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305 It is because the Puranas have been so much changed and recast after the Moslem conquest that they are unsafe and unreliable as a picture of Hindu life and manners before the conquest. Beside these 18 Puranas an equal number of Upa- Puranas are mentioned, but the lists given by different authorities vary. The Upa - Puranas are certainly more recent than the Puranas, but the nature of the contents is much the same. The best known among the Upa- Puranas is the Kalika, dedicated to the worship of Siva's wife, and essentially a S&kta work. It describes the sacrifice of Daksha and the death of Sati, and proceeds to narrate that Siva carried his wife's corpse about the world, that the different portions of the corpse were scattered in different parts of India, that these places accordingly became sacred. Lingas erect- ed in these spots draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims year after year to the present day. Such are the myths believed, and such are the religious rites practised by the descendants of those who sang the hymns of the Veda, and started the deep and earnest enquiries of the Upanishads! Tantras. But Hindu literature in the period of the Mahom- medan rule presents us even with a stranger aberra- tion of human fancy and human credulity. The Yoga system of philosophy degenerated into various strange practices by which supernatural powers, it was believed, R. C. D., A. L— III. 20 Digitized 306 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. could be obtained. We have evidence of this even in Bhavabhuti who lived in the 8th century A. D.; but later on, the system was developed into monstrous forms. The works known as the Tantras — creations of the last period of Hindu degeneracy under a foreign rule — give us elaborate accounts of dark, cruel and obscene practices for the acquisition of supernal powers. And by an audacious myth these miserable products of a " mind diseased" were ascribed to the deity Siva himself! The number of Tantras is said to be 64 ; we have seen many of them which have been published in Calcutta. Ignorance is credulous, and feebleness hankers after power. And when a superstitious ignorance and a senile feebleness had reached the last stage of degene- racy after centuries of foreign subjection, men saughtby unwholesome practices and unholy rites to acquire that power which Providence has rendered attainable only by a free and open and healthy exercise of our faculties, — moral, intellectual and physical. To the historian, the Tantra literature represents, not a special phase of Hindu thought, but a diseased form of the human mind, which is possible only when the national life has departed, when all political consciousness has vanished, and the lamp of knowledge is extinct. Digitized by Google CHAPTER VI. CASTE. We have seen in the last Book that the great Aryan population of India (except priests and kings) was still a united body in the Buddhist Period, and had not yet been disunited into the profession castes of modern times. The tendency to disintegration was greater in the Pauranik Period, and we have frequent allusions to different professions distinctly marked off from each other. But nevertheless an impartial examination of the evidence available will convince a candid reader that the profession castes of the modern times were not completely formed even in the Pauranik Period, and that the body of the people was still one united caste,— the Vaisya,— engaged in various professions. The complete disintegration of the nation into numerous and distinct profession castes was subsequent to the Moslem conquest of India and the national death of the Hindus. All the Dharma S&stras of the Pauranik Period refer to the four great castes, viz. the Brdhmans, the Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and the Sudras. The first three castes were still entitled to the performance of religious rites and to the study of the Vedas. Their respective duties were Digitized by Google 308 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. to teach the Veda, to practise arms, and to tend cattle ; and their modes of livelihood were for a Brahman to sacrifice for others and to receive alms ; for a Kshatriya to protect the people ; and for a Vaisya, tillage, keep- ing cows, traffic, money lending and growing seeds. ( Vishnu IP). To these duties of the Vaisya, Parasara adds working in iron and in jewellery (I, 60), and the enumeration of these duties would shew that gold- smiths and blacksmiths had not yet differentiated into separate castes, but still belonged to the common Vaisya community. The Sudra was not entitled to the study of the Veda, to religious learning, or to the performance of elaborate religious rites. It would appear, however, from some passages in the Dharma Sastras that he was entitled to some Sanskaras and to some religious rites and penances. Thus the metrical Apastamba lays down (III, 2) that a Sudra living with men of impure castes (#>., aborigines) should perform the Prajdpatya rite. Vyasa tells us (I, 6) that the Sudra was entitled to some religious rites ; and Sankha similarly informs us (II, 3) that the Sudra was also entitled to some Sanskciras. It would appear from these reluctant concessions that the great Sudra community, — the aboriginal inhabitants of India who had been Hinduized for thousands of years, — had before the Pauranik time won for themselves a position and influence which could not be gainsaid. By trade and agriculture Digitized by Google CHAP. VI.] CASTE. 