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Social Conditions
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occupations against rules. They acted as : (1) physicians, carrying sacks filled with medicinal roots and herbs; (2) servants aad wagon-drivers; (3) tax-collectors who would not leave a household without collecting alms; (4) diggers of the soil in the garb of ascetics with their long hairs and nails, and covered with dust and dirt; (5) traders selling fruits, sweets, and the like; (6) farmers; (7) priests interpreting omens; (8) policemen with arms to guard caravans and shops, like Gopas and Nishādas; (9) hunters in the garb of hermits killing hares, cats, fish, tortoises, etc.; and (10) menials of kings who helped them in their baths in the garb of Pājñikas. This may appear as over-exaggerated but in other Jātakas too, there are references to Brāhmaṇas practising as physicians, ploughing the land,2 trading and hawking goods, 4 working as carpenters, 5 as shepherds, as archers' and as hunters.8
There were others who expounded dreams' and went about telling fortune (Lakkhana-Pāthaka),10 reading the past, future, and the character of an individual from the signs on his body (Anga-Vijjā-Pāthaka), 11 and reading the luck of swords (Asikkhana Pathaka).1. Some of them worshipped demons and practised magic. They possessed Mantras like the Vedabbhamanta,13 the Pathavijayamantal4 and Chintāmanivijā.15 The art of exorcism was also practised by a few.16 It appears from these references and from the account of the Brahmajāla Sutta that
1. Jā. II. 213; VI. 181. 2. Ibid, II. 165; III. 162-63; ja, V. 68. 3. Ibid IV. 15-21; V. 22, 471. 4. Ibid, II. 15. 5. KS, 1.2-27; Ja, IV. 207. 6. Jū, III. 401. 7. Ibid, III. 219; V. 127. 8. Ibid, II. 200; VI. 182. 170, 9. Ibid. I. 343; IV. 334-36; VI. 330. 10. Ibid, I. 272; IV. 79, 335; V. 211. 11. Ibid, 21, 250; V. 459. 12. Ibid, I. 455. 13. Ibid, 1. 253. 14. Ibid, II, 243, 15. Ibid, 111, 504. 16. Ibid, III, 511,
