These specimens of [=A]rya exposition of the Vedas I have given with no intention of scoffing, although we may be permitted a laugh.  I desire to show the conflict of modern ideas and the new patriotic feeling, and how the latter has affected the religious and theological position of the [=A]ryas.  It is the prominence of the patriotic feeling in many branches of the Sam[=a]j that has led some observers to describe it as less of a religious than a political organisation, anti-British and anti-Mahomedan and anti-Christian.  But the opponents of the Sam[=a]j are always associated by [=A]ryas with rival religions; keranis, kuranis, and puranis is their echoing list of their opponents,—­namely, Christians (kerani being a corruption of Christiani), and believers in the Koran, and believers in the Purans, i.e. the later Hindu books.  And that there is much more than political feeling is apparent in their latest developments.  The leaven of modern ideas has now led to the rise of a party among the [=A]ryas which is prepared to stand by reason out and out, and repudiate the founder’s bondage to the Vedas and his a priori expositions.  Popularly, the new party is known as the “flesh-eaters.”  At present the Sam[=a]j is about equally divided, but the more rationalistic section comprises most of the new-educated members.  Should the [=A]rya Sam[=a]j retain, as their chief doctrinal positions, the perfection of pure original Hinduism and opposition to every other ism, no great foresight or historical knowledge is required to predict for the [=A]ryas, despite their vigour, a speedy lapse from their reforming zeal into the position simply of a new Hindu caste, reverting gradually to type.  Their fate is still in the balance.

[Sidenote:  The Bombay [=A]rya Sam[=a]j.]

The [=A]rya Sam[=a]j in Bombay does not repudiate caste.  One of their principles is that no member is expected to violate any of his own special caste rules.  Why, one cannot help asking, this invertebrate character of the new Indian religious associations in Western India?  It is patent that what the Pr[=a]rthan[=a] Sam[=a]jes of Western India are to the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j of Bengal, the [=A]rya Sam[=a]j in Bombay is to that in the Punjab and the United Provinces—­only feeble echoes.  Bombay Indians lead their countrymen in commercial enterprise, and in political questions they take as keen an interest as any of the Indian races.  With hesitation and with apologies to Parsee friends, we ask whether it is the numerous Parsees in Bombay who have made their fellow-westerns only worldly-wise.  For to great commercial enterprise, the Parsees add a stubborn conservatism in religion.

[Sidenote:  The Theosophical Society and the national feeling.]