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SOCIAL LIFE AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 163
early Buddhist and Jain texts recording instanong where the Brāhmaṇas discharged worldly duties along with sacerdotal functions. • It should also be noted that even in the Buddha's time, the Udioca Brāhmaṇas, meaning the Brāhmaṇas who either belonged to KuruPañçāla 1 or those who claimed descent from, them, occupied a pre-eminent position among':. the Brāhmaṇas . as class.2. The epithet brahmabandhu (Brahma's favourite) was applied
at first as a term of contempt to the Brāhmaņas : of Magadha. But their position gradually
improved so far that in the Aranyaka period their views were quoted with respecto
The Khattiyas represented the ruling class, family, tribe or clan, claiming the Aryan descent. Wherever they founded a territory or colony, they lived either under a monarchical or a tribal, oligarchical or republican form of govern." ment. In monarchies, the kings were their best representatives. The members of a Boyal family passed as Khattiyas. In oligarchies, such ais, those of the Licohavis, Mallas and sākyas, all the members bore the family title of rājā, which means a leading member of the
1JRAS., 1920, 90£. ::
2. Játaka, i, pp. 324, 366, sto. :3 Aitareya-Brahmana, vii, 29; Katyāyana Srautasütra, xxii, 4.22; Latyāyana, viii; 6.28; Fiok, op. cit., p. 215. ...
Vedic Index, ii, p. 116.
