Caste in India: The Facts and the System c7.s3.24

c7.s3.24

Without doubt this literature already rests on the foundations revealed by the law-books and the Epic. It is a pointless task to search in it for contemporary evidence of the foundation of the system, but in its exaggerations and in the completely exclusive inspiration by which it is permeated, it shows still more clearly at work the inclinations, interests, and defects whence has sprung, not the organization itself, but the system which gave it its dogmatic form. It exposes very clearly its artificial and speculative character. With its roots at least it comes into contact with the most primitive literary strata; among the Vedic hymns are several which are beyond all doubt contemporary with the period during which it was growing up under the direction of the priests.