have been
formed into a sacred canon: there is an active production of new
works which explain the old ones; the sacrifices grow more elaborate
and new virtues are attributed to them; and along with this hardening
and formalising of the outward parts of religion there is a religious
speculation of great volume and of great freedom of character.

The Caste System: The Brahmans.--The key to the whole movement is to
be found in the new position of the priesthood, or in the
establishment at this period of the system of caste. Though this
system is only once mentioned in the Rigveda, and that in a hymn of
late date, scholars find traces of it in the arrangement of the
hymns, and as it is found in Persia, the Indians probably had it
before they entered India. It may even, it is judged, be traceable to
the division of ranks among the primitive Aryan families. Teutonic as
well as Indian legends are found explaining how mankind were divided
from the first into different classes.[1] But the primitive
differences of rank must have had a great development before they
took shape in the rigid caste system of India. This system appears to
be organised with a view expressly to the exaltation of the
priesthood, and must have been the result of a struggle between the
priests and the warrior or ruling classes. The priests have made
themselves indispensable in nearly all religious acts. Their very
title shows this. While _Brahman_, as the name of a god, means
primarily growth, and later, devotion or prayer, _brahmana_ (neut.)
signifies the ritual texts according to which worship is performed,
and _brahman_ (mas.) is the name of those who use such texts, and
comes to stand for the highest caste of Indian society. Without the
brahman there can be no satisfactory worship, because there can be no
security that any rite is performed correctly; and a rite which is
not performed correctly has no efficacy. Religion, therefore, is in
the hands of this caste, whose sacredness is hereditary, and cannot
be acquired in any other way than by birth. The members of that caste
and they alone are qualified to superintend religious observances,
and without them the intercourse between man and the gods cannot be
kept up. From his birth the brahman is a being of superior holiness;
he is destined for higher ends than other men, and the distinction
between him and them must be manifested in all his acts and habits
throughout his life. He is the natural lord of