Art. XVIII.—On Manu, the progenitor of the Aryyan Indians, as represented in the hymns of the Rigveda

It is well known that the ordinary theory of the Indian books, from the Institutes of Manu downwards, is, that the inhabitants of Hindūstan were originally divided into four castes, Brahmans, Kshattriyas, Vaiśyas, and Sūdras, who are asserted to have sprung respectively from the mouth, arms, thighs, and feet, of the Creator. It is true that in these books this theory is not consistently maintained, as we sometimes find a different origin assigned to the four classes. In one passage, the Mahā-Bhārata (xii, 6939) even goes the length of denying that there was at first any distinction of castes, and of affirming that all the world was formed of Brahma, and that, at a period subsequent to their creation, men became divided into classes according to their different occupations. In another part of the same great poem (i, 3138 f.) it is declared that the “descendants of Manu became known as Mānavas (or men); that men, Brahmans, Kshattriyas, and the rest, were sprung from this Manu.” These declarations are clearly inconsistent with the myth of the four castes having issued separately from the Creator's body

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