The four sons of Brahma, so significantly brought into the world, became the fathers of the human race, and heads of their respective castes.  They were commanded to regard the four Vedas as containing all the rules of their faith, and all that was necessary to guide them in their religious ceremonies.  They were also commanded to take rank in the order of their birth, the Brahmans uppermost, as having sprung from the head of Brahma.

A strong line of demarcation is drawn between the first three castes and the Sudras.  The former are allowed to receive instruction from the Vedas, which is not permitted to the Sudras.  The Brahmans possess the privilege of teaching the Vedas, and were in former times in exclusive possession of all knowledge.  Though the sovereign of the country was chosen from the Shatriya class, also called Rajputs, the Brahmans possessed the real power, and were the royal counsellors, the judges and magistrates of the country; their persons and property were inviolable; and though they committed the greatest crimes, they could only be banished from the kingdom.  They were to be treated by sovereigns with the greatest respect, for “a Brahman, whether learned or ignorant, is a powerful divinity.”

When the Brahman arrives at years of maturity it becomes his duty to marry.  He ought to be supported by the contributions of the rich, and not to be obliged to gain his subsistence by any laborious or productive occupation.  But as all the Brahmans could not be maintained by the working classes of the community, it was found necessary to allow them to engage in productive employments.

We need say little of the two intermediate classes, whose rank and privileges may be readily inferred from their occupations.  The Sudras or fourth class are bound to servile attendance on the higher classes, especially the Brahmans, but they may follow mechanical occupations and practical arts, as painting and writing, or become traders or husbandmen.  Consequently they sometimes grow rich, and it will also sometimes happen that Brahmans become poor.  That fact works its usual consequence, and rich Sudras sometimes employ poor Brahmans in menial occupations.

There is another class lower even than the Sudras, for it is not one of the original pure classes, but springs from an unauthorized union of individuals of different castes.  These are the Pariahs, who are employed in the lowest services and treated with the utmost severity.  They are compelled to do what no one else can do without pollution.  They are not only considered unclean themselves, but they render unclean everything they touch.  They are deprived of all civil rights, and stigmatized by particular laws regulating their mode of life, their houses, and their furniture.  They are not allowed to visit the pagodas or temples of the other castes, but have their own pagodas and religious exercises.  They are not suffered to enter the houses of the other