________________
( XXHI ) Now this philosophy of Vedantic militarism, though it was fully devoloped in the Upanishadic period, could not later on adapt itself to the changing conditions and to the yet prevailing society of the time which was in and through saturated with Vedic ritualism and ceremonialism. And in the course of events things took turn in such a manner that the Brahmans whose sole occupation was priest-craft, began to divise schemes with a view to make each caste flourish in its respective profession : so much so that they discouraged the study of the Upanishadas and the like by other castes, and the preaching as well of the philosophy of the One’ to the mass. And thus when the gates to higher knowledge were effectively barred against the other classes by the mechanism of the Priest-class, a general degradation followed. People became degenerated, self interested and low in character. All sorts of abominable things like Tantrikism which brought in virginity, mysticism and love to bear upon religion, began to be practised in the name of religion only. At this critical juncture Parshwanath, the 23rd Tirthankar appeared
