________________
( Lxxxviii)
described ( 1013) as performing such sacrifices, “in which the god Indra was invoked and their creeper-like line of smoke appeared like the thick streak of ichor flowing from the heavenly elephant.”
Practice of sorcery ( magic and witchcraft), even at high level, to achieve evil designs, appears to have been resorted to in some quarters. In Gāthā 1071, the Poet refers to an attempt being made on the King's life by his enemy kings, who themselves perished in the attempt, 6 their faces flushed red by the flames of fire in the bowl in which they made offerings accompanied with magic incantation” ( Abhicāra ). Social Conditions :
The Society was sub-divided into the conventional four castes viz. the Brahmins, Ksatriyas, Vaišyas and Sūdras, although there was no rigidity about the professions and avocations they pursued. Cases of men belonging to the Brahmin caste following the profession of warriors, traders or political administration were quite common. “It is not impossible to suppose from the Mrchhakatika where a Brahmin thief is introduced that Brahmins were good and bad in those days ( as they are now ) and followed good and bad professions; but the generality of them may be taken to have followed, then as now, either a religious life or the profession of Government servants, a profession in which they often rose to the high position of governors of provinces49."
The Kșatriyas were mostly warriors and often ruled as kings of the countries to which they belonged. The two prominent races, the Solar and the Lunar, to which most of the kings took great pride to belong, grew greatly 49. C. V. Vaidya . History of Medieval Hindu India,'
pp. 69–70.
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