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ORIGIN OF BRAHMIN GOTRAS
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the two dāsa chicks Balbūtha and Taruksa are praised to the utmost by Vasa Ašvya, and it is their gencrosity to him that, presumably, brings them under the i grace of Indra and Vāyu in viii.46.32. This, incidentally, shows that Brahmin-'. ism cannot be a purcly Aryan growth. Thus the hostility to Yadu-Turvasa, (vii.19.8) and friendship in vi:20.12 are explained because Vasiştha and Bharad-1 vāja were then priests to different, hostile tribes, and called upon Indra to support thcir own party. The all-importance of giving to Brahmins, so nau
scatingly familiar to any rcader of classical Sanskrit, goes to iv.50.7-11 (which .. would fit into any Purāņa.) and is the economico-thcological basis for the pricst's special sanctity and development into a caste apart.
Most important of all, thcsc appended verscs of gratitude provide the transition between fixed, sacred hymn, and improvised, fluid', popular lay; hence the delibcratc change of mctrc in the danasluti. Thc Mahābhārata epic, for example, is a rc-cdited collcction of such lays about the main theme of a great civil war. Every digression (particularly gencalogical) called for by any of the characters is made at oncc, which is clear proof of improvisation. The prologue has a vedic hymn to thc Asvins (Mbh.1.3.60-70; not out of place in the context) and claims that the work is a veda, which could hardly be admitted on the strength of a solitary hymn. Onc may therefore conclude that the glorifications (māhātmya) which intersperse lhc various cpisodes, telling of immcnsc merit to be gained by listening to the particular story recited, make up for the disappcarance of other hymns with which the minstrel must, in older days, have begun his sct portion ; thc māhātmya is a later guarantec that the sanctity originally provided by the hymn has somehow been preserved. The Mbh being of Bhrguid rcccnsion, with a fragment surviving of a rival compilation by Jaimini, we have hcrc another cncroachment by Brahmins; the professional bard: (sūta ; onc actually recites the extant Mbh. according to the work itself), is of mixed castc-son of a vaiśya by a kşatriya woman--which points to an ancient rcspcctablc origin. of the guild, before class differences had developed into impassable caste barriers. Thc idca of caste-mixture is the Manusmệti method of enrolling such guilds into the caste system. The cheerful poct of ix.112.3 says : kārur aham tato bhişag upala-prakṣiṇī nană, 'I am a hymn-composer, father is a herb-doctor, mother grinds corn', all as professionals, for profit ; this is certainly not thc Manusmţti idca of a family. The irrcgularities of Mbh trisțubh mctic approach the vedic rather than later classical models. I suggest that the long tradition of free improvisation accounts in greater part for the 'fluidity of the cpic text as compared with the rigidly fixed veda or Pāṇinian aș țādhyāyī, though all thrce were orally transmitted for a while, and the two last for å much longer period than the growing epic. Vyāsa's stepping out of the role of poct to direct the actual characters of the epic may indicate some sort of stage-direction and the acting of scenes to accompany the recitation ; this would account for the miming of Bhārata-yuddha episodes in Balinese tradition, dérived from South-east India.
