The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c7.10

c7.10

Caste. Caste has developed further and is now firmly established. It is now regarded as divine in origin and eternal in duration. In the well-known pantheistic Puruṣasûkta of the tenth Maṇḍala of the Ṛigveda occurs the standard explanation of caste. At the commencement of creation appeared Puruṣa, endowed with a thousand heads, a thousand eyes and a thousand legs. "Puruṣa is all this world, what has been and shall be." Three-fourths of him is the immortals in heaven and "one-