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OF THE HINDUS.
Sanskrit of later writings. In many parts of India the Vedas are not studied at all; and when they are studied it is merely for the sake of repeating the words; the sense is regarded as a matter of no importance, and is not understood even by the Brahman who recites or chaunts the expressions. Now this is in itself a vital departure from the sacred institutes of the lindus, by which the first portion of life, the first of the four orders or stages through which all males of the three first castes, the Brahman, Kshatriya, and Vaisya, were peremptorily commanded to pass, was that of the religious student; the term of whose studentship was to be spent with a Brahman teacher of the Vedas, and the sole object of whose studies was the understanding of the Vedas. For a Brahman to be wholly ignorant of the Vedas was a virtual degradation. “A Brahman,” says Manu, "unlearned in holy writ, is extinguished in an instant like dry grass on fire *.” “A twice born inan (that is, a man of either of the three first castes) not having studied the Veda, soon falls, even while living, to the condition of a Súdra, and his descendants after him **." It is also declared that a Brahınan derives not that name from birth alone, but from his knowledge of the Vedas *** According therefore to the letter of the law, there are very few Brahmans now in India who have a right to the respect and privileges which the designation claims.
* [III, 168.]
** [II, 168.)
*** [XI, 84.]
