Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 144

THE EARLY BRAHMINS
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of the ancient philosophers would have undertaken such
a long and tedious journey unless the reputation of the
learned men he was going all that way to consult was an
old and established fact.
The ancient Hindu works teach us that the Brahmins of
those times differed essentially in matters of principle
and conduct from their brethren of to-day. The original
Brahmin is described as a penitent and a philosopher,
living apart from the world and its temptations and entirely
engrossed in the pursuit of knowledge, leading a life of
At that
introspection and practising a life of purity.
period of their history the Brahmins were not such an
intolerant and exclusive race that penitents belonging to
other castes could not be initiated by the Diksha cere-
mony *, or the investiture of the tripl