APPENDIX

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the natives of India, but the perpetuity of it wassecured by an institution which must be con-sidered as the fundamental article in the system oftheir policy. The whole body of the people wasdivided into four orders or casts. The membersof the first, deemed the most sacred, had it fortheir province, to study the principles of religion;to perform its functions; and to cultivate the scien-ces. They were the priests, the instructors, andphilosophers of the nation. The members of thesecond order were intrusted with the governmentand defence of the state. In peace they were itsrulers and magistrates, in war they were the soldierswho sought its battles. The third was composedof husbandmen and merchants; and the fourth ofartisans, laborers, and servants. None of these canever quit his own cast, or be admitted into another r .The station of every individual is unalterablyfixed; his destiny is irrevocable; and the walk oflife is marked out, from which he must neverdeviate. This line of separation is not only estab-lished by civil authority, but confirmed andsanctioned by religion; and each order or cast issaid to have proceeded from the Divinity in sucha different manner, that to mingle and confoundthem would be deemed an act of most daring im-piety *. Nor is it between the sour different tribes

5 Ayeen Akbery, iii. 81, &c. Sketches relating to theHistory, &c. of the Hindoos, p. 107, &g.

‘ See NOTE I.