rom God" (_sruti_), like the Vedas and Brahmanas, but only as sacred
traditions--_smriti_, literally "The things _remembered_."

Meanwhile the Four Castes had been formed. In the old Aryan colonies
among the Five Rivers of the Punjab, each house-father was a husbandman,
warrior, and priest. But by degrees certain gifted families, who
composed the Vedic hymns or learned them off by heart, were always
chosen by the king to perform the great sacrifices. In this way probably
the priestly caste sprang up. As the Aryans conquered more territory,
fortunate soldiers received a larger share of the lands than others, and
cultivated it not with their own hands, but by means of the vanquished
non-Aryan tribes. In this way the Four Castes arose. First, the priests
or Brahmans. Second, the warriors or fighting companions of the king,
called Rajputs or Kchatryas, literally "of the _royal_ stock." Third,
the Aryan agricultural settlers, who kept the old name of Vaisyas, from
the root _vis_, which in the primitive Vedic period had included the
whole Aryan people. Fourth, the Sudras, or conquered non-Aryan tribes,
who became serfs. The three first castes were of Aryan descent, and were
honored by the name of the Twice-born Castes. They could all be present
at the sacrifices, and they worshipped the same Bright Gods. The Sudras
were "the slave-bands of black descent" of the Veda. They were
distinguished from their "Twice-born" Aryan conquerors as being only
"Once-born," and by many contemptuous epithets. They were not allowed to
be present at the great national sacrifices, or at the feasts which
followed them. They could never rise out of their servile condition; and
to them was assigned the severest toil in the fields, and all the hard
and dirty work of the village community.

The Brahmans or priests claimed the highest rank. But they seemed to
have had a long struggle with the Kchatryas, or warrior caste, before
they won their proud position at the head of the Indian people. They
afterward secured themselves in that position by teaching that it had
been given to them by God. At the beginning of the world, they said, the
Brahman proceeded from the mouth of the Creator, the Kchatryas or Rajput
from his arms, the Vaisya from his thighs or belly, and the Sudra from
his feet. This legend is true so far that the Brahmans were really the
brain power of the Indian people, the Kchatryas its armed hands, the
Vaisyas the food-growers, and the Sudr