Art. VIII.—On the Relations of the Priests to the other Classes of Indian Society in the Vedic Age

In a former paper on “Manu, the progenitor of the Aryan Indians,” published in the Society's Journal, I have attempted to shew that in general the authors of the hymns of the Rigveda regarded the whole of the Aryan people, embracing not only the priests and the chiefs, but the middle classes also of the population, as descended from one common father, or ancestor, whom they designate by the name of Manu. This reference to a common progenitor excludes, of course, the supposition that the writers by whom it is made could have had any belief in the myth which became afterwards current among their countrymen, that their nation consisted of four castes, differing naturally in dignity, and separately created by Brahmâ

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