Indian Antiquary Vol 59

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 95

MAY, 1930)
ORIGIN OF THE CASTE SYSTEM IN INDIA
83
branch of the Aryan stock. ....... The number of individuals of the invading race were so small in proportion to that of the indigenous population as to be speedily merged in it...... The only distinct traces of the Aryan stock are to be found in the Brahmanical caste which preserves, though with great corruption, the original Brahmanical religion and keeps up the Sangkrit as its classical language." It seems to me, therefore, that these Aryan invaders were, 86 I have already suggested, the refugee remnant of some great civilization and that their leaders, whilst seeking for a new home, worked out in their minds the problem of a stable basis for Society. The line of thought which they followed may have been somewhat of this nature.
As the stability of any social system must ultimately rest partly upon the fitness of the ruling power and partly upon the happiness and contentment of the governed, it was clear that any solution of the problem would depend upon the nature of the human individuals occupying either position. No people could be happy and contented if their rulers were greedy and tyrannical, and no rulers could make their subjects happy if the latter were ignorant and vicious. It was, therefore, necessary to enquire what it was in human nature which u nfitted human beings either to rule or to be ruled.
Looking around them, these early philcecphers saw that not only did different men desire different things, but that the same individual desired different things at different times and often, at any given time, did not know clearly what it was that he desired. Further, they saw that the strength of desire was by no means balanced by the knowledge how to satisfy that desire, and hence human action was more often the result of panic efforts to escape from a present evil than of a calm and intelligent examination of suitable means and a clear understanding of the object aimed at. Confusion of desire produced infirmity of will and so rendered reasoned and consistent action impossible.
An examination of the past showed that the founders of the earliest social systems recognized the general weakness of human beings and, despairing of the masses, had come to the conclusion that they could be controlled only by superior force. As long as this could be maintained and no longer, the State would be stable. They first thought to stabilize Society by picking out what appeared to be the best individuals of the tribe or nation, i.e., those with the greatest force of mind and body, in short the natural leaders, whom the mob followed instinctively, and establishing them and their descendants, as the likely heirs of their superior qualities, in a position of permanent power. Hence the growth of Theocracies, Despotisms and Aristocracies. In all these what was considered requisite in the ruler or ruling power was physical force to control and defend the people, wisdom to guide and provide, and comparative wealth which, while freeing the ruler or rulers from personal anxiety and the greed which would certainly lead to injustice, allowed leisure for thought and disinterested and dispassionate study of State problems.
How much leisure and freedom from worldly interests were considered essential for those who were to govern the people is to be seen in the exclusion from all share in publio affairs of whole classes of people who now lay claim to it, which we find in Ecclesiasticus (Chap. 38, vv. 24—34) "The wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure and he that hath a little business shall become wise." The peasant and the artisan are too much occupied with their work to have the leisure necessary for thinking upon public questions. “All these trust to their hands and every one is wise in his own work. Without these cannot & city be inhabited," but "they shall not be sought for in public counsel nor set high in the congregation; they shall not sit in the judge's seat nor understand the sentence of judgment; they cannot declare justice and judgment and they shall not be found where parables are spoken. But they will maintain the state of the world and all their desire is in the work of their craft." It was this leisure which the Brahmans, alone of all ruling bodies, provided for themselves, not by imposing a costly charge for their maintenance upon the governed, but