Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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were self-revealed texts. Had this belief been confined purely to the
realm of religion, it would have been quite different. But, it was used
as the central pillar on which the super-structure of social reaction
was raised and maintained. The Vedic hymns are, by and large,
concerned with sacrifices and ritualism, which served to consolidate
the position of the sacerdotal class. These hymns also directly extol
the priestly class which, as a caste, became inextricably bound up with
social reaction. Above all, the authority of the Vedas, and of other
scriptures (by lining them with with the Vedas), was invoked so as to
consecrate the position of the Brahmins and to sanctify and declare
inviolable the caste ridden social system and its retrograde rules.
The oft-cited Purushua Sukta hymns, which is sung by the Rig
Vedic and Yajurvedic priests at the time of their principal ceremonies
(as if to emphasize its importance), was regarded as a divine ordinance
sanctioning the origin of the four castes. 12 The Veda was declared by
Manu to be the direct revelation of God (Sruti) 13 , and was to be viewed
as the sole source of all knowledge, secular as well as divine. 14
‘Throughout the earlier part, and even in the body of the Institutes,
the Dharma Sastra of Manu is spoken of as the inspired exponent of
the Vedas, almost of equal (p.18 et al) authority with them; but in the
last chapter of this book is a passage (p.359, 190) wherein the Vedanges,
Maimansa, Nyaya, Dharma Sastras, and Puranas are called the extended
branches of the Vedas. ’15 ‘All outside it (the Vedas), or not derived
from it in the Dharma Sastra by the perfect wisdom of Manu, was
human, vain, and false. Unbelief in the Veda was deadly sin; and
whoever, in reliance upon heretical books, questioned the authority
of the revealed Veda and of the Dharma Sastras was to be treated as
an atheist, and driven from the society of the virtuous. ’16 ‘Rejection
of the authority of the Vedas, transgression of the precepts of the
Sastras, and an universal lawlessness, lead to a man’s own
destruction. The Brahmin who regards himself as a Pandit, who
reviles the Vedas, and is devoted to useless logic, the science of
reasoning, who states arguments among virtuous men, defeats them
by his syllogisms, who is constant assailant and abuser of Brahmans,
an universal doubter and a fool, is to be regarded as a child; people