[Caste in the Veda.] 2. To begin with the Veda. In the hymns, the most ancient portion of it, we find the famous verse,—“When they divided man, how many did they make him? What was his mouth? What his arms? What are called his thighs and feet? The Brâhmana was his mouth, the Râjanya was made his arms, the Vaisya became his thighs, the Sûdra was born from his feet.” [1] “European critics,” says Professor Max Müller, [2] “are able to show that even this verse is of later origin than the great mass of the hymns, and that it contains modern words, such as Sûdra and Râjanya, which are not found again in the other hymns of the Rig Veda. Yet it belongs to the ancient collection of the Vedic hymns, and if it contained anything in support of caste, as it is now understood, the Brâhmans would be right in saying that caste formed part of their religion and was sanctioned by their sacred writings.” But he goes on to say:—“If, then, with all the documents before us, we ask the question,—Does caste, as we find it in Manu and at the present day, form part of the most ancient religious teaching of the Vedas? We can answer with a decided ‘No.’ There is no authority whatever in the hymns of the Veda for the complicated system of castes; no authority for the offensive privileges claimed by the Brâhmans; no authority for the degraded position of the Sûdras. There is no law to prohibit the different classes of the people from living together, from eating and drinking together; no law to prohibit the marriage of people belonging to different castes: no law to brand the offspring of such marriages with an indelible stigma.” [3] 3. We do read that men are said to be distinguished into five sorts or classes, or literally five men or beings (Pancha Ksitayah). “The commentator explains this to mean the four castes—Brâhman, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sûdra and the barbarous or Nishâda. But Sâyana, of course, expresses the received impressions of his own age. We do not meet with the denomination Kshatriya or Sûdra in any text of the first book, nor with that of Vaisya, for vis, which does occur, is a synonym of man in general. Brâhman is met with, but in what sense is questionable.” [4] 4. We do, of course, in the Veda meet with various trades and handicrafts which had even in this early age become differentiated. Thus in the ninth book of the Rig Veda we have the famous passage which has been thus translated:— “How various are the views which different men inspire! How various are the ends which men of different craft desire! The leech a patient seeks; the smith looks out for something cracked. The priest seeks devotees from whom he may his fee extract. With feathers, metal and the like, and sticks decayed and old, The workman manufactures wares to coin the rich man’s gold. A poet I, my sire a leech, and corn my mother grinds: On gain intent we each pursue our trades of different kinds.” [5]