DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.635#0028
BENARES IN VEDIC TIMES 15
and cattle. The Ganges was at the same time a pro-
tection from hostile invasions, and an easy highway of
communication with the older Aryan settlements in
the Punjab. The river Barna on the north, and the
Asi on the south—a more important stream than it is
now—gave protection from sudden attacks of the
fierce aboriginal tribes dwelling in the densest forests,
and called by the Aryans Rakshasas, demons. It
only needed a wall or forts on the west to make the
little colony secure on all sides.
The cool bathing in the splendid river and worship
on its sunny banks would afford to the Aryan settlers
refreshment for body and soul. So even in those
remote times the place may have acquired a reputa-
tion as being propitious for the favoured people, and
thus to them sacred soil, an oasis of spiritual life in the
midst of the impious non-Aryan tribes, like Brahma-
varta, their much-beloved home in the north-west.
It has been supposed that the spiritual leaders of
the Aryans began, about the time when the Kasis first
appeared in the Ganges valley, to arrange the com-
pilation of the Yedic hymns, the Brahmanas and the
Upanishads, in order to preserve their traditional faith
from the risk of corruption which was incurred by
intermarriage with the Dravidian and Kolarian neieh-
bours. Benares, therefore, may perhaps have begun
already to establish its reputation as a great seat of
Aryan philosophy and religion.
The first idea of caste, which was mainly that of
race protection, originated at the same period, and
from the same cause. But caste as it is now under-
stood did not become a fixed institution for many
centuries later. Even in the sixth century B.C., though
and cattle. The Ganges was at the same time a pro-
tection from hostile invasions, and an easy highway of
communication with the older Aryan settlements in
the Punjab. The river Barna on the north, and the
Asi on the south—a more important stream than it is
now—gave protection from sudden attacks of the
fierce aboriginal tribes dwelling in the densest forests,
and called by the Aryans Rakshasas, demons. It
only needed a wall or forts on the west to make the
little colony secure on all sides.
The cool bathing in the splendid river and worship
on its sunny banks would afford to the Aryan settlers
refreshment for body and soul. So even in those
remote times the place may have acquired a reputa-
tion as being propitious for the favoured people, and
thus to them sacred soil, an oasis of spiritual life in the
midst of the impious non-Aryan tribes, like Brahma-
varta, their much-beloved home in the north-west.
It has been supposed that the spiritual leaders of
the Aryans began, about the time when the Kasis first
appeared in the Ganges valley, to arrange the com-
pilation of the Yedic hymns, the Brahmanas and the
Upanishads, in order to preserve their traditional faith
from the risk of corruption which was incurred by
intermarriage with the Dravidian and Kolarian neieh-
bours. Benares, therefore, may perhaps have begun
already to establish its reputation as a great seat of
Aryan philosophy and religion.
The first idea of caste, which was mainly that of
race protection, originated at the same period, and
from the same cause. But caste as it is now under-
stood did not become a fixed institution for many
centuries later. Even in the sixth century B.C., though