History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c20.121.2

v2.c20.121.2

For centuries human societies have everywhere acquiesced in the government and control exercised by small coteries of the elite, generally the elite of birth, who have guided the destinies of their societies on traditional lines of religious and social order. It must be remembered that the smṛti works also extol the office of the king (which was generally hereditary and is so even now) to the skies. Manu (VII. 4-11) propounds³⁰⁷ the theory that the king has in him the parts of such gods as Indra and that a king is a great deity in human form. The theory of varṇas as conceived by Manu and other smṛtikāras was based upon the idea of the division of labour, on the idea of balancing the rival claims of various sections of the community; it laid greatest emphasis upon the duties of the varṇas rather than upon their rights and privileges. It raised the brāhmaṇa to the highest pinnacle of reverence, but at the same time it placed before him the ideal of not hankering after temporal power, of leading a life of comparative poverty and of making his knowledge available to the other classes for a scanty and precarious return. It made the military caste feel that they were not all-in-all, but had to look up to some other class as superior to themselves. European writers severely condemn brāhmaṇas for their greed, selfishness and constant praises of gifts to themselves.