ABSTRACT
TI-IE entire isolation in which the Hindu Aryans lived from the outer world for centuries and thousands of years, -an isolation which has no parallel in the history of any other nation,-had its advantages and also its disadvantages. Among other results it led to social institutions being more and more crystallised into hard and fast rules, which gradually contracted the liberties and the free energies of the people. Four or five centuries of peaceful residence in a genial climate in the fertile. basin of the Ganges and the j u.nna enabled the Hindus to found civilised kingdoms, to cultivate philosophy, science, and arts, and to develop their religious and social institu.. tions; but it was under the same gentle but enervating influences "that they also divided themselves into those separate social classes known as It castes."
