DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16242#0129
RELIGION X)F CHAITANYA. 93
t
* »
events as they ipok place, it is not difficult to irpA-
gine^how they came about, division of labor is always
seen to progress with the progress of civilization. Each
-barbarian warrior is often found to build his fishing boat,
to make his arrows and to sew together his clothes ; but
with the progress of civilization, fighting and ship-building, «
tailoring and arrow-making become different departments
of industry. Something of the sort must have taken
place with tfle Hindus as they progressed in civilization,
and something of what took place has been left to us.
In the Vedic times the patriarch tended his flocks and
tilled his lands, fought his battles and worshipped his
gods. But as the struggle for conquest and even for
existence thickened, the art of # war improved, and men
found it necessary to devote their life-time to the learning
of war. But the worship of the ancient gods could not
be given up altogether, and £0 the warriors found it
expedient to offer up prayers, net personally, but through
sages and "learned men,—in a word, through professional
priests. As a natural consequence, while all real power
remained with the warriors, the Kshatriyas, who were the
kings' all t>ver India, the priests or Brahmans assumed
loftier functions, and, moved by a strong esprit de corps,
multiplied rites and religious observances, till it actually
became impossible for any one to perform such rites
except such* as had devoted their life-time to the subject.
This division was not brought about in a day; long dis-
putes and civil wars, of which we find obscure but certain
records in the Upanishads as well as in some of the an-
cient myths, were carried *on between the Kshatriyas
t
* »
events as they ipok place, it is not difficult to irpA-
gine^how they came about, division of labor is always
seen to progress with the progress of civilization. Each
-barbarian warrior is often found to build his fishing boat,
to make his arrows and to sew together his clothes ; but
with the progress of civilization, fighting and ship-building, «
tailoring and arrow-making become different departments
of industry. Something of the sort must have taken
place with tfle Hindus as they progressed in civilization,
and something of what took place has been left to us.
In the Vedic times the patriarch tended his flocks and
tilled his lands, fought his battles and worshipped his
gods. But as the struggle for conquest and even for
existence thickened, the art of # war improved, and men
found it necessary to devote their life-time to the learning
of war. But the worship of the ancient gods could not
be given up altogether, and £0 the warriors found it
expedient to offer up prayers, net personally, but through
sages and "learned men,—in a word, through professional
priests. As a natural consequence, while all real power
remained with the warriors, the Kshatriyas, who were the
kings' all t>ver India, the priests or Brahmans assumed
loftier functions, and, moved by a strong esprit de corps,
multiplied rites and religious observances, till it actually
became impossible for any one to perform such rites
except such* as had devoted their life-time to the subject.
This division was not brought about in a day; long dis-
putes and civil wars, of which we find obscure but certain
records in the Upanishads as well as in some of the an-
cient myths, were carried *on between the Kshatriyas