Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 85

CASTE IN THE PURANAS
45
unceasing obligation as the Hindus are to respect its usages,
new and strange customs are things unheard of in their
Any person who attempted to introduce such
country.
innovations would excite universal resentment and opposi-
tion, and would be branded as a dangerous person.
The
creation, and as having been naturally distinguished by different guruu,
or qualities, involving varieties of moral character, we are nevertheless
allowed to infer that those qualities exerted no influence on the classes
in which they were inherent, as the condition of the whole race during
the Krita age is described as one of uniform perfection and happiness ;
while the actual separation into castes did not take place, according to
the Vayu Pu rana, until men had become deteriorated in the Treta age.
Second, in various passages from the Brahmanas epic poems, and
Puranas, the creation of mankind is described without the least allusion
to any separate production of the progenitors of the four castes.
And
whilst in the chapters where they relate the distinct formations of the
tastes, the Puranas assign different natural dispositions to each class,
they elsewhere represent all mankind as being at the creation uniformly
distinguished by the quality of passion.
In one text men are said to
be the offspring of Vivasat
in another his son Mami is said to be their
progenitor, whilst in a third they are said to be descended from a female
The passage which declares Manu to have been the
of the same name.
father of the human race explicitly affirms that men of all the four castes
were descended from him. In another remarkable text the Mahabharata
categorically asserts that originally there was no distinction of classes,
the existing distribution having arisen out of differences of character
and occupation. In these circumstances, we may fairly conclude that
the separate origination of the four castes was far from being an article
of belief universally received by Indian antiquity.'
The following is the categorical assertion in the Mahabharata (Santi
parvan) above referred to. It occurs in the course of a discussion on
Bhrigu, replying to a question
caste between Bhrigu and Bharadwaja.
put by Bharadwaja, says: 'The colour [varna) of the Brahmins was
white ; that of the Kshatriyas red ; that of the Vaisyas yellow, and that
Bharadwaja here rejoins, If the caste {varna) of
of the Sudras black.'
the four classes is distinguished by their colour {varna), then a confusion
.'
of all the castes is observable.
Bhrigu replies, There is no differ-
ence of castes this world, having been at hist created by Brahma
entirely Brahmanic, became (afterwards) separated into tastes in con-
'
;
*
'
.
.
:
sequence of works. Those Brahmins (lit. twice-born men) who were
fond of sensual pleasure, fiery, irascible, prone to violence, who had
forsaken their duty and were red limbed, fell into the condition of
Kshatriyas.
Those Brahmins who derived their livelihood from kine,
who were yellow, who subsisted by agriculture, and who neglected to
Those Brahmins
practise their duties, entered into the state of Vaisyas.
who wen- addicted to mischief and falsehood, who were COVetoUS, who
lived by all kinds of work, who were black and had fallen from purity,
sank into the condition of Sudras.'
Ed.