The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c5.s6.5

c5.s6.5

The position is summarized by Berr as follows. The power of the Brāhmaṇas was restrained by varied circumstances which served to furnish the nobility and the military element with considerable importance and sometime preponderance. An ample evolution of politics was consummated always on account of real necessities, namely, the need for external or internal defence. The situation was rather that of a gendarmerie than of anarchy. In spite of all, even the tendency towards unification of groups, so powerful elsewhere, was not non-existent in India. Royalty was established by the nobles and it “appeared as an institution entirely human and did not claim any divine right.” To the *fait accompli* of political power the Brāhmaṇas were forced to accord their religious consecration (pp. xi-xii).