and then forming an intermediate
class between their conquerors and the aborigines; or, if there were no
aborigines, the mixture of the two immigrant races would form an
intermediate class. In the same way Talboys Wheeler[15] suggested that
the Sudra may be the original conquerors of the race now represented by
the Pariahs. Most of these explanations seem rather to describe the mode
in which the existing institutions of caste might be transplanted from
one land to another, from a motherland to its colonies, and altered by
its new conditions. Military conquest, though it often introduces
servitude, does not naturally lead to the elevation of the priesthood.
It is unscientific to assume large historical events, or large
ethnological facts, or the existence of some creator of social
order.[16]

As Benjamin Constant[17] points out, caste rests on the religious idea
of an indelible stain resting on certain men, and the social idea of
certain functions being committed to certain classes. The idea of
physical purity was largely developed under the Mosaic legislation; in
fact the internal regulations of the Essenes (who were divided into four
classes) resemble the frivolous prohibitions of Brahmanism. As the daily
intercourse of men in trade and industry presents numberless occasions
on which the stain of real or fancied impurity might be caught, the
power of the religious class who define the rules of purity and the
penalties of their violation becomes very great. Moreover, the Hindus
are deeply religious, and therefore naturally prepared for Purohiti or
priest-rule. They were also passionately attached to their national
hymns, some of which had led them to victory, while others were
associated with the benign influences of nature. Only the priest could
chant or teach these hymns, and it was believed that the smallest
mistake in pronunciation would draw down the anger of the gods. But
however favourable the conditions of spiritual dominion might be, it
seems to have been by no more natural process than hard fighting that
the Brahmans finally asserted their supremacy. We are told that
Parasurama, the great hero of the Brahmans, "cleared the earth thrice
seven times of the Kshatriya caste, and filled with their blood the five
large lakes of Samauta." Wheeler thinks that the substitution of
blood-sacrifices for offerings of parched grain, clarified butter and
_soma_ wine marks an adaptation by the Brahmans of the great military