Hinduism / by Monier Williams.

  • Monier Monier-Williams
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hinduism / by Monier Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    everywhere throughout the other six. But as the Brah- man could not be supported in his pretensions without the strong arm of the Kshatriya, or military class, a large portion of the work is devoted to the definition of the Kshatriya’s duties and an exaggerated delineation of the kingly character and office ; while the Vaisyas or agriculturists, and Sudras or servants, though essential to Manu’s C'aturvarnya or fourfold social system, as well as the mixed classes, are little noticed. Here is an epitome of the twelve books-:— After an account of the creation of the world in the first book, the four stages of a Brahman’s life are the only subjects treated of in regular order in the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth books, four books being devoted to the duties of the religious student and married householder, and the sixth book treating of the last two stages of anchorite and religious mendi- cant. The seventh and eighth books propound the rules of govern- ment, principally, of course, for the guidance of the second great class or Kshatriyas, from which the king was chosen. The ninth book contains precepts on the subject of women, hus- band and wife, their offspring and the law of inheritance and division of property, with additional rules for kings, and a few precepts relative to the two remaining principal castes. It also describes the employments to which the several classes are restricted, and states the occupations permitted to Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and S'udras in times of exigency and dis- tress. The eleventh book gives rules of expiation, both for the sins of the present life—especially sins against caste—and for the effects of offences committed in previous bodies, as shown in congenital diseases, &c. The twelfth continues the subject of the recompenses or consequences of acts, good or bad, as leading to reward in heaven or punishment in various hells, and to triple degrees of transmigration. It closes with directions as to the best means of obtaining final beatitude and absorption into the universal essence.
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