A Disputation respecting Caste, by Asnvu Guosua. 167 
and colour, and plumage, and beak: but the Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya 
and Sudra are alike without and within. How then can we say they are 
essentially distinct? Again, among trees the Bata, and Bakula, and Palds, 
and Ashoka, and Tamal, and Naghkeswar, and Shirik, and Champa, and 
others, are clearly contradistinguished by their stems, and leaves, and 
flowers, and fruits, and barks, and timber, and seeds, and juices, and odours ; 
but Brahmans, and Kshatriyas, and the rest, are alike in flesh, and skin, and 
blood, and bones, and figure, and excrements, and mode of birth. It is 
surely then clear that they are of one species or race. 
Again, tell me, is a Brahman’s sense of pleasure and pain different from 
that of a Kshatriya? Does not the one sustain life in the same way, and 
find death from the same causes as the other? Do they differ in intellec- 
tual faculties, in their actions, or the objects of those actions; in the 
manner of their birth, or in their subjection to fear and hope? Not a whit. 
It is therefore clear that they are essentially the same. In the Udambdra 
and Panosa trees the fruit is produced from the branches, the stem, the 
joints, and the roots. Is one fruit therefore different from another, so that 
we may call that produced from the top of the stem the Brahman fruit, and 
that from the roots the Sudra fruit? Surely not. Nor can men be of four 
distinct races, because they sprang from four different parts of one body. 
You say that the Brahman was produced from the mouth; whence was the 
Brahmani produced? From the mouth likewise? Grant it—and then you 
must marry the brother to the sister! a pretty business indeed! If such 
incest is to have place in this world of ours, all distinctions of right and 
wrong must be obliterated. 
This consequence, flowing inevitably from your doctrine that the Brahman 
proceeded from the mouth, proves the falsity of that doctrine. The dis- 
tinctions between Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras, are founded 
merely on the observance of divers rites, and the practice of dif- 
ferent professions; as is clearly proved by the conversation of BarsHam 
Payawna Risui with Yupuisrurra Rasa, which was as follows: One day the 
son of Panpu, named Yupuisrurra, who was the wise man of his age, 
joining his hands reverentially, asked Batsuam Payana, Whom do you call 
a Brahman; and what are the signs of Brahmanhood? BaisHam answered, 
The first sign of a Brahman is, that he possesses long-suffering and the rest 
of the virtues, and never is guilty of violence and wrong doing; that he 
