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232 the four parent castes. And as the Hindus came to know other foreign nations later on, the elastic theory was stretched, and Manu derived those nations, too, from the same Hindu parent castes.

It is remarkable, however, that the castes or races named above were nearly all aboriginal tribes or foreigners, or Aryans who had incurred odium by their partiality for skepticism and Buddhism. We do not find names of profession-castes, answering to the Kayasthas, the Vaidyas, the goldsmiths, the blacksmiths, the potters, the weavers, and other artisans of Modern India, for the great and yet undivided Vaisya caste of the Philosophic Period still embraced all those different professions which in modern times have been divided and disunited into castes. The Aryan Vaisyas followed different trades and professions in Ancient India without forming separate castes; they were scribes and physicians, goldsmiths and blacksmiths, potters and weavers, while still belonging to the same caste. Thus the great body of the Aryan population was still united, and was still entitled to religious knowledge and learning.

The study of the Veda, the performance of sacrifices, and the gift of alms were prescribed for all twice-born men, i.e. for Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas. The special and additional occupations of the Brahman were the performance of sacrifice for others and the receiving of alms, and agriculture and trade were also allowed to him provided he did not work himself. Yet the abuses begotten of the privileges of caste had already