Indian Antiquary Vol 40

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 194

180
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
§ 2. But if the Brahmanas also came to India from a foreign source, I believe they are Aryans then. The existence of such names as Abraham in Hebrew, Behram or Bahram in Zend, may favour the views that the Aryans had already acquired the title of Brahmanas before their exodus into India from their fatherland Before their exodus, were Aryans all Brahmanas or had they already been divided into Brahmanam, Kahatram and so forth? But whether before or after coming to India, in either case, we have authorities to show there was only one class primarily, viz., Brahmanas, apart from the doubt whether they were Aryans or not. For, the Yajur-Brâhmana II, 8. 8, says:
Brahmanah Kshatram nirmitam, i.e., 'the Kshatriya was created from the Brahmana. The Mahabharata, Sânti-parvan, Moksha-Dharma, 188th and 189th Chapters may be taken as a commentary on the Brahmana passage above cited. It seems unnecessary to quote the verses here in extenso, for the reader may easily refer to the Mahabharata.
$3. And then let us consider the nature of the several successive hordes which immigrated to India. Take the Persians; are they Aryan? The Greeke, and then the Romans; are they Aryan? If they are Aryan, and the Brahmana is also Aryan, and they intermingled, Aryan blood alone was infused into Aryan blood; and I believe that in this case, blood-purity or racepurity was not tarnished. The Brahmana may perhaps be taken for pure after the three-fold admixture referred to above, and which admix. ture must have taken place.
$4. And next, have the Hanas, Sakas, etc., who poured into India, been conclusively proved by either archeologists or ethnologists to be nonAryan? I venture the suggestion, that for aught we know, they may have been the Aryans left at home, but who followed, only in time, the Brahmana-Aryans who only came in advance of them. If this is the case, ergo, their blood mixing with the Brahmanas cannot be a foreign element again. En parenthese, let me observe that eugenically, blood mixing with blood ought not always to be construed by scientists as impoverishing or deteriorating it, for on the other hand, it may strengthen and enrich it.
5. Whether Brahmanas are Aryans or not, or whether Aryans are Brahmanas or not, there is another interesting question which should exercise the minds of researchers. Ravana of Ramayana fame is, said to be a Brahmana, and yet he was not an Aryan, but a Dravidian, whatever the latter term, so much disputed about, may mean, save that it means a race different from Aryan. Some say, Ravana belongs to the Lemurian race, some Atlantean. But to whichever of the three categories he may belong, viz, Dravidian, Lemurian or Atlantean, my purpose is served so long as these three, denominations connote an ogin which is non-Aryan. So then, the case of Ravana shows that there were Brahmanas, even
the non Aryn races. Ergo, if the Húnas Skas, elc., wore non Arvans, there is no reason to delete them of the Brahmana element in them
[JUNE, 1911.
also, if they were not in totality the Brahmanas, viz., the one Brahmandom to which the Aryans proper lay claim according to the quotation from Yajur-Veda and Bharata shown in para. 2, supra. Whether the Hanas, etc., are Aryans or not, there is reason to suppose a Brahmana element in them as in the case of Ravana of the Dravidian stock. Hence if Brâhinanas mixed with Bråhmanas, the purity of Brahmana blood has not suffered on that account.
§ 6. In India itself, after the classification into Brahmana, Kshatriya, etc., the Kshatriya, etc. have, by virtue of excessive merit, been elevated into the Brahmana ranks, as in the case of Visva mitra for example. And it is no wonder if by similar processes, samskdric or otherwise, foreign elements-so called--of Húnas, etc., merged themselves into Hinduism, understanding by this term, a compound of Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya, Sodra, plus the Pañchama, the latter being a group wisely provided in the Hindu body-politic to gradually assimilate into its fold all foreign elements as they came and touched its bounds and borders, to be in course of time prepared for mergence again into classes, viz., the Châturvarnya, above it.
$7. These are age-long processes, and there is no question of pure and impure blood. But so long as those classes, who in the present hour, go in India by the name of Brahmana, remain intact, and do not mix their blood with classes non-Brahmana, the charge of mixed or impure blood can never be levelled against them.
§ 8. Nor is there any race-hatred or class. hatred, jealousies or hollownesses in claims, as Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar thinks, for we are all peacefully and contentedly settled down into our convenient quadruple, or quintuple groups,-a final result, after all the wars have gone past, caused by the wish to transcend these limits and efface those convenient boundaries. Who would disturb them again and cause bad blood again? A. GOVINDACHARYA SVAMIN, C.E., M.R.A.S., M.M.S.
MYSOEK, 31st January, 1911.
[The expression used by me is "Vedic Aryan blood" and not simply "Aryan blood." The word Vedio' has been purposely put in, to express the current belief that the Brahmanas, &c., of the castes considered to be pure at the present day are the direct descendants of the Brahmanas, &c., who were the seers of the Mantras. This means that there was no admixture of foreign (Aryan or non-Aryan) and aboriginal blood. Yavanas, Sakas, Húnas, &c., from the popular point of view, are foreigners, i.e.. Mlechchhas. At the end of para. 5, it is said that if the early Brahmanas mixed with the Brahmana element of Hunas, &c.. the purity of Brahmana blood has not suffered on that account. I am certain, no orthodox Brahmana will ever countenance this view, As regards para. 8, Mr. Govindâchârya Svâmin will do well to enquire either at Baroda or at Kolhapur what. the Gramanya prakarana means, and he will be convinced of what I have said. This again is but a typical instance-D. R. B.]
Th rely ongit to be Brahmana khatra
item (II, 8, 9). Here Brahman does not mean a Behan 1 and of a This is evident from the worls: viivanida jat and Beskog Bethmaya aman, which prend follow the passage just quoted. Mr. A Govindacarya varD requested to serually cite the veise- from the Sunwar, which establish that the Kshatriya was ortod in the Brahiera. D. R. H
The nuts are of the leng ition Madras.