Caste in India: The Facts and the System c5.9

c5.9

Long ago I proved to my own satisfaction, by means of evidence all the more precious because dates are so rare, namely by a close analysis of the essential features of the Buddha legend, not, as I have too often been made to say, that the Buddha never existed, or that he was no more than a solar or meteorological myth, a doublet of Indra or Apollo, but that an epic legend had very early crystallized around his name. I pointed out also that this legend, which had not been created for him, but which he had inherited, was, whatever interpretation may be put upon it, mystical in its nature; that it was only transferred to him because it had formerly been associated with ancient gods or heroes, and contained certain features which could be easily applied to a new titular of human and historic origin, transfigured by the pious zeal of his followers. It follows that the divine types of Hinduism and several of its essential ideas necessarily must date back much farther than people seemed disposed to admit when my book appeared, and that the origins of Hinduism were more remote and more independent than was generally supposed. This theory has since gained ground, and I cannot help congratulating myself on having been among the first to give it shape and thus to make it known to thinking people. It finds, I think, fresh confirmation in the study of the caste system.