altar.
 

CHAPTER  IX.

ON THE CASTES, CALLED " COLOUKS " (VAIINA), AND ON
THE CLASSES BELOW THEM.

If a new order of things in political or social life is xhrc
created by a man naturally ambitious of ruling, who
by his character and capacity really deserves to be a
ruler, a man of firm convictions and unshaken deter¬
mination, who even in times of reverses is supported by
good luck, in so far as people then side with him in
recognition of former merits of his, such an order is
likely to become consolidated among those for wliom
it was created, and to continue as firm as the deeply
rooted mountains. It will remain among them as a
generally recognised rule in all generations through the
course of time and the flight of ages. If, then, this new
form of state or society rests in some degree on religion,
these twins, state and religion, are in perfect harmony,
and their union represents the highest development of
human society, all that men can possibly desire.

T'he kings of antiquity, who were industriously de¬
voted to the duties of their office, spent most of their
care on the division of their subjects into different
classes and orders, which they tried to preserve from
intermixture and disorder. Therefore they forbade
people of different classes to have intercourse with each
other, and laid upon each class a particular kind of
work or art and handicraft. They did not allow any¬
body to transgress the limits of his class, and even