas, no amount of iteration on the part of brāhmaṇas would have given them the influence which they as a matter of fact wielded. Their influence was a growth of centuries and they themselves were as much parts of the huge edifice of the caste system as the other varṇas. Besides the brāhmaṇas had no military force behind them. They could only succeed in influencing the other varṇas by persuasion and their own worth. The brāhmaṇas were the creators and custodians of the vast literature that had grown up, they were the guardians of the culture of ages, they were expected to shoulder the burdens of teaching and preserving the vast literature on such gifts as were voluntarily made. Though many among them did not live up to the high ideals set up for their order, there must have been not a few who made as near an approach to the fulfilment of the ideal as possible. It was the greatness of these latter that led to the glorification of the whole order to which they belonged. Learning and *tapas* are more or less elusive and impalpable, while birth from brāhmaṇa parents was quite an apparent and palpable thing. Therefore that was seized upon by some writers as the principal reason for the respect to be given to brāhmaṇas.