Jainism in North India

Author(s): Chimanlal J Shah
Publisher: Longmans Green and Compny London

Page 46

MAHAVIRA AND HIS THIES ally settled after their separation from the Iranians. But with a diffusion of the Hindu-Aryans over the region south-east of the Seven Rivers, and their settlement on the Ganges and the Jumna, the Vedic religion gave birth to Brahmanism, or the hierarchy of Brahmans.
With Brahmanism came the rigidity of caste system, which "was still a pliable institution in the Epic period, but the rules of caste were made more rigid and inflexible in the Rationalistic period, and it was impossible for the members of a lower caste to enter within the pale of priesthood." This state of things resulted in Brahmans being entirely relieved of manual labour, and being fed on the resources of the industrial classes without doing anything worth wlule to compensate the other classes. They had become idlers to such an extent that they were not prepared to acquire that learning which alone could justify their exemption from labour. Vasishtha felt the abuse and the injustice keenly, and protested against idlers being supported and fed, in terms which could be indited only when Hinduism was still the religion of a living nation.5
The abuses begotten of the privileges of the caste system combined with the circumstance that writing was unknown, or at any rate was not generally employed for literary purposes, contributed to give increasing influence to the Brahmans. Subject at first to the princes and nobles, and dependent on them, they began by insinuating themselves into their favour, and representing that the protection and liberty of Brahmans were part of the duties of the princes and nobles. Gradually they set themselves up as the exclusive guardians and interpreters of “revelation" (Srutz) and " tradition” (Smrti), in virtue of their being masters of instruction.? By far the greater number of works on religion
1" It is not so easy to trace the relations between Brahmarshdefa and the earlier Aryan settlements in the land of the Seven Rivers - C.H.I,2,P 51.
Cf Trele, op cit, pp 112, 117. “The language of the Rigoeda, the oldest form of Vedic Sanskrit, belongs to the country of the Seven Rivers The language of the Brahmanas and of the later Vedic Lterature in the country of the Upper Jumna and Ganges (Brahmarshdesa) is transitional "--CHI,1,P 57
Dutt, op at, P 264 Cf. Crooke, ERE, 11, p 493 4 Cf. McCrindle, Ancient Indra, p 209.
& "The King shall punish that village where Brahmans, unobservant of their sacred duties and ignorant of the Vedas, subsist by begging, for it feeds robbers"-Väsısh tha, 11,4 Cf Buhler, SB.E, VT, p M.
• CF Tiele, op cit,p 121
7" To this class the knowledge of divination among the Indians is exclusively restricted and none but the Sophists is allowed to practise that art IcCrindle, op. and loc at
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