309 and by following different arts and industries they had amassed wealth and made themselves useful members of the society in which they lived ; and we even hear of Sftdra kings and SGdra chiefs. And although the Aryan Hindus still ungenerously called the SQdras the slaves of the other castes, and excluded them from all religious learning and most of the religious rites, yet numerous passages interspersed in the Dharma Sastras shew that for all practical purposes the Stidras had be- come Hindus, and practised some at least of the Hindu rites. The duty of the Stidra was to serve the other castes, and his mode of livelihood was to follow different branches of art. {Vishnu II.) He could also trade (Y&jnavalkya /, 120) and no doubt followed various other professions. Parasara informs us (I, 62) that the Stidra could sell salt or sugar, or the various prepara- tions of milk. Yajnavalkya tells us the old story of the production of mixed castes by the union of men and women of different parent castes. His 13 mixed castes are here enumerated. Father. Mother. Caste formed. Brahman Kshatriya Mfirdhabhishikta Do. Vaisya Am bash t a Do. Sfidra Nishada or Parasava Kshatriya Vaisya Mihishya Do. Sfidra Ugra Vaisya Sfidra Karana Digitized 3*o PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. Father. Mother, Caste formed. Kshatriya Vaisya Stidra Do. Vaidehaka Do. Chandala Vaisya Sfidra SQdra Kshatriya Migadha Do. Kshattri Vaisya Ayogava Karana Rathakara Ydinavalkya I, 91 to 95. Mahisya It is scarcely necessary to point out once again that these so called mixed castes are not the modern pro- fession castes of India, but are, most of them, namei of aboriginal tribes who were gradually assuming Hindu rites and civilization, without however being completely merged in the recognized Sudra caste. It would almost seem that Yijnavalkya had some notion of these tribes being gradually fused with the Hindus, for immediately after the enumeration given above, he informs us that inferior castes can rise in the seventh or even in the fifth Yuga according to works (I, 96). The so called 11 mixed castes " then do not reveal to us the origin of the profession castes of modern India. How have these modern castes originated ? The Pauranik Dharma S&stras will throw some light on the subject Kiyasthas find no mention in Manu, because the practice of appointing scribes for every law court and public office did not generally prevail in the Buddhist Period. In the Pauranik Period the scribes were al- Digitized by Google CHAP. VI.] CASTE. 3II ready a numerous and influential body, attended judges in court, attested documents, and performed all the clerical work connected with the administration of law. Not unoften they were engaged in more ambi- tious duties, and were appointed by kings to administer finances, raise taxes, keep the accounts of the State, and perform all the duties which devolve on a finance minister in the modern day. We read in a dramatic work called the Mrichchhakati (toy cart), that a K&yas- tha or record-keeper attended the judge in court ; and Kalhana in his history of Kashmir frequently speaks of Klyasthas as accountants and tax gatherers and financiers under kings. They soon incurred the wrath of the priests, for they raised their taxes from all and exempted none ; and we accordingly find that no epithets are too strong or too vile to be applied to their profession ! Passing over such pardonable ebulli- tion of the priestly tax payer's anger, we are grateful to learn from passages in the Dharma Sistras of the Pauranik Period how the profession arose in India, and what its original duties were. It is probable that the class was recruited mainly from the people— the Vaisyas ; Brdhmans would scarcely condescend to take up such appointments, and SQdras had not the neces- sary qualification * After the Moslem conquest the • Here and elsewhere we have stated that Kayasthas are descended from the ancient Vaisyas. A controversy is going on since many years past, and reasons have been advanced to shew that Kayasthai are Digitized by Google 312 PAURANIK PERIOD. {BOOK V. profession was formed into an inviolable and distinct caste.