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DHARMA IN PRACTICE
yoga for kshatryas, karma yoga for vaishyas and bhakti yoga for shudras. It is, however, clear that the idea of caste exclusiveness had nothing to do with the classification of men, as originally conceived, so that all those who followed the true faith were entitled to the same rights and privileges in respect of religious. worship. It was only when priesthood acquired considerable influence on the ruling body that Hindu legislators were forced to recognise the claim of brahmanas to a special sanctity as a class.
So far as interdining is concerned, it does not seem to have over been prohibited among the followers of one and the same religion, but it is essentially a question of conventional usage upon which depend the preservation, welfare and prosperity of society. There are certain considerations which necessarily debar one from being admitted into the higher circles of a community even in Christian and Muslim countries, where the intercourse of mon is the least restricted, and there is nothing surprising in the fact that the Hindus and Jainas should not care to sit down at the same table with washermen, sweepers, and others of similar description whose professions and habits of life hardly render them suitable companions at a feast. The penalty for an infringement of these rules, it may be pointed out, is not the loss of religion, but only excommunication, which implies nothing more than exclusion from social circles in respect of interdining, and, consequently, also, inter-marriage, for a shorter or longer period according to the nature of transgression.
The basis of caste exclusiveness, then, is not wealth or worldly status, as it undoubtedly is in European society, but spiritual purity pure and simple, though people sometimes unreasonably extend its operation to cases not actually falling within its scope. Some excuse for the wider application of the caste rule among the Hindus is to be found in the fact that their religion has become the fold of so many different and divergent forms of belief that it is practically impossible to bring the followers of all of them on a common platform. So far, however, as Jainism is concerned, it is perfectly free from the rules of caste, those profussing it forming only onc community, notwithstanding the fact that several schisms have given riso to different sects and sub-sects among its followers.
