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Institution of Class and Order
tenta and the stratification of mankind into the different classes took place in the Treta age " Thus, we find that the Jaina account of the origin of the various Varnas echoes the same view as is held out by the Brahmanical epic-Puranic tradition. Now, like the Bhagavadgitä,38 the works in question also suggest that in the beginning the basis of the division of men into four Varnas was pre-eminently the natural propensities and optitudes of the individuals
But the age, when the class of an individual was determined more by his action than by his birth, had passed long before the period which the Jaina Puranas represent The institution of classes and castes had already fossilized as the hereditary caste system and the Jaina reaction against the caste-system almost fully subsided under the Brahmanical Impact Naturally the authors concerned adopted, under a new garb, the same Brahmanical scheme of the origin and development of the different classes and castes as is met with in the epics and the Puranas of the Brahmanical school Thus, we are told that the men, who were possessed of great strength, were employed by Rşabhadeva in the act of protection (of the people) and became known in the world as the famous Kşatrıyas Those, who undertook trade, cultivation, cattle-breeding and were energetic and devoted to business, acquired the
39
36 वर्णाश्रमव्यवस्थाश्च न तदासन्......।
Vayup 8,61b
37 वर्णाना प्रविभागाश्च त्रेताया सम्प्रकीर्तिता ।
211
-Ibid, 57 60a, also see 57 81, 87
38 Lord Krina proclaims that the fourfold Varna scheme was created by Him in accordance with the distinct qualities and actions (of the indi
17
viduals), "चातुर्वर्ण्य मया सृष्ट गुणकर्मविभागश
-IV 13a, also XVIII 41
30 रखखरणकर रणनिउत्ता, जे तेरा नरा महन्तदढसत्ता । ते खत्तिया पसिद्धि गया य पुहइम्मि विक्खाया ॥
FPC, 3 116 Also see RPC 3 256, JHV, 9.39, MP 38 46,
