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JOURNAL K. A. S. (CEYLON). [Vol. VII., Pt. III. 



admission into the A' ryan polity. The Nishads* declared that 

 they could perform sacrifices as the A' ryas did. Sacrifice was 

 the soul of all A'ryan thought, feeling and activity ; and none 

 but the genuine A' ryas could perform it.j The learned A' ryas 

 either favoured or opposed the Mshads ; there were thus philo- , 

 Mshads and anti-Nishads. The conservative A'ryas restricted 

 or sought to restrict the rights of women, J declaring that they 

 could not possess property of their own, that they could not 

 learn in schools, that they could not live independently of the 

 joint-family. The A ryan laws bore hard on the non- A r ryas,and on 

 the half-castes § ; even a distinctiy© costume was prescribed. |j 

 Impressed with the conviction that the A ryan gods were 

 powerful and prompt in granting prayers, and that A'ryan 

 institutions conferred superiority and contributed to comforts of 

 this life, the Sangha naturally desired to adopt the forms and 

 modes of A'ryan worship, to live as the A ryas lived , and to enjoy 

 themselves as the A ryas did. IF They were systematically 

 suppressed ; and the Sangha was agitated. Vexed and alienated 

 by the superciliousness of Brahmana priests, the Kshatriyas 

 dissented, and condemned the Vedic polity of exclusion.** 

 Some of the Vaisyas necessarily sympathised with the Kshatriya 

 princes. ft The Sangha persisted in asserting their rights, 

 but failed in securing them. The conflict between the genuine 

 A ryas and the Sangha terminated in a revolution. Buddhism 

 came. 



* The Piirva Miman?a (VI. I, 51.) and the Kaliya Shronta Sutra 

 (I. 1, 12.) 



f The Taittiriya Brahmana (I.. 2, 1, 26.) 

 I The Purra Mimansa (VI. 1, 6 and 8.) 

 § The Upakrista and the KathaMrar 



jj The costumes of the Brahmanas and Kshatriyas are definitely des- 

 cribed. They could not assume this. 



^[ See the Prasiddhi-isti or the ceremony of an A'ryan girl "being out : 

 " Indra grants us wealth and breaks the spells of Dasius " is the burden of 

 Vedic hymns. 



** The lives of such .Kshatriyas as Janaka. The internecine war between 

 the Bralma^as and the Kshatriyas. 



ft Tks Jaimas in India are mostly Vaisyas. 



