BRAHMIN ORIGINS 99
They are to be recognized in the seven stars that form the
Great Bear, which, according to Hindu tradition, are neither more nor less than the seven famous Rishis themselves. They are, according to Hindu legend, the ancestors of the Brahmins in reality and not by metamorphosis, and
it is believed that without ceasing to shine in the firmament they can, and occasionally do, revisit the earth to find out
what is occurring there.
Are there any families in Europe which can, notwithstanding the mythical origins which heraldic science professes to discover, pride themselves on the possession of such ancestors And seeing that in our own aristocracy '? a man with a noble lineage is not above assuming an air of extreme hauteur and exclusiveness, we ought not to be surprised at a Brahmin ' s vanity or at the contempt with which he treats any one belonging to an inferior caste.
This idea of handing down to posterity the names of their great men by immortalizing them, and assigning to them
a place among the constellations, appears to have been an almost universal practice amongst ancient races.
Astronomy has played an important part in the history of almost all idolatrous nations; and of all false creeds it
certainly is the least unreasonable, and has survived the longest. The religious and political lawgivers of these races were clever enough to perceive that the worship of the stars had taken a great hold upon mankind, and that the simplest and most effectual way of perpetuating the memory of their heroes would be to transform them into outward objects that were always before the eyes of the people. It was thus that the Greeks and Romans consecrated the memory of their divinities and demi-gods; and no doubt the Hindu lawgivers were prompted to
immortalize their seven Rishis by means of the brightest stars in the sky because they realized that a Hindu imagination is only appealed to through the visible, and therefore that was the best way to perpetuate the veneration due to
these illustrious beings. But whatever may have been the claims of Brahmins to a celestial origin, it is a well-authenticated fact that neither their caste nor any other existed in the countries to the north-east of Bengal four or five centuries ago. About that time the inhabitants of those