Caste in India: The Facts and the System c7.s3.21

c7.s3.21

If the expiations for Brahmans are here rendered singularly mild in many cases, are we therefore to conclude that but little value was attached to the prerogatives whose integrity these were intended to restore? I am all the less inclined to believe it, since even to-day the purifications and fines are, as we have seen, exceedingly light. Think, too, of that passionate glorification of Brahman greatness which is constantly exhibited,¹ of the absurdly exaggerated fees, amounting to hundreds of thousands of cows, which are demanded for their intervention in the sacrifices,² and of the coolness with which it is declared that in face of a lowlier adversary it is the judge's duty always to decide in favour of a Brahman, whatever wrongs he may have committed! How could the author or editors of these books—all Brahmans—have been niggardly in granting to the Brahmans facilities either for evading or softening painful obligations or expiating their offences? This very indulgence proves with what prestige they were already invested.