Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/135

Rh at a great gathering they forewarned the multitudes about drought and wet weather, and about calamities which may befall the State. These sages went about naked, living during winter in the open air to enjoy the sunshine, and during summer in meadows and low grounds under shady trees. The second class consisted of the husbandmen who devoted the whole of their time to tillage. They paid a fourth part of the produce of their soil, as tribute to their king. Herdsmen and hunters formed the third class. They led a wandering life tending their cattle on the hills, and living in tents. They paid their tribute in cattle, and received an allowance in grain from the king for clearing the land of wild beasts and birds which devour the seeds sown in the fields. The fourth class comprised those who worked at trades, vended wares, or were employed as labourers. Armourers and all artizans came under this class. The fighting men formed the fifth class. They were maintained at the king’s expense, and had only military duties to perform. In times of peace they spent their time in idleness and drinking. The sixth class consisted of overseers, whose business it was to spy out what was going on in country and town, and report everything to the king or the magistrate. The seventh class consisted of councillors who advised the king or the magistrates of self-governed cities in the management of public affairs. The custom of the country forbade intermarriages between the classes, and no one was allowed to change from one class to another. For instance, a husband- man cannot become a herdsman, nor can he take a wife from the herdsman or artizan class. An exception was made in favour of the philosopher alone, who may be from any class, for his life was not an easy one, and few attained the gift of prophecy.

In the above description of the classes of society in ancient Magadha, Megasthenes was clearly mistaken in reckoning spies or overseers and councillors as separate classes. The other classes correspond exactly with those amongst the ancient Tamils. This division of society amongst the Tamils and Magadhas seems to show that they belonged to a nation which had emerged out of barbarism at a very remote period, and had enjoyed a settled form