164 A Disputation respecting Caste, by Asuu Guosna. 
and Bhdnds, and others, are everywhere to be seen performing the severest 
and most laborious acts of piety. Yet not one of these, who are all so pre- 
eminent in their Achdr, is ever called a Brahman: from which it is clear 
that Achdr does not constitute the Brahman. 
Say you that Karam makes the Brahman? I answer, no; for the argu- 
ment used above applies here with even greater force, altogether annihi- 
lating the notion that acts constitute the Brahman. Do you declare that 
by reading the Vedas a man becomes a Brahman? This is palpably false ; 
for it is notorious that the Rakshasa Ravan was deeply versed in all the 
four Vedas; and that, indeed, all the Rakshasas studied the Vedas in 
Ravan’s time: yet you do not say that one of them thereby became a 
Brahman. It is therefore proved that no one becomes a Brahman by read- 
ing the Vedas. 
What then is this creature called a Brahman? If neither reading the 
Vedas, nor Sanskar, nor parentage, nor race (Kula), nor acts (Karam), con- 
fers Brahmanhood, what does or can? To my mind Brahmanhood is 
merely an immaculate quality, like the snowy whiteness of the Kundh 
flower. That which removes sin is Brahmanhood. It consists of Urata, 
and Tapas, and Neyama, and Ripavas, and Dan, and Dama, and Shama, 
and Sanyama. It is written in the Vedas that. the gods hold that man to be 
a Brahman who is free from intemperance and egotism; and from Sanga, 
and Parigraha, and Praga, and Dwesha. Moreover, it is written in all the 
Sastras that the signs of a Brahman are these, truth, penance, the command 
of the organs of sense, and mercy; as those of a Chdndala are the vices 
opposed to those virtues. Another mark of the Brahman is a scrupulous 
abstinence from sexual commerce, whether he be born a god, or a man, or 
a beast. Yet further, Sukra Acuarya has said, that the gods take no heed 
of caste, but deem him to be the Brahman who is a good man although he 
belong to the vilest. From all which I infer, that birth, and life, and body, 
and wisdom, and observance of religious rites (achdr), and acts (karam), are 
all of no avail towards becoming a Brahman. 
Then again, that opinion of your sect, that pravrajaya is prohibited to the 
Sudra; and that for him service and obedience paid to Brahmans are 
instead of pravrajaya,—because, forsooth, in speaking of the four castes, the 
Sudra is mentioned last, and is therefore the vilest,—is absurd ; for, if it 
were correct, InprA would be made out to be the lowest and meanest of 
beings, Inpra being mentioned in the Parni Sutra after the dog, thus— 
