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OF THE HINDUS.
367
Gokulastha Gosáins and the Gosvámis of Bengal. The Brahmans as a caste exercise little real influence on the minds of the Hindus beyond what they obtain from their numbers, affluence and rank. As a hierarchy they are null, and as a literary body they are few, and meet with but slender countenance from their countrymen or their foreign rulers. That they are still of great importance in the social system of British India, is unquestionable, but it is not as a priesthood. They bear a very large proportion to all the other tribes; they are of more respectable birth, and in general of better education; a prescriptive reverence for the order improves these advantages, and Brahmans are accordingly numerous amongst the most affluent and distinguished members of every Hindu state. It is only, however, as far as they are identified with the Gurus of the popular sects, that they can be said to hold any other than secular consideration.
Aware apparently of the inequality upon which those Gurus contended with the long established claims of the Brahmanical tribe, the new teachers of the people took care to invest themselves with still higher pretensions. The Acharya or Guru of the three first classes is no doubt described by MANU* as entitled to the most profound respect from his pupil during pupilage, but the Guru of the present day exacts implicit devotion from his disciples during life **. It is
* [II, 192 ff.]
** [Many passages from modern Tantras, such as the Rudra
