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SOCIETY AND REFORM
145 other items and incidents which tend to fire the youthful imagination of a young hero-all combine to invest the latter with a psychic vigour which constitutes a great advantage over his rival, the dhobi's son.
The remaining two varnas must also be maintained if social and political stability is to be kept in view ; for without trade and labour no nation can get on even for a short time.
The Brahmanas seem to have appeared on the scene much later, and do not seem to have any claim to great anciency. They, however, soon managed to appropriate to themselves all the respect and devotion which are due to wisdom, and wove up the rules of a purely social scheme of classification into the tenets of their faith, so that today the virnas are looked upon as an inseparable parto (Religion).
I may be permitted to add that the failure of the scheme in modern times is due to the development of haughty arrogance and excessive pride of birth which was directly fostered under the Brahmanical influence, and which made it impossible for petty chieftains to combine against a common foe. But this is a fact which is generally lost sight of when people begin to find fault with the Jaina doctrine of ahimsā for the loss of the Aryan independence. The Jaina traditions, as a matter of fact, are full of deeds of chivalry, and the pages of Jaina History are illuminated with the glorious achievements of the Jaina Warriors on the battlefield. Amongst others, Chandra gupta, who actually inflicted a crushing defeat on a famous Greek general, was a Jaina (Vincent Smith's History of India). Bharat, the founder of the Indian (Aryan) Empire, was likewise a Jaina, as even the Hindu tradition bears out. Further, Jainism does not reserve the attainment of nirvana to the Brahmanas or the Vaishyas exclusively. All the Tirthamkaras were Kshatriyas ; and besides them innumerable other Kshatriyas obtained salvation according to the Jaina Puranas,
It only remains for me to point out the traditions associated with the institution where you have spent several years of your childhood and pupilage and which you are now about to leave.
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