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ANCIENT RELIGION OF INDIA.
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castes, the Brahman, the Kshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Súdra: we have also the Brahmans distinguished as differing among themselves in tribe and dignity, and sometimes engaged in disputes for precedence and the exclusive performance of particular rites, all which it may be observed is incontrovertible proof that a very long interval had elapsed between the composition of the Súktas and the Brahmanas - between the first dawn and the noon-day culmination of the Brahmanical system.
Having come to the conclusion then that the Bráhmanas are not an integral part of the primitive Veda or Hindu system, but admitting that they may be considered as an essential part of the Veda of the Brahmans, or as a scriptural authority for the Brahmanical forms of worship, and for their social institutions when fully developed, we have next to consider the period to which they may belong, and how far they may be regarded as authentic representations of an ancient (though not the most ancient) religious and social system in India. This, as usual with all Hindu chronology, is a difficult question: certainty is unattainable, but we may come to probable conclusions within reasonable limits from internal evidence. The Bráhmanas are posterior to the discontinuance of exclusively oral teaching; they could not cite miscellaneous and unconnected texts to the extent to which they cite them, unless those texts had been accessible in a written shape. They are subsequent therefore to the use of writing, to which the hymns or Mantras
