Caste in India: The Facts and the System c7.s4.23

c7.s4.23

Of the names borne by the three castes, *Brāhmaṇa* alone is to be found in the hymns (excepting, as is proper, the hymn to Purusha, of which I have spoken above, which assumes as complete this system whose origins we are attempting to fathom). Even this is rare. The primitive form *Brahman* is frequent; in the neuter it is the accepted word used collectively for all the sacerdotal functions. Of the two names which at a later date designate the warriors, *Kshatriya*, which as an epithet expressing power is often appended to the names of certain gods, is only applied to chiefs once or twice in passages suspected of belonging to a recent period; *Rājanya* is unknown. On the other hand, the simple form *Rājan* is the common title of the nobles. The term *Kshatra* summarizes the idea of royal power. The name of the *Vaiśyas* is foreign to the hymns, while the primitive *Viś* is, in the plural, the invariable name of those ‘ clans ’ which constitute the mass of the nation. The trinity *Brahma*, *Kshatra*, and *Viś*, embracing the whole *Āryan* people, is not encountered only in the Veda. In the later literature of the *Brāhmaṇas* it is still an accepted thing.¹ It is repeated with an insistence which testifies to an ancient and respected origin in the very books which know and employ on occasion the definite terms : *Brāhmaṇa*, *Kshatriya*, *Vaiśya*.