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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
that 'receiving gifts' (pratigraha) was the principal means of livelihood of the Brahmanas, and the people also voluntarily reciprocated by offering their best possession to please these human gods in order to ensure their own welfare during the life-time and after.
(v) Brāhmaṇas and Other Occupations-Apart from these six duties which were specifically laid down, the Brahmaņas indulged in other activities also. They must have worked as astrologers or fortune-tellers (nemittiya) and mastered the science of medicine (tegicchiya). The Brahmaņas also went abroad with the caravans.1 Besides, in spite of the Brahmanic injunctions to the contrary, some of the poor Brahmaņas did embrace the occupation of agriculture in order to earn their livelihood. 2 They not only supervised the lands but also tilled by themselves. A Brāhmaṇa is mentioned to have gone to the field (kayara) to till the land with only one bullock." It might be said that social and economic conditions, especially after a slow decline in the Vedic rites and rituals, must have forced the Brāhmaṇas to embrace other occupations, though the ideals regarding a true Brāhmaṇa was still the same, i. e. one performing the pious activities assigned to his own Varna.
(vi) Privileges of the Brahmanas-Apart from these duties the Brāhmaṇas enjoyed certain other privileges. Being attacked by
1. Ibid.
2. NC. 3, p. 150. Different rules have been laid down by the Brahmanic authorities for the Brāhmaṇas following the occupation of agriculture. Gautama (Gautama Dharmasūtra, 10.5.6.) allows a Brahmana to maintain himself by agriculture, sale of commodities and moneylending only, if he did not engage in it personally but through the agency of others. Madhava (Parasara, Vol. 1, pt. ii, pp. 3-5, 15-16) allows a Brāhmaṇa to live on agriculture provided he employs Śūdra labourers to do the actual work. According to the Viddha Harita (8. 179), however, agriculture was common to all the Varnas.--Kane, op. cit., p. 126; Ghurye, op. cit., p. 109.
3. NC. 3, p. 150. In the Jātakas we very frequently find the Brahmanas driving the plough with their own hands (Jātaka iii, p. 162 and iv,. p. 276). According to Fick, it must have been a living reality, particularly in western India (The Social Organisation in NE. India, p. 242).
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