Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

42
We have mentioned that the key to the caste system is the urge
for gaining a position of vantage in the caste pyramid. Undoubtedly,
the pivot of caste hierarchy is the recognized superiority of the Brahmin
caste. Not only that; the Brahmins came to occupy the central position
in Hinduism, because caste is essentially a social rank; and the social
rank of the castes is determined with reference to the Brahmins. 89 The
Brahmin ‘reception or rejection of water or food is the measure of the
status of any given caste in a given place’. 90 All things considered,
what governs precedence is the degree of fidelity with which each
caste conforms, or professes to conform, to Brahmanical teaching either
as regards marriage or external purity, or as regards the occupations or
accessory customs. A ‘caste such as might arouse much prejudice and
contempt may, in spite of all this, be treated with lasting esteem for
the sole reason that it displays superior fidelity to the Brahmanic
practices’. 91
The religious and social authority that the Brahmins cane to wield
is too well known to need any comment. The recognition of the
sanctity of the Brahmin Lavite caste became one of the very few
binding factors in the chaotic mass of Neo-Brahmanical dogma and
practice. The respect of some of the Hindus for the Brahmins goes so
far that, according to a proverb, to be robbed by Sanavriya Brahmins,
who had adopted highway robbery as a profession, was regarded as a
favour from heaven. 92
In the political sphere, too, the Brahmins’ influence came to be
unchallenged. Even the Epic, which is connected with the nobility
and hence tends to attribute to kings the supremacy which is claimed
by the law books for the brahmins, concedes the incomparable grandeur
of the sacerdotal class. ‘Whereas in other countries the rivalry between
the nobility and the sacerdotal class generally resulted in the triumph
of the temporal power over the spiritual, … in India reverse has been
the case. The caste system, with its water tight compartment, has
been always adverse to the establishment of a regular political
organization, while the great importance attached to religious rites
and ceremonial observances has enabled the priestly class to aggrandize
itself to an extent wholly unknown elsewhere. The supremacy of the
Brahmins has now become one of the cardinal doctrines of Hinduism. ’93