THE HINDOO CASTES IN INDIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 543, 16 January 1858, Page 4

THE HINDOO CASTES IN INDIA.

A correspondent of the 'Times' quotes fi'om Mill's History of India the following interesting account of the Hindoo Castes, taken from the Hindoo 'Code of Menu:—

Although in. Hindostaa there are many descendants of the Mogul Tartars, by whom India was conquered many years ago, and who ■ by religion are Mahommedans, the population principally consists. of Hindoos, and these by their.; ndigion are divided into four separate castes or classes,—l, The Brahmins, or priests; 2, The .Cshatriyas, or military class; 3, The Vaisyas, or tradesmen and farmers; 4, The Sudras, or labourers. Ist, the Brahmins have acquired and maintained a most extensive and powerful authority over the other -castes. According to their *' Vedas," or sacred books, " as great a distance as thereis between the deity and the Brahmin, so great ia the distance between the Brahmin and the rest of mankind:" The sacred books are exclusively■■.■' His. He is; lord of all other classes.- : The first duty of air magistrates, whether supreme or subordinate, is to honour the .Brahmins, ■ and the slightest disrespect to one of this sacred class is the most atrocious of crimes. For contumelious language to a Brahmin a Sudra must have an iron, spike 10 fingers long -thrust into his mouth. From his high birth alone a Brahmin is an t>\>ject of --v»n«va>! ition to deities, and if any man, even of the upper castes, should strike a Brahmin though even with a blade of grass, or overpower him in an argument, he must soothe him by falling prostrate! A priest who knows the law need not complain to the King, for. by his own power he may chastise those "who injure Irim. He may use powerful charms, for speech is the weapon of a Brahmin, with which he may destroy, his oppressors. Let not the King provoke Brahmins to anger, for they, if enraged, can destroy him. A Brahmin, whether learned or ignorant, is a powerful divinity; and, though they "are occupied in mean occupations, they mast be honoured, for they are divine. A King shall not slay a Brahmin though guilty of all possible crimes. Let him banish tb^ offender from his realms but with his pror^y secure and his body unhurt. A K'-o mus^ not take a tax from a Brahim- learned -in the Yedas; and it is an ess**"™. Parfc «* cx V piation arid sacrifice to r^ sent gifts to Brahmins. They are so w£f or to a &«?g that the meanest BrahmV!°7? account himself polluted by eat;o Wlfch him»lf not °f the same caste or ~'1S" )n- Their-proper business is io reai l>ae Vedas, and to teach them to the Brahmins, and to perform religious and sacrifices.

The 2nd class, or Cahatriyas, become soldiers when they, can obtain such employment. The 3rd, Taisyas, are employed as merchants, or in tending cattle or cultivating the soil. The. 4th, Sudras, are employed in servile labour, and are as much the objects of contempt as the Brahmins are of veneration to the castes above them. If this class commit crimes they are more severely punished than delinquents in the upper castes, and a Brahmin may at any time compel them to perform for him any kind of servile labour, since they were created for -the purpose of-.serving Brahmins. No Sudra may accumulate wealth even if he has the means of doing so, for a servile man who accumulates wealth gives pain to the Brahmins; a Prahmin may at any time take the goods of his {fodra servant, for such servant can have no property. Adultery between a Sudra and a lonian of higher caste is expiated by burning to death on a bed of iron ; nor is the Sudra in a letter condition with respect to a future state. " Hjar a Brahmin must not read the Vedas in thdjpreaence of a Sudra." " Let not a Brahmin eivi advice to a Sudra, nor-what.remains from his fable, let him not give spiritual connsel to a Sbdra, or infdrm!him of the legal expiation for &s sirf. Snrely he who' declares* the law to a seVile man, or who instructs him in the meant of,expiating sin, sinks.with that man intoJie^ell.called ' Asamvrita.' " Altkmgh each class wag bound by religion to adher^to .the particular emplbyment^asßigned to it^tfe upper classes' might in cases of'necessity addt th;e employment ol the.cUsses'belove tnetn. Brahmin; when' he {is not employed m -fcis own proper bußin>s4 may bfieome a Roldjtr .or, -a^tra^eiman, -but must never en£«g«:. in the -servile .occupations of a Sudra. x nuß a Brahmin -has open to kirn all the occfl. yatio^s tf .the jr£«jp^ctai;ie ck«aes» End can over-

load them in seasons of distress. He may en> list into the armies, or engage in traffic and merchandise.

But, although the Hindoos are by their laws divided into four castes only, and the different castes are only permitted to marry in their own, yet irregularities take place, and children are born who belong to no class; such children are deemed infamous on account of the violation, of the sacred laws which gave occasion to their birth ? but,"although they are all regarded with contempt and abhorrence, they are divided into no less than thirty-six different branches; the highest is the offspring of a Brahmin and_a wonian of the second class ; and the lowest is the offspring of.a Sudra and a woman of the sacred class. These last are called ' chandalas. 1 Nothing can exceed the degradation to which they are subjected ; they are condemned to live in a sequestered place by themselves, lest they, should pollute the very town in which they reside, and if they meet a man of the* higher castes they must' turn out of the way, lest he should be contaminated by their presence. Mr. Mill, in conclusion of the chapter from j which the above account is taken, observes :—- ---"so inconsistent with the laws of human wel-_ fare are the institutions in the Hindoo ancient book that fhey never could have been observed with accuracy;" and adds, " That the only wonder is that the state of society which the Hindoos now exhibit should hold so great a resemblance to that which is depicted in their books." It is not surprising that the Brahmins should view with hostility any attempts to introduce Christianity into their nation, which would at once strip them of all their preposterous claims to superiority; and it is most surprising that men of ; ordinary common sense should attempt to establish ard consolidate their authority by pampering the prejudices of such a class, instead of elevating the classes below them, who would naturally look to Eupopean rulers for defence and protection from oppression,