DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.635#0031
18 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY
adopted the Aryan religious teaching. The Aryans
themselves were a mere handful amidst a multitude,
and Vishwamitra probably realized the danger of a
wholly aggressive and exclusive policy. For a long
time, however, pride of race kept most of the Aryans
aloof from their dark-skinned neighbours, and Brahma-
varta, " that land created by the gods, which lies
between the two divine rivers Saraswati and Drishad-
wati V or the part of the Punjab which they first occu-
pied, was held to be the only soil fit for the faithful
people.
But as fresh immigrations pressed in upon the
original settlers, and the more enterprising of the clans
pushed farther south and east, more of the so-called
Turanian races were admitted into the Aryan fold, and
there gradually accumulated round the pure Aryan
doctrines a vast agglomeration of the primitive native
faiths and purely Indian traditions which constitute the
basis of the popular Hinduism of to-day. The caste
system which was evolved out of these peculiar political
and social conditions provided, on the one hand, an auto-
matic system of subdivision to make room for social
development and differences of religious practice; and,
on the other hand, for the consolidation of all the
heterogeneous elements of which Hinduism is com-
posed into one great community of beliefs, impelled
by common sentiments which bring every sect and
caste and grade of society to worship together on the
banks of the Ganges. The effect of this continual
process of subdivision may be realized from the fact
that, whereas Manu, the Hindu Moses, legislated for
four castes only. Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and
'Manu, II. 17.
adopted the Aryan religious teaching. The Aryans
themselves were a mere handful amidst a multitude,
and Vishwamitra probably realized the danger of a
wholly aggressive and exclusive policy. For a long
time, however, pride of race kept most of the Aryans
aloof from their dark-skinned neighbours, and Brahma-
varta, " that land created by the gods, which lies
between the two divine rivers Saraswati and Drishad-
wati V or the part of the Punjab which they first occu-
pied, was held to be the only soil fit for the faithful
people.
But as fresh immigrations pressed in upon the
original settlers, and the more enterprising of the clans
pushed farther south and east, more of the so-called
Turanian races were admitted into the Aryan fold, and
there gradually accumulated round the pure Aryan
doctrines a vast agglomeration of the primitive native
faiths and purely Indian traditions which constitute the
basis of the popular Hinduism of to-day. The caste
system which was evolved out of these peculiar political
and social conditions provided, on the one hand, an auto-
matic system of subdivision to make room for social
development and differences of religious practice; and,
on the other hand, for the consolidation of all the
heterogeneous elements of which Hinduism is com-
posed into one great community of beliefs, impelled
by common sentiments which bring every sect and
caste and grade of society to worship together on the
banks of the Ganges. The effect of this continual
process of subdivision may be realized from the fact
that, whereas Manu, the Hindu Moses, legislated for
four castes only. Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and
'Manu, II. 17.