The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c9.s6.1

c9.s6.1

Certain phrases are often quoted from the Vedic encyclopædia to seemingly fortify the dogma of the alleged social inequalities or of superiority and inferiority among the four orders.¹⁹ The *Taittirīya Samhitā* (VII, 1, i) furnishes an illustration of the “social award” as embodied in the caste system. But there we are told simply that one (the Brāhmaṇa) is the “chief” and another (the Kṣatriya) is “strong” and so forth. It is not possible to wring out of that passage the idea that one is superior to or enjoys precedence over the other. The only social philosophy that can be discovered here is that each one is somebody in his own field.