[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Vedic Index of Names and Subjects](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912) › v2.c4.s7.212 # Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s7.212 Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s7.212 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c4.s7.212](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v2.c4.s7.212) This version of the development of caste has received a good deal of acceptance in its main outlines, and it may almost be regarded as the recognized version.²¹ It has, however, always been opposed by some scholars, such as Haug,²² Kern,²³ Ludwig,²⁴ and more recently by Oldenberg 25 and by Geldner.²⁶ The matter may be to some extent simplified by recognizing at once that the caste system is one that has progressively developed, and that it is not legitimate to see in the Rigveda the full caste system even of the Yajurveda; but at the same time it is difficult to doubt that the system was already well on its way to general acceptance. The argument from the non-brahminical character of the Vrātyas of the Indus and Panjab loses its force when it is remembered that there is much evidence in favour of placing the composition of the bulk of the Rigveda, especially the books²⁷ in which Sudās appears with Vasiṣṭha and Viśvāmitra, in the east, the later Madhyadeśa, a view supported by Pischel,²⁸ Geldner,²⁹ Hopkins,³⁰ and Macdonell.³¹ Nor is it possible to maintain that Brahman in the Rigveda merely means a ‘poet’ or ‘sage.’ It is admitted by Muir that in some passages it must mean a hereditary profession; in fact, there is not a single passage in which it occurs where the sense of ‘priest’ is not allowable, since the priest was of course the singer. Moreover, there are traces in the Rigveda of the threefold³² or fourfold³³ division of the people into brahma, kṣatram, and viśaḥ, or into the three classes and the servile population. Nor even in respect to the later period, any more than to the Rigveda, is the view correct that regards the Vaiśyas as not taking part in war. The Rigveda evidently³⁴ knows of no restriction of war to a nobility and its retainers, but the late Atharvaveda³⁵ equally classes the folk with the bala, ‘power,’ representing the Viś as associated with the Sabhā, Samiti, and Senā, the assemblies of the people and the armed host. Zimmer³⁶ explains these references as due to tradition only; but this is hardly a legitimate argument, resting, as it does, on the false assumption that only a Kṣatriya can fight. But it is (see Kṣatriya) very doubtful whether Kṣatriya means anything more than a member of the nobility, though later, in the Epic, it included the retainers of the nobility, who increased in numbers with the growth of military monarchies, and though later the ordinary people did not necessarily take part in wars, an abstention that is, however, much exaggerated if it is treated as an absolute one. The Kṣatriyas were no doubt a hereditary body; monarchy was already hereditary (see Rājan), and it is admitted that the Śūdras were a separate body: thus all the elements of the caste system were already in existence. The Purohita, indeed, was a person of great importance, but it is clear, as Oldenberg³⁷ urges, that he was not the creator of the power of the priesthood, but owed his position, and the influence he could in consequence exert, to the fact that the sacrifice required for its proper performance the aid of a hereditary priest in whose possession was the traditional sacred knowledge. - [Previous: v2.c4.s7.211](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v2.c4.s7.211) - [Next: v2.c4.s7.213](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v2.c4.s7.213) - [Up: v2.c4.s7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v2.c4.s7) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v2.c4.s7.212](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v2.c4.s7.212) · Pramāṇa