Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/283

Rh commenced as early as the Philosophic Period, and Brahmans, relieved of manual labour, had already commenced to feed on the resources of the industrious classes, without acquiring that learning which alone would justify their exemption from labour. Vasishtha felt the injustice keenly and protested against it in language which could only be indited while Hinduism was still a living nation's religion, when he wrote:—

"(Brahmans) who neither study nor teach the Veda nor keep sacred fires become equal to Sudras.

"The king shall punish that village where Brahmans, unobservant of their sacred duties and ignorant of the Veda, subsist by begging, for it feeds robbers.

"The sin that dunces, perplexed by ignorance, and unacquainted with the sacred law, declare to be duty, shall fall, increased a hundredfold, on those who propound it.

"An elephant made of wood, an antelope made of leather, and a Brahman ignorant of the Veda, those three have nothing but the name of their kind."

The additional occupations of the Kshatriya were to govern and fight and make conquests, to learn the management of chariots and the use of the bow, and to stand firm in battle and not to turn back. The special duties of the Vaisya were trade, agriculture, tending cattle, lending money, and labour for gain. Sudras were to serve the other three castes, but were also allowed to labour for gain, and there can be no doubt that they traded and earned money by independent work to a large extent in the Philosophic Period as in