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beyond the finite conception of God. The missionary spirit of the Hindus is not directed to attack the traditional god of the tribe they come in contact with, but to let the tribe worship their god or gods in their own way, but with an enlarged conception, and to admonish the members of that tribe that the god who has manifested himself partially to that tribe is in reality very different, more powerful than they conceive, that it is the duty of a man to know His real nature, and that there are higher forms of worshipping him than what the tribe may be practising.

Another aspect of the Hindu cosmopolitanism has been the exaltation of the principle of duty (dharma) above everything else. Whether a man is a theist or a chārvāka (an atheist) he has to follow dharma. This dharma is eternal and infinite. To whatever tribe a man may belong, of whatever sampradāya (religion) he may be a disciple, whatever school of thought like Dvaita or Advaita he may follow, of whatever class he may be, he has to follow the dharma. They separated the dharma entirely from mata (doctrine regarding god) or mārga (path to worship god). The duties of man were separated from worship and conceptions of God. They demanded of a man not worship but fulfilment of his duty.

The moral of the philosophy is this. It is not a matter of importance as to what god a person worships, what doctrine he believes, what path he follows, provided he follows dharma, the duties of man, as a man, and those of his position assigned to him either as a teacher, warrior or a trader. Every man is expected to be Dhārmika, that is, dutiful.

This is the general attitude which brought all the castes and tribes, their worships, their beliefs, under one system.

There is nothing tribal in this philosophy; it is capable of