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4. A noble takes service, for a salary, as an archer.'
5. A brahmin takes to trade to make money to give away.'
6. Two other brahmins live by trade without any such excuse."
SOCIAL GRADES
7. A brahmin takes the post of an assistant to an archer, who had himself been previously a weaver.* 8, 9. Brahmins live as hunters and trappers.* 10. A brahmin is a wheelwright."
Brahmins are also frequently mentioned as engaged in agriculture, and as hiring themselves out as cowherds and even goatherds. These are all instances from the Jātakas. And a fortiori-unless it be maintained that Buddhism brought about a great change in this respect the state of things
must have been even more lax at the time when Buddhism arose.
The customs of connubium were by no means coextensive with the four Colours. They depended among the Aryans on a quite different idea, that of the group of agnates (the Gotta); and among the other people either on the tribe, or on the village. No instance is known of the two parties to a marriage belonging by birth to the same village. On the other hand, there were numerous instances of irregular unions. And in some cases the offspring of such unions took rank even as nobles (Kshatriyas) or as brahmins.'
1 Jāt. 2. 87. 4 Jāt. 5. 127.
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2 Jāt. 4. 15.
5 Jāt. 2. 200; 6. 170.
7 Jat. 4. 38, 146, 305; 6. 348, 421.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
3
Jat. 5. 22 471.
6
* Jāt. 4. 207.
